The Queue: Leaving on a Jet Plane

As you read this, I'm most likely on a plane to Anaheim. Well, no, probably not, because I know you guys. Most of you are reading this the very second the post goes live, and if that's the case, then I'm still sitting at my desk in Milwaukee staring angrily at the high wind warning that has been issued in my area. The beginning of my flight is going to be fun.
@rjwii asked:
Will the alliance become the dominant faction this expansion?
I've been trying to think of a kind way to say hell no, and the best I could come up with was a regular no. I don't expect that will happen. As an Alliance player, I have come to terms with the fact that we're likely to be the whipping boys forever. At no point in World of Warcraft has the Alliance been dominant, and the Alliance's victories are not victories so much as they are isolated events in which the Horde does not completely slaughter the Alliance. Blizzard does not really grasp how to write the Alliance at war. Blizzard is very good at writing the Horde at war, however. Notice how in Twilight Highlands, the #1 zone featuring the war between the Horde and the Alliance in Cataclysm, is a completely one-sided slaughter. The Horde is lok'tar-ogaring all over the place and rocking the Alliance's face in. The Alliance is busy holding a wedding.
I think Varian Wrynn embodies this somewhat. Blizzard is very much about the Horde and how they wage wars. It's into that so much that it gave the Alliance their king back, but they turned him into an Orc first. I don't dislike Varian Wrynn, but he's certainly not a bastion of humanity. He's Lo'gosh. He's the Ghost Wolf. The Alliance doesn't need a Ghost Wolf; the Alliance doesn't need an Orc in charge. The Alliance needs another Lion of Stormwind, but we're not going to get that.
Do I hope I'm wrong? Yes, absolutely. Swamp of Sorrows does have Joanna Blueheart, so at least one of the quest designers at Blizzard grasps how the Alliance rolls. If they can use her as their basis for Alliance warfare, we could have a great thing. Joanna is alone in her example, though. Things look ... bleak.
Andre asked:
Does the sword drop from the Horseman or the bag?
The bag!
Bellajtok asked:
So what do you guys unrealistically want from the next expansion? In other words, what's on your magical wishlist?
I want player/guild housing with a tremendous spread of decorative options that you can acquire and achieve in sub-raid content. Five-mans and solo are fair game. It would serve as a way to advance your character (or your guild) when you're at the level cap, and I think World of Warcraft desperately needs to get back into giving players something to work toward at the level cap that isn't just inflating your ilevel. Archaeology attempted to do this, but just grinding out fragments is not particularly compelling.
I think it would be incredibly fun to hunt down trophies, statues, armor racks, rugs, and so on to pimp your pad. I was on the fence about player housing for years, but after Cataclysm, I desperately long for something I can really strive toward on level-capped characters that isn't simply Blizzard pushing me back toward raiding. The Burning Crusade had a large amount of content like that, I feel. Wrath didn't have much and Cataclysm had even less.
Terrant asked:
What kind of parents name their kid Kel'Thuzad?
His name is actually Kelly Julius Thuzad, but since Kelly is a girl's name, he shortened it to Kel'Thuzad.
@peterchristy asked:
What are you most looking forward to at BlizzCon? Least?
I'm most looking forward to the WoW Insider meetup. Really, I am! BlizzCon is great and I'm excited about any WoW news that happens to come out of it, but the meetup is just unrivaled in the excitement department. We plan this thing off and on all year long, and September and October is when the planning comes together and coalesces into something real. We're all excited to hit the ground in Anaheim, prep our venue, and rock out with our fans and friends. I imagine it's how Blizzard feels about BlizzCon itself, except BlizzCon is a heckuva lot bigger.
What am I looking forward to the least? The lines. You always do a lot of standing in line at conventions, but BlizzCon is extra bad about it. All of the vendors are crammed into such a cramped space, and lines grow to be so long that all of the lines start wrapping around unrelated booths and intersecting with each other, and it gets to the point where you're not even sure you're in the right line anymore.
Filed under: The Queue
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 14)
Drakkenfyre Oct 19th 2011 11:48AM
Guys, uh, the schedule says right there, "World of WarCraft Preview", right after the opening ceromonies, and "Blizzard Sound", whatever that is. So it's going to be in the beginning.
Amaxe Oct 19th 2011 1:31PM
"It ranges from alcohol and soft drink/juice to fried, fast food/take out."
In other words, the news from Blizzcon means we'll need to be prepared to drink heavily?
/du... ah what the hell. You know the drill.
Natsumi Oct 19th 2011 1:57PM
Opening Ceremonies are, Traditionally, where they make the big announcements. The WoW Preview panel will likely fill in all the bits and pieces of info you want to know.
Xantenise Oct 19th 2011 4:30PM
Opening ceremonies, eh? I'll be up early Saturday morning my time just to find out what it is!
Nina Katarina Oct 19th 2011 11:12AM
As someone who's stuck chaperoning a girl scout campout this coming weekend, I'm feeling very bah humbug about the whole Blizzcon thing. No, that's not quite accurate. I'm feeling very whiny and left out in the cold about the whole Blizzcon thing.
On the other hand, when I stagger in on Sunday afternoon muttering to myself about the horrors of a weekend herding 50 10-year-old girls, I'm looking forward to comprehensive rundowns on all the new stuff, decent readable pictures of the slideshows and presentations, and a whole lot of new data to start my wild speculations on.
