Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Basil Berntsen will be your host today.

I asked to write today's edition because you guys are all awesome.

Valorum asked...

"Why do you have to be in a raid to zone into a raid zone? If I can get one other person to join a group, convert it to a raid, and have that person log out and still be able to get into a raid zone, what's the purpose in not letting anyone into one, like anyone can enter any 5-man zone?"

It's a bit of a relic. It's an old design that probably could be changed without significantly affecting the game, but I don't see Blizzard making a change for this.

Transit asked...

"You know that picture of Deathwing over the ruined building with a city burning in the background? The one they released as a wallpaper? Well, is that image to scale? Is Deathwing really that big? If so, how do you think tanking that monster will play out when it seems like it could crush someone with out even noticing they are there."
Deathwing's hit box is so big, it has its own zip code. He's so enormous, he has his own gravity well. When you're fighting him, not only will the ranged be out of range of the healers, they'll need to zone twice to get back in range! You know that graphics setting where you specify the maximum range of object to render? It's going to have to be increased. That's why Blizzard is increasing the minimum system requirements, actually!

Noid asked...

"Will Alliance and Horde actually have to work together on something other than Arthas? Against Deathwing?"

Nope. Blizzard was pretty clear that any de-facto partnership we had during the fight against Arthas will dissolve when we get back home and see how much less resources there are to go around. I, for one, am looking forward to the change. The ideology of the two factions always seemed too opposite to really work together for long, and I think that was part of the initial appeal of the game to many people.

Victor asked...

"Is Blizz going to do the Spirit of Competition holiday like they did two years ago for Winter Olympics?"

Not that we've heard of. Considering that there's already two holidays overlapping now, I doubt it though.

Andrew R. asked...

"Why are the Paladin blessings only 10 minutes save for the greater blessings but mark of the wild and arcane intellect are 30 minutes?"

Young'uns these days! Don't complain... I remember when they were 5 minutes. Actually, as far as I know, the original design of paladins called for them to have to micromanage these short term buffs, however they distanced themselves from that mechanic in patch 2.2. Also, as Banndit pointed out in the comments, at least you're not warriors refreshing shouts!

Gamer am I asked...

"I've always been curious: how does WoW.com pick the questions for The Queue each day"
There's a complex algorithm where whoever gets picked to answer the questions does it completely arbitrarily. Personally, I like to throw darts at my laptop. Speak of which, WoW.com editors, where do I expense a new laptop? I keep having to scroll past the dart holes to read the next question.

Vacasta asked...

"Have gold farmers caused blizzard to lower gold's utility? It seems that there are fewer and fewer BoE items as time goes on"

It certainly seems that way, but it's not just farmers. There's a growing segment of players who view accumulating gold as an end game in and of itself (including yours truly). It's not really fair to let some market genius with hundreds of thousands of gold achieve the same PvE and PvP rewards as someone who really spends the time and gets their skill to the point where they can earn them.