The Queue: A year ago ...
by Adam Holisky 
Jul 12th 2011 at 11:00AM
- We all were in the midst of the real names on the forums scandal, including the accidental leakage of the emails of everyone who complained to the ESRB. There's only been a few other posts in my time that have had more impact on such a large scale as the ones concerning that scandal.
- Another round of Cataclysm beta invites were due out soon.
- Mike Gray looked at the engineering profession in Cataclysm.
- The Cataclysm screenshot of the day was of Gilneas (I think, maybe T.B.).
- Ghostcrawler was still posting.
- The Breakfast Topic asked what constituted canon in WoW lore.
- Preminition got the first U.S. Alone in the Darkness achievement.
- Allie talked about how to get your blog crashed by WoW.com (our identity at the time).
- Wowhead added some hunter features.
- We published a strategy guide for Mother Shahraz.
- Daniel Whitcomb asked if the World of Warcraft really is World of Diablo.
- Patch 2.2 hit the PTRs.
- Tigole had some comments on the original ZA.
- New loot cards came out for WoW TCG.
- MazzleUI's was examined, but by a different Matt than today's Mat.
- The servers went down for emergency maintenance ...
- ... and two new realms sprung up!
Chris asked:
I know there are ways to determine 'total time played' on a character, but is there any means of finding out when a character was created?
There's no way in game. You can try warcraftrealms.com for some data, but that's your best bet. If you created the toon after achievements came in game, then it'll show it there.
Minstrel asked:
I have this vague recollection that a Blizzard-promoted feature of this expansion was going to be an ability to scale down your character and gear, temporarily, to lower levels at will in order to be able to do content with friends who were lower level. Is my memory accurate and, if so, does Blizzard still plan to implement that this expansion cycle?
It was mentioned a couple times as something Blizzard is interested in doing but never progressed beyond that phase. A lot of things fall into that category.
Puffcake asked:
Do the WOW powers that be have any immediate plans to (re)release any new vanity pets to allow us to work further toward the Littlest Pet Shop achievement?
New pets seem to happen every few moths, between the Blizzard store's offering something new to a patch's latest features. Hang tight -- I know it can be hard to reach those pet achievements, but it just takes some time.
Capaxinfiniti asked:
Lore-wise, who opened the gates of Ahn'Qiraj?
The Horde and the Alliance did it together, and players are the ones to ring the Scarab Gong, opening the gates.
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 10)
SlimPickens42 Jul 12th 2011 11:06AM
Q for the Q: Do we have any idea how long Aggra and Thrall have known each other? I know that she was introduced to Thrall during The Shattering, but it seems like they haven't really known each other very long.
Natsumi Jul 12th 2011 11:15AM
Maybe Thrall get her preggers and that's why they got married so quickly. SHOTGUN WEDDING!!
MattKrotzer Jul 12th 2011 11:18AM
With love, sometimes you just KNOW.
Nina Katarina Jul 12th 2011 11:18AM
There were, I believe, 6 years between the end of Wrath and the beginning of Cataclysm. So since Aggra and Thrall had just met while we were preparing for Cataclysm, they've known each other 6 years.
Feldring Jul 12th 2011 11:25AM
Thrall and Aggra both play World of WorkCraft in their spare time with the Drones faction and had actually been corresponding by post for a few years before they finally met in person. When Thrall (a.k.a. Sarah the Conflict Resolution spec HR Rep) and Aggra (a.k.a. Tom the Patent Lawyer with his own office and intern pet) finally met in person, it was love on an elementally significant level.
Ty_owen Jul 12th 2011 11:26AM
"she was introduced to Thrall during the Shattering"
So theyve known each other since then....
/facepalm
cj Jul 12th 2011 11:26AM
This marriage is working as intended™
SlimPickens42 Jul 12th 2011 11:29AM
@Nina: Where are you getting the information about there being a 6 year gap? It seems to me that there was very little time lapse between the two. Maybe only a few months. I mean we just saw Cairne's funeral during Children's week and Org and Stormwind are still being rebuilt. You'd think those things would've gotten completed in 6 years time.
Therinor Jul 12th 2011 11:30AM
Its hard to say, unless someone can tell us how much time has passed in game since the Shattering... Thrall headed to Nagrand a little before that, I'd guess a few weeks or like 2-3 months.
It isn't very long, but they already went through a lot together, and the story of how they met and stuff is a nice read (C. Golden's "The Shattering")... from teasing and annoying each other to lovers.
Apart from all this being fictional characters, let's not forget that you can't compare relationships in the human and the orcish race, maybe it's totally normal in their culture to get "married" that quickly. =)
Arrohon Jul 12th 2011 11:30AM
One thing that I noticed is that Aggra first meets Thrall in the Shattering yet she makes a comment that seems to state otherwise. On your way to do the earth part of Elemental Bonds she says that she's seen that look on his face twice. When he refused to lay down his position of Warchief and during his training in the Shattering. It's worded so that Thrall and Aggra did NOT meet before the Shattering and likely haven't ever seen each other before then.
