The Queue: Son of Q
by Michael Gray 
Feb 23rd 2010 at 3:00PM
While Adam yesterday (rightfully) pointed out the necessity of the occasional Star Trek reference in this feature, he failed to point out its natural outgrowth. While there is always Q Continuum, there must also be the Son of Q. He goes by q, in the lower case. That leads to some funny sounding dialogue like "I will always be your soulmate, little-case-q." Or something more awkward like "I am the great and powerful little-case-q." But that's okay. For the continuum, it's all third person references. Which leads me to . . .
Transit asked . . .
"At he beginning of Forge of Souls (Horde version) Lady Sylvanas says; "The Dark Lady watches over you. Make haste!"
Who is the Dark Lady?
She could be talking about herself in the 3rd person, but I don't think so. It seems she is talking about a particular entity. I also noticed the "Dark Lady" in the phrase is capitalized, which I think is also significant."
I had actually wondered the same thing, once. I briefly believed that maybe this was some kind of generic dialogue, and maybe Blizzard didn't update it to be spoken by Sylvanas. Now, however, I have learned the error of my ways.
Sylvanas is The Dark Lady. She's just referring to herself in third person, as you pointed out. It might seem a little up-on-herself, but it's more that she's being regal and queenly. Imagine King Wrynn urging Alliance soldiers forward, shouting at them "Go! Your King commands it!" You wouldn't think anything particularly odd about that phrase. In this case, it just looks a little funny because The Dark Lady isn't a title we're accustomed to seeing elsewhere.
Wubble69 asked . . .
"Can you clarify the current status as to the reliability of the 3rd party Addon called Recount?
I've personally taken to running the app purely as self-defense since the PUG tool came out. With the new instant-kick changes coming to the tool I can see this unofficial app not made by Blizzard move into a new level of ruining the game I pay my money to enjoy."
We're not Recount, so it'd be hard for us to really clarify much about someone who's not us. However, I can share my personal experience.
At a recent party with a bunch of friends, we all agreed to switch over to using the same damage meter. We'd go without one if we could, but we wanted to have something around. The reason is that Recount seemed to give us "multiple versions of the truth." My Recount results were usually in pretty close proximity to our Rogue's, for example, but it always seemed off from our ranged DPS. I couldn't reliably tell you why that would be, but I've never felt like damage meters were 100% accurate.
You mentioned that you were largely interested in damage meters as a defense from getting kicked in PUGs. I think that's probably more the issue that needs addressed. While damage meters are just a fact of life in game, we don't often see them as very helpful things. I'm a firm subscriber to Christian Belt's Why I hate DPS meters and totally applaud Ghostcrawler's statement that "balancing around recount stats is like using a thermometer to predict the weather."
Damage meters have almost become a mini-game inside the larger game of WoW. Sadly, it's a game that seems to detract from many groups. I wish I knew what to do about it, but I don't.
sup asked something I'm uniquely qualified to answer . . .
"Why has WoW Moviewatch stopped featuring machinima with storyline and now features only music videos?"
Well, we haven't stopped featuring any movie types at all. There's really only two dynamics here. First, what (relatively new) movies are out there to be featured. Lately, there's been mostly music videos out there. Secondly, it's a matter of whether I see the movie. If someone has more storyline-based features that I could check out, totally hit me up at gray@wow.com. I'd be happy to review them and share with the audience.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com 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 8)
Cyanea Feb 23rd 2010 3:05PM
Generally, when royalty refers to themselves in third person, they're not necessarily referring to themselves but to the office they hold. Same concept as the Royal We.
Lyrah Feb 23rd 2010 3:21PM
@Cyanea
The Royal We is the first person, not the third!
Cyanea Feb 23rd 2010 3:25PM
I mean...it's the same concept as equating themselves with their office. When royalty uses the Royal We, they're referring to themselves and to their office.
Marky Feb 23rd 2010 3:40PM
Yeah, it's definitely something Sylvanas specifically does, too. Later on in Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection, she says respectively: [to Ick] "Why should the Banshee Queen spare your miserable life?" and [to the Lich King] "No wall can hold the Banshee Queen!"
Tapukimastra Feb 23rd 2010 4:01PM
This seemed like a weird question to ask; playing hordeside it's hard to avoid hearing Undead NPCs saying "Dark Lady watch over you" whenever you leave dialogue with them.
Fadmin Feb 23rd 2010 4:21PM
And "We' are not amused!
