The Queue: Homosexual characters in WoW

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

Area 52 was always one of my favorite cities. I lament the loss of it as a place I'd often visit. WoW needs more goblin and gnome cities! Who's with me?

Anyone?

Anyone?

D asked:

Why aren't there any homosexual characters in WoW?

While I don't know of any openly homosexual characters in WoW whose sexuality is part of a quest or a even semi-major plot line, I don't think that means there are no homosexuals in the World of Warcraft. Sexuality in general just isn't that big of a plot point in the Warcraft universe. Of course you have the typical progeny storylines found in most fantasy novels, but the sexuality there is not the issue in any way -- the offspring is the issue.

I asked this on my personal Twitter account last night, and Kazefiend was the first to link me Sentinel Sweetspring's dialog, which could indicate her orientation. That's really the best direct evidence I could find of any homosexual characters.

There are other characters whose sexuality could be speculated about, but I'd rather keep this discussion at the same level as I do in real life: rumors are just that -- rumors, and not worth a dime. Budd, despite what some may say, does not give evidence of being a homosexual character.

I'm interested to know what the collective knowledge of the WoW community is here. There might be some guy or girl deep in the Warcraft lore that I'm missing, and I'm happy to update The Queue with such facts.

(I have the banhammer ready if people are going to be immature, so don't be. This is a good and legitimate question that deserves an answer with further community input.)

Christopher asked:

At the start of Cataclysm, it was said that healers would be the new bottleneck for things like 5 mans, especially pugs, with the increased focus on mana management. Did the healer shortage ever eclipse the persistent tanking shortage, or are tanks still the bottleneck?

There's definitively a healer shortage, but it's not reached the level of a tank shortage. Healers still have a queue in the random dungeon finder, whereas tanks still get into a group instantly. In general, the shortage isn't as bad as it was back in December, but it's still quite evident.

Nuno asked:

Where's Ghostcrawler? Did someone tame him for good.

While we don't know officially, we understand that he's just doing the occasional blog post now and is no longer actively posting on the forums (although I know nearly every designer reads them). As you might suspect, I have some opinions on this and may (or may not) make a post of it sometime in the future.

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!