The Queue: Why Blizzard must deliver today

Blizzard has a golden opportunity today. The entire gaming industry will be watching the opening ceremony; not an eye in the greater community will be elsewhere. Everyone will be waiting to hear two things: the Diablo 3 release date, and more importantly, the next World of Warcraft expansion.
This expansion in particular cannot just be another cataclysm/Cataclysm. It has to deliver unlike any expansion has ever done so in any other game. The Wookiees are pounding on the door to Blizzard, and they're not going to back off until Arthas himself swings forth the next expansion and beats them back like the Sith Lord he wishes he was. If Blizzard today can reinvigorate the player base, convince the press and critics that it still has the #1 game -- and always will -- there is nothing that BioWare or anyone else is going to be able to do to stop WoW's continued dominance for the next 10 years.
But Blizzard has one chance at this, and that chance starts and ends today.
Watch it.
Either way, it's gonna be a helluva an interesting BlizzCon.
EverythingRuned asked:
How do you describe the different shaman specs without getting into game terms?
Shaman control the elements of the Earth. Restoration shaman heal you with the life-giving power of terra firma, elemental shaman rain down the elements onto their enemies, and enhancement shaman call on powers of Earth to grant them strength in physical combat.
Sidvicious asked:
Are we finally going to get an update on the old character models in the next expansion?
We'll find out today, but I honestly doubt it. I think a lot of people are so stuck on their old models at this point, it'd be kinda cruel to change them. Blizzard has said as much at points as well.
Gabe asked:
I know that I'll be able to get the information from Blizzcon from WoWInsider, but I'd like to view the stream, since I can't actually go to Blizzcon. Is there another option, where some kind soul decides to post videos of the stream on YouTube, or will I have to pay for it to watch it?
That kind of stuff does happen, but it's not something that's going to be up for long when it does -- at least in most cases. You can find some of the older things, but since Blizzard started charging for it ... yeah. It doesn't like giving the video away for free (obviously).
Allie Roberts and I will be teaming up for the live blogging this year. We've already got a system in place for blogging and picture taking, so we should be better than ever!
eel5pe asked:
While flying through northern Feralas on my way to Feathermoon Stronghold to check it off the list of Kalimdori pumpkins, I flew over Dreamer's Rest and noticed that it had an exclamation mark. Closer inspection confirmed that it was indeed a fully functional trick-or-treatable jack-o-lantern (though to my disappointment it only yielded candy and my 18th or so Sinister Squashling).
So question: what other "unlisted" (aka functional, but not listed on the achievement) pumpkins are out there? My example is obviously an alliance pumpkin but pumpkins for dirty horde would be welcome too.
I haven't seen a list anywhere, but I've seen this happen to one of my toons a ton. My guess is that Blizzard wants them everywhere, but only wants to "force" you to go to a few of them. Not really a bad thing, just slightly unusual for WoW.
Paladious asked:
The best 90's cartoons in my opion were Exo Sqad, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, and, of course, the X-men.
I am proud (or ashamed, not sure which) that I've watched most of the '90s X-Men on Netflix. That was a darn good show in many respects.
Filed under: The Queue
Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 news





Reader Comments (Page 5 of 11)
MattKrotzer Oct 21st 2011 11:46AM
Yes, these are things I know (See my answer to the referenced question in yesterday's Queue.)
I was just giving a short rebuttal to TLE's rebuttal.
Shinae Oct 21st 2011 12:14PM
@Matt: I just can't pass up the opportuniy to rebutt you! :D
I thoroughly appreciated your response to the question in yesterday's comments.
@HappyTreeDance: You're funny, missy. :P
jfofla Oct 21st 2011 11:17AM
Reading The Queue on my iPhone in line at Blizzcon.
Priceless
Knob Oct 21st 2011 12:00PM
You know jelly? I am jelly.
seamus Oct 21st 2011 11:19AM
Aren't we over-reacting a bit here? The announcement doesn't have to be the Second Coming. Just something new and fun. Which it will be.