Wulfkin Feb 23rd 2010 4:42PM
I also thought this was a weird question. Sylvanas has always been called the Dark Lady, its her official (and sometimes almost religious) title. If you've managed to level up a lvl 80 Horde and not recognise the title, I'm sorry but you haven't been paying attention. Or you never went to the Undercity.
thebarrenschat.wordpress.com
Vitos Feb 23rd 2010 5:49PM
He does acknowledge the fact that she could be referring to herself. He knows that "She could be talking about herself in the 3rd person..." its just the usage that confuses him.
jbodar Feb 23rd 2010 6:07PM
I'd be interested to see what happened if she ever died (permanently, this time) and a male took over as the leader of the Forsaken. Would he be called The Dark Gentleman? The Dark Dude? The Dark HMFIC? Phoenix Dark Dirk?
Does it come with the office, or is it because she's the Forsaken savior?
LXj Feb 23rd 2010 6:25PM
Also Wrynn DOES say something like "Honor your king" in ToC when Alliance Faction Champions are summoned (when you do this as a Horde)
Jonathan Feb 23rd 2010 7:18PM
Mark me up with the people who find that first question to be pretty easily resolved. If you've ever spent more than ten minutes in the Undercity, you know who the Dark Lady is. Hell, I HATE going into Undercity and avoid it like the plague (Pun totally intended), but I know that much at least from rolling primarily Horde toons. You don't even have to necessarily go into Undercity to hear it, Forsaken all over the place are constantly spouting off about the Dark Lady.
deluded spider Feb 23rd 2010 8:34PM
I'll out myself as a Disney nerd here... the Dark Lady thing reminds me of "I, Jack, the Pumpkin King." Among other things.
I always figured Sylvanas sort of realized she is a symbol more than "person," and if she's referring to herself as The Dark Lady, she's saying it because she knows it gives the Forsaken (and most of the Horde) strength.
I guess, now that we're talking about it, it does sound a bit religious. I don't know... Cult of Forgotten Shadow = Catholicism, Sylvanas = Pope? Apologies if that comparison offends anyone, I just mean as a point of reference. :P
Anglefire Feb 24th 2010 1:01AM
I was wondering about mounts in Cataclysm. From what I understand, pretty much the whole known world will be flight friendly (possibly even including places like IronForge and Stormwind.
If that is the case, will all of our land mounts become useless? Will we have wasted tons of time and money on collecting them, only to see them rot now that we can fly everywhere? Is it still worth it doing the Mount related achievement, considering we will not be using those mounts?
Blondies Feb 24th 2010 3:53AM
[Sylvanas]: "The Dark Lady watches over you, make haste!"
[Blondies]: "Oh, cool, let's go then!"
vs.
[Sylvanas]: "I will watch over you, make haste!"
[Blondies]: "Aren't you a bit full of yourself, hun?"
refering to themselves by their position sounds less arrogant to be honest.
slythwolf Feb 24th 2010 4:22AM
@jbodar, I would imagine it would be the Dark Lord, that being the most likely counterpart to "lady" in this case; the title probably uses the meaning denoting noble rank, not simply a polite version of "woman".
Finnicks Feb 23rd 2010 3:07PM
As with GearScore...
Hate the abuser, not the addon.
Hollow Leviathan Feb 23rd 2010 3:16PM
If the addon is giving them incorrect, possibly very incorrect numbers in an authoritative manner that leads them to believe they are absolutely correct, then that addon IS a problem.
jrizutko Feb 23rd 2010 3:39PM
Finnicks is spot on. Recount provides useful information. People that kick people for not providing XYZ DPS are jerks. People that blame recount for people being jerks are misguided.
SINisterWyvern Feb 23rd 2010 4:30PM
Recount works off your combat logs and as such is restricted to what is coming into them.
If you find it heavily off. Run this in game:
/console SET CombatLogRangeParty "150"
/console SET CombatLogRangePartyPet "150"
/console SET CombatLogRangeFriendlyPlayers "150"
/console SET CombatLogRangeFriendlyPlayersPets "150"
/console SET CombatLogRangeHostilePlayers "150"
/console SET CombatLogRangeHostilePlayersPets "150"
/console SET CombatLogRangeCreature "150"
Avan Feb 23rd 2010 5:31PM
I'll continue to hate on GearScore, thankyouverymuch. It only looks at item level, sometimes armor type (if you configured it for such). This is a problem with the addon itself, not the people who use it (or easily fake their scores).
GearScore doesn't factor in your enchants. Mages, put Blade Ward on your swords!
It doesn't factor in your gems. Hunters, gem for spellpower!
It doesn't factor in trinkets. Everyone, grab an ilvl 264 PVP trinket!
It doesn't account for awesome trinkets with low ilvls. Screw you, rogues, who are using DM Card: Greatness!
It doesn't account for PVP gear! Quick, run to VoA and pick up as much of the 264 gear (that is only suitable for 232 content)!
GearScore is just a terrible addon for what it's supposed to do, as it doesn't properly rate your gear. You can't pin this bad design on the people who use it.
You know what addon does rate gear more properly? ElitistGroup: http://www.wow.com/2010/02/11/addon-spotlight-elitist-group/