The Queue: Adorable baby giraffe, take 2
by Mathew McCurley 
Dec 19th 2011 at 11:00AM
OK, I think I got it this time. Look at this adorable baby giraffe.
Questions, yes?
Arkonn asked:
Something that's been bugging me for a while: Why does PvP gear ilvl - specifically crafted gear - count towards ilvl required for entering dungeons and the LFR? I can understand giving the gear itself a level so you can quickly differentiate between what is potentially an upgrade and what isn't, however what I can't understand is why it counts towards your normal ilvl.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not an elitist so-and-so by any stretch of the imagination. It just bugs me that some people spend hours and hours running heroics getting gear and points to improve themselves and others spend 10 minutes at the auction house buying gear that essentially is a "free" pass to the next stage.
The ilevel itself is a pretty simple Band-Aid fix that was added into the game to prevent a lot of Dungeon Finder abuse and create a metric by which people could enter random dungeons and group with random people. The system was put into place so that the Dungeon Finder matching systems had some sort of metric to go on because there is literally nothing else, other than achievements, that could determine whether a player has enough ability to tackle certain content. Since items already had associated ilevels -- you just couldn't see until an addon came out that showed it, and Blizzard eventually allowed you to toggle it -- the data was already there to create the necessary ilevel system.
Is there a better way of determining which players should access which dungeons? Maybe. In the end, ilevel is one of those things that players found and made a requirement through addons like GearScore, and Blizzard co-opted into the system to run its own show rather than let players set the rules (which in GearScore terms was a pretty good thing). If Blizzard tells you that you can't do a dungeon, it's a lot better than other people telling you that you can't and just being jerks about it.
It just so happens that PvP gear also has ilevels associated to it and the system does not discriminate, mostly because it might not be able to.
EverythingRuned asked:
If in-game gambling isn't allowed, what's the deal with Mysterious Fortune Cards?
In-game gambling is in a weird place right now. Some personal things are OK vis à vis the rules and the Terms of Service, like a guild SuperBowl pool or something, but you can never, ever advertise for gambling in the general, trade, or /say chats. Why is it OK that there are Mysterious Fortune Cards that players can make and sell and are definitely a form of gambling when Blizzard says you aren't allowed to advertise gambling but can sell these cards? Because Blizzard made them, and they aren't bound to Blizzard's own rules. The rules are for the players, not Blizzard.
Lampp asked:
I just picked up a new CPU and am wondering what is the best way to go about switching over data. Should I dump it all on an external hard drive and then transfer to the new machine? Can I just transfer my whole WOW folder over and be ready to go?
Sorry for the newb-tastic question but I haven't upgraded in years (can you say 17 FPS) and I want to make this as smooth as possible....
I'm assuming that by "new CPU" you mean a whole new computer with a blank hard drive and everything -- and you're in luck when it comes to World of Warcraft. Blizzard is very smart in that WoW doesn't really install itself anyway. There are no registry hooks that you have to know about or care about to install WoW. Your best bet before switching over to the new computer is to do exactly what you said: Get an external hard drive, then transfer your WoW folder over and then back over to the new computer. You do not need to install or anything. Just put the folder where you want it and run the WoW launcher, and it will take care of what needs to be done. It's awesome.
General computer tips: Update your video drivers and always restart you computer afterwards, put WoW and an interface/WTF folder backup somewhere safe, and name your hard drives types of bears.
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 9)
Task Dec 19th 2011 11:06AM
One thought comes to mind when I saw that picture, Mat.
Is it thinking about something or staring through us?
Brett Porter Dec 19th 2011 11:14AM
It's staring into my SOUL.
Priestess Dec 19th 2011 11:20AM
I've met baby giraffes. I'll give you 10-1 odds that one is thinking "Do you have food?"
Gordal Dec 19th 2011 11:44AM
I can't help but think of the words "Oh. It's you" spoken by GLaDOS at the start of Portal 2.
Noyou Dec 19th 2011 12:40PM
It's not a giraffe. You are under jedi mind control. *waves hand* Move along.
