The Queue: That Thing
by Michael Sacco 
Apr 16th 2011 at 12:00PM
Girls, you know you better ... watch out. Some guys, some guys are only about ... that Thing, that Thing, that Thi-i-i-ing.
Cricket asked:
How/at what time is the reward for the new Call to Arms functionality actually locked in? I've been checking it out on the PTR but I can't really figure out if it's based on the moment you enter the queue, the moment you accept the dungeon invite or the time you actually kill the last boss.
As long as you queue through the specific Call to Arms window, you'll receive your reward no matter what role is most needed in the queue when you complete the dungeon.
Ragazzaazzurra asked:
Is there a way to turn off RaF experience points buff (x3) on a specific character? A friend and I are trying to level a healer and a tank respectively through dungeons only, going one by one, but by the time we did the first one, we were up by 3 levels. We froze XPs at level 21 to practice for a bit, but it's not really going to be cost or time effective to keep freezing/unfreezing XPs if we are to really enjoy our play. Thanks in advance if somebody knows the answer.
As far as I know, there is no way to turn off the RAF experience bonus. You can turn off XP gain completely, as you pointed out, but you can't pick and choose your bonuses.
Excutioner asked:
i really like playing games and putting reviews on them and so i was wondering since i'm in high school and looking for a career i like what would the job of being a GM in WoW be called?
It's called a Game Master on most listings and literature. Other companies may call similar jobs different names, like Customer Service Representative.
Arrohon asked:
Question for the Queue: If you could choose one horde and one alliance race to be remodeled, what would you pick? I'd go with Humans and Forsaken. Humans are boring and might be a bit less so if they had more detailed models. As for the Forsaken, who doesn't want zombies to be as hi-res as possible (without it being so hi-res it is actually a bit frightening for some players that are fine with the current models)?
Absolutely humans and orcs. It's important to note that human and orc models are based on (and close in poly count to) the models of those races from Warcraft III, a game that is now close to a decade old. Both suffer from misshapen, ugly male models with no wrists. Short of a total redesign, they could use just a few extra polygons to bring them to the level of, say, the current Thrall/Jaina models, or even just the poly count of draenei and blood elves.
Ideally, every race in the game except for goblins and worgen could use a graphical tune-up. Yes, even draenei and blood elves.
(Full disclosure: My favorite vanilla race model, without a doubt, is the human female.)
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 9)
Sleutel Apr 16th 2011 12:04PM
Someone who's interested in playing and reviewing games for a living is fairly confused about what a GM does if they think it's anything like that. You're a customer service rep. Granted, one with pretty awesome powers in a game you like, but you're using those powers to fix bugs, help players solve quests, and--like any CSR--dealing with an unending stream of stupid and/or abusive customers. You're not just running around all day and then telling people what's good or bad about the game.
J. Doney Apr 16th 2011 12:50PM
The actual job title is In-game Service Representative (IGSR). In America, you would need to live either in Irvine, CA or Austin, TX.
Drakkenfyre Apr 16th 2011 2:08PM
There are multiple levels of GM's. As an entry-level GM you do not have the powers to restore items, or characters, or anything like that. You have much more limited powers, stuff like porting players. res'ing them, dealing with issues that might arise, but nothing like restoring characters, or major problems. Anything like that has to be approved by a senior GM.
As you are there longer, you can raise in your position and become a higher-end GM, possibly one that are specialists in stuff like character restoration.
As noted above, you work out of an office. One of three. Either California, Texas, or Arizona. You take tickets from all realms except ones you have characters on. You would be working mostly with an IM-like client that lets you communicate with the player, but almost never enter the game. An interview with a former GM said he went thru about 200 tickets in a day. You are not allowed to play the game during work, but can on your lunch break. He also said it's "a good way to cure your addiction, if you have one", because after dealing with idiots all day, when he went home sometimes the last thing he wanted to do was login, and deal with them more.
Eli Apr 16th 2011 3:14PM
As a college fresman, I lol at trying to decide on a career in high school.
Suzaku Apr 16th 2011 3:34PM
GM (customer service) and even beta testing are not really "fun" jobs for gamers. The former, like any customer service job, requires dealing mostly with people, who will probably be rude or ignorant. Beta testing is hard to get work for and tends to involve playing one game you don't like for weeks at a time.