Bellajtok Oct 21st 2011 11:20AM
Amen. People are setting expectations too high, and the only way that can end is with disappointment.
Rob Oct 21st 2011 11:34AM
Well it has to compete with TOR, so that is pretty huge. I'd say if this is another cata 5 level 4 raid expac, that aint gonna cut it.
MattKrotzer Oct 21st 2011 11:38AM
Since when does Blizzard worry about other releases in any serious way? Sure, 4.3 will probably drop around the time of TORs release, but they don't generally program and create content with direct competition in mind.
Rolly Oct 21st 2011 1:26PM
@MattKrotzer
Matt, And yet they always seem to have a big announcment or patch release whenever a competitor is about to have a release or an announcment of their own.
txnicole Oct 21st 2011 11:19AM
I completely agree. It's time for WoW to show us they still have something to offer in competition with games running on newer technology bases with more features.
The Wookies are definitely swaying the audience.
sauron_1969 Oct 21st 2011 11:19AM
The location of all the pumpkins are on wowhead. Got to the Hallow's End guide, scroll down to the candy buckets section and click the link for the faction/continent you want. The "unlisted" ones are in the comments, along with tips and maps.
Sinderion Oct 21st 2011 11:20AM
I leveled a significant portion of my new druid from 80-85 with those candy buckets :D There really are alot of them 'off the radar' i.e. not on the achievs. Pretty much anywhere there's an innkeeper, where you can 'rest' and hearth, there's a candy bucket. If you are good with wow geography, at least to the point of having an instinct/memory of where there would be an innkeeper, that makes it alot easier.
Now that FP's are on the map, with the exception of the eastern plaguelands, if there's a flight point theres, mmmmm, 80% chance there's an innkeeper? something like that. Make sure it's an alliance or neutral flight point before checking it out though!! Well, faction specific i mean... if ur dirty horde and all..
Actually if your horde, feel free to go to the alliance ones and right click on the flight master from really close, they'll ALWAYS give you free candy and fun times :D
(i cant post that on this site with a clear concious... i tried.. if you dont already know that last line is a joke, dont do that, it's a bad idea...)
Grovinofdarkhour Oct 21st 2011 11:20AM
So, how bad's the line?
MattKrotzer Oct 21st 2011 11:36AM
This was the line at 6:30.
http://img.ly/9DqK
This is the line for BlizzCat. (Courtesy of Fox and Mat)
http://t.co/RLmDBuqG
fortmax98 Oct 21st 2011 11:24AM
Everyone knows that the best 90's cartoon was The Tick. SPOON!!!!!!!!!!
Caelys Oct 21st 2011 11:36AM
Holy shitsnacks I forgot about the tick... is that on DVD? That would look good next to my first season of Rocko's Modern Life...
slim1256 Oct 21st 2011 11:58AM
"Two-yaks-and-a-dog?
Sap-sucker-frog?
Susan?"
"Tsk tsk, now you're just doing it on purpose."
Boobah Oct 21st 2011 1:04PM
The Tick is, in fact, on DVD. Although (for the US releases, anyway) it's only the syndicated versions of the episodes, the first two seasons, and for obscure legal reasons they dropped an episode from each season.
The folks in the UK, on the other hand, can get all three seasons, complete and uncut.
Negatron Oct 21st 2011 11:23AM
SWotor is a different beast one of which has much to do before even giving WoW much headache. I tire of the mentioning of it.
Then in the questions it mentions "people being so attached to their characters" that they aren't ready for updated character models. Stop the madness, thanks...
Literaltruth Oct 21st 2011 11:53AM
Actually, from what I've read so far that's leaked out of the beta it seems very much that SWToR is not so different a beast at all. Seems it's pretty much WoW in space...but with more talking. I've a feeling it's going to go the way of WAR, Conan, LoTRO, AION, Rift etc. etc. etc. (you know, all those previous games that were 100% definately going to kill WoW for good).
Totally agree with you on the Character model answer - the reasons were insanity.