Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Short but sweet
by Mathew McCurley 
Jan 23rd 2012 at 11:00AM
What's up, ladies and gentlemen? I got some good news, and I got some bad news. The bad news is that The Queue today is a little on the light side. Possibly a weekend factor, mixed in with a depressing state of snow here on the east coast of the United States? Most likely. Lots of internet traffic frozen in the tubes. One day, the sun will thaw my pipes and finally, finally, Portlandia season one episode 5.
The good news is that you've got me, Mat McCurley, at the helm of today's Queue. I picked out some real winners, kids, so sit back, strap in, and let's get RadiQueue.
Vacasta asked:
Stupid cosmetic question, but if I hit Z to draw my weapon outside of combat, does everyone see that? Or us it just client-side?
Everyone sees if you have chosen to have your weapons drawn or not. Most things that you do in game are represented to all players in the world. It's actually one of the things WoW does remarkably well. The secret is that the actual animation is not shown but the result is. This cuts down on the amount of, well, stuff that has shown client-side, potentially increasing performance for some players with lower-end computers.
tw_holt asked:
Is there a tool/website/addon that shows more data in regard to the time /played?
For example I'd like to see how long, in time played, I was level 70, or 45, or 3, or 61 and so on.We can of course see how long we've been playing at whatever the current level you are, but I'm wondering if that past data can be accessed somehow.
The in-game /played function only reports to you the time actually played and no other time played information, sadly. Blizzard obviously collects much, much more data about your characters and gameplay experience, but for the very simple fact that the game isn't telling us that information, we cannot see it. An addon could collect information on its own, but that would not be retroactive and would only start collecting data from the date of installation. Maybe one day the APIs will be updated with even more information about a character's life in Azeroth.
@Atanae on Twitter asked:
If Blizzard is able to provide additional character slots, what is the likelihood that we'd have to pay for them?
You would never, ever have to pay for more character slots. Never. Ever. In a million years. The chance of you having to pay for extra character slots, if they are in fact introduced into the game at some point, will be zero. None. Impossible.
All PR isn't necessarily good PR, especially when it comes to the fine art of nickel-and-diming. Nobody wants to be nickel-and-dimed, and in an age when Yelp reviews sink businesses and Twitter recommendations are more lauded than professional critics, we are a vocal culture. Blizzard wouldn't get away with charging for such a deep-seated, core game play feature. Oh, someone at Activision-Blizzard has a chart with numbers and percentages and spreadsheets that shows the exact amount of subscriber loss-to-feature ratio and gains from the character slot microtransaction. It exists. This charge will never happen, though.
Jere Hunter asked:
I think you may have answered this before but im not sure. On the Load Screen, I like that they represent current expansions but I miss some of the old ones sometimes, Like the Classic, the Burning Crusade, and the Wrath with the chilly landscape. Do you think WOW will ever give us a Transmog for that so we can pick our Load Screen (the Sign on Screen) since after Cata we will be getting another one for Mists
This is actually something I've wanted for a long time, and I think that it is finally time to demand it from Blizzard. Hear us, Blizzard -- we wish to pick which login screen we see when we load up the game. Even the secret old Twilight portal one you had for Cataclysm. Yup, throw it in there. I saw it at BlizzCon! I know it exists!
Or something even cooler: The screen changes depending on the level of the last character you played on before logging out. I'm liking all of this already.
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 4 of 7)
Aaron Jan 23rd 2012 2:54PM
Lupos said: "you guys say that they won't stop WoW until it stops making money so that must be the main focus of the enterprise."
That's the main function of almost any enterprise. However, like any enterprise, ActiBlizz realizes that they make most of their money by keeping players happy and subscriptions active. Allowing players to gain an advantage with real-life money sacrifices long-term satisfaction for short-term gain.
Besides, there's a key difference between Blizz's current paid services and allowing players to buy additional character slots. A paid realm transfer removes a character from one realm and adds him or her to another; the net gain to the player is zero. Race and faction changes work similarly; certain benefits are gained while others are lost. Recustomization and name changes are purely cosmetic. An eleventh character slot, on the other hand, gives the player a clear benefit, e.g., more Transmutes per day, without losing something of presumably equal value.
clundgren Jan 23rd 2012 11:33AM
If you go to your achievements screen and then hit the "statistics" tab at the bottom, you can see a lot of your character's data. It can be quite fascinating.
I often refer to me PvP statistics whenever someone (inevitably) complains that "Horde/Alliance NEVER wins this bg."
eel5pe Jan 23rd 2012 11:47AM
The problem with those BG stats is that I'm PRETTY sure that they don't count the results of BGs that you leave early. Since usually you leave a BG early because you're going to lose (slowly) and don't care about the consolation prize, it tends to skew your win ratio way high.
clundgren Jan 23rd 2012 12:17PM
Damn. I thought it was because I was just that awesome.
Though, I almost never leave a bg once it starts because I find toughing it out generally preferable than taking the debuff. So maybe I really *am* that awesome! Right? Right?
Saikoujin Jan 23rd 2012 11:43AM
Q4tQ:
I've recently been farming the matching belts and boots for my pally tier 4, and as such, my farming has taken me through Kara, Netherspite to be exact. In his room (the astronomer's room), there are some intriguing things on the walls. On the far right wall, there is what looks to be a representation of Azeroth's star system, which appears to be a Copernican model with star at the center and planets revolving around it. There are also three planets which surround this star. If Azeroth is one of them, what are these other two planets? I was trying to think back through all my questing, and I don't recall reading much about Azeroth's star system, or anything at all. To my knowledge, not even the fancy holograms in Ulduar show anything besides Azeroth's globe.
