The Queue: It's the little things

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is answering all kinds of questions today.

Some of the most impressive stuff in Warlords so far, to me anyway, are the little things that are likely going to be overlooked by a lot of players. Carefully placed boots next to an unmade bed. A couple of books stacked up, light reading for whoever is staying in the inn. The leg of chicken, or turkey, or ... well, whatever Draenor's animal equivalent happens to be -- and it's got a bite taken out of it. Let's take a bite out of some Warcraft questions.

Bruin asked:

I have a question about avoiding spoilers. I'd like to play the game and be surprised. I ALSO really like the books, and sometimes comics. Should I avoid the Comic that got released until I play WoD?

It depends. The comic itself takes place before the events of Warlords begin, but it involves characters that are seen in Warlords, and why they are the way they are. I wouldn't call it spoiler material, as it isn't giving away anything that we haven't already seen in promotional art or heard about at BlizzCon, but if you're doing your best to avoid absolutely everything related to Warlords, I'd skip the comic for now. I would also avoid Know Your Lore this evening, because I'm going to be talking about the comic in detail.

gazaa07 asked:

Q4tQ: do you think the Arokkoa will become / should become a playable race (like how DKs are) for WoW 7.0?

I honestly couldn't tell you one way or another, or even predict at this point in the game. It depends on a lot of factors -- sure, we've got arakkoa that seem to be friends this expansion. But we also had the same in the mantid last expansion, and look what our reputation got us from them, eventually -- a raid encounter followed by their inevitable demise. So the story we have yet to see play out might not actually support arakkoa as allies.

Second, where are we going next expansion? We don't know yet -- but if it's someplace that makes no sense for the arakkoa to follow, then there is no reason to introduce them as a playable race. Usually new playable races have at least a passing tie-in to the expansion itself. Unless we're staying on Draenor for 7.0, I don't know if we'll see the arakkoa again. But it's seriously way too early to even think about calling that.

Third, given that we have thirteen playable races in WoW already, do we really need another one? That's up to Blizzard to answer, but I'm thinking we don't really.

taco.heuts asked:

QftQ: Murmur, will we see it again?

Murmur was holed up in Auchindoun in Burning Crusade -- I haven't seen any sign of it so far in the beta. However, it was the Shadow Council that summoned it into the Shadow Labyrinth. We already know there are Shadow Council kicking around in Warlords. So maybe we'll see it again, just somewhere else. I always liked Murmur, it was a strange concept -- an elemental creature that was the essence of sound -- but it was put together in a really cool way.

RedKing asked:

This has been bugging me for a long while now, which friggin' Velen are we seeing in WOD? Our timeline's of Alternate Draenor's?

The Velen we have seen so far in Warlords is the Velen from this alternate Draenor we're visiting. Velen from Azeroth hasn't made a peep. He's probably busy having a few million migraines worth of visions about alternate universes and potential possibilities for the Army of Light the naaru have been going on about.

Finklesaur asked:

Q4TQ: With so many realms being connected (sometimes three or four realms per connection) do you believe CRZ is still necessary, and if so why?

Yes. Because there's a big difference between the two of them. With CRZ, phasing allows different servers to overlap some areas of the world that are typically sparsely populated on a server, but doesn't carry over to areas that are more heavily populated. Other than that, there is no real connection between the servers at all. Realm Connections, on the other hand, are an actual connection. Players that are on two different servers that have been connected can pretty much interact with each other exactly as if they had both rolled on the same server.

Sometimes a big server is certainly populated enough in certain areas, but out in low level areas where questing is going on, it's deserted. That's where CRZ comes in handy -- because some simple phasing can make that leveling area look a lot less lonely for a new player.

@MFDruid asked via Twitter:

What's a "little thing" you've noticed in Beta that really excites you about the next expac?

Honestly, it's all the little touches in the Garrisons. There are NPCs in each that have been around for a long time, so the names are familiar. All of the guards stop and salute when I walk by. NPCs make a concerted effort to walk around me, rather than through me. They have conversations with each other. Animals in the garrisons chase each other around. NPCs offer running commentary on what's going on around them -- my favorite is a draenei painter who is completely unimpressed with every last painting hanging in the small gallery in the town hall.

It's just a lot of tiny, insignificant details that add up to something that is really impressive. And that carries over into the rest of Draenor, too -- buildings are far more detailed than ever before, the scenery is full of all kinds of little environmental details that make it a marked improvement even from the gorgeous scenery we got with Mists. Grass moves when you run through it. Again, NPCs go out of their way to talk to you. It's just a really cool world where every NPC in it seems to have a real purpose for being there and a story behind them that just hasn't necessarily been told, yet. It's a cool feeling.

@Raysgaminggrants asked via Twitter:

Do you think all the Old God, Burning Legion loose ends will be tied up before WoW actually ends?

Before World of Warcraft, the game, ends? Not necessarily. Before Warcraft, the franchise ends? Absolutely. Everything in the story behind the franchise is kind of build around blocks that all lead back to the Old Gods, Titans, or Burning Legion. Certainly if they wanted to end the entire franchise, they'd probably want to tie up those particular story blocks, because otherwise it wouldn't really feel like a complete ending. But they could end WoW right after Warlords if they wanted to, without addressing any of the Legion material. At that point, they could then create a new game in the Warcraft franchise that picks up where WoW left off and continues.

@HeuserM asked via Twitter:

Are all the races going to to get some love/ story in WoD specificly the Worgen?

No -- as with every expansion, there's no real way to focus on every race in the game. There are thirteen playable races, after all. The worgen will likely be touched upon again at some point in the future -- they're too cool not to, and Gilneas is a giant open end at the moment -- but the story has to be right for it. Warlords isn't about struggles on Azeroth, it's about Draenor.

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!