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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: The olden days
by Mathew McCurley 
Oct 7th 2011 at 11:00AM
Remember when we bought music on CDs? Yeah. I had an MP3/CD player. It was awful.
chaosdefined asked:
Can someone remind me why there were two Tier 9 sets?
During the Trial of the Crusader, Blizzard was all about giving the Horde and the Alliance different items visually and in name while still keeping the stats of each the same. Players had always been clamoring for a differentiation between Horde and Alliance looks, mostly because of the age-old sentiment "Why would I wear what he is wearing?" If you notice, the Crusader Coliseum sets were also lower in number than most tiers because of the need to make separate sets. So plate-, chain-, leather-, and cloth-wearers all had separate sets, but recolors of each set were used instead of each class's having its own set and its being different based on faction. The names of each set also referenced a different hero of the Horde or Alliance, based on in-game class affiliation.
Blazing Rain asked:
I just finished reading Wolfheart. Best Knaak boock to date?
I was surprisingly happy with Wolfheart. Knaak always gets the least interesting WoW stories to tell, in my opinion, and by that I don't mean he writes them poorly or the books are necessarily bad. He gets to write the Night Elves and their associated stories which, while they are incredibly important to the history of Azeroth and the game itself, are also the boring WoW mythology stuff that just doesn't resonate with me. The Horde's origins and Varian's struggle to keep Stormwind united, for instance, are two examples of stories that I am interested in reading, versus more about the poncy Night Elves and their forbidden love. The Azshara stuff is infinitely more interesting than the Tyrande stuff because she as a character is a shadow of her Warcraft 3 self. I guess I'm just a little disillusioned with the Night Elves by this point.
That is why Knaak's Wolfheart was refreshing to me -- it was about the Night Elves, sure, but it was also about Humans and their Human leader, and the Human concerns on Azeroth. It takes a lot to make Humans interesting to me, and even the cross-Human relations between Stormwind and Gilneas take a fun center stage. What I'm saying is that Knaak should write more about Humans.
Cataca asked:
I really have to go pee! Are there any bathrooms in World of Warcraft?
There are many outhouses in Azeroth dotting the landscape. You'll find one eventually. If you have to do your business right now, just go anywhere -- an Alliance player on a quest will be around to sift through it when you're done.
eresin asked:
MMO Champion has posted some transcripts, one if which reads:
•VO_ET_ECHOOFJAINA_DEATH_01 - I understand.. now. Farewell.. and good luck.
does this mean that Jaina Proudmore is going to die? :-(
That is the voice file for the Echo of Jaina from the End Time instance, which takes place in a far-future timeline when Deathwing has won. You fight two of four echos from the past, including Jaina, Baine Bloodhoof, Sylvanas, and Tyrande. Jaina isn't going anywhere.
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 11 of 11)
Killik Oct 8th 2011 8:34AM
Blizzard missing great big slabs of story out of the game is, I think, a slightly different issue to the game itself being poor at telling stories. I'd say Blizzard has vastly improved on involving players in the story over the time the game has been out. Vanilla was terrible for this - I mean, it was immersive but only because it was a vast new world.
Also, don't think players' interest in lore is decreasing. See:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2822811
Scunosi Oct 8th 2011 2:27AM
A late-night update on that Nalice question.
According to some newly-mined soundfiles over on MMO-C, looks like she won't be remaining with us much longer. Unfortunate for any fans.
Also brings up the question of that guy in Outlands, and if Wrathion means 'all Black dragons' or just 'all Black Dragons in Azeroth.'
mem0ryburn Oct 8th 2011 2:30AM
Oh! So 2.5 isn't actually what they call tier 3? That makes sense then. I guess I haven't seen t3and am actually referring to 2.5 lol. Thanks!
So yeah, why the hell is 2.5 so awful? :/
mem0ryburn Oct 8th 2011 2:36AM
ugh, mispost, downrate please
shirtntie Oct 8th 2011 4:36AM
@Hob
Hi again. Indeed what is the answer!?! That is a good question that should be discussed more.
You say the lore is for reading and the game is for playing but I disagree. I think by not effectively combining the two WoW is missing out on great opportunity. I quote Daniel Floyd, creator of Extra Credits: “Truth is video games actually have a pretty great potential as a narrative medium. They have all the audio and visual capabilities of film, combined with all the unlimited possibilities of animation, and all that in an interactive environment, which is unique to games and makes them especially interesting.”
He mentions that it is possible for games to narrate a story effectively and through game play (not just endless text) while being a fun game. Some examples are Half Life 2, God of War, and Bioshock.
I did admit of skipping quest texts but that did not imply that I wanted Blizzard to implement ways to force me to read quest text. The point is for them to stop relying on quest text to deliver the meat of the story. As it stands we have quest texts and cut scenes to tell us in game what is happening. Lets not rely on combining the two as a solution. Lets instead think outside the box or as I like to say lets stop using convergent problem-solving principles rather than divergent principles of creative solution generation. Lol =]
Phasing was a good idea that came out of left field or outside the box. Your actions having an influence on your surroundings that you can see. We need to encourage ideas like that. What we need to discourage is taking the easy route (comics, novels, outside sources).
What we really are talking about is “Narrative Mechanics” and there is a good video of this by the show Extra Credits (which I recommend to any fans of video games)
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/narrative-mechanics
Good ideas come from good questions so lets ask ourselves what the video asked
“Can a game express ideas through their mechanics alone?”
“Can they tell a story or raise a questions using only their most basic element: play?”
Pyril Oct 8th 2011 6:21AM
Have they said if Essence of Destruction will drop off Looking for Raid bosses and how rolls will work for them?