Infinite Duck Dec 19th 2011 3:43PM
I want to pet his velvety looking nose.
mamaryno Dec 19th 2011 11:10AM
caption :"Dude! WTF? Get outta my enclosure!"
ghola Dec 19th 2011 11:08AM
I was thinking about Pandas and how they are likely related to Furbolgs. I wonder if down the road lore will be created that makes pandas/furbolgs similar to what they did with vrykul/humans. I think this makes some sense with the relationship furbolgs have with night elves and the supposed presence of the pandas 10k years ago before the sundering. Opinions?
Ullaana Dec 19th 2011 12:09PM
Nope.
Ata Dec 19th 2011 12:23PM
Possibly, but I don't see a reason unless there are Furlbog on the Pandarian islands or there's some reason for them to wonder, but with the Pandarian already established as a balanced bunch, they're probably either at peace with their origins, or don't see it as important in the scheme of all the crazy stuff going on. If the exposure to the outside world raises the question and if Blizz establishes the Furlbog as a 'seed' race as ancient as the trolls that either the Titans mucked with to make the Pandarians, or the Pandarians got exposed to something that changed them (ala Night Elf evolution) then perhaps something'll come up. We'll see how the story of MoP works out.
Shinae Dec 19th 2011 12:25PM
Sure.
ZodiacDragons Dec 19th 2011 12:33PM
Personally, I think Cataclysm's new races should have been Furbolgs and Ogres. I felt Goblins had already established themselves as neutral entrepreneurs and I wasn't really crazy about the werewolf thing, especially since, and this just my opinion, they were joining the alliance and it was an alliance faction that caused them to be like that. Now, admittedly, I didn't finish the Worgen starting zone cause I found it boring (to each their own) so I never found out how they joined the night elves, but I think Furbolgs would have been a better choice since there were already different classes of them in the game.
Now, the choice of Goblins over Ogres really surprised me. Blizzard already had a great story setup with the Ogres in Dustwallow Marsh. They are being harassed by Onyxia and the black dragonflight and you have the war-crazed Garrosh as warchief. You would think Garrosh would have enlisted the Ogres for their physical prowess alone and it would have been a perfect oppurtunity for the Ogres to enlist the aid of the horde.
That's just my 2 cents tho.
loop_not_defined Dec 19th 2011 12:42PM
WoW Magazine Issue 5 has Brann Bronzebeard saying that Pandaren claim to be much older than Furbolgs and not related to them.
ZodiacDragons Dec 19th 2011 12:44PM
I feel dumb as fuck. My comment had nothing to do with your question. I saw Furbolgs and opinions and went with like an idiot. My apologies.
As for Furbolgs being related to Pandaren, I don't see it myself, but as stated in my idiotic ranting, Blizzard has surprised me before.
I wish I could delete that...
techvoodooguy Dec 19th 2011 12:45PM
@ZodiacDragons: They joined the alliance because the Forsaken were trying to kill them and the Night Elves offered to help them out.
loop_not_defined Dec 19th 2011 1:21PM
After questing for Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la this morning, yeah, I'm kind of surprised none of the Ogre clans have joined anybody yet.
Matthew Dec 19th 2011 6:12PM
I think if they wanted to give horde a character that wasn't tiny, they would have chosen Ogres. However I remember reading some where that they wanted Horde to have a 'little person' race.
I agree, Furlbogs and their relationship with the Dranei quests makes alot of sense.
Suzaku Dec 19th 2011 6:21PM
According to the WoW magazine, the Furbolgs are descendants from the Ancients Ursoc and Ursol, IIRC, while the pandaren are likely descendants of a hitherto unseen panda Ancient.
Brann speculates that most of Azeroth's races descended from various Ancients, such as a bull ancient for the tauren and a frog ancient for murlocs.
@loop: There are a few ogre clans in the Horde, in Tanaris, Feralas, and Dustwallow.
Telwar Dec 19th 2011 11:12AM
I just tried to copy over my WoW folder from old pc to new using my 32gb USB drive, and it didn't work. So, I went and redownloaded everything from Blizzard last night. Didn't cost me anything but time, and I did that overnight anyway.
Matt Dec 19th 2011 11:26AM
The only reason I can think of that it didn't work is that the folder was too big for your drive... Mine is 34Gb! Most of that is in the "data" directory. I wonder if I can delete any of that stuff...
Other than that, I have moved/copied my WoW folder to at least 5 different computers and it has worked every single time.