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Gamers on the Street: BlizzCon & Wrath of the Auctioned Murloc

krystalle voecks
Updated ·6 min read


In Gamers on the Street, Krystalle Voecks will be creating characters and joining different US servers in an attempt to find out what the everyday Gamer thinks about different things going on in and around the World of Warcraft. With research in hand, she'll report back here on Thursdays, to share the word from the front lines.

With BlizzCon starting tomorrow, you'd have to be living under a rock to have missed the buzz and rumours flying about things like Wrath of the Lich King. I've seen fairly credible concepts (Northrend is coming!) to some really crazy things (The new area is the Maelstrom, the level cap is 85, flying mounts are coming to ALL of Azeroth, and Bob's your uncle.) I couldn't resist hitting the virtual bricks this week and checking to see whether BlizzCon fever has hit everywhere, or if the only notable thing to most people is that L70ETC is rockin' Terrorkar Forest to its foundation every hour on the hour.



This week, I headed to the Illidan (PvP) server to speak with Blacklyte who sent me a mail offering to be interviewed for Gamers on the Street. Blacklyte is a Level 70 BM specced Troll Hunter from the guild <The Unemployed>. He raids with his casual, friendly guild who have gotten all the way up to Gruul's Lair, and managed to take out Gruul himself. (They're working to get farm status nailed down now.) Other than that, he likes to tear things up in the battlegrounds with his guild's Alliance "sister" (but KOS) guild, <We Have Jobs>. When not raiding or in the battlegrounds, he farms up a storm and works on his Alchemy to help his guild progress.

WoW Insider: So what do you want to see news-wise from BlizzCon?

Blacklyte: I am really looking forward to the new expansion and the face off with Arthas. In the prior Warcrafts he was the badass everyone wanted to hate but loved. [Beyond that] one of the biggest thrills for me is to go out adventuring and exploring new areas. It's what keeps things fresh.

WI: So assuming it is Wrath of the Lich King and Northrend, what kinds of things would you want to see in a new expansion?

B: Hopefully some new mobs. I'm kinda tired of seeing the same old models with different colors. BC had some new ones but not nearly enough. The armor sets were crappy too. In my opinion, Blizzard got lazy, just rehashed a lot of the old gear and threw different colors on the sets. It's kind of annoying if you think about it. [The raids] need to stay smaller too. Blizz hit the nail on the head with the 10 man raids. There aren't enough of them. It gives the smaller guilds the chance they never had. Sure there can be 25 mans, but 10 mans is what keeps the majority of the people happy. And heck, they can even be PUGged.

WI: Yeah, I've heard that complaint coming from a lot of people, honestly. How about raising the level cap?

B: I am very much in favor of that, as much as it might have to suck to re-roll a new character, we need to have it raised. That keeps everyone busy -- not just the hardcore raiders, but the casuals too.

WI: So what do you think about the people selling the goodies from the BlizzCon schwag bags on online auction sites? Cool thing to do, or just mercenary?

B: I am personally against it, being a pack-rat in real life, but I suppose if they really want to, it's their choice. The whole point of going to BlizzCon would be to get cool stuff. They should appreciate it more. I would flaunt it!

From there, I said goodbye to Blacklyte, deleted my Orc, and rolled a Human to find a kind person in Stormwind to ask a few questions. (I didn't have any volunteers who mailed in from Illidan's Alliance side, sadly.) After hunting for a little while, I managed to snag a few moments of a kind Alliance Rogue's time. Twytch is a level 70 Rogue with a Seal Fate/Premed spec from the guild <Shadeless Night>. He's currently working to get all of his factions to Exalted, as well as working on getting Keyed for Kara and all the Heroics so he can hopefully raid in the future. Twytch used to PvP a lot, but says he's gotten bored with that lately.

WI: So what kinds of things do you want to see at BlizzCon?

Twytch: Blizzard? I'd like to see more about the expansion.

WI: So assuming it is really Wrath of the Lich King and Northrend, what kinds of things would you want to see in a new expansion?

T: I'd like to see cooler gear. The tier 6 for Rogues looks like Warrior gear, and I think the headpiece is dumb. They should also make the Assassination gear drop more! I ran Sethekk Halls at least 15 times, but no shoulders have dropped yet. I want to fight the Lich King and see Arthas, though. He's supposed to be the hardest, so a 25 man [raid for him] sounds good.

WI: I haven't gotten those shoulders either. How about potentially raising the level cap?

T: If we had to go to level 80, that wouldn't be too great. I don't like to have to catch up and getting left behind.

WI: So what do you think about the people selling the goodies from the BlizzCon schwag bags on online auction sites? Cool thing to do, or just mercenary?

T: It's fine by me. I don't use any of that stuff.

Personally, I'm with both of them -- I'd love to see both new gear and new mob models. Blizzard has some brilliant artists, so I'd like to see them stretch their wings and come up with some truly wicked new sets. I'm not really interested in raising the level cap right now, but I'm still working my way through raid content so I admit my bias. What about you? What kind of exciting and interesting news are you expecting to hear coming out of BlizzCon this weekend? Or are you just glad it will (ostensibly) all be over soon?

Remember, if you're interested in being interviewed for an upcoming edition of Gamers on the Street be sure to drop me an email with your server, character's name, faction, and any other information you'd like to pass along about your character!