The Queue: How much does a GM make?

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky, senior editor at WoW Insider and proud owner of a new winged lion, will be your host today.

So, I hate planking. I think it's just dumb. The internet has made lying down special and that's really just strange.

I mean I plank every night, in my bed.

Big deal.

Blakepirtle asked:

I've always wondered what a GM's average salary was. Any insight?

Around $25,000 a year. Could be a bit more on average, but that's the ballpark. Of course, there are also special individual cases, I'm sure, where that number is smaller or larger.

Merbus asked:

Where do you go for advanced theory crafting info?

I'm a big fan of getting my information from multiple sources. (I'll note that this is something all the editors feel strongly about. We try to be as inclusive as possible with the community, because the best players are formed by reading everything, not just one site.) I read the class columns here, I read the EJ forums extensively, I use Wowpedia as much as I can, I wade through Something Awful, and I take a look at the comments on spells/abilities on Wowhead.

I don't really do the forums much anymore. I used to read them every day, but I just can't anymore. There's also a decrease in the quality of posts since Ghostcrawler quit posting, so I don't really waste my time there when I can read more on EJ.

Tagegould asked:

What does Blizzard do during maintenance and rolling restarts?

While we don't (and likely never will) have the full picture, we do know that Blizzard actually restarts all its game servers, clears certain caches, rebuilds others, and implements fixes on the server side of things. My unofficial understanding is that it pretty much has a batch of changes server-side every week. It might be something as simple as a low-level monster doing too much damage or as complex as a hard mode raid encounter not tuned right.

We don't always hear about these fixes, either. Sometimes Blizzard releases a quick note; other times, they just happen. It's kind of a mystery, really.

Summelsam asked:

In patch 4.2, will valor point be awarded in current raid's heroic mode or really only in Fireland raids?

Updated: Valor points will be rewarded for the current tier's heroic mode content, and both normal and heroic modes for Firelands content.

Jedsblog asked:

How come Arator (son of Turalyon and Alleria) was not mentioned in the books or even in Wrath/Cataclysm?

For some of these outlying characters, it can be hit or miss if they're mentioned or if we see their lore updated. There are tons of characters like this; WoW is just too large to be able to do them all justice.

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!