The Queue: But there are cats in Azeroth
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 8th 2009 at 11:00AM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.
I feel sorry for Alex and his significant other. They can't have pets in their apartment so they got a Roomba. Now I can have pets in my place, and the girlfriend and I have a nice little kitty named Max. In fact, Max was talking to me last night as I wrote today's Queue and told me he'd like to eat Alex's Roomba.
He only started talking after I fed him some Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuits.
Actuality asked...
"I was wondering how the Argent Tournament will work with phasing in Icecrown. Will the Tournament be open to all, or only those who have made it to the final Icecrown?"
He only started talking after I fed him some Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuits.
Actuality asked...
"I was wondering how the Argent Tournament will work with phasing in Icecrown. Will the Tournament be open to all, or only those who have made it to the final Icecrown?"
At this time the Argent Tournament is not dependent on any previous Icecrown quest line or phasing. Will it be in the future? Who knows.
Flawedsymmetry asked...
"If The9 negotiations fall through and China loses WoW, will we have a better shot at getting Pandarens?"
Doubtful. Even if The9 doesn't end up producing a Chinese variant of WoW, some other company will. And beyond that the folks at Blizzard strive to be very respectful of other cultures and traditions. While there may be some subtle jokes and innuendo throughout the game that are unintentionally offensive, there is nothing that plays a major role in the game that is overtly offensive to a particular group of people. Now this can be debated, but that's not the point. The point is – don't look for Pandarens.
Scratched asked...
"What is Blizzard's reasoning for putting several features in one patch instead of releasing each in a smaller patch when it's ready to go?"
Releasing a patch is a big deal. In addition to just the programming of both the client and server side software, there is also the distribution of the patch. These things in the end cost a lot of money. Both in man hours spent working on them and in the bandwidth it takes for millions of players to download content. Reducing that as much as possible, which includes not releasing a patch every week, is a very smart idea.
Brouck asked...
"I'm getting a new computer in this week and I would really like to avoid having to go through the whole installation process of Vanilla WoW, BC and Wrath all over again before I can play on it. Is there any way to get the files onto my computer from my old computer instead?"
Yes!
You'll want to copy over the old World of Warcraft directory to your new computer. You do not need to reinstall the game from scratch. The last time I installed WoW from scratch was over two years ago and I've gone through a few computers since then.
As for the easiest way to copy across the directory, you'll probably want to pick up an external USB hard drive (or a very large USB memory stick) from Best Buy or someplace. Here's an external hard drive I found on New Egg that should work nicely. (Side note: We're not responsible if you or something else screws up your computer, we have to say this because you'd be surprised how easily people turn around and place blame.) There are a lot of other options too, and I'm sure some commenters will weigh in with their two to twenty cents. Be sure to shop around though, as these things are often on sale.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Jonathan Apr 8th 2009 11:04AM
@Brouck:
Alternatively you can just install the game off of the wrath dvd. it contains all the games (wow, bc, wrath) in one place. That way you dont have to stress on finding space to copy your big ol wow folder.
Catiya of Feathermoon Apr 8th 2009 11:08AM
Indeed! I recently had to do a reinstall and this was a beautiful addition to find.
nbcaffeine Apr 8th 2009 11:27AM
Seriously? That's awesome. I never bothered to try this, I just did the streaming install, but that's not an option for people with metered/filtered bandwidth.
Radiophonic Apr 8th 2009 11:41AM
/facepalm
I did all that downloading last week when I built my new PC for nothing. Thanks for the tip!
smiley Apr 8th 2009 11:48AM
or alrenativly buy a Gaming/WoW drive >_< get a small (16-32G is fine) solid state drive and put WoW and you game installs on that drive with no seek time:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609331
$83 and watch your load times disappear, when you build a new pc or do a reinstall the windows for any reason you never worry bout your games again
yazah Apr 8th 2009 12:31PM
It might be worth mentioning that there are a few different options for installing the game without any of the CD's.
If you log into account management on worldofwarcraft.com, you can download and install the entire game, assuming you have previously purchased it at some point. (It might be worth noting that you can do this with diablo and starcraft assuming you have a battlenet account and registered the games).
Also, there is a streaming option that will require a much smaller inital download, and then will download and install the rest of the game at the same time that you are playing it.
