The Queue: Panda ... nope, not going to do it
by Alex Ziebart 
Jun 6th 2011 at 11:00AM
Every time the pandaren get mentioned in The Queue, we end up with a week straight of pandaren headers, themes and puns. I'm going to break that trend and completely avoid the topic of the pandaman in this edition of The Queue and hopefully end the horrible cycle of pain.
riley asked:
Do you think Warcraft ever seen an ending to its story or will Blizzard keep adding content and lore until they subscriber numbers drop below profitability? Will we ever get to fight Sargeras or will the servers just shut down in the middle of the 6th expansion?
Blizzard won't end World of Warcraft until it becomes financially irresponsible to keep the game running. It certainly isn't going to write a definite ending in. Blizzard will keep churning content out as long as the game sustains itself. If we end up fighting Sargeras in WoW's lifetime, it will most likely just be revealed that something even worse is around the corner.
Scooba asked:
What's up with poison gas storage sitting in the back of the ruins above undercity? Is it supposed to imply sylvannas is up to something?
Imply? We are way beyond implications, brother. Sylvanas is riding the crazy train as fast as it'll go. Just look around the Eastern Kingdoms in Cataclysm. Sylvanas is actively wielding plagues in battle, obliterating Gilneas, Hillsbrad, et cetera, and raising the dead as her servants. She's dag nasty evil. Remember the plague that Putress used at the Wrathgate? It only existed because Sylvanas told him to create it. Now that Putress and Varimathras are out of the way, she's happily using it wherever and whenever she wants, all according to plan.
I would not be surprised for one single moment if we learn that Sylvanas is current holder of the shards of Frostmourne.
Goblinsgoboom asked:
On the topic of new playable races: what do you think would be the next races for Horde and Alliance? I know we just got new races, I'm just wondering. Arroka would be nice for Horde. I love those little bird men. :)
Frankly, I think there are plenty of races -- Blizzard isn't even utilizing the potential of the ones it has. There needs to be some focus on the less-loved races of the Horde and the Alliance before Blizzard thinks about adding more. Because of that, I haven't put a lot of thought into which races it could add.
That being said, I suspect the arrakoa would more likely be an Alliance race! If you pay attention in The Burning Crusade, many of the arrakoa who are friendly to players are arrakoa that turned to the Light and thus abandoned the factions of their race who worship less pleasant deities. The overall arc of the draenei is to build an army of the Light, so if there were a friendly faction of arrakoa, they would probably be Light-worshipping birdies who sign on with the Alliance. The Horde can have ... I don't know, ogres, I guess. Definitely not ethereals; those guys are way too cool as a neutral faction.
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!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 14)
busuan Jun 6th 2011 11:07AM
I don't know about arrakoa as a playable race. But I heard about a new orphan: Tweety.
Matthew Jun 6th 2011 11:55AM
I taut I taw a putty-tat.
Nathanyel Jun 6th 2011 12:20PM
If the Alliance gets Arakkoa, the Horde demands Ethereals!
Metalupis Jun 6th 2011 12:41PM
I woud love fo the ethereals to be added as playable by both sides but with blizz generally wanting you to be able to pick out silhouttes I doubt it will happen
Noyou Jun 6th 2011 1:01PM
They could make one race playable by both factions and give them a slight twist in color/form. Humans and belfs are roughly (not exactly) the same size. If everyone is all armored up I don't think the silhouette issue is as big as they like it to be. Especially in arenas where you often face off against same faction teams.
loop_not_defined Jun 6th 2011 1:58PM
Ethereals on Horde side?! Listen, I already pay the Goblins for "protection". The last thing we need is the two of them starting turf wars *within* the Horde.
This must be some elaborate Alliance plot, now that I think of it.
Matheus314 Jun 6th 2011 2:59PM
Indeed. The Horde already got the moneyminded Goblins. The Alliance moving to get the Ethereals as a counterpoint to it would be a great move.
I can't see anything but ogres in Horde side. They were allied to them in all previous RTS games. I still dont see why they aren't already in Horde side.
New expansion: Outland (and related zones) revamped (Cataclysm style), Ogres and Ethereals as new races, Battlemage as a new class.
