The Queue: Working on my night cheese
by Mathew McCurley 
Jan 21st 2011 at 11:00AM
Rich asked:
Why is the mount that we get from Vial of the Sands so butt-ugly? I mean that had the potential to be the most awesome mount in the game, but it's just an eyesore.
At least it's better than that plain dragonhawk reward from Mountain o' Mounts. Seriously, what a huge letdown of a reward. Even the Sunreaver Dragonhawk had armor!
foster.emma95 asked:
Hey guys, I read the Queue every single day at school (all-girl Catholic high schools are too lazy to check our computers, heh), so I figured that I would give you a question I've been pondering for a while. Who is behind WoW Insider? I'd love to see something, a page, an article, something about everyone who puts the glorious site together. I'd love to know more!
A bunch of people make WoW Insider possible. From our fearless editor-in-chief Dan O'Halloran, senior editors Adam Holisky, Alex Ziebart, and Mike Sacco, to all of the columnists and editors, a bunch of people contribute to making this place content-rich, fun, and informative. And then, of course, there are the incredibly handsome trio of gentlemen who record the WoW Insider Show every week... The About Us page has everyone's information.
Nydboda asked:
I am interested to see if Blizzard is willing to allow races from other factions to betray and join the other faction. I know EQ2 has a rather lengthy process of doing this. But I see races from opposite factions working together in other groups, like the Earthen Ring and the Ashen Verdict. What are your thoughts?
It won't happen. There is a concept in character design known as silhouetting, where well-designed characters are instantly recognizable by their silhouettes and are easily distinguishable from their counterpart characters. For the Horde and the Alliance, there is a huge difference in the silhouette of each faction on the whole, as well as no similar silhouette within each race. Even the worgen, who have the ability to change into a human form, are forced into their unique silhouette when doing anything remotely engaging in the game. Blizzard makes each race very unique to stand out, and putting both factions together means screwing with the silhouettes.
Ickabob asked:
Why the heck are we killing the people of Rustberg Village? Were they corrupted by the evils locked away beneath Tol Barad, possibly escaped prison inmates, or are they just really mean-spirited? The quest text just doesn't seem to justify killing them. Heck, I even feel bad stealing fish from them.
We talked about this on the most recent podcast (I think) and came to the conclusion that your character, as well as everyone in this game, is kind of a douche. We also have no idea what is up with Rustberg Village. Everything is suspicious and weird, but we've postulated some ideas.
Zykia asked:
Has Blizzard ever considered opening a fancy dress store in the cities? It would just sell level 1, no stats costumes for banks to wear, or for role playing. I would love being able to dress my bank up as a cultist, for example, or as a plain clothes citizen. There could also be some gold sink costumes. Maybe include the magic fish and Halloween transformations, or the ability to transform into a murloc ...
I would love a fancy "dress up your bank alt" store that sold BoA cosmetic items for justice points or something. However, to borrow from another Queue commenter, the dress store is down the block from the dance studio.
However, there actually is a "gold sink" dress available with Cataclysm called the Black Embersilk Gown. It even requires a Chaos Orb! Only the fanciest bank alts will be wearing this beauty. Also, there are already some dress shops in Stormwind; Geenia Sunshadow sells some specialty dresses in Moonglade; and I'm sure the commenters will have plenty of locations for bank alt dress-up.
Skem asked:
Hi Guys,
I have a question for Know-i-est Guys (and Gals) of Warcraft. What is WoW Insider's postion on heroics as a destination rather than a stepping stone to raiding? Also does this (in your humble opinion of course) contradict Blizzard's effort to open endgame content to a larger player base?
I'm not going to speak for WoW Insider as a whole, because we all have differing opinions on heroics, but I can give you my own take on things. Heroics being a stepping stone to raiding is how things should be. These are harder versions of the dungeons you become familiar with over the course of your leveling experience. People are confusing heroic accessibility with awful, impatient groups that expect the experience to be quick and easy. If you went into the starting 10-man raids with a group of impatient, whiney players who expect Bastion of Twilight to be cleared as they autorun from the beginning to the end of the zone, then you're going to fail. Same goes for heroics -- going in with the wrong attitude is going to hamper your progress.
Does this contradict Blizzard's wanting to make endgame raiding more accessible? Absolutely not. Endgame raiding has come so far from the days of yore that saying raids now are less accessible is like playing a cruel joke on vanilla and The Burning Crusade. Everything is still accessible to a whole bunch of people, but you still have to put a modicum of energy into getting there. I don't see that as a bad thing.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider 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 12)
Josin Jan 21st 2011 11:09AM
I got referenced. :D
Aitron Jan 21st 2011 11:19AM
Time to do a little /dance. Now where was that studio...?
Matheus314 Jan 21st 2011 12:25PM
I say: "Let's make The Exodar our Dance Studio! Blizz wanting or not!"
\m/
Noselacri Jan 21st 2011 12:55PM
"and came to the conclusion that your character, as well as everyone in this game, is kind of a douche"
Congrats! You were recognized!
Josin Jan 21st 2011 12:49PM
"Time to do a little /dance. Now where was that studio...?"
