Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Me, myself and everybody else
by Alex Ziebart 
Aug 30th 2010 at 11:00AM
Today's edition of The Queue is very us-centric. Since you guys asked many questions about the staff here at WoW.com yesterday, I decided to try and knock them all out at one time. So if you hate our staff and all that we stand for, you might not enjoy this post! However, I'd like to think you don't hate us and in fact love us. We love you, too.
Gossamer asked:
"It seems like nearly every article on WoW.com has a spoiler warning on it recently. This got me to thinking, how does the WoW.com staff feel about spoilers? Are there any surprises left for you? Is there anything you've kept from yourself so you can experience it on release day?"
It is impossible to keep ourselves from being spoiled, even if we wanted to do so. We make sure to put spoiler tags on critical lore moments in the story of an expansion to give all of you the choice of skipping it, but we typically don't get the option of skipping spoilers. Not only do we need to be in the know regarding major expansion events, we're also constantly exposed to other sources of spoilers -- other websites, the comments section on our site, the emails that come in our tip line and all of those other methods of communication we keep open between our readers and ourselves. We often know about major game events months in advance and it is rare that we go looking for that information. It comes to us.
We've intentionally not posted about really world-shattering spoilers before because we didn't want to ruin the surprise for everybody else. If it's in the game files, we consider it fair game because anybody with an MPQ reader can see what's in those files ... If it isn't in the game files, our editorial staff has very long, heated conversations about whether or not we should ruin the surprise. Generally, we decide to not say anything, even if it would benefit us (as far as traffic is concerned) to dump the spoiler. Of course, we can't convince the other sites to play by the same rules, so if they end up spoiling what we were trying to keep secret ... well, that's how it goes. And then there isn't much point to us staying quiet anymore after that.
The only way to avoid being horribly spoiled while working at WoW.com is to completely cut off communication. Don't read your email, don't come into our team's little newsroom, all of that sort of thing. If you do that, you're probably not doing your job effectively and then you'll have even bigger problems than being spoiled. We work in online media. Refusing to open your email is equivalent to going to your 9-to-5 and throwing all of your work out of a window instead of actually working.
Now, it isn't all bad. We're not abused bloggers being barraged with unwanted spoilers. Being spoiled doesn't actually ruin the game for us. The entire staff geeks out together when we get some truly delicious news or find something really cool in the game files. We don't spoil things because we're cruel people with black, black hearts trying to suck everybody's enjoyment out of the game. The news that gets posted fastest is the news that excites us the most.
Ted asked:
"Have we, will we or can we see the actual real-life faces of the WoW.com writers?"
Some of our writers (Matt Rossi, Mike Sacco) get their faces plastered on the site constantly. Others have their faces in our extremely outdated About the Bloggers series. If you're going to BlizzCon, you'll be able to see many of us in person.
So I guess the answer is either "sometimes" or "maybe."
Task asked a few questions:
"I posted a question awhile back regarding Alex Ziebart's surname and its supposed relation to the automotive company with the same name. I never did find out if it was family business or just coincidence."
I'm fairly sure I did answer this question, but it was probably in the comments and not The Queue itself. It's just coincidence, I don't have any relation to that company at all. If I do, it's extremely distant and any link might as well not exist.
"Will Ms. Harper be attending this year's BlizzCon as a farewell/get-together/super awesome party?"
Yes, Miss Liz is going to be at BlizzCon. She will even be at our BlizzCon meetup, which we're going to announce officially very soon!
Oh, and before I close this out, you can thank one of my raidmates for the header image on this article, though Deathy was not the original subject of Ms. Gnome's unending love.
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: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Dreamstorm Aug 30th 2010 2:13PM
What does 'Permalink' at the bottom of your articles do?
Joseph Smith Aug 30th 2010 2:59PM
Provides you with a permanent link to the story on Wow.com. Pretty much just gives you the URL of the article as seen in the address bar above.
thegatherer Aug 30th 2010 3:07PM
It Permalinks the page. Duh!
Cadychan Aug 30th 2010 3:15PM
"Actual photos?"
I don't understand...My icon is what I really look like. :o
*fiddles with horns* ;)
Discolando Aug 30th 2010 3:21PM
Looking at my reputation tab on the WoW Armory, I've noticed a distinct reputation for 'Alliance' that is above Exodar, Darnassus, Stormwind... etc.
I'm 999/1000 exalted for each individual alliance rep, but only 12000/21000 revered for the 'Alliance' reputation. Is there a way to work on that reputation in order to get it to 999/1000 exalted as well?
(cutaia) Aug 30th 2010 4:48PM
You gain your "Alliance" rep usually through the quests that can be done during certain holidays. I want to say that the fire festival fire quests do so, but don't quote me on that.
There might be other ways, but that's where the bulk of it comes from. It can take a long, long time to build it up. Best way to tell if any given holiday is giving you rep is to do one or two quests, then logout and see if that bar has gone up.
Obviously it doesn't matter cause that rep doesn't even count for anything in game, but from one obsessive completionist to -- I assume -- another, I understand the desire to fill it up.
Titusx Aug 30th 2010 4:30PM
Thanks to all the understanding people that commented on my post... except the first one XD. That IS the heart of my question, why is it that Ret paladins are so prone to end up on the OP side of things?. Thanks to all the well versed and informed answers. I am, thanks to you, a better player.
restodr00d Aug 30th 2010 4:47PM
Question for the Queue
by any chance in Cata will be a order for the Blood Elf Warriors? Why do I ask? Well simple as, yesterday i did my first Alliance char a Drenai or Draenei (sorry don't know how to spell the name) and there's Blood Elves all over the place but they have warrior abilities and they are know as the Sunhawks, are they going to redeem themselves and teach the ways of the warrior to the Blood Elves? (Feel free to edit the question :p )
Samutz Aug 30th 2010 5:04PM
Blood elf warriors have existed in lore for quite some time. We simply weren't allowed to play them before. I doubt there will be any specific lore reason for us being allowed to in Cata.
