The Queue: I'm late!

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 (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

Like Alex yesterday, it's almost like I was up until 3:30 a.m. defeating internet demons.

If you're on the fence about downloading Diablo III via your Annual Pass subscription (or even about getting the game in general), I'd say that the cinematics alone make it entirely worth it. They are more than amazing and have set an entirely new bar for video games.

Also, you will occasionally randomly encounter mobs named after some WoW CMs, including Zarhym and Bashiok. Bashiok killed me last night. Zarhym, however, went down easily.

Sanderson asked:

With the release of SWTOR, TERA, and Diablo III, do you think that this pre-expansion lull is the worst yet?

Not at all. In fact, I think the fact that the WoW population has held steady at 10.2 million is a very big and very good thing. SWTOR didn't have the impact it was predicted to, TERA isn't a factor, and Diablo III is going to be a game to play alongside WoW for many people.

While WoW Insider doesn't have any Blizzard data or insight into what happens with the server population during the times of major AAA game releases, we can infer based on our traffic and engagement numbers.

For us, our largest traffic and engagement dip was when Skyrim launched. SWTOR didn't have nearly as much an impact, and TERA had nothing. Diablo III would have had the largest dip, but that was offset by our Diablo posting spree for a couple of days.

I looked at some historical WoW data, and without getting into specifics, Wrath had the worst pre-expansion lull -- which isn't surprising, given that it was a year between patch 3.3 and Cataclysm.

Musicchan asked:

It's been discussed how voice acting in WoW could use a little bit of love. In your opinion, is the voice acting in Diablo3 something they should aim for in future WoW expansions? From what I've heard so far, I think the D3 voiceovers are really well done and I love the voiced bits of lore laying around. Do you think this would make a good addition to WoW or does it fit better in a game like Diablo?

Yes, more voice acting in WoW would be a plus.

Keep in mind, though, that the two games are significantly different, especially when it comes to the size of content. I highly doubt we'll ever see all of WoW's quests be voice acted. There are something close to 10,000 quests already in WoW, a nearly impossible number to retroactively produce voice content for. But then again, if there's one company on the planet with the resources to do it, it would be Blizzard.

Anyway, yes, it would be nice -- but no, I don't think it'll ever happen.

Kyle asked:

Sorry that this Q4tQ is off topic, but I wanted to get some professional opinion on this idea... So, during the D3 37 fiasco, me and my friend found time to beat Portal 2 Co-op. The ending seems to hint at a Portal MMO. What do you think?

Nope, DLC.

And the DLC is seriously great as well, so hit that up next.

Chojirules asked:

so i just got around to playing the 85+ content on beta and i got to the first (of which i hope there will be many) round of anduin wrynn quests. the style was very fun being able to shoot the fishmen and using smoke bombs so i want to know if you think we can expect more of this play style (which i think weve seen before) because it is just plain fun. perhaps there is a daily quest in our "mist" ... get it?

/facepalm ;-)

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!