The Queue: Virtual Insanity
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 29th 2010 at 11:00AM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.
Oh yeah what we're living in (let me tell ya)
It' a wonder man can eat at all
When things are big
That should be small
Who can tell what magic spells we'll be doing for us.
I liked this song back in the '90s -- I thought it was very post-modern and had a good beat. Today, however, I look at it and just sit and appreciate for a moment how prophetic it is. Many of us are never disconnected these days -- my email is always at my side wherever I go, and WoW on my laptop with my tethered connection is just a few clicks away. It is virtual insanity, especially for the eleven and a half million people playing this game after five years.
Also, at 0:45 Jamiroquai shifts into druid flight form. He is the prophet.
Lakami asked...
Also, at 0:45 Jamiroquai shifts into druid flight form. He is the prophet.
Lakami asked...
"What brand of gin does Ghostcrawler prefer?"
I'll ask him at BlizzCon in October. This will be my first (and possibly only) question. I'm serious too -- whatever he and the other devs have to say about the game they're going to say through other interviews and through the panels. They won't be able to tell us some big secret we want to talk about. And even though we can keep a steady stream of questions on them about class balance and game mechanics, they're too smart for any of our traps and will deflect and potentially "dramatic" questions. So why not find out something else cool, like what kind of gin they drink?
I'm guessing it's Bombay Sapphire.
And if I get two questions? Next one is about boosting up warrior AoE tanking through decreasing paladin and death knight AoE abilities when coupled with an overall increase in the need for crowd control in 5-man and 10-man instances. BAM! Can you tell I'm already thinking of what I want to ask if I get the chance?
Ben asked...
"I haven't been around for previous expansions. When Cataclysm comes out, would it be a good idea to just chain-run new instances, since the world will have too many people in it, or is it possible to solo level without having every single quest mob stolen for the first month?"
The leveling in Cataclysm isn't going to be terrible, so take your time and do whatever makes you happy. Yes, there's going to be a metric ton of people leveling at the same time as you, but respawn rates increase during those times and you rarely find yourself waiting for mobs. Instances are going to be pretty darn fast for everyone, tanks and healers (I'd guess) will likely get insta-queued, and DPS will have a shorter wait than the average now (about 15 minutes these days, I'd guess it'd drop to around 5 or so the first several months of Cataclysm).
Dashifen asked...
"Where in the achievement's interface can you find your progress toward the new pugging achievements?"
It's in the Dungeons & Raids section (the main one, not a subsection).
Zayd asked...
"Using the LFG tool do you get the same about of badges from running a normal level 80 dungeon as you do from completing a heroic?"
No. Normal dungeons do not drop badges unless they are the normal Icecrown Citadel dungeons. Those drop badges.
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)
Dreamstorm Mar 29th 2010 11:06AM
"Normal dungeons do not drop badges unless they are the normal Icecrown Citadel dungeons. Those drop badges."
Then how come I get badges on my level 71 rogue whenever I do a Northrend random?
Adam Holisky Mar 29th 2010 11:07AM
Because you did it through the random dungeon finder, which gives you two triumph badges for the first normal random dungeon you run each day.
Uriahworld Mar 29th 2010 11:16AM
Normals don't DROP them, but the 1st regular random you do grants you some.
Dreamstorm Mar 29th 2010 12:50PM
I stand corrected :)
Superthrust Mar 29th 2010 2:07PM
why was he downvoted for asking a question that he didn't know the answer to?
Sure, he was corrected, but what if others had the same question? He could be casual and don't pay too close attention to it, but still...
Monnkeyboy Mar 29th 2010 2:30PM
'Cause he came off as a bit of a sm@rt @$$ in the way he asked his question. Though he probably didn't mean to.
Cambro Mar 30th 2010 1:29AM
Strictly speaking, no level 80 instance drops BADGES. They all drop EMBLEMS. ;-) Badges are a level 70 raid thing.
Andrew R. Mar 29th 2010 11:06AM
How does datamining work? I see mmo-champion and WoW.com finding items, npcs, spells, etc in each patch. How do they find these things?
Samutz Mar 29th 2010 11:18AM
Partly (or mostly) by taking apart the patches. The MPQ files included in a patch (and in your WoW's data folder) are archive files containing 3d models, textures, audio files, and sometimes information data such as quest info, item stats, etc.
