11.Who Cares, It's Almost Midnight! - Episode 28

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 28! – 1:45

There is so much to discuss as we are on the cusp of the eleventh expansion of World of Warcraft. Naturally, I suggestions for Blizzard for improving the game as the main topic

“What have you done lately?” – 6:09

Holy crap, there is so much I have done. Buckle up. It all seems to revolve around stories this episode. Some piled up unlearned recipes leads three of my characters onto huge tangents in Northrend, I discover a flight school in Hallowfall with a weak, indecisive headmaster, and I reach an account-wide leveling milestone (only to learn later this episode that I am actually still 2 levels shy)

11.2 Reactions – 55:21

The final major content patch for The War Within is live; Tazavesh is a cool city; comparing K’aresh to Argus, the (one) new Delve is solid; Bliz nailed it with optional depth of storytelling in the campaign questing.

Drink of the Month – 1:27:18

Sneaking some Badlands Bourbon north into Farstrider Retreat.

News – 1:32:08

• Legion Remix announced in a post and video here: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24224370
• My thoughts on it
• 2 is in full swing, including RTWF
• LFR Wing 2 and “Story” Mode raids launch today, August 19
• LFR Wing 3 comes August 26
• One more thing in the news…?

Main Topic: Midnight Expansion Announcement – 1:45:02

Tuesday, August 19 (the day I FINALLY get this episode out), Blizzard will officially announce and introduce to us the Midnight expansion at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. 2:00 PM at SQ HQ, 11:00 AM on the West Coast at Blizzard HQ, and I believe 3:00 on August 20 for my friend the Snek of Vol’dun!

My Midnight Wish List – 1:49:47

My list of 10 requests, the 10 great ideas I have for improving WoW for everyone, but certainly solo players. Free of charge, Bliz, free of charge.

SQ Mailbag – 2:08:11

One negative rating has me upset, but maybe not in the way you would expect. But that is balanced by a new Patreon supporter who also likes my Solo Crew Refuge proposal for a player housing neighborhood. And, if you have the time and interest in entering your own ratings or reviews of the show in your podcast app, that would make me feel good and further balance out that negative.

Outro – 2:38:30

• Thanks to Blizzard for the amazing music and sound, to OGRE for intro/outro music, my lovely and supportive wife, and you for listening.
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/soloqueuewow
• Thank you to patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, Cyn, Snek of Vol’dun, Jon, Scott and newest patron Jeru! And thanks to all the free supporters as well!
• Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest. Leave a 5-star rating and a written review to help grow Solo Queue.
• You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

“I will see you out there."

Episode 27 – Gotta Collect Them All

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 27! – 2:59

A celebration in three parts, the first of which is celebrating my return to WoW and the SQ mic after an unforeseen absence. Big thanks to Ali for coming on for Episode 24 and to Ali and Gin for having me on Live, Laugh, Lore to talk starting zones!

SQ Book Club – 8:11

A review of Dungeon Crawler Carl, the first book in a fantasy series by Matt Dinniman. It gets the official SQ book recommendation for portraying the immersive MMORPG experience through an involuntary live-action global dungeon crawl with Carl and Princess Donut.

News – 13:14

• March of the Sethrak 2 on July 20 a success: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABnqfS8YeKs
• Greedy Emissary event ends July 29 – collect them all!
• Winds of Mysterious Fortune event is live until Aug. 12
• Horrific Visions will continue into S3 but at S2 difficulty levels.
• Collector’s Bounty event ends July 29 as well – more collect them all!
• MoP launch event for the mount ends July 30
• “Doom of K’aresh” short story just released to give us backstory on the world we will be adventuring in, written by Adam Christopher and voiced by Ray Porter as Locus Walker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSw8rW7fZ5c&t=2s
• The passing of Ozzy Osborne; will there be a WoW NPC in-game, or at least one everyone can reach?
• Housing update – types of neighborhoods and the endeavors
• Midnight expansion announcement at Gamescom on August 19!
• Changes to your bank tabs – level 80s need not worry

Drink of the Month – 58:57

A wild goose chase for an adult beverage all over the southern tip of Kalimdor.

“What have you done lately?” – 1:04:29

The lull before 11.2 is about as busy as could be with MoP Classic Pandaren starting zone, Lorewalking, One Button Rotation, Turbulent Timeways all kept me busy, until I hit…

Main Topic: Collector’s Bounty Event – 1:52:07

Discussion of the monthlong event, including my farming tips, and a list of my haul for this month, including getting a new mount live in the show!

Outro – 2:38:30

• Thanks to Blizzard for the amazing music and sound, to OGRE for intro/outro music, my lovely and supportive wife, and you for listening. OGRE’s “King of the Wood” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7iErMhstlY
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/soloqueuewow
• Thank you to patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, Cyn, Snek of Vol’dun, Jon and Scott! And thanks to all the free supporters as well!
• Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest. Leave a 5-star rating and a written review to help grow Solo Queue.
• You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

“I will see you out there."

Episode 26 – HDYS Interview with Matt Rossi!

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 26! – 2:03

A wide-ranging interview with games journalist and fiction writer Matt Rossi! I’m not even going to pretend to make a list of topics, but we talk about starting hit WoW career with his wife, how to approach WoW when your job demands that you spoil all new content as soon as it hits test servers, and his need to dive into lore in any game.

Plenty of talk about lore and storytelling in WoW throughout the years and how the Wrathgate was a turning point in how the stories are delivered to us, the players. We even get into the true purpose of any fiction in our human existence.

We also discuss Matt’s ongoing visual disability, a form of blindness that he explains in more detail. July is the celebration month for Disability Pride, and in hopes of sharing awareness of disability and accommodations in video games, he explains how his severe visual impairment affects his play of Warcraft and other types of games. It turns out that flexible difficulty and voice acting are two great accessibility options. Developers take notice.

Lightning Round! – 1:19:53

This round of 8 questions is not quick, but it takes the form of “Two Lizzes and a Joe (and a Cory)”.

Outro – 1:31:13

• Thanks to Blizzard for the amazing music and sound, to OGRE for intro/outro music, my lovely and supportive wife, and you for listening.
• Big thank you to Matt! BlizzardWatch puts out podcasts weekly and you can find Matt as a regular host on BlizzardWatch and LoreWatch. He also writes a column and other videogame coverage for the news site. You can also check out Matt’s published fiction at the Goodreads and Amazon links!

• https://blizzardwatch.com/author/matt/
• https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B01M6BQ5SF
• https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/308134.Matthew_Rossi

• You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
• Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest. Leave a 5-star rating and a written review to help grow Solo Queue.
• Support the show at Patreon.com/SoloQueueWoW
• Thank you to contributing patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, Cyn, Snek of Vol’dun, Jon, and Scott! And thanks to all the free supporters as well!

“We will see you out there."