The Queue: Gormenghast

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi is taking the helm today.

I wanted to take this opportunity as the fill in Queue writer to tell you all about the Gormenghast cycle, one of my favorite series. It's a very hard series to describe. Mervyn Peake, the writer of the books (and a heck of an artist to boot) wrote books that touch upon all kinds of subjects that are very popular today, and not only did he do it well before other people did he did it in a kind of mannered grotesquerie that really has to be read to be believed. The character of Steerpike is really one of the best villains (if you can call him that) I've ever encountered in fiction. Start with Titus Groan and then go on from there. These are books that reward multiple readings. A gloomy castle, eccentric people, and bizarre encounters all occur within this series.

I included a clip from the miniseries the BBC did - I felt like it missed the real spirit of the books, but it had a solid cast and it's worth watching. Let's get on to your questions.

gamer427d asks:
Will WoW Insider ever do a column on WoW Private servers? In talking about old content dedicated private servers, not MoP. Blizzard doesnt seem to have too much of a problem with private servers that let players access older content.

Not only will we never do anything like that, you're very very much mistaken about Blizzard's policy on private servers, as this forum thread from last year highlights. Blizzard definitely does have a problem with them, and they try and shut them down whenever they can.

We are not going to cover private servers, not ever. Nope. Not going to do it.

Twowolves asks:
Aside from the near impossibility of not announcing the next expansion, is there something Blizzard can or not announce at Blizzcon that would disappoint or anger you?
I will be disappointed if there's no initial reveal of some new character models, but that can easily be countered by an awesome looking expansion.

Honestly, no, they can't really anger or disappoint me. I've long since learned to wait and see with Blizzard. That being said, I really want them to announce that the Diablo III transmog options are being imported into WoW. I have so little room right now it's ludicrous.

A whole ton of Warlords of Draenor questions:

Guys, seriously, Blizzcon is in five days. It's Friday. Until then, any answers I'd give you would be pure speculation. I don't know for sure what it is, if it's an expansion to WoW, a new RTS, a Hearthstone thing, a freaking single player RPG, I have literally no more idea than you do. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. It's five days. Why spoil it?

I suspect it's a WoW expansion but I'm basing that purely on gut instinct. Feel free to speculate to your heart's content, but remember, that's all it is. Once we get to watch Blizzcon we'll know, and until then, we won't. So kick back, take it easy, and wait for the news to come gushing out of the convention.

If you all really need me to say what I think it is, I can tell you what I don't expect - I don't expect Outland to get the Cataclysm treatment considering how much people freaked out about that. I don't expect (but would love to be wrong) to see Turalyon and Alleria. I don't expect it to have much draenei content (again, I would love to be wrong here). Am I excited for it? Absolutely I am. But I have no idea what I'm excited for. I really liked Mists of Pandaria, so I'm definitely willing to be surprised by Blizz.

T0MMY6UN asks:
Q4TQ: Is there a source out there for questing zone summaries? Looking back on all the questing I've done, there are a lot of areas I don't remember the plot lines of. I was just wondering if there was a site with summaries of what happens in each zone. Thanks : )

Wowhead gives you a detailed list of the quests in each zone - for example, here's Stonetalon Mountains. But for a roundup/summary of the storyline of the zones, Wowpedia is a good place to check out - for example, here's their summary of Stonetalon's storyline.

And that's the Queue for today. Go check out Titus Groan.

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!