Spicyness Mar 29th 2010 11:21AM
I'd like to know more about this as well.
lawnmowerasassin Mar 29th 2010 11:27AM
My understanding is that they compare the files from live with the files from the new patch. So anything that comes up as new they look through to see if there's anything interesting. Its a long process but its made for some interesting finds
Samutz Mar 29th 2010 11:28AM
Some tools for basic poking around MPQ files:
WoW Model Viewer & Map Viewer: http://code.google.com/p/wowmodelviewer/
MPQ Editor: http://www.zezula.net/en/mpq/download.html
Dashifen Mar 29th 2010 11:34AM
The short answer is this: digital information in the patches have to have certain markers (call the headers) that match specific patterns. In other words, an image file has to have a header that tells the computer that it's an image file. Music, videos, etc. -- all have a header to tell the computer what they are. What the dataminers do is use their previous experience in identifying these headers and search through the patch data that downloads for the PTRs and look for the new information the find therein. Since the patch file isone big container for all the new images, videos, music, etc. in the patch, they're all in there somewhere!
Obviously, this can be (and likely is) far more complex than this outline, but that's the basics.
Hoggersbud Mar 29th 2010 1:05PM
Yep, basically they take apart the files. And this is nothing new, I have a program around here that was basically set to rip open data files for various old games to get out the audio and graphics files.
Ripper4 I think it was. Can't recall what games I used it for now though.
jealouspirate Mar 29th 2010 11:07AM
Battleground question!
For the past few months I've been really getting into Battlegrounds. I'm Alliance on Maelstrom, battlegroup Shadowburn. However, I find that the majority of the battlegrounds I'm in are losses. This has been especially prominent since the new patch, where I'd say I get about one win for every four or five losses.
This is getting frustrating, especially when at the end of a match I see Horde players gaining 4 to 5 times the amount of honor compared to Alliance.
I've had trouble finding premades on my server. So, does anyone know of a server that has good Alliance premades? Or a battlegroup that generally has strong Alliance players? I don't want to win all the time, but playing with people who take battlegrounds seriously would be a lot of fun.
My heart is with the Alliance, but the losses are pulling me towards Horde.
Gnosh Mar 29th 2010 11:33AM
Keep in mind that you actually need to jump battlegroups to change that, not just servers.
I'm possibly suggest just doing a faction change instead. I mean, if horde is already winning... why not join them?
jessie Mar 29th 2010 11:35AM
Nightfall battlegroup is generally strong Alliance-side.
Cyrus Mar 29th 2010 11:38AM
"I'm Alliance... However, I find that the majority of the battlegrounds I'm in are losses. This has been especially prominent since the new patch, where I'd say I get about one win for every four or five losses."
I'm Alliance too, on Drenden. It seems the same way to me too. Maybe this is just a "grass is always greener" thing; maybe we'd find completely different records of performance if we carefully kept track of wins and losses and randomly tried BGs at all hours. Or maybe Alliance as a whole is worse at BGs and/or PvP in general; I've read lots of theories about the psychology of which people prefer which faction. They're basically unfalsifiable and worthless, but if any of them are correct somehow, that might explain why one faction is worse than the other at PvP. (Or maybe you suck. :) But seriously, even if you suck I doubt you're personally responsible for a 1:4 win/loss record, so never mind.)
Or maybe you need to just suck it up and organize premades. Maybe they take as long to organize on every server as they will for you, I have no idea.
I'd say we have a much better win record in Wintergrasp, although I haven't done that much over the past month or two.
Noselacri Mar 29th 2010 11:51AM
Hi there. I'm on Proudmoore, and it seems our battlegroup (Bloodlust) is pretty evenly split. I've been in matches where Alliance dominates, where Horde destroys us, and when it's a tough fight with both sides evenly matched.
If you're looking for competition, check the battlegroup forums. If you just want your pockets to overflow with honor...just do a faction change!
And watch out, like Cyrus said....the grass is always greener.
exogenesis. Mar 29th 2010 12:07PM
I'm Horde, on the Shadowsong server, and the Cyclone battlegroup. I would suggest joining Cyclone if you want many Alliance victories, but we Horde don't need to lose more =P I have a warlock alt I use solely for PvP, and out of the 30 WSGs she has played in the 4 levels since level 10, Horde have only won 11 times. It's even worse on my 80s ... Horde really seems to suck on Cyclone, so come on over and you'll have all the victories you could want ...