Plainswander Jun 6th 2011 3:25PM
Bugger that....
I want "broken" Dranei for the horde! That would be all kinds of awesome, the natural extension of the only-ever-so-slightly-obvious conflict within the Dranei society coming to the forefront. Plus, Broken just look creepy-cool.
Or, y'know, Pandas. Gimme some panda lovin.
Quasi Jun 6th 2011 3:40PM
They still need to make available the options within the existing factions before expanding, brown maghar orcs, Taunka, fresher forsaken (human dk models/dark rangers), Broken Draenei, Dark Irons (current options not dark enough), Wildhammers (wtb tattoo options as haircuts). Some of these are nothing more then colour or skin options, a few would need new models and I know thats rough cause you have to design new armor. Still no reason for no Orc/Dwarf subspecies.
Utakata Jun 6th 2011 3:44PM
Yeah right...and their faction leader is named Bigbird? :)
joshychrist Jun 6th 2011 8:58PM
what needs to happen is that they unlock the neutral factions to be playable and in a starting zone of their own on their own world or phased area.
at the end of the long quest line depending on what choices you make in the quests, you are assigned to either the horde or the alliance. of course this would make questing in these area interesting. you would have two choices of what to do for the quest for example if you have to question a prisoner or something like that. do you punch him and kick him to get the information or do you make promises you have no intentions of keeping and depending on which choices you make through several quests like that you go out into the world at large as a new recruit of the horde or the alliance.
Dreyja Jun 6th 2011 9:41PM
I'll never understand why people like Ethereals so much. To each their own. :)
Kael Jun 6th 2011 10:20PM
My vote for new race is the GNOLLS! Yeah! Gnolls on the Horde. That would be great!
Artificial Jun 7th 2011 12:19AM
"I still dont see why they aren't already in Horde side."
Actually, they are. At least, some of them are. Rexxar brought at least one tribe of ogres into the Horde, which you can talking to one of the questgivers in Feralas about.
Luis Alluren Jun 7th 2011 1:52AM
@joshychrist
good old fable... the nostalgy...
ScorchHellfire Jun 10th 2011 4:58PM
I think the furbolgs are more likely to be the next alliance race... not because we need more furry races but because the horde already has a more civilized race and we need a more tribal race on the alliance. Furbolgs were already good friends with the nelfs before they were corrupted by demons and the ones on the draenei isles become good friends with the draenei after you help them so much througout the questing... but yeah ogres for the horde... I know there are a lot of neutral ogres around and they didn't like the horde after the second war, but considering how many instances there are in the game of ogres still having loose ties to the horde, there could certainly be a tribe of ogres that decide to stop being neutral just like the goblins did...
Anzor Jun 6th 2011 11:08AM
Will Mok'Nathal ever be playable? The bonus campaign in WC3 Frozen Throne was very near to WoW and had one of the best (imo) heroes, the Beastmaster. What happened to them anyway? Has the lore been advanced at all?
Cyrus Jun 6th 2011 11:28AM
They are in-game right now and (with one exception) are indistinguishable from regular ogres. That one exception is Rexxar, who you know from Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. In vanilla WoW he patrolled around Desolace, but in BC he moved to Outland and got a unique model, I think. He's been in the Blade's Edge Mountains ever since.
As for new stuff, maybe, but I doubt it. I assume female models for ogres is a a higher priority than unique models for a subspecies/halfbreed/whatever, and female models for ogres is not a high priority.
Kharon Jun 6th 2011 12:06PM
"They are in-game right now and (with one exception) are indistinguishable from regular ogres."
I think you mean orcs :)
MattKrotzer Jun 6th 2011 11:08AM
"Blizzard isn't even utilizing the potential of the ones it has. There needs to be some focus on the less-loved races of the Horde and the Alliance before Blizzard thinks about adding more."
I couldn't agree more. I LOVED the goblin starting area until it dawned on me how much cool engineer-centric stuff the gnomes have been denied, while the goblins got the motherlode. Even New Tinkertown is just a bunch of recycled gnomish resources from the Fizzcrank Airstrip, really. There's a towering gate at the start of that area... and then you go through it and find open wilderness. It makes no sense. Blizzard owes gnomes some time and effort, in my opinion.