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 5 of 7)
Amanda A. Jan 23rd 2012 12:55PM
IIRC, Blessing of Might becomes the mastery buff instead of an attack power/mana regen buff. So probably any buff that shares with BoM.
chaosdefined Jan 23rd 2012 12:19PM
Can we start a betting pool (with no money mind you) regarding the release month of MoP?
My best is on September.
They've announced virtually nothing new since Blizzcon in October, which I would take to mean we're due a few more reveals of info before they actually begin Beta testing. I'm estimating the Beta to open around May, possibly early June.
Other estimates? Come on let's get a pool going so when it finally gets a release date we can see who was closest :)
Noyou Jan 23rd 2012 12:52PM
I like Sept//Oct. No real reason. Just don't think they would get it out any earlier. It's almost February- I think they need about 6 months from time Beta opens until the product hits the stores. I think August would be a bad month to release an MMO, not based on any hard numbers, just people are usually doing a lot outside in August.
Foxfire Jan 23rd 2012 12:20PM
A question about the Lunar Festival: I have some Coins of Ancestry from last year, and I cannot spend them at the vendor in Moonglade. What's up with that? do I need to get this year's and delete last year's coins?
Duerma Jan 23rd 2012 12:21PM
That sounds like an odd bug. I was able to spend last year's tokens with no problem. Petition a GM, perhaps?
Puntable Jan 23rd 2012 12:28PM
Will they ever change Archeology to be something you can level as your character levels, or will it remain something to do once you are max level?
Mycroft Jan 23rd 2012 12:57PM
Technically you can arch as you level, but it's generally much much faster after you get flying. You can train it at 20 I believe, but there's all that travel time all over the continent, and fighting hostile mobs in the area.
tgianelli13 Jan 23rd 2012 12:35PM
"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."
That's something I always wished would happen! Makes it feel less like the content you're going through is just trivial stuff that's "on the way" to the real deal.
David Jan 23rd 2012 12:42PM
I hate PvP. I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns. Considering what Blizzard has said about putting more of an emphasis on Horde vs. Alliance in MoP, how much of this expansion pack do you think I'll simply have to ignore?
Daniel Whitcomb Jan 23rd 2012 2:07PM
Horde vs. Alliance doesn't have to mean PvP. After all, the RTSes featured a lot of Horde vs. Alliance stuff that in was vs. Computer, and much of the new revamped leveling experience involved fighting the opposite faction via PvE quests. We also heard plans at BlizzCon for some of those new 2-3 person instanced Scenarios to include some vs. the other faction themed gameplay.
mxcarne Jan 23rd 2012 12:52PM
Portlandia could possibly be the worst bit of television I have ever watched. Bring on kids in the hall,the Ben stiller show, or in living color.
loop_not_defined Jan 23rd 2012 5:01PM
I find it's hit-or-miss, but having lived in the Northwest most my life, I can identify with the majority of it's jokes.
Seriously, the dream of the 90s is still alive out here. Clowning and all.
kaminari Jan 23rd 2012 12:53PM
in your opinion how does WoW hold against other games in character differentiation?
I ask because WoW has limited customization options, but the races are very different from each other, STO has a lot of customization, but it feels as it's only humans with disguises, same goes for DCU and champions online, and I've heard in SWTOR you have humans, red humans and humans with lekku.
So once you are past the creation screen and actually playing, what makes a world more alive and distinct; more models with less customization? or few models with more customization?
(this would make a good breakfast topic) =P
VioletArrows Jan 23rd 2012 4:26PM
Honestly if I had to choose, I'd definitely go with more starkly different races/species with only a few faces, over having one or two races (that *always* ends up being human and human with an insignificant quirk like pointy ears) with Skyrim level customization. Because no matter how much you tweak something, if you don't really want to play them in the first place, it's never going to be someone you can truly invest interest and time in. WoW, as "old" as it is, still has more going for it in that department versus the now *thousands* of MMOs out there where 98% of them give you humans (and if you're "lucky" elves) only, and even those you get 4-5 faces to choose from. OR thoroughly disappointed me on that front. "These humans are aliens because they wear blindfolds and supposedly have no eyes!"
loop_not_defined Jan 23rd 2012 5:11PM
I much prefer playing drastically varying races than multiple versions of the same human body type.
This is what pissed me off about FFXII. So many different races, and out of ALL the playable characters, only ONE of them isn't a human (hume)!?! No Bangaa? No Nu Mou ? No MOOGLES???
(╯°□°)╯ ┻━┻
arkhan Jan 23rd 2012 9:53PM
Guild Wars 2 is going to combine the best of both worlds. They have races with very different looking models and extensive Skyrim-style customization options. So while I agree that it's nice to have choices other than human and human with pointy ears, it's no reason to let WoW get away with its terrible lack of options.
I only hope Blizzard is holding off on introducing new stuff because they are already busy completely revamping character models, otherwise it's pretty sad. How much work would it be to make two or three new faces for troll females that don't look terrible, for example?
Neothanos Jan 23rd 2012 1:01PM
As much as I agree with you Mathew, life taugth me this, never say never.
wowsitemail Jan 23rd 2012 1:45PM
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.
wowsitemail Jan 23rd 2012 1:49PM
Aargh, the comment system, she ate my comment, then spit it out here!
Shoikler Jan 23rd 2012 2:09PM
Something happened to me while working on the holiday last night, and I wonder if this is new or if I just hadn't noticed it before. Some of the elders are inside lower-level towns, where the guards are around the same level as everything else. However, when I tried to enter an enemy town to get to the elder, a Level 85 version (I presume; since the toon I was on was 70, all I saw were the skull and question marks) of the guards spawned right beside me and one-shotted me. Even worse, it stood there, next to the elder, for five minutes before despawning.
If this is a new phenomenon, I have to say it's a darn annoying one; the holiday becomes a lot less fun when completing even the old-world portions requires max level.