The Queue: NO

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.

I know Adam just used this image yesterday, but man, how could I resist? Image relevant to next question.

Finneous asked:

I wonder, if you create a character in the MOP beta, and later buy the game, will the character still be there to play, or do you have to start from scratch?

You don't get to keep your characters from any Blizzard beta (or many online game betas, period). Expect that trend to continue with MoP when the beta ends.

Draven asked:

What are your guys opinion on the Ironman Challenge that is happening on WoW? Are any of the writers partaking in the grind to 85?

I think it's insane and great. Talk about high stakes! I have some friends at Cryptozoic who are undertaking the challenge; in fact, one of them creates characters based on coworkers and plays them until they die. I'm proud to say that Ironman contestant Mikesacco the undead mage lasted until level 16, whereupon he was killed by two prowling worgen with Shadowstep. RIP.

Welshy asked:

I went back and watched some of the BlizzCon 2011 preview panel and saw where Ghostcrawler joked about the lack of a female Pandaren model at that point. If I recall, they had trouble with the worgen female model before Cata's release as well. Why does Blizzard have trouble with female character models? Are they somehow harder to create?

It's less a problem with female character models -- you'll notice goblin females came out just fine -- and more a problem with female anthropomorphic animals. It's pretty easy to make a male anthropomorphic character look "right" within the constraints of WoW's art style, but it's hard to avoid sexualizing a female one because male sexual characteristics are a little less obvious than female ones. Worse, if you have an "unattractive" female model, no one will want to play it, and you need people to play your new races. I don't really envy Blizzard. But I still think worgen females look like wet chihuahuas.


Jebediah54 asked:

Why is it that when I run my 64-bit client of WoW, I tend to get a lower framerate? I've heard everywhere that running the 64-bit client should make the whole experience smoother. I even have all the settings on low... Any thoughts would be awesome.

Computers with less than 4GB of RAM will suffer from poor performance under the 64-bit client. It's built for a better machine than whatever you're running it on. Add some RAM and I bet it'll run fine (a good rule of thumb for any software, actually).

AltairAntares asked:

I have a question for the queue- I'm thinking of creating and leveling a new character on a new server- is there any server (faction really doesn't matter) that's widely considered to be at "just the right spot" with faction balance/people being decent/overcrowding etc? Every realm forum I look at people always seem to be frustrated with their server.

Most servers are pretty balanced in total population as well as Horde/Alliance ratio; just pick one that seems to get a lot of forum activity rather than one that looks like people are "happy". Everybody who posts on the forums hates their server.

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!