It's down the Path of the Titans.
alcohol Jan 21st 2011 12:56PM
queue in the guido fist pump
Dreyja Jan 21st 2011 2:17PM
You were on something of a roll yesterday. ;)
y0mary Jan 21st 2011 11:15AM
(comment)To me, Blizz's stance on it's our toy and you have to play with it our way, is childish.
(question) I've been leveling up my worgen slowly. I did a brief stop in Darkshire. The questgivers have somewhat changed locations. BUT!, the quests are the same. =( What zones leveling up are the best to go to for the newest content?
y0mary Jan 21st 2011 11:18AM
My comment was in regard to Blizz's stance on heroics.
Vyle Jan 21st 2011 11:40AM
My comment is in regard to y0mary's regard to Blizz's stance on heroics.
kw Jan 21st 2011 11:43AM
As far as what zones are new content wise..
From my leveling experience: In Eastern Kingdoms, Westfall, Redridge, Cape of Stranglethorn (there's a lot of old stuff in Northern Stranglethorn, but there's a healthy dose of new stuff and the old stuff is rearranged to make questing easier), Swamp of Sorrows, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Western Plaguelands, and Eastern Plaguelands have been pretty much redone entirely. In Kalimdor, Darkshore, Ashenvale, Thousand Needles, Stonetalon, Southern Barrens, Desolace, Tanaris, and Un'goro are the same way. I haven't gotten around to most of the dwarven lands yet so I can't speak to those.
Heilig Jan 21st 2011 11:46AM
Think about it this way:
Nerf makes some really awesome toy guns that shoot soft darts. Complaining about Blizzard not catering to your desire for Heroics to be the end-game is akin to complaining to Nerf that their guns don't make very good baseball bats. Who are they to tell you how to use their product? They should support your desire to use their products however you want, right?
Blizzard isn't telling you how to play. You can play however you want. They're just telling you they're not going to support your ideas of how their game should be played. They're not going to let you wear +spirit cloth armor and do good damage as a DK, and they're not going to give you the best rewards for ignoring all the development time and effort they spent on raids.
Puntable Jan 21st 2011 12:13PM
I must have missed where Blizzard said that heroics were just a stepping stone to raids, but anyway...
I would argue that for most characters, heroics ARE the end-game. At the end of Wrath, I had 1 main character doing ICC hard mode, and 3 alts that each had the best non-raid gear. I doubt it is rare for a player to have at least one max-level alt. It would have been impossible for me to raid with each of my 4 characters, simply because there are not that many days in a week, and it would probably require I join 4 different guilds.
If Blizzard is saying we are not supposed to stop at heroics, with out alts, then they are also saying we should forget about getting gear for our alts, and that we should just stick to one character.
SINisterWyvern Jan 21st 2011 7:49PM
If you go through darkshire you find out why it's still the same after all this time. Morbent fel is not gone. He's still continuing his undead assault upon the zone.
Drew Jan 23rd 2011 2:34AM
There ARE that many days in the week (more than 4), and there are guilds where you can raid with all of your alts, if not in a week, then in 2 weeks perhaps. I'm in one. I have 3 characters and they all raided in my guild in Wrath, weekly.
Jamie Jan 21st 2011 11:15AM
The silhouette logic is fine until you start adding Noggenfogger Elixir or Pygmy Oil to the mix where the player's silhouette is neutral.
It's quite tiring to have this logic hold back something players have wanted for so many years. But then we said the same thing for flying in vanilla or PvE to PvP server transfers.
I'm not shooting the messenger, just saying it's annoying.
bob Jan 21st 2011 11:35AM
Yeah, once you put two non-stat, temporary buff's into the equation, Blizzard's whole theory of faction design just fall apart.
Jamie Jan 21st 2011 11:50AM
You show me the theory, bob! Essentially it's a group of several factions of a given humanoid races. Which we've over time come to fight against because there are individuals who belong to neutral factions.
Good move though trying to make it appear like it's so technically game breaking but really it isn't.
We've had neutral cities in the game since TBC and the reputation system has been in the game since the beginning. Neutral humans who associate themselves with Orcs wouldn't necessarily be allowed in Orgrimmar but cities which sympathise with their faction. I'd imagine that essentially we'll never be rid of "faction sides" completely. Just a blurring of the lines which would allow guilds to become their own factions.
Through the actions of the guild collective it would deem which towns and cities the guild members could go to. This makes things a bit more complicated given that a lot of places would need changing. I don't know perhaps there could be a weighting or initial neutral starting zone.
All in all, I'm saying it ruins many different system in the game. Unless BG became less about Alliance vs Horde and more about A vs. B. You choose your side eg Oracles or Frenzyhearts and then fight for them thus affecting your options outside of BG or questing.
loop_not_defined Jan 21st 2011 11:54AM
You're saying that an existing feature that is very rarely used is holding back a similar feature - one that would be used quite regularly.
The fact of the matter is that, for all of the numerous methods of character transformation in-game, they have very little impact on silhouetting. Your argument carries little significance.
loop_not_defined Jan 21st 2011 12:02PM
I'm sorry, I butchered that first sentence on my last post. I meant that you're saying one feature - which would be regularly used - shouldn't be held back when a similar feature - which is very rarely used - already exists.