The full download/install took me just over 2 hours (just did it last week), although I have never personally tried the streaming install. Actually, now that I think about it, the streaming install might only work for vanilla wow or trial accounts. hrmm.
onetrueping Apr 8th 2009 12:50PM
No seek time can be useful, but when purchasing solid-state drives and other flash-memory media, please remember that they have a very finite life span, measured in a certain number of writes. When putting items on a flash drive of any type, remember to only put items on there which you don't want to remove often, or in the case of programs, do not write to files very often. Games with high database use such as WoW are bad candidates and will wear out your drive more quickly, so it is best to simply use the drives as reliable backups of these programs.
smiley Apr 8th 2009 1:01PM
@onetrueping
what you are refedring to was really mroe an issue on the first few SSD's produced and flaws in the origional resigns, newer SSD's more follow the lines of Dram and can be written over and over on par with standard HD's
That said Even the old SSD styles are perfect for Gaming, its not the reading that caused somuch wear, it was the rewriting. if used as a drive to install games only even the old designs were the best choices for gaming.
The newest models of SSD's actually can be rewritten over theoredically more than a traditional HDD. The people arguing this are WD, & Seagate, and as WD is trying to aquire Scandisk, the prmiere maker of SSD's you take a guess who stopped badmouthign SSD's and has gotten onoard noting thier superiority
niko Apr 8th 2009 1:05PM
@onetrueping
Maybe some first-gen SSD's, but certainly a non-issue on today's. Wear-leveling algorithms have improved substantially. Still, I don't think I'd want to load WoW on an SD card. But a real SSD? I'd load WoW on that in a heartbeat.
Don't be afraid of SSD's, they are the future of mass storage. Only problem with them now is the price.
Zhiva Apr 8th 2009 11:06AM
>As for the easiest way to copy across the directory
Why bother with USB drive? Just link old and new machines into network, make WoW folder shared and copy it!
Lovin Apr 12th 2009 8:02AM
that is onlyfor Mac's PC's dont have that ability
Zhiva Apr 8th 2009 11:15AM
Sorry? PC cannot be linked into network???
*looks at three PC forming a home network and scratches head*
Lemons Apr 8th 2009 11:17AM
Other PC fun facts:
-PCs can't e-mail
-You can't listen to music on a PC
-all PCs contain asbestos
wtf?
Lycanthro Apr 8th 2009 11:17AM
Uhh... Lovin you are very wrong. You can share a folder over the network on windows VERY easily. Please don't spread false information.
Enaress Apr 8th 2009 11:20AM
@Lovin:
I use PCs and you can do it. But if you can't figure it out, you can just have two AIM accounts logged on each computer and transfer the files over that way. It will go at light speed since both accounts are logged on the same network. For me it was sending at about 5MB per second.
Nostrum Apr 8th 2009 11:30AM
I think what Lovin was referring to was the actual copying of the directory itself. Most windows programs need files in other directories that aren't carried over when you just move the main folder.
farfromout Apr 8th 2009 12:10PM
Thats right, guys, PCs cant be networked.
I wish I could get on the interNET(work) with my PC to post this!
Candina@WH Apr 8th 2009 11:50AM
You can move the Windows Folder from one PC to another across the network.
And it may be faster than isntalling + patching from DVD.
But not necessarily.
As for the "Shared" Folder Method. I used it for a while on my wireless network at home. But the slow load times put the k'bosh on that.
I use wow on two machines at home. One is a PC with a good video card/processor and ram, the other is a Notebook with a Meh Vid Card/proceesor/ram. I use my 'good' machine as the source install, and copy it onto an external HD for the Notebook (because notebooks is OLD and only has a 20gig HD).
Pravus Apr 8th 2009 11:56AM
If you were copying an install of Office it wouldn't work. But WoW can be copied just fine. All files needed to run it are contained in its own directory. Only think you have to do is make a new shortcut to Launcher.exe on your desktop or Start Menu.
On Vista it is:
C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\
XP:
C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\
slartibart Apr 8th 2009 11:57AM
I do I.T. for an engineering college, and this is news to me, as I type this I'm installing across several mapped network drives........
Guess they must all be macs in them there boxes.