The Queue: Written pandaren
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 20th 2012 at 11:00AM
Props to Cutaia for asking this first question. I love when I have to dig around to find an answer and come up with some really cool stuff.
Including a Pandaren character chart.
Cutaia asked:
The Asian-looking writing all over MoP [pictured above] ... gibberish, or rooted in real Chinese?
Great question!
I posed this to our Twitter audience last night, and the unanimous answer was that no, the scripts don't represent any real-world language. They seem to be a combination of a few, borrowing from different characteristics of each. This wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, as it's how it's done with other made-up languages such as Klingon. And remember, "Geek Is" all that good stuff, so Blizzard obviously has some of that in mind.
Farlianth on Twitter also pointed out the image below from the art panel at BlizzCon 2011. Some neat information. Maybe there's a more developed Pandaren language Blizzard could share at some point? I'd sure to like to see it, if it exists.
Takewhat asked:
are they going to fix the flying in the remaining no fly zones? :)
Blizzard has said a few times that it's not going to go back in and add flying to those zones any time soon. Could it happen one day? Sure, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Blizzard's got more important things to focus its world development efforts on right now -- namely, the new endgame content coming in Mists.
Oathblade asked:
any news on what the female/male warlock demon models are?
Blizzard said that it's still on the plate, just no time table for release. My guess is that it won't make it into MoP. Gotta be pretty low priority compared to other things, especially given that 'locks are getting new pets overall (Shivan, Wrath Guard, Beholder, maybe more).
Arrohon asked:
What is a good quality headset with a long lifespan that is a reasonable price. Ideas please!!
I know a lot of people have different opinions here, and I suspect many will share answers in the comments below, but I prefer my Logitech behind-the-ears headsets. They work really well, last me about 12 to 18 months, and are relatively inexpensive.
I my spare time, I fly around in an airplane, and I've also got a really, really expensive set, but besides noise cancellation and a few necessary gadgets, they really don't do anything better than the cheap $30 Logitech one I linked above.
Guerillacore asked:
Is Blizz getting rid of Have Group Will Travel so more ppl play Warlocks?
No, it was more about the shrinking world. Blizzard wants people to get out and enjoy what it's made, versus just sitting in Stormwind waiting for some random raid member to summon you out to the raid.
But as a raiding warlock, I'm not going to complain.
I should also note that we don't know what it's going to get replaced with. Maybe it'll just summon one person or so, maybe it'll be something entirely different. We'll have to wait and see.
Kraik asked:
so, how powerful are warlocks in MoP? They seem like they're going to be broken with the new talents
We have no idea ... and anyone who is complaining doesn't have any idea either, so take everything you hear with no grains of salt, because no one knows. Balance can't be determined until people actually get in and play the classes, participate in dungeons, run the raids, etc. Until that point, it's all just conjecture.
Also remember that the talent trees are designed mainly to bring interesting choices and customizations to a character now, versus a cookie-cutter spec that we all had before. And while I have no doubt that there will be "preferred" specs for general encounters, etc., we're not going to have the same feeling as it is right now or has been before.
Sit tight, wait for the beta, which I think should be coming up Soon™.
JibblyChan asked:
Where there any dramatic Demon changes? Any information on the new advanced talented Demons? And what was the new interface like.
None that we know of yet, and no real info other than we're getting some new ones. We'll know when the beta comes.
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 14)
wmbrguild Mar 20th 2012 11:06AM
Q4tQ: Did Blizzard even remotely address the realms with dwindling populations or servers that are EXTREMELY unbalanced?
We're really being killed in progression because we cannot recruit fast enough to replace the burnouts.
I know many people will be coming back. But to what? the top 5 guilds on our server all xferred off already.
RGSmith Mar 20th 2012 11:15AM
I'm curious about this also. I know recently they stated having some innovative plans and I'm interested in hearing about it.
slim1256 Mar 20th 2012 11:21AM
You know - I haven't seen any mention of this in any of the coverage from the press event. I'm assuming that means Blizz either 1 - didn't address it or 2 - asked that the questions not be asked.
In retrospect, this is a topic I would have loved to get some feedback from them on (admittedly, I'm on a pretty firmly mid-pop server, so this wouldn't necessarily be a huge issue for me, but... I'm curious what they've got in store).
wmbrguild Mar 20th 2012 11:30AM
I'm conflicted on how I feel about not having any information on it. It's a huge issue for alot of people. That said, isn't that a big thing WoW Insider? Getting answers to questions that affects everyone? Some of the stuff that is asked seems pretty silly. But that's just personal preference I guess.
Either way, it'd be nice to know what's in the oven because it would allow us to start planning.
I had the idea they should take all the inactive accounts and shove them into dead realms. Move active people to active realms. Reward the people that are sticking around through the tough times of the end of the expansion. Anyone else have a guess of 6 more months of DS?
Jason Mar 20th 2012 11:48AM
This was the ONLY thing I cared about hearing, the "bold"new plans to solve the population problem. I was thoroughly disappointed with the rehash of BlizzCon. Talk about too much hype.
Boobah Mar 20th 2012 11:50AM
"I had the idea they should take all the inactive accounts and shove them into dead realms. Move active people to active realms. "
Not going to happen. Blizz doesn't want folks to come back and find their characters on a different server than their friends' characters; it's your social connections that keep you coming back month after month.