Cambro Jul 12th 2011 11:42AM
It can't be 6 years. In The Shattering, near the beginning of the novel, a memorial service is being held in Stormwind for the tens of thousands that died due to the Scourge. In the first chapter, Cairne travels with a ship to bring the last of the Horde troops home from the Borean Tundra. Neither of these things would happen more than a year after the fall of the Lich King, more likely only a few months after. Also, as of The Shattering, Anduin is only 13. His model in game is clearly a teenager, not 18+.
In the novel, Anduin visits Ironforge and is there long enough to witness the earthquakes in Kharanos and Magni's death followed by Moira's arrival and subsequent hostage-taking of him. I think the novel implies Anduin was only in Ironforge a matter of weeks.
Thrall arrives in Nagrand after putting Garrosh in charge and is there while Garrosh and Cairne have their duel, so he's there long enough to get the message that Cairne was dead but not long enough to get any more news; while he's still in Nagrand, Magatha stages her coup (all in the night of Cairne's death). Enough time passes for Baine to take refuge in Theramore as well as rally the Tauren and place an order for bombs from Gazlowe (an order that took no less than four days, I think). The retaking of Thunder Bluff also happens while Thrall is still in Nagrand, and he prepares to return as soon as he learns of Cairne's death. I think all of that together implies that Thrall was only in Nagrand a matter of weeks.
I read somewhere that each expansion is understood to last either 1 or 2 years. But, progression of time within an expansion is very fluid. Therefore, assuming at this point in OUR time that The Shattering (the beginning of the cataclysm) happened only a couple of months ago, Thrall and Aggra have only known each other maybe 3-4 months, tops. By the time the next expansion is released, they will have known each other only 1-2 years plus a couple of months.
Jonisjalopy Jul 12th 2011 12:47PM
Wowwiki has the unofficial timeline as "Five years after the start of Wrath of the Lich King, three years since Arthas' death".
http://www.wowwiki.com/Timeline_(unofficial)
LynMars Jul 12th 2011 2:37PM
My raid leader compared Thrall and Aggra's courtship to Thrall's parents' courtship; it's very similar, probably on purpose.
I'd use the novel before the unofficial timeline on wowwiki (a lot of folks prefer the Curse-run wowpedia now). Anduin's aging is a good indicator; he was around 8 or so at the start of WoW, and is 13 (and a half) during the Shattering events. If we go by 18 months-2 years between each expac being in game time as well, that puts the game's timeline about even with real time, with some minor give and take--but not 6 years worth between Arthas dying and Deathwing's return.
Some of the landscape changes were things ongoing for the duration of Classic--like repairing the Lakeshire bridge; that seriously wouldn't take 5 years, but WoW's landscape was static while assuming we completed various quests and made things better (even if temporarily) for the locals. Some of Stormwind and Orgrimmar's new features could have always existed that way (the Stormwind Outskirts?), or the construction could have been ongoing for the last year or so of Wrath/the gear-up for Cataclysm. We just couldn't see it in game because the world was static.
Jawn Jul 12th 2011 3:06PM
There's nothing to show that the didn't meet in Burning Crusade, when Thrall went over in Nagrand. It would be likely that nothing much came of this at the time, just "Hi, nice to meet you" stuff, and maybe some nudge-nudge hint-hint from Greatmother Geyah. We just see them getting closer since the Shattering, but they very well could have known each other before. Might by why they actually ended up wanting to get to know each other more. And if i remember, it was Greatmother Geyah who assigned Aggra to tutor Thrall in his shaman re-training.
Darn those older folk.... sometimes, they see things younger people don't see. At least, doesn't see at 1st.
David Jul 12th 2011 3:12PM
The Shattering starts with Garrosh leaving Northrend, and ends with the world breaking. In between Thrall meets Aggra, so he has only known her a few months, if less then that.
Ithrandil Jul 12th 2011 3:20PM
There is a quest in Westfall that specifically says it has been 5 years since Edwinn VanCleaf was killed. Blizzard official timeline has BC coming out 1 year after vanilla, and wrath 1 year after BC, so cata is about 3 years after the start of wrath, although there's nothing official for how long wrath lasted.
Cambro Jul 12th 2011 4:07PM
FWIW, I find wowpedia to have usually the exact same information as wowwiki, but without so many obtrusive ads.
Anyway, on this they disagree. wowwiki has under "Post-apocalyptic Azeroth", "39 (Five years after the start of Wrath of the Lich King, three years since Arthas' death)". wowpedia has "33 or 35". They start diverging after year 30. Considering that the RPG is not considered canon and both websites are calculating based on a number of sources, it's difficult to nail down, but I think wowpedia's dating is more reliable on this.
Camero Jul 12th 2011 11:16AM
In the past week, I've recieved four emails from "Blizzard" all asking me to do something in order to get a Winged Guardian License. I just wanted to confirm that's not true.
Spelio Jul 12th 2011 11:21AM
Not true. Phishing scam most likely.
Blizzard will give you a key to redeem the mount that you input after logging into your Battle Net account. After that it's just a matter of checking your in-game mail.
Happy Flying!!
S.O. Jul 12th 2011 11:50AM
Funny you mention that, just because I've been getting those e-mails too... but on a different e-mail address than is registered as my battle.net account. Lol.