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 5 of 14)
Shinae Oct 19th 2011 11:38AM
That was an idea that developers mentioned in a Q&A. They said that they're thinking about doing it but didn't give any date or patch number to it.
It's a common response they give in the Q&As: "We're thinking about doing that, but we don't know when it will be ready."
Puntable Oct 19th 2011 12:11PM
Whenever they say "We are thinking of possibly doing that in the future" Numerous people always remember it as them saying "We promise to implement this in the next patch".
Grovinofdarkhour Oct 19th 2011 12:30PM
When they next decide to do a whole-faction-contributes-to-a-common-cause thing (a la Gates of AQ, Isle of QD), turn-ins to the Explorers' League and The Reliquary could factor into that while incorporating the long-awaited Arch expansion.
Aro Oct 19th 2011 11:21AM
Strangly enough I got a friend named Kelly and she shortens it to Kel.
Grovinofdarkhour Oct 19th 2011 12:31PM
Might want to warn her against dating guys named Thuzad.
Priestess Oct 19th 2011 12:46PM
It's not Kel, but I do know a guy with a completely non-gaming wife who suggested they name their first son Kael (yes, after Kael'thas). She innocently agreed to this idea, and the child was so named. Should this boy ever have a sister, said wife has been persuaded that Jaina is a beautiful girl's name. IMO, someone is going to meet those kids and give that guy away.
icepyro Oct 19th 2011 2:15PM
I work with a guy who has named his daughters Alleria and Amelyn. Then again, he met his wife over WoW, so go fig right?
Drakkenfyre Oct 19th 2011 2:24PM
So his kid is named Kael, and if he has a daughter he wants to name her Jaina.
That's going to work out real well when they get older, and if they find out their namesakes were potential lovers/flirts (at least in the case of Kael'Thas.) Going to cause some awkwardness.
MattKrotzer Oct 19th 2011 3:32PM
@Drak:
It'll be fine if they're from West Virginia.
Skarlette Oct 19th 2011 6:59PM
We have a regular customer at my place of employment who is named Kael, and his son is Kael Jr. I smile thinking about Blood Elves whenever I see their names on paperwork.
Saikoujin Oct 19th 2011 11:24AM
Q4Q:
Does WI have any plans in the works to provide an actual mobile app for it's site? While I find the mobile web version sufficient, some improvements could stand to be made, in particular the comments section and front page. These lack the pizzaz and functionality that's present in the desktop version. I'm not entirely sure if WI even has the capacity to maintain a mobile app, but has it been considered?
slim1256 Oct 19th 2011 12:02PM
"pizzaz and functionality"?
/Not sure if serious?
MattKrotzer Oct 19th 2011 12:14PM
I really doubt it's in the budget. AOL's been making cuts to a LOT of their blog sites. We can consider ourselves lucky that joystiq (and by extension, WoW Insider) is still around at all, let alone flourish as it has.
Apps require a good bit of programming, and while it's certainly within the realm of possibility, most of the folks at WoW Insider are writers, first and foremost.
We've all been anxiously awaiting (nee demanding) a new comment system for years now... and we can't even get that, so an app might be a bit out of reach.
zweitblom Oct 19th 2011 12:20PM
Just to avoid confusion, you should spell the word correctly next time. It's "pizzazz".
Grovinofdarkhour Oct 19th 2011 12:32PM
I thought it was leetspeak, and he wants an app that delivers pizzas.
Saikoujin Oct 19th 2011 12:38PM
Pizzas would be great too, come to think of it!
And good point, Krotzer.
The Dewd Oct 19th 2011 12:54PM
AOL has been, as far as I can tell, divesting themselves of some content. They're either partnering up with other companies to provide slices of content and then AOL seems to be working more as an aggregator. I'm going to guess that we've been left alone here because there really isn't anyone else to provide this content - it's just too niche.
If they do decide to divest themselves of WoW Insider, I'm guessing (based on what I've seen elsewhere) that they'd continue to keep the same writers and just have them work under the umbrella of whoever they choose to take over this space. But, again, there really isn't anyone.
Sleutel Oct 19th 2011 1:01PM
@zweitblom:
Maybe he's just making up for the cafeteria in the building where I work, which frequently advertises "flatbread pizzazz."
Grovinofdarkhour Oct 19th 2011 1:19PM
@ The Dewd
I haven't really been paying attention, so I didn't know AOL was looking for buyers and selling off chunks (though I'm not surprised), but with the Blizzcon meetup this year being hosted jointly with Wowhead et. al., I wonder if there's more here than meets the eye.
Alex Ziebart Oct 19th 2011 1:22PM
@Grovin
There's not.