I find this interesting. If you look to the far left wall, there is a similar diagram, but with the star system in the shape of the Violet Eye (the star is the pupil, with the paths of the three planets forming the iris and the rest of the eye). Why would the Violet Eye insignia be based (losely) on a star system? Do these three plants hold some significance to the mages of Dalaran? If so, why? I've been trying to wrap my head around this one.
radda Jan 23rd 2012 4:25PM
Although you can't see both of them in-game anymore, Azeroth has two moons. Maybe that's what you're seeing?
Drakkenfyre Jan 23rd 2012 11:51AM
Minor pet-peeve, the login screen being called the "loading screen."
I still miss Burning Crusade's. When my server had a long log-in queue, I could keep track of how long it had been by counting how many times the theme looped. At a little over 7 minutes, I saw login queues over 5000 before, and heard it several times.
I am not a fan of dynamic login screens depending on where you logged out (as some people have suggested) reminds me too much of Half-Life 2. I like Half-Life 2, but sometimes when you go to an area that had a poor title screen, it was irritating seeing it over and over until you got past that area. I would like selectable login screens.
PyroFlyX Jan 23rd 2012 11:50AM
Is there any chance of Silvermoon being repaired? I know that not much can probably hear the dead scar, but the buildings could be repaired at least...
Makes me sad that whenever I go there it shows the scars of Arthas, even though the rest of the world has been moving on.
wowsitemail Jan 23rd 2012 2:38PM
The main reason you don't see Silvermoon rebuilt (and the starting zone revamped to match) is because it would take a lot of work for a city that very few people are ever in. That's too bad because Silvermoon is the most beautiful capital and deserves to be seen more. I'll admit, I sometimes go there to do my banking and auctioning even though the lack of flying is inconvenient. Of course, as a mage, I have a much easier time getting there then other people do.
Hopefully they'll advance the blood elf story and bring Silvermoon up to speed with it.
P.S. I'd imagine the dead scar could be healed like the plaguelands are being healed: the progress it slow, but it's coming along.
Duerma Jan 23rd 2012 11:51AM
In response to tw_holt's question, the Warcraft Realms census collects data about characters. It's hardly perfect, as it only updates when your level or your guild changes and depends on people running the data collection addon, but it can give you a rough idea of the numbers you are looking for.
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/charhistory.php
Miranda Kali Jan 23rd 2012 11:52AM
Not just the login screen, but the background for your characters as well... We can choose from a variety of different backgrounds on the mobil armory it would be nice if we could change it on the game as well.
My little assassin left Gnomer at level three and never looked back. She has since slain dragons, gods, demons, and many, many murlocs. She likes to spend her idle time sipping brandy, and getting in some serious lurking in the gas lamp shadows of fallen Gilneas.
I cringe seeing her marooned in some snowy backwater town, filled with gibbering Winterveil Helper wannabes every time I log in.
Drakkenfyre Jan 23rd 2012 12:07PM
I don't know exactly when you joined, but they used to share backgrounds with Dwarves.
Kuro Jan 23rd 2012 11:57AM
> You would never, ever have to pay for more character slots. Never. Ever. In a million years. The chance of you having to pay for extra character slots, if they are in fact introduced into the game at some point, will be zero. None. Impossible.
Funny thing is... this service is currently available. In fact, I use it right now. It was even mentioned in a blue post or Q&A session that they wouldn't offer it as an additional paid feature because it already existed.
Just get a second account...
TimR Jan 23rd 2012 12:32PM
That is not a reasonable solution for most people. It also does not let you share BoA gear, or get other benefits that you would want to create a character on the same server for.
Mycroft Jan 23rd 2012 12:53PM
TimR - but you can share heirloom gear with a second account, it just needs to be a second sub account of the one battle.net account. That's what the big change was for a while back, changing "binds to account" to "binds to battle.net account". That way you only need one main to grind out enough honor to equip your 5 shaman and quint-box twink through pvp.
(Just guessing, I don't know if a group of shaman focusing is still viable.)
Mir Jan 23rd 2012 12:59PM
That's no longer true Tim. Most things that are BoA are now Bind on Battle.net Account. This was a good change, but mostly too late for me (I have pretty much 2 complete sets of all BoA gear on my bank toon).
TimR Jan 23rd 2012 1:12PM
My mistake, thanks for the correction.
Sirn Jan 23rd 2012 12:01PM
Hey Queue,
I have a question regarding buffs in MoP: are the single target caster buff's going by the wayside (DI, FM)? I did some poking around on the blizzard site, and it looks like DI is going to become a 6% spell power increase buff raid wide.
Followup question: At blizzcon we heard about a new buff (Mastery). Is it safe to assume Monk is the only class that will bring that buff?
Drakkenfyre Jan 23rd 2012 12:06PM
Following their "bring the player, not the class", it's highly unlikely they would give a buff to a single class only, which might end up being an important raiding buff.
Then again, they have said they were doing things and didn't, and vice-versa before.
markgodber Jan 23rd 2012 12:29PM
I have two theories about the forthcoming Mastery buff:
1 - they will give it to some classes who currently have no, or almost no, buffs - i'm thinking Combat Rogues for example, also since giving a Mastery buff does not necessarily have to be a 'magical' buff and they are one of the least 'magic' classes in WOW
2 - all tanks will give a Mastery buff, since (generalisation here we come) Mastery as a stat is strongest for the tanks, out of the three 'roles'. (let the flaming begin...)