The Queue: I'll just leave this right here
by Adam Holisky 
Jul 13th 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.
There's really no reason for the above video.
But it's out there, so enjoy!
Let's answer some Cataclysm questions...
Aiku asked:
"What was Blizzard thinking when they placed quests in vanilla WoW. Ive been slowly trying to get Loremaster title, but I've noticed that queit a few quests send you all over the world! Why did Blizzard do this? Was it done on purpose or by accident?"
Remember that the vanilla quests were designed between 2002 and 2004 -- that wasn't anything like the gaming era of today. That was "back in the day," when EQ was a major player and the hardcore mindset was considered the standard model to design a game towards.
Today, it's all about a mixture of casual and hardcore, and one of the primary ideas of a more casual gameplay is not to have insane breadcrumb quests sending you across the majority of the world (and then do that again and again, because all the quests are the same). So at the time, Blizzard was thinking correctly. And today, Blizzard is still thinking right. It's a major strength of the company to adapt its game design and admit that what it did five years ago isn't up to today's standards.
Trillynne asked:
"How will we know when we can actually go help take back the Echo Isles/Gnomeregan? I am really looking forward to these events!"
We don't know exactly what will signal them, but if past events are any indication, we'll get some in-game announcements around the capital cities -- probably some NPC yelling about it. Of course, there'll also be a lot of new quest givers and everything.
WoW.com will let you know the moment it starts, or as soon as we have any firm indication of when it is scheduled to begin.
Dexter asked:
"Can non-goblins get into the goblin starting area where you drive around on a hot rod?"
Nope. That area is a specific zone/phased location, much like the death knight area is. It might be possible for a person to summon another player there via the Recruit-A-Friend summons, but we don't know about that yet. Pretty much, it's goblin only.
Ryland asked:
"Now that information on the new talent and mastery system has been released by Blizzard, are the first four Cataclysm talent trees (hunter, shaman, rogue, druid) previewed thus far still relevant? Or are they being scrapped?"
The talent previews are still relevant. They represent the individual ideas that Blizzard has for the class, and from my understanding, many of those talents will be carrying across into the new trees. The thing is, though, this is beta and anything (as we've seen) can happen. So don't worry too much about talent trees until the release date nears and we have a more firm idea of what the talents will exactly be.
And as for that release date ... we still don't know, other than some time in 2010.
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 11)
Haaken Jul 13th 2010 11:06AM
Something's been bothering me for a while. Why the heck does the well in Dalaran go down into the sewers? I'm pretty sure that's not entirely hygienic.
Vanamar Jul 13th 2010 11:08AM
I'm pretty sure that portal that swirls at the top is a magical water filter.
Task Jul 13th 2010 11:12AM
The real question is, does it swirl clockwise or counterclockwise?
Portals Jul 13th 2010 11:20AM
Depends on which hemisphere u are in. Toilet water swirls differently across the world.
Cephas Jul 13th 2010 11:30AM
@Portals That's a total myth. And when you need to dispel a myth you should always call in either the Mythbusters or Snopes http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.asp
rich Jul 13th 2010 11:36AM
'Cause when you want to get to the underground level, you go down the pipe...
Portals Jul 13th 2010 11:43AM
@Cephas /cast Old World Blinders You and your "science" should be burned at the stake!
Guruda Jul 13th 2010 3:13PM
@ Portals
F'ing science, how does it work?
Eatz Jul 13th 2010 1:41PM
@ Cephas I blame Lisa Simpson and her pseudo Science.
Kevin Jul 13th 2010 1:43PM
Still one of the best Simpsons episodes ever, imo.
Draelan Jul 13th 2010 6:08PM
It's kind of an interesting thought that the portal is a "magical filter". Depending on what passes though, it goes to different places! If a bucket for water passes through, it could become a portal to clean well water. If garbage is thrown in, it is ported to a garbage can. If a coin is thrown it to make a wish... well, it's probably ported to the Kirin Tor's bank account. =P
So, what does the fact that players are ported to the sewer say? XD
Hesen Jul 13th 2010 7:03PM
That's not a well. That's so the Dalaran City Council can pretend they don't know what's going on down there. Just like the giant mount-friendly "access arches" of plausible deniability.
Tim {the other Tim} Jul 13th 2010 11:09AM
Does anyone know what the requirments are to be invited into the beta? I know you need to opt in, but are there behind the scenes spec. requirments like RAM, hard drive space, OS etc...
Ozzard Jul 13th 2010 11:19AM
I suspect Blizzard will invite people with wildly different hardware into the beta. Particularly with PCs, it's impossible to test all combinations of hardware in-house. Often, a beta gives a chance to find those weird issues that cause a particular model of graphics card to lock up with particular detail settings, landscape, effects and phase of the moon.
Bogoradwee Jul 13th 2010 11:24AM
As far as I know, it's an entirely random selection of people that opted in.
Cephas Jul 13th 2010 11:24AM
I don't think Blizzard has publicly stated any system requirements for the beta, but they have stated that they want to be testing on a wide range of systems. They're certainly not restricting Beta access to computers that can run with all of the sliders maxed out. All of the new eye candy can be turned off, so I'd say that if you meet the minimum system requirements for Wrath you should be fine. Regarding the OS question specifically, I know there's a Windows client and I'm pretty sure there's a Mac client, but Battle.net is down at the moment so i can't check to be sure.
jackfinished Jul 13th 2010 11:25AM
I don't know if they have any specific requirements beyond the usual. THey will like a mix high, middle, and low end computers to gauge the gaming experience. Also they will would probably want a mixture of hardware from different manufacturers like Intel, AMD, Nvidia, ATI, Dell, HP, Foxxcon, Gigabyte, MSI, and others.
I have always had a theory though, that you are more likely to get a beta invite with a Mac because you are in a much smaller pool of gamers than PC. Completely unfounded theory though. I am often tempted to use my g/f's MacBook or iMac to see if I will get a beta inv. I have 3 accts (hers, and two for me). I am willing to wager if I set her account to opt in for the beta she would be more likely to get in.
My theory being lets say out of the 12 million WoW Players that 2 million used Mac. And they wanted a 20% test group. 10% out of 2 million is better than 10% out of 10 million.
I hope my example made sense, math nerds feel free to expand/prove otherwise!
Tim {the other Tim} Jul 13th 2010 11:35AM
I have a mac. Your words are like honey to my mouth ears.
Neirin Jul 13th 2010 12:21PM
I doubt Macs wouldd get much of a boost. Since PCs are split between so many brands or different combinations of equipment, I'd wager there are more Macs with a particular setup than there are HP Whatevers using a Whatchacallsit 2000 graphics card.
jackfinished Jul 13th 2010 12:36PM
@Neirin I am SHOCKED and HURT that you do not agree with my COMPLETELY unfounded theory. Take your logic and I say GOOD DAY SIR!
Haha, you are probably right. I think I developed the theory as a coping mechanism when my g/f switched to Mac *sigh*. Blizzard has a pretty good reputation for putting out supported mac clients for their games. Most don't, under that assumption I would argue they would like firm grasp of how the client interacts. Although given the nature of Mac's, lacking the inherent hardware compatibility of PC's. They might not actually need as large of a pool for testing. Again I was just pulling it out of the nether.
Tim, I'm glad I could make your day slightly better haha.