The Queue: A year ago ...
So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the past on WoW Insider (and my time working here). Let's take a practical trip down memory lane, looking at what was going on a year ago today, July 12, 2010:
We all were in the midst of the real names on the forums scandal, including the accidental leakage of the emails of everyone who complained to the ESRB. There's only been a few other posts in my time that have had more impact on such a large scale as the ones concerning that scandal.
Another round of Cataclysm beta invites were due out soon.
Mike Gray looked at the engineering profession in Cataclysm.
The Cataclysm screenshot of the day was of Gilneas (I think, maybe T.B.).
Ghostcrawler was still posting.
The Breakfast Topic asked what constituted canon in WoW lore.
On July 12, 2009 (two years ago):
Preminition got the first U.S. Alone in the Darkness achievement.
Allie talked about how to get your blog crashed by WoW.com (our identity at the time).
On July 12, 2008 (three years ago):
Wowhead added some hunter features.
We published a strategy guide for Mother Shahraz.
Daniel Whitcomb asked if the World of Warcraft really is World of Diablo.
On July 12, 2007 (four years ago):
Tigole had some comments on the original ZA.
New loot cards came out for WoW TCG.
MazzleUI's was examined, but by a different Matt than today's Mat.
On July 12, 2006 (five years ago):
... and two new realms sprung up!
WoW Insider started our existence on November 23, 2005, so we weren't around six years ago. Man... it's been a long time.
Chris asked:
I know there are ways to determine 'total time played' on a character, but is there any means of finding out when a character was created?
There's no way in game. You can try warcraftrealms.com for some data, but that's your best bet. If you created the toon after achievements came in game, then it'll show it there.
Minstrel asked:
I have this vague recollection that a Blizzard-promoted feature of this expansion was going to be an ability to scale down your character and gear, temporarily, to lower levels at will in order to be able to do content with friends who were lower level. Is my memory accurate and, if so, does Blizzard still plan to implement that this expansion cycle?
It was mentioned a couple times as something Blizzard is interested in doing but never progressed beyond that phase. A lot of things fall into that category.
Puffcake asked:
Do the WOW powers that be have any immediate plans to (re)release any new vanity pets to allow us to work further toward the Littlest Pet Shop achievement?
New pets seem to happen every few moths, between the Blizzard store's offering something new to a patch's latest features. Hang tight -- I know it can be hard to reach those pet achievements, but it just takes some time.
Capaxinfiniti asked:
Lore-wise, who opened the gates of Ahn'Qiraj?
The Horde and the Alliance did it together, and players are the ones to ring the Scarab Gong, opening the gates.
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!
