The Queue: I'm on a boat

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) will be your host today.

I though I'd share what I had to do with my life yesterday. I was on a boat, on a lake, and was drinking on aforementioned boat.

I lead a very difficult life. Please, pray for me when you have a moment to spare.

NickJay asked:

I asked earlier what the chances are of Blood Elves models being the only race to not be included at launch, and since the devs have now answered "100%", my new question is: when would be a realistic time to expect them by? Before, with or after 6.1?

I expect them to come in 6.1 or later. I could see them being "almost done" when the game launches, and then really using that time to polish things up and get them out the door with patch 6.1 or 6.2. Keep in mind that we don't really know how Blizzard is going to handle patches for Warlods of Draenor. They could do them like they did with the Mists release, do they could go back to the old way, or something else entirely.

Either way, it'll be after an interation or two.

Kovarian asked:

Does anyone/you-queue-author think that the recent announcement of cross-faction Auction Houses means that there will be an increase in the amount of cross-faction mailing allowed for alts? The fact that we can now put up items for exorbitant prices and buy them with an alt (to transfer money) or at minimal prices and just act quickly (to transfer items) means that the restrictions seem less solid then they used to. And, considering heirlooms are cross-faction now, it seems even odder. Do you think money and items will eventually be able to flow freely between characters regardless of faction?

Yes, I suspect that we'll see full cross-faction mailing to our alts relatively soon. I don't reckon it will happen with the launch of Draenor's Warlords, but sometime after. More so I suspect that Blizzard will one day soon just release an account-wide bank. I think it's REALLY crazy that they haven't done this already, and with them implementing more and more features we see in other games, I see this coming.

Fox asked:

So I know for various reasons we'll probably never see a WoW 2, but do you think that at some point, Blizzard will finally give up on patching and updating the current engine, and just code a brand new engine for WoW? I mean, there are probably all sorts of things they'd like to do that just aren't possible with limitations that were set back in 2003, (inability to update the backpack, for example)

They have been updating their engine ever since 2003. It really hasn't been a static thing, they employ teams of people that are constantly working on all aspects of the game. Now do I think that Blizzard is going to go back to the drawing board and re-release WoW in what is today's graphic standards?

I can't see why they wouldn't.

Have you ever actually looked at the trees? There are some, especially in the newer zones, that have leaves. Others in the old world or previous content are jut disgusting two-dimensional polygons. Sure they looked okay back in the day, but now when you're flying over them, you're jolted out of the world and reminded how old the content is.

That's what Blizzard can change, and I think they will. Things like new trees are already in the game, but there's a lot more that can be done to improve the environment and older gear. WoW is still the king, so I expect it will happen one day.

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!