If you want to review games, you'd want to look into a journalism career. There are numerous publications and websites that will pay you to review games, though you'll probably have to start off volunteering for websites.
Sleutel Apr 16th 2011 3:36PM
@Eli:
As an adult more than five years out of college with a "real job," I wouldn't consider it so silly. Just because your plans are likely to change--perhaps wildly--doesn't mean that you shouldn't have plans at all. Even in high school, focusing on the right courses will help prepare you for what you do afterwards, whether that's in college, an apprenticeship, a trade school/community college, or going straight to work.
Iirdan Apr 16th 2011 4:24PM
@Eli: I think it's a bit narrow-minded to assume that nobody is so passionate enough about something as to decide on their future career in high school. I've known for years exactly what I want to do, and that has wavered not once. Students - perhaps not you, but others - are far more aware of their strengths and passions now than they would have been say twenty years ago.
xanddra Apr 16th 2011 5:17PM
Wait... Where's the Arizona one? I know they had a data center here, but I may just have to start banging on some doors.
obarthelemy Apr 16th 2011 6:58PM
True dat. In no way does being a GM entail writing reviews, nor playing the game. It mainly entails trying to figure out out what those aggressive, semi-illiterate assholes are getting in your face about, and then trying to explain to them that what can't be done can't be done, no matter how many names they call you. Sometimes getting the feeling that players are really stupid, sometimes that Blizzard really is, sometimes, both.
If you like games, why not rather look into a career developing them ? There's a wide range of possibilities, from coding to art to design to marketing to management...
snuf42 Apr 16th 2011 7:39PM
Uh, well playing games and reviewing games seems like an entirely different job from GM or CSR. More like game industry journalist.
Drakkenfyre Apr 17th 2011 12:50AM
I might be confusing it with the datacenter, one opened there recently. I might have thought there was a GM center there, too.
Duts Apr 18th 2011 2:47PM
@ Eli
As someone with an high school, multiple bachelor's and an advanced degree and with 20 years into my profession as a chemist, I Rofl at you for NOT having a clue as to what you want to do now that you're actually paying someone to teach you. I knew in 8th grade what I wanted to be and had my 4 years of high school classes plotted in order to help me in that regard.
Zerxus Apr 18th 2011 4:23PM
@ Duts: Yes, it is just a Data center for realms there in Arizona. The one they used to have a contract with in Seattle ended and opened one up with a different company in Arizona. There are only the two, one in Cali and one in Texas.
Zerxus May 18th 2011 8:06PM
@ Myself: Edit: I meant only 2 Rep centers, not two data centers :P
christerryatl Apr 16th 2011 12:04PM
My favorite model in general is the human female....
kreighund Apr 16th 2011 12:58PM
My favorite model in real life is the human female...
Kylenne Apr 16th 2011 1:21PM
@Stella: You're confusing "interesting" with "hypersexualized". Contrary to what you might be led to believe by a lot of Blizzard artwork, you can actually have the former without the latter.
These things are obviously subjective, of course, but *to me* it never ceases to baffle the shit out of me why, in a world where you can literally be anything from an immortal spacegoat to a minotaur to a walking corpse, anyone would roll a goddamn human. I mean Jesus, I never understood it in all my years of tabletop fantasy gaming and I understand it even LESS in WoW, with the sheer breadth and variety of races we have to choose from. You're a human in real life, for crying out loud! Step outside the box a little, I promise it doesn't hurt.
And human females actually annoy the shit out of me, between the way they run like they HAVE the runs, their blank pudding faces, and their casting animations that are only beaten by female Night Elven titty twisting as the singular worst ones in the game. But hey, whatever floats your boat!
Sleutel Apr 16th 2011 1:31PM
@Kylenne:
I miss my glowing boob grope summoning animation. :(
Sky Apr 16th 2011 1:37PM
@Kylenne
Hey, I actually find those blank pudding faces cute...
LuZifer Apr 17th 2011 2:20AM
I tried talking to a human female once, but it glitched and didn't come up with any conversation options.