So, thinking about it some more, I'm kinda glad that I'll be stuck offline with the kids while this is all going on so that I can consume all the Blizzcon news in one glorious gulp.
But I still feel like I'm looking longingly in the window of the candy shop, and I still wish they'd let some teasers drop early so I have something to think about this weekend besides "why, oh why won't they SHUT UP?"
MattKrotzer Oct 19th 2011 11:18AM
I'm just hoping I don't keep distractedly checking for news updates on my phone when I'm supposed to be taking pictures at a wedding on Saturday.
The Dewd Oct 19th 2011 11:19AM
I can't make it to Blizzcon and probably won't be able to anytime soon. The advantage I have over you is that even if no one I know goes, folks will be spamming voice chat and guild forums with the announcements from the virtual ticket. Personally, I can't even justify buying the virtual ticket because I'd rather be playing than watching someone talk about playing.
Maybe one day I'll be able to make it to Blizzcon but I certainly can't justify taking time off to go completely across the country - especially since the odds of actually getting a ticket are so low. If I lived anywhere near LA, though, I'd at least show up for the WoW Insider party because, frankly, you all are awesome.
Kadzeroth Oct 19th 2011 11:50AM
@The Dewd Guild Social, Anaheim 2012? :p
Sadly I do get the stream every year...except this year. Can't afford to drop the $40 for it. My eyes will be on this site and MMO-Champ all weekend :p
I'm sure one or two guildies will have picked it up, and at least one will be watching, sheep in tow.
Natsumi Oct 19th 2011 1:44PM
You could get the stream and just watch all the replays, you also get Murkablo!
The Dewd Oct 19th 2011 11:15AM
We were discussing the problem with the Alliance stories, etc, in vent last night. Allegedly (I haven't tried it yet) the Alliance wickerman is outside the pvp-flag area of Stormwind but the Horde one is now INSIDE the pvp-flag area of Undercity. The standard "Blizz only plays Horde" bit came up and, frankly, if they do, so what. They should be able to balance things a bit better, including the storylines. I realize that getting Wrynn back gave us closure on The Missing Diplomat but with the re-balancing of territory ownership, including the loss of Southshore, a lot of Alliance felt like we got the (very) short end of the stick.
Frankly, part of the problem is that the Horde isn't a bunch of underdogs anymore. They're a complex confederation of races who have a solid foothold in Azeroth's territory - but it's probably easier to craft their struggle than the Alliance's.
Spider Oct 19th 2011 11:28AM
The Alliance Wickerman is definitely within the PvP flag area. You can get sort of close without getting flagged, but I haven't found a way to douse the Wickerman and stay unflagged, you have to go in close enough and that is within the area of instant PvP.
Amaxe Oct 19th 2011 11:36AM
I land on the Undercity Burning Man. It seems I don't get flagged **until** I extinguish the Burning Man.
I suspect (but may be wrong) that it is the extinguishing that flags you.
eirinefrostblade Oct 19th 2011 11:49AM
@Spider:
The act of dousing the wickerman flags you, like with the fires at Midsummer.
@ TheDewd: I know what you mean. This has been a voice chat conversation for us as well... Which gets even more entertaining when our Horde-only friends are on as well.
Spider Oct 19th 2011 11:51AM
Ooh I see, thanks for clarifying. I guess since I usually rush in and try to douse it as quickly as I can I never noticed that I wasn't flag until I took action, I just assumed it was from proximity.
The Dewd Oct 19th 2011 12:01PM
Thanks for the replies all. Now I can jump down everyone's throats in vent. I mean, uh...
I guess part of the problem was that for the alliance, you could ride up to the old wickerman to "investigate" or whatever and then, usually, get away without a problem whereas the horde had to run into southshore and usually got flagged and killed, especially by people doing GNERDS at the same time. I guess we'll see what happens when I have time to try them both for myself.
loop_not_defined Oct 19th 2011 12:39PM
I'm still convinced that, while the Horde is gaining, the methods are going to cost them in the end.
-Sylvanas raising fallen Alliance soldiers.
-Splintertree Post aided by the Burning Legion.
-Cliffwalker Post nuking innocents.
Leveling as Horde in Kalimdor, especially, repeatedly asks "Should we be doing this?"
matt Oct 19th 2011 1:23PM
Either you raid with me, or, my raid had exactly the same conversation in vent last night. I think the latter is far more likely, this misconception seems to be pretty widespread.
Either way, L2roll nelf druid:
/cast shadowmeld
/cast swift flight form
/yell suck it!
;-)
andres.dc39 Oct 19th 2011 11:16AM
Could somebody at Blizzcon ask for me this:
Are there plans to implement more in-game events, not like holidays but events that advance the story. Like the events that take place when a new expansion is going to be released.
Mperiolat Oct 19th 2011 11:27AM
Good idea, except that having set time period events leaves out casuals and new subscribers.
I have that problem, coming in at the end of LK and missed all the cool stuff in Vanilla and TBC. I accept that I missed the events, but it causes some disconnect in the story.
lady.silverdragon Oct 19th 2011 11:18AM
I thought I remembered hearing on this site that one of Blizzard's goals with patch 4.3 was to expand archaeology, by giving people an option to turn in artifacts to the Dwarven Exploration society (or the horde equivalent). However, I haven't heard anything about this. Was this something Blizzard stated, or was this my own wishful thinking? If it was Blizzard, have they mentioned anything about Archaeology since?