The Queue: Why Blizzard must deliver today

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky), senior editor at WoW Insider, will be your host today. And yes, it's time for one of those Queues where you get a little bit of editorial opinion up front.

Blizzard has a golden opportunity today. The entire gaming industry will be watching the opening ceremony; not an eye in the greater community will be elsewhere. Everyone will be waiting to hear two things: the Diablo 3 release date, and more importantly, the next World of Warcraft expansion.

This expansion in particular cannot just be another cataclysm/Cataclysm. It has to deliver unlike any expansion has ever done so in any other game. The Wookiees are pounding on the door to Blizzard, and they're not going to back off until Arthas himself swings forth the next expansion and beats them back like the Sith Lord he wishes he was. If Blizzard today can reinvigorate the player base, convince the press and critics that it still has the #1 game -- and always will -- there is nothing that BioWare or anyone else is going to be able to do to stop WoW's continued dominance for the next 10 years.

But Blizzard has one chance at this, and that chance starts and ends today.

Watch it.

Either way, it's gonna be a helluva an interesting BlizzCon.

EverythingRuned asked:

How do you describe the different shaman specs without getting into game terms?

Shaman control the elements of the Earth. Restoration shaman heal you with the life-giving power of terra firma, elemental shaman rain down the elements onto their enemies, and enhancement shaman call on powers of Earth to grant them strength in physical combat.

Sidvicious asked:

Are we finally going to get an update on the old character models in the next expansion?

We'll find out today, but I honestly doubt it. I think a lot of people are so stuck on their old models at this point, it'd be kinda cruel to change them. Blizzard has said as much at points as well.

Gabe asked:

I know that I'll be able to get the information from Blizzcon from WoWInsider, but I'd like to view the stream, since I can't actually go to Blizzcon. Is there another option, where some kind soul decides to post videos of the stream on YouTube, or will I have to pay for it to watch it?

That kind of stuff does happen, but it's not something that's going to be up for long when it does -- at least in most cases. You can find some of the older things, but since Blizzard started charging for it ... yeah. It doesn't like giving the video away for free (obviously).

Allie Roberts and I will be teaming up for the live blogging this year. We've already got a system in place for blogging and picture taking, so we should be better than ever!

eel5pe asked:

While flying through northern Feralas on my way to Feathermoon Stronghold to check it off the list of Kalimdori pumpkins, I flew over Dreamer's Rest and noticed that it had an exclamation mark. Closer inspection confirmed that it was indeed a fully functional trick-or-treatable jack-o-lantern (though to my disappointment it only yielded candy and my 18th or so Sinister Squashling).

So question: what other "unlisted" (aka functional, but not listed on the achievement) pumpkins are out there? My example is obviously an alliance pumpkin but pumpkins for dirty horde would be welcome too.

I haven't seen a list anywhere, but I've seen this happen to one of my toons a ton. My guess is that Blizzard wants them everywhere, but only wants to "force" you to go to a few of them. Not really a bad thing, just slightly unusual for WoW.

Paladious asked:

The best 90's cartoons in my opion were Exo Sqad, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, and, of course, the X-men.

I am proud (or ashamed, not sure which) that I've watched most of the '90s X-Men on Netflix. That was a darn good show in many respects.

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!