The Queue: Littered with excitement

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) will be answering your questions today.

The only human voice in the above video is the guy that laughs at the end -- the rest is all the two parrots, which is really crazy when you realize how much the parrots are actually saying. And mildly hysterical if you imagine a passer-by suddenly hearing the litter bin burst into uncontrollable laughter. Parrots are cool.

You know what else is cool? Warcraft questions.

RichardW.Velliquette asked:

What do you think a shadow magic attack feels like? I know that fire obviously burns and frost would be pointy and cold. But I was never quite sure how shadow magic physically harms its victim. Based on some priest tooltips I've read I gather that it might feel like a headache. Am I far off?

I like to think it's sort of like having a migraine on a major scale, for most of the attacks. For the drain kind of spells, I've always imagined it as that sudden onset bout of shaky weakness you get every now and again when you've got a really horrible fever or illness -- the kind that seems to sap all your energy and make it impossible to move.

Hexabolt asked:

Q4TQ: A Star Trek discussion in general this week made me think that space travel is missing from Azeroth. The Draenei seems to have used space ships (powered by magic?), but apart from that, its rather thin. We have great Gnome engineers, why can we not go into space?

The ships that the draenei use aren't actually what you'd call proper spaceships -- they're dimensional ships that the naaru power and use. When the draenei travel, it's not really what you'd think of as classic space travel so much as dimension-hopping on a large scale. I always like to think of it as kind of an inverse mage portal -- with a mage portal, you go into it to step from location to location. With a dimensional ship, it's more like you remain stationary, and the locations step around you. Either way, it's pretty weird and definitely not conventional space travel. But when you're got the ability to magically hop from location to location, why would you bother taking a traditional spaceship?

Arthonos asked:

Q4tQ: Given all the feedback Blizzard receives on a daily basis, what is your opinion of how they handle it? Do you feel they have struck a good balance between following what they believe is best for the game versus trying to keep customers happy?

I think they handle it as best as they can. Their vision for the game is always top priority -- but if something is noticeably broken, or doesn't make sense, they'll address it. I think it also depends on the feedback that they're being given, too. Some people are quick to point out or criticize elements of the game that they don't like, but they won't really go into detail as far as why they don't like it other than that it's "terrible" as far as they're concerned. Without any frame of reference for what is wrong, there's no real way to address that wrong thing and make it right. This is why, when you leave feedback or criticism, being constructive is absolutely key.

That said, Blizzard gets a tremendous amount of feedback. There are millions of people playing this game, and everyone has an opinion. Dealing with feedback isn't just addressing issues -- it's being able to sort through the piles and piles of feedback they receive and allocate which issues are legitimate, which are simply a matter of opinion, which are cases that need to be addressed immediately, and which can be looked at and taken into consideration for future design. I think Blizzard does way, way better than most companies do in terms of keeping an ear to the community and keeping the lines of communication open between devs and players.

morvackthemountmimic asked:

Do any wow lore characters suffer from mental issues? I know the blood elfs went through magic addiction withdrawals, but is there any other examples?

Most of the time, if we see someone acting crazy on Azeroth, they've been corrupted by something dark and horrible. That seems to be the extent of it. Evil, darkness, corruption, or sometimes you just have weird guys like Budd Nedreck who chose the wrong trolls to tangle with and lost his mind in the process.

Calidyn_ asked:

How can I convince my brain that I don't need all the card backs for a game I scarcely play? Halp. D:

Just go for the ones that look really pretty. I like green, so I went for this month's ranked card back. The next one might not be so visually appealing. ... I hope, anyway. I don't exactly have loads of time to play Hearthstone these days.

Darkwraith asked:

Q4TQ: Do you think we might get a class-specific quest, like Locks do, that will net you a NEW spell/ability? Like upgrading your pyroblast into pyroboulder, which would have a larger radius and actually do more damage?

Here's the problem with doing something like this -- it's content created specifically for one chunk of the player population, which means that there is limited play value in that content. So the better question would be this: Would you like to see one class get some amazing quest storyline with all kinds of interesting lore than no other class will see, or would you rather have that time dedicated to playable content that everyone can enjoy? Blizzard's answer seems to be pretty firmly on the latter end of that spectrum. While class quests and content are incredibly fun (I miss the Swift Flight Form chain!), they aren't really the best use of manpower and hours when it comes to playability return on time invested.

smartazjb0y asked:

Who's the most well-known villain? I'd probably say Arthas or Illidan, but I was thinking maybe it'd be a villain who was in the original WC and WC2 days, so maybe Deathwing or one of the evil Orcs like Ner'zhul

Hands down it's the Lich King. He was introduced in Warcraft III, featured on the box, had a major, major story, and is almost instantly recognizable. Illidan was cool, but he wasn't really the kind of villain that Arthas managed to sink to in WC3 -- heck, he even tried to stop Illidan. I think the Lich King wins that contest by a landslide.

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!