The Queue: Peter Petrelli, you are the bomb
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.
Presented without comment.
Twowolves asked:
So, how long until the next expansion is announced? I don't think Blizz will sit on it for long. They want to keep our attention as GW2 and TOR roll towards release.
It'll be announced at this year's BlizzCon. That's just the way these things work.
Noyou asked:
We often see "12 million subscribers" as the consensus figure for WoW. Does that include inactive accounts or is that absolute paid/current subscribers?
Blizzard's definition of "subscriber" is the following, taken from its financial reports:
World of Warcraft subscribers are defined to include: (1) individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft , (2) those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access, and (3) Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days. The definition of subscribers does not include any players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, or expired prepaid cards.
Its definition is actually surprisingly narrow (and honest, for that matter).
Levi_young asked:
Is it a requirement that Death Knights be dead in order to be a Death Knight? That seems silly given "Death" is in the title but the reason I ask is because what about Arthas? I don't recall him ever dying until we slew him at ICC and he was a Death Knight, wasn't he? So was he dead or no, and if not how could he still be a Death Knight?
If you're a player death knight, you died. That much is explained in your introductory sequence. However, it doesn't appear to be a requirement that you die and be risen in order to become a death knight; you can just be turned into one, like Arthas, through necromantic energy. Lots of Scourge death knights appear to have been created or "gifted" that way, though admittedly it seems that you have to be willing for the transformation to occur. Whether or not the body of a death knight created in such a way is still biologically "alive" is still in question.
Condor asked:
Can I send heirlooms from an Alliance character on one server to a Horde alt on another?
Not yet. Blizzard has said it wants to add it, but the implementation is tricky.
Galestrom asked:
These past few weeks, raid attendance has taken something of a dive. Many cite the emergence of springtime, the sheer age of current raid-level content and other extenuating factors; my question is how common is this? Are many guilds experiencing something of a lull right now?
It could be anything, really; the reasons will vary from guild to guild. If you're battling burnout, our Officers' Quarters column has a great take on handling it.
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!