Anuillae Aug 30th 2010 4:54PM
So my computer crashed, and when I came back, all the config for my addons had disappeared :( Since it took me a good day to put that thing together, is there any way it can be recovered?
Samutz Aug 30th 2010 5:09PM
Probably not. When you make changes to your addons' settings, they are stored in RAM and not saved to the harddrive until you either exit the game or run /console ReloadUI(). If WoW, or the computer, crashes, you lose those changes.
So next time you make a bunch of changes to addon settings, run /console ReloadUI() in the chat box to save them.
Anuillae Aug 30th 2010 7:26PM
Yes, but no settings were made during that session, changes from a month or so earlier were lost; I hadnt actually changed anything that day. From looking at the files, it wiped all the WTF settings when my computer crashed :(
Quill2006 Aug 30th 2010 10:37PM
You don't say if you have a backup of your computer anywhere; if you do, and you have your WTF file backed up, just copy it back over and grin. If you don't, you should DEFINITELY be backing up your WTF file and your Addons file if you've modded your UI a lot. And please, please, back up all your other files on your computer too! Losing your HD is painful enough without losing all your data.
Anuillae Aug 31st 2010 12:56PM
You know what the irony is? I was backing the computer up at the time it crashed >.>
I guess WoW + Backup thingymajig + WCIII is too much for my poor computer :(
Ezek Aug 30th 2010 5:44PM
I have a question for the queue concerning WOW naming policies.
When I first started WOW, there was a guild on my server called "The USSR" that said they were a soviet guild. I don't know what a "soviet" guild is, so don't ask. I do know that the Guild Leader was forced to change the name though, b/c of complaints about him violating the Guild Naming policy. Specifically he had used a name that was considered political, and that was not allowed. (I was not a part of this guild, I simply was chatting with Guild Master. As this information is 2nd hand, YMMV.)
However, there have been a couple of instances where I have complained about a player violating naming policies, and nothing is done. There is a player in my Battlegroup named "FatherHOMO". I have also seen players named some really ridiculous variation of "queer" and "f@g". Right now there are over 82 players in the armory named "nohomo" and 52 players named "bulldyke".
Whenever I complain, I get the standard ticket of "We are investigating, but due to privacy concerns we cannot share any actions we may take with you" email. But the players keep their names, they are not changing them. This leads me to wonder if Blizzard is doing anything about this.
Is the LGBT playerbase in WoW less important than the douchebag player base?
By the way, feel free to flame me as being a nosy busy body. I feel obligated to speak out on issues like this, even if it makes me unpopular with the homophobic player base. *tear*
And yes, I know that every player with a homphobic name is really nice and wonderful IRL and has tons of gay friends. And all those players named bulldyke are lesbians "reclaiming" the word.
JC_Icefox Aug 30th 2010 6:01PM
The douchebag population outnumbers the homosexual population. Don't take it personally.
(cutaia) Aug 30th 2010 6:36PM
Blizzard's enforcement of naming policies is entirely reactive and not the least bit proactive.
My guild was originally named The Cunning Linguists. After an appearance on wow.com's own Around Azeroth, the guild name was quickly changed. The part that intrigues me about their banning style, though, is that to this day there are still 19 other guilds with the exact same name.
The name wasn't exactly too offensive, being found in PG-13 movies, even (e.g. Tomorrow Never Dies). One could even stand to reason that it's no more offensive than Blizzard naming a quest "Polishing the Helm." But the fact is, they don't ban names based on what's right or fair, or even based on a strict interpretation of their own rules...they do it based on which wheels squeak the loudest.
If enough people complain, or if one person complains to the right GM, in the right way, a name will probably be changed. Otherwise, they will almost actively ignore violations. It makes a sense considering the amount of names they would be asked to police, but at the same time, a little more consistency would be nice.
Aubie Aug 30th 2010 5:43PM
Does anyone know if there are plans afoot to stablize certain BGs in Cata? WG has turned into a nightmare on my server where the Horde is so outnumbered it isn't even worth playing. While I get some enjoyment out of one-shotting a catapault because of the tenacity bump - that wears off fairly quickly when we don't have enough to mount a defense and assault at same time. I'd hate to see a new battleground end in the same way.
Shrike Aug 30th 2010 9:41PM
Battlegrounds and Wintergrasp have nothing to do with each other. Wintergrasp is entirely dependent on your own server and the *interest* in playing on your own server. For instance, my own server is very nearly 1:1 in population terms (and that's including the multitude of low-level blood elves), but in Wintergrasp, Horde have nearly a 95% win rate, and Alliance almost always have very high Tenacity. The Alliance just doesn't show up.
Battlegrounds gather their teams from across an entire battlegroup, not just your server. Population imbalances don't affect battlegrounds in general for this reason. Beyond that, battlegrounds should almost always start with even numbers, and they stay that way in general throughout the match.
slunk Aug 30th 2010 6:12PM
So, I was planning to work in my Gelkis/Magram faction, but I see that Desolace is being changed in Cata. Should I work on it now as it cannot be capped, or should I wait? Can you reach exalted in beta?
If there are additional quests, I would rather wait and experience the next quests and new zone.
Thanks!