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The Queue: Titles, Heroes, Hearths, and pancakes

Alex Ziebart
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Updated ·5 min read
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Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

While there are World of Warcraft and general Blizzard questions in today's Queue, I feel this first question is the most important one of the lot.

@Grizz_Face asked:

How can i get my pancakes to that perfect golden colour?



Never take your eyes off of your pancakes when you're cooking them. Pancakes are not something you can multitask if you want them perfect. Multitasking while cooking pancakes is fine if perfection is not your end goal.

Pour your batter into a heated, buttered pan. Watch your batter. As it heats up, you'll see bubbles forming around the edge of the pancake. You don't want to flip when the bubbles have formed -- watch them as they pop. When they reach the point where a bubble pops and the batter does not flow into the void, that means the bottom layer of your pancake is solid enough to flip. Flip it. Give it a little time to cook through, then serve with whichever side is prettiest face-up. Who looks at the bottom of their pancakes?

CaptainCakewalk asked:

Which title do you use the most or are most proud of? I know 'the Patient' is the most popular, but I'm partial to 'Defender of a Shattered World' myself! Or even 'Bane of the Fallen King'.

I like "of the Shattered Sun." It isn't particularly glamorous -- you buy it for gold when you have the correct reputation -- but it sounds cool. And I loved the Isle of Quel'Danas back in the day, so I keep that nostalgia on display.

Rahkarne asked:

I know Blizzard mentioned an android version of Hearthstone was in the works at Blizzcon; did they give any sort of time table on it's arrival other than the usual "Soon™"?

There's been no ETA. From what we've seen, the iPad version is their top priority and Android may come sometime after that. I'm no game developer, but from what I've heard, it's generally more difficult to develop for Android. iOS is a unified platform. There are only a handful of screen sizes across the entire platform and everything goes through Apple's app store. Android is a platform with more variance. There are many more devices that come in all shapes and sizes, all of which need to be taken into consideration if you release on Google Play. Each device also has its own hardware and specs, whereas every iPad is pretty much the same.

"Android" can also be a little misleading -- even when a game is released for "Android" that doesn't mean it will be available for all Android-powered devices. My tablet is a Kindle Fire, for example. Kindle Fire uses a custom version of the Android operating system. However, it uses the Amazon app store. Most games that I'd like to play on a tablet never make it to the Kindle Fire. Which is fine for me, honestly. I don't use the tablet for gaming. Still, if I wanted to, the games aren't there.

So, speaking generally, porting something to Android might be more complex than we sometimes think. If you wanted to make another gaming comparison, it would be the difference between developing a console exclusive and a PC title. You know a console's specs. You know that everyone who owns that console has an identical device in their living room. When you develop a game to be available in PC, there are countless hardware configurations and different architectures to consider. Can it be done? Yes. Of course. Does it take a hell of a lot more QA than pushing something to one console? Yeah.

RockwellH asked:

I love the way WI post some stuff one week its take you time in game look around enjoy the game .The next week its hurry and get to endgame all your friends will be there , or it could just be me lol

We have more than one person on staff. We have our own opinions and playstyles. Some of us like to take it easy. Some of us live only for endgame. Our readers are the same. Some of you don't want the level cap to ever increase, because you hate questing and the whole leveling up process. Some of you wish there was nothing but questing and leveling and hate everything that comes with "endgame." Many fall somewhere in between.

When it comes to opinions on playstyle, WoW Insider doesn't have an editorial mandate to pick a side. That would be awful.

@yuvalaziza asked:

Do you think Heros of the strom can called MOBA? or it should be its own type of game?

The funny thing about that genre of games is no one can decide what to call it. Riot calls League of Legends a MOBA, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, and MOBA is the term that has taken off the most. Valve calls Dota 2 an ARTS -- an Action Real Time Strategy. I've seen "team brawler" thrown around now and then and that seems to be the way Blizzard is leaning. As far as they're concerned, Heroes of the Storm is a team brawler.

Those genre titles all mean the same thing, and getting back to the core of the question, yes. I think Heroes of the Storm fits into that genre. It has streamlined and simplified some of the more obnoxious aspects of the genre, but the base gameplay still fits in there. You play cool champions battling down lanes to sack your opponent's base. That's what you do in Dota, Dota 2, League of Legends, Smite, and so on.

@ScottLeyes asked:

Is "Chris Metzen's Sexy Party Simulator 2014" being announced at GDC?

Man, I hope so. I've been waiting for the sequel to Chris Metzen's Sexy Party Simulator 2005 for years. Releasing it on the game's 10th anniversary would be amazing.

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!