The Queue: StarCraft 2's release date
by Alex Ziebart 
May 10th 2010 at 3:00PM
I'm going to use The Queue for another poll today, but it's slightly more topical than our usual "what should I eat today" type of poll. Not completely on topic mind you, but moreso than usual. The question: will you be buying StarCraft 2?
| I've already preordered! | |
|---|---|
| I haven't preordered it yet, but I will buy it. | |
| I will not be buying it. |
Kyrro asked:
"Is there any word on if old world zones will grow bigger in Cataclysm? Zones in Outland and especially Northrend are huge, so sizing up the old world zones a bit would only make sense. Add to that we also get mounts 10 levels earlier than before, and also get epic flying in the old world."
With the exception of some mountain ranges and other geographical bits and pieces being shifted around, old zones won't be getting any bigger. They're all changing, but they're not scaling the old continents up. They're not moving a proverbial size slider upwards to make everything bigger, and they're not building a brand new continent from scratch. Blizzard is taking the continents we already have, editing them to make them look better/different and filling in any gaping holes in the terrain. And I suppose making new gaping holes in the terrain where necessary. Poor, poor Azshara.
Westfall will have a lot of new features, but it's still going to be Westfall. It isn't magically going to be twice as big. However, the new zones in Cataclysm will be bigger than the old zones. Deepholm is certainly going to be much bigger than Westfall.
CDave asked:
"Has any lore been released about who Professor Putricide was in life? They created lore for Sindragosa and the Blood Queen, why not this guy? He has a pretty important job for the Scourge and it seems to me that if the Lich King couldn't do Putricide's work by himself, then the Professor must have been someone the Lich King really wanted on his side."
In life he was a mad scientist from the year 3000. The Lich King enslaved a Bronze Dragon (like he's attempting with Valithria Dreamwalker) and went to the future to find the most brilliant alchemist in existence. Unfortunately, the future is a confusing place so he screwed up and brought Putricide back instead.
I made all of that up. There is no lore for Putricide beyond what you see on the surface. He's just a mighty crazy fellow with a penchant for poison.
The Dark Wayne [Planeteer: Power of the Batusi] asked:
"Do you guys have any intention of creating a catalog of the best quest chains for players to enjoy before they're gone forever?"
That's ... quite a name you have there.
And yes.
fez66 asked:
"I was just wondering if the StarCraft 2 release date could be used to make any guesses in regards to the Cataclysm schedule."
Probably not. StarCraft 2's release date is July 27 of this year, and I think we all pretty much knew Cataclysm wouldn't be coming that early. We might have hoped for an earlier release than that, but realistically we aren't going to see it until fall sometime. The two games also have two completely separate dev teams, so it's not like finishing StarCraft 2 frees them up to finish up Cataclysm.
The only reason the release date of one might influence the other is if Blizzard shifts release dates around to game their Q3 and Q4 sales numbers to excite ActiBlizzard's shareholders. Really though, we're looking at one company releasing two very highly anticipated games more or less back to back. As long as both games do end up being released at some point in the next year, there's no gaming the system necessary.
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 9)
Gamer am I May 10th 2010 3:04PM
Question: Why do WoW.com posts have so many redundant tags? Why not just consolidate all of the similar tags into one tag?
Magicslime May 10th 2010 3:23PM
Most of them are typing errors, and I believe only the Writer or the person who made the tag can remove it. On the bright side, if someone else has the same error...
Cataca May 10th 2010 3:25PM
It helps with the search feature.
Say they write a post about the druid cataclysm changes.
Now say that you want to find this post about mage cataclysm changes.
In the search bar you could type mage, mage changes, cataclysm, druid cataclysm.
This will pull up every post that has a matching tag line.
Pretty much the more tags you put the easier it will be to find, especially if you put very specific tag lines along with those more generic tags.
Kragragh May 10th 2010 3:25PM
Because when you search tags, they want to make sure all the possible options (spelling, spaces, no spaces, etc.) are covered.
mayjest May 10th 2010 3:26PM
From what I'm aware, there's two reasons. The first is that the more tags there are, the easier it is to search using the blog's own search tool, as there's more keywords associated with the page.
The more cynical reason is that Google and other search engines index their searches by how many other sites/pages link to each page. The more tags, the more links there are, the more popular wow.com becomes, the higher it goes on the search list. The fact that it's already number 1 is probably irrelevant. I believe a similar metric is also used to decide how much they can get for advertising, so it ultimately comes down to money :)
Cataca May 10th 2010 3:27PM
"Say they write a post about the druid cataclysm changes."