Ethan Mar 20th 2012 4:09PM
I forgot which page it was under, but they did say what Blizzard told them about server merges. They said that it wasn't directly related to the MoP expansion and so would not be discussed durring the press release.
Robert Mar 20th 2012 7:52PM
I was under the impression that cross-realm raiding was their "bold new plans."
RichardCyphr Mar 20th 2012 9:16PM
Honestly, the whole idea of "servers" has really surpassed it's usefulness. We are no longer tied to server for battlegrounds, dungeons, or even raids. Why not find some way to make the "World of Warcraft" a WORLD. Even if it still left several different servers to choose from (PvP, PvE, RP, etc), but you could really condense down the number of realms. To address over population, use channels. I know that DDO did this where two people could be in a different instance of the same town, and if they were to group up, one would automatically join the other channel.
I think it would fix a ton of problems. I hate how when I level a toon, I might go 30 levels without seeing another player outside of a city or dungeon. With a system like this, there would be tons more people leveling, and thus more people to randomly quest with and such.
I do understand that this would create some huge challenges as well. 5M people wanting to do TB? I don't have an easy answer as to how to address that, but I think in the long run, it would be nice to feel like I was in a world that is populated by other adventurers, instead of just occasionally visiting a city that is over run with them.
The more logical answer, and much easier, would be to drop the $25 server transfer fee, and let people move once every 72 hours. They can keep charging for the faction change, but moving servers to play with a certain guild, or some friends, shouldn't be an activity that breaks the bank.
rnmuos Mar 20th 2012 10:44PM
"The more logical answer, and much easier, would be to drop the $25 server transfer fee, and let people move once every 72 hours."
lol.. logical for you, maybe. Bliz keeps low population servers around on purpose to get the $25 fee. Merging servers would cost money and reduce the transfer fee, plus make it look like subscribers are declining. Therefore not profitable for Bliz.
jdhorner Mar 20th 2012 11:08AM
I must have missed it... they're changing Have Group - Will Travel? Has it caused problems?
Saeadame Mar 20th 2012 11:14AM
They just didn't like that a single person could summon a bunch of other people I think. It's not "official" it was just a comment in one of the interviews that they "were" (which is probably more like "might") get rid of Have Group Will Travel.
Magma Mar 20th 2012 11:19AM
No. Removing not changing. They want more people out in the world.
slim1256 Mar 20th 2012 11:24AM
It was in an interview with Tom Chilton, IIRC. In order to get the full extent of what was shared during the press event, you really need to go to all the various outlets (for example, WowHead had a lot of info on Monks that I didn't really see anywhere else).
He said they were replacing it with something, but no word on what. They also haven't decided if they'll add new guild levels, or keep the guild level cap at 25. Sounds like there's still a lot of stuff up in the air for guilds - probably because they're trying to walk a tight line between making guild perks fun and desirable, without making them feel required. Which sounds like a fool's errand to me, but whatevs.
Drakkenfyre Mar 20th 2012 11:37AM
It's for the reasons stated above. They want people actually going to places.
I am personally sick of hearing of "We want more people out in the world", when they do things like create entire endgame zones and put the ONLY portals into those zones in the middle of each faction's capital city. They also removed the need to queue up for BG's by finding a BG master, and instead slapping the queue button right on the interface.
Now, that last change was good. It was a pain when you wanted to PVP to find either the specific BG master for the BG you wanted to run, or hit up Shattrath City and hope the one you want was the one being offered from the BG masters there, but it seems a bit off to be constantly complaining about people not being in the world when you keep putting things in that lets them skip the world.
Brian Mar 20th 2012 11:30AM
I don't like the thinking behind that. So are they going to remove summoning stones? Maybe modify it to only be used at the instance portal? I don't know. The thought seems to be, one person flying to the instance and summoning = suck, two people flying there and summoning people one at a time = win? Doesn't make sense to me. If the goal is getting people out of the city...remove all forms of summoning. This would include Warlock summons.
If you follow that line of reasoning, ultimately you would have to remove summoning to LFR and LFD groups also. I don't think that Have group is anything more than a simple convenience, instead of two people summoning 8 or 23 people one can do it. Maybe they should remove mass resurrection too...corpse runs are 'out in the world'
Puntable Mar 20th 2012 11:37AM
If you and your friends want to do a dungeon, you can just queue for it. They have no problem with that. They just don't want you using it to travel around in the world.
slim1256 Mar 20th 2012 11:41AM
Just realized that I didn't bother to editorialize on the decision - and I have a strong opinion!
Don't take away my Have Group, Will Travel!
The reason provided behind it is balls. "Hey, that ability was just way too convenient, so we're gonna get rid of it!" Give me compelling reasons to get out into the world if that's what you want. And - I think they are providing those reasons, too.
All they're doing is taking away 10 minutes of my raid time as all the people that log in right on the hour have to fly all the way out to the Raid instance portal.
Queen Anthai Mar 20th 2012 11:51AM
Count my vote as firmly AGAINST removing Have Group, Will Travel. It is a gigantic pain in the ass to have to go all the way to an old dungeon or raid when you're level 85 and CAN'T queue for it.
Cbeefman Mar 20th 2012 12:11PM
I hope they dont get rid of it at all
I support their goal of getting people out in the world, but for me, I do that already on my own time
I quest, i did archeology for a time, i fly around helping lowbies in guild. But when its raid time, it's raid time, im NOT interested in sight seeing or world pvp or picking up that one herb on my way to a raid.
I want it to stay as is