The Queue: It's just a game

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today.

I might be wrong with this one, but I think World of Warcraft is just a game. I mean, it's something we all do in our spare time, and have fun with, right?

And it doesn't really matter, because at the end of the day everything is just pixels on the screen.

But maybe I'm off base here, and WoW isn't a game. Maybe it's real. What is real? Is there a spoon? I see dead people.

Retadinman asked...

"Why are draenei hated so much? The "lorelol" retcon wasn't really that big, but since my main character and posting avatar on the Forums (who are the same) are draenei, I get a lot of hate. Why is this?"

I think there's a legitimate academic discussion that can take place over the draenei retcon and the associated lore. Retcons are something that should typically be avoided, and Blizzard deservedly should take some flack for it. Of course, this is an ongoing tale, and it could be considered that the draenei are just another chapter in the book, that sort of thing. But, so go the arguments...

Now, the part about people giving you crap for rolling a space goat? They're just being immature and forgetting this is a game. There's a certain segment of the WoW community that gets all up in arms over their class and race, and take anything that's against them as a personal insult. It's just a game, we forget that all too often. Even though you're not personally insulting them by playing a draenei, they take your very presence as a problem, particularly in lore discussions. My advice? Ignore them.

RogueJedi asked...

"Why hasn't Blizzard shut down any more gold sites?"

We don't know, first of all. Secondly, Blizzard has gotten sites shut down in the past, but we don't know under what pretenses they were shut down, and any speculation we throw out there would be potentially slanderous, so we want to avoid that.

Remember that Blizzard's ToS, which says gold selling and buying is against the rules, is not the law. For a site to be forced to close, it has to be against the law civially or criminally. We don't know the specific situations in relation to the law, and we likely will never know, so it's best just to not say anything we don't know much about.

And everyone who says that Blizzard takes a cut from the gold selling sites is lying, there has never been any evidence of that, and any suggestion otherwise is proposterous.

Hyacinthe asked...

"Is Blizzard seriously not planning to itemize things for bear tanks?"

Because the druid kit does not rely on the defense stat and takes much from core and universal stats such as agility, stamina, and armor, there does not need to be gear specifically tuned to druid tanks (although there is some). Instead, druid tanks roll with rogues and cats. This isn't a bad situation, and is about equal with the other classes. Warlocks, mages, and shadow priests roll together (more or less). DPS paladins, warriors, and death knights roll together (more or less). Plate tanks roll together (more or less). And healers... well... healers are just nuts and roll on anything that they need -- same with hunters.

Remember, it's not about the gear, it's about the way your class interfaces with the gear.

Alex started the discussion...

What's your favorite WoW site, besides WoW.com?

Like Alex, I visit a ton of sites every day, and have several hundred in my RSS reader. On a daily basis I find myself visiting MMO-Champion, WoWWiki, and Wowhead. There are about 30 or so that I'll visit once a week, and another 50 that I'll frequent at least a few times a month. I'm working on a very large list of WoW resources for everyone, and that should be posted in the next couple days.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com 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!