Ment to be "Say they write a post about the -mage- cataclysm changes."
Eh, you get the point...
Cataca May 10th 2010 3:31PM
@Mayjest
"The more tags, the more links there are"
That isn't exactly how that works but yes it sorta is about the money too.
The more tags you have the -easier- it is for people to find.
Easy for people to find means more people on the site.
The more people on the site the more people will click the adds (what gives them money) and those people will put links -to- the site around the net. (Also earning them money)
Zhiva May 10th 2010 3:32PM
speaking of which, there once was a post on WoWInsider which tag cloud looked like it used every tag of WoWInsider. Does anyone remember it?
Drakkenfyre May 10th 2010 3:38PM
Some of the rags are ridiculous. On anothers site (I think Download Squad) one of the tags was "green men", for a video game. Do you honestly think someone is going to search for "green men" on the site?
I know Dominic Hobbs, in his first post, posted a huge amount of tags and like every variant of them. Stuff like "warlock-changes-beta", "beta-warlock-changes", "changes-warlock-beta", "betawarlockchanges", "changeswarlockbeta" "warlockbetachanges", "changesbetawarlock", "warlockchangesbeta", "betachangeswarlock"
Sometimes I think it's ridiculous when the tags are longer than the actual article, which has happened a few times, on both this site, and others.
(cutaia) May 10th 2010 4:55PM
"Some of the [tags] are ridiculous. On anothers site (I think Download Squad) one of the tags was "green men", for a video game. Do you honestly think someone is going to search for "green men" on the site?"
Tags aren't just for searching. They're also for cataloguing. So if the authors started to notice a strange trend of "green men" in video games, they could start tagging articles that relate to that observation. That way, when someone like you notices the odd tag, you can click it to find out why it exists. That's more for entertainment value...not utilitarian purposes.
For an example of such a tag on wow.com, see: http://www.wow.com/tag/i-hate-tauren-cat-form/
Drakkenfyre May 10th 2010 5:30PM
I know the difference between entertainment tags and real tags. Joystiq had one for "Gizmodo", which said "You just clicked this to see what a Gizmodo tag would say, didn't you?"
The tag I referenced was about a game that had green men. I have seen other tags which loosely fit the subject.
Say "OS" for an article about a laptop. Now while the laptop does have an OS, if someone wants to lookup "OS", and see every article on your site that has to do with OS's, do you really think they want to see an article about a laptop coming out?
I have no problem with joke tags. It's when the tags are supposed to be serious and have no real connection to the article. Sure, that game had green men, but it wasn't an advertised feature. Why would someone search for "green men" in the first place? And if you clicked the tag, you would just get that article. It's like tagging an article about ice "melts", because no crap, ice melts, but why would someone search for that tag, and why would they want to see an article about ice if they were?
galestrom May 10th 2010 3:04PM
/golfclap =)
unleashinghell May 10th 2010 3:10PM
A question for the queue, or anyone really:
Why is it that when I comment on this site I get sent a confirmation email sent everytime, despite entering the password they sent me (and every confimation tells me the same password, so I know I'm typing it in right)?
And is there any way to actually access any sort of account on this site, and say change the name my comments are made under or change my avatar from the default?
Samutz May 10th 2010 3:39PM
Click your name in your comment. Then replace wow.com with joystiq.com in your url, as wow.com's profile functions aren't currently working. From there you can login and change your password and other profile stuff.
http://www.joystiq.com/profile/3374292/
Ostentaneous May 10th 2010 3:42PM
As for the email thing make sure you have Returning selected in the comment box instead of new reader. Also for the profile, its very limited but click on your name, that will take you to a page of your comments and you can log in with your password to edit all that stuff.
Ricohardt May 10th 2010 3:44PM
This has been broken for a while, you'll notice some of the writers on the page have no avatar in their comments.
Ricohardt May 10th 2010 3:50PM
Hey it works, thanks Samutz!
Kallix May 10th 2010 5:00PM
If my name has changed and I don't get sent an email, it worked!
But yeah, as someone pointed out new columnists don't even have their own avatars, so I'm assuming trying to change it won't work.
Mognet T May 10th 2010 10:26PM
Samutz, I wish I could marry you. Actually, I wish I could marry Anne Stickney...or Christian Belt...and then...Christina Hendricks...well, you are a close fourth place!
Ruth May 11th 2010 12:12AM
@ Samutz: Dankeschön! This has been bugging me for the last ... oh 4 months? >_