The Queue: In which fighting snails is a Thing

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) has provided meals for five Gastropods.

Apparently it is very common in old medieval texts to see images of knights fighting snails. Nobody really knows why this was such a common thing in the 13th and 14th century, although there have been several theories thrown out there over time -- the snails could represent something in particular, could be some sort of Biblical reference, or could just be a silly idea that a lot of people had simultaneously. It does, however, make one wonder if the Gastropods over in the Throne of Thunder were a quiet nod to these odd sketches and drawings.

HobMeadows asked:

Q4tQ: Every so often, you hear a remark like, "Metzen really wants X to be a playable race". Like, right now people have been talking about naga -- "Oh, Metzen really wants them to be playable someday." And when the Mists trademark was revealed, that was said of Pandaren, too (IIRC). So, is there a list of "What Metzen would like as a playable race"? Or is it just a rumor?

I don't think there is an official list anywhere. However, you can safely assume that if it sounds really, really cool, it would likely be on that nonexistent list.

mrfusticle asked:

QQQ: Can anyone confirm if timeless rings upgraded with burdens count as unique? I can't see any indication they are on the tooltip but just want to be certain before I spend a burden on a second ring ;)

The rings are thankfully not unique. Feel free to upgrade away!

Kovarian commented:

I'm fairly certain the object in the Vale from Lorewalker Cho does not let you watch the end cinematic referred to by Yamael. It seemed like they wanted to see the Thrall/Varian interaction and the crowing of the new Warchief. What the object in the Vale lets you see is Cho speaking with Shaohao after you leave the raid. Those are different cutscenes, and I don't think the former is visible at all except for when you defeat Garrosh.

Actually, there are three different interactive items that unlock when you defeat Garrosh and turn in the quests. The shrine under the tree will replay the sequence with Lorewalker Cho and Emperor Shaohao. Just to the north of the tree, there are two stones -- one with a red banner, and one with a blue banner. Clicking on the red will show you the Horde cinematic ending, and clicking on the blue will show you the Alliance version. Both are unlocked when you complete everything, so Alliance players can see the Horde version, and vice versa.

Koboi_K asked:

Why doesn't WoW, as an MMORPG, have an in-built RP flag utility in its UI?

I think you're talking about a feature like an in-game version of MyRoleplay or FlagRSP, and yes, it would be really, really cool to see this as an in-game feature. However, the amount of players that would actually use said feature are relatively small in comparison to how many players are playing the game. But there's another problem with this, and it's mostly tied to the fact that this is a way for players to put whatever they want in that little box.

Generally speaking, there are people out there that would use that opportunity to type in some incredibly inappropriate stuff. You already see it a lot with roleplaying addons. If Blizzard introduced this as an in-game feature, they would then be responsible for and have to police any content people typed into that feature -- and trying to monitor that would take a lot of extra people and time. Because of this, I don't think we're likely to see it as a thing, as much as it would be pretty cool.

JeffLaBowski asked:

Q4tQ: Speaking of the "Vision in Time" questline. Will anyone be doing a write up on this? I would love to hear other ideas about the visions. Mainly because I have no fracking idea what they are supposed to mean :)

I've already covered it in Know Your Lore, once in a general post about the Timeless Isle, and again in a Tinfoil Hat Edition regarding the bronze dragonflight and the really weird visions.

Ron2 asked:

Why does the Alliance celebrate Hallow's End? The Commoners even say "many have forgotten why", but nobody else provides any further details. According to the holiday quest giver in the Undercity, they (the Forsaken, maybe the Horde as a whole) celebrate Hallow's End because that was the day when the Dark Lady freed her people. Whether that's accurate or not, it's at least a reason.

Hallow's End was around long before the Forsaken existed, including the ceremonial burning of the Wickerman. Back then, it was said that throwing a branch in the Wickerman's fire would burn away anything that a man didn't want to take with him into the winter -- it would all be put behind him. There's a really cool story about the Headless Horseman and Hallow's End in Warcraft: Legends, issue number 5. If you can't get your hands on that, I also wrote it up in Know Your Lore. Despite the Horde having their own defined reasons for celebrating the event, humans have been celebrating it for far, far longer.

@RichardkurnieJ asked via Twitter:

why do people keep asking for alliance to take zones back when blizz has said it was done in cata to even out lvling zones?

Because there is a really big disconnect between story in the game, and things that are done for game mechanics. The zone revamps and re-allocations were all done to even the playing field for leveling characters -- in vanilla, Alliance players had more choices for leveling zones than Horde players. However, you can't just re-allocate entire zones without giving them a story, a reason for that action taking place. The story that Blizzard chose to tell was one in which the Alliance lost the territory to the Horde. It works, from a story perspective, and it makes sense -- but it doesn't make Alliance players feel very good at all. It feels very much like the Alliance lost a lot with the revamp from an emotional standpoint, when in actuality it was simply reorganizing the zones so that there was an equal distribution of leveling content for both sides.

@shamanrongar asked:

I read the Acidic Swamp Ooze may be related to the Old Gods somehow. Anything to that? Is there any lore significance to them?

Once upon a time, there was a quest chain that sent you all over Azeroth to collect ooze samples for Chemist Fuely, an NPC over in the Apothecarium in Undercity. It was a super obnoxious quest just because it required you to travel to the far-flung corners of the world, and it was removed in Cataclysm. However, Chemist Fuely had some interesting things to say about samples obtained in Un'goro Crater:

This, combined with the presence of Viscidus in Ahn'Qiraj, led many to think there was actually a connection between the two -- certainly the Old Gods seem to have a lot of fun with slimes, ooze and blood of all flavors and varieties. But the connection has never been firmly established or outright stated as fact.

@ChiefVoljin asked via Twitter:

Would you prefer seeing a well known race become playable next or a completely new race designed from scratch?

I would prefer doing away with new races and classes for the next expansion, and instead focusing on new character models for all races introduced in vanilla -- and Burning Crusade, if there's time to get around to it. Which would you rather have, a new race or class to re-roll and start from scratch, or a fresh new update for the characters you already play and love?

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!