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BlizzCon 2011: The floor, the people, the shows
You can't go 10 feet in BlizzCon without seeing a vendor or a costume. While the panels are incredibly informative and awesome, there's a lot more going on at the convention than just news releases. Check out our gallery of the BlizzCon 2011 floor show. You can see vendors, games, sales, and even some fresh costumes. If you're not able to come by BlizzCon 2011 yourself, this might be the next best thing. %Gallery-137311% The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2010: J!nx shows off with murloc hoodies and new arrivals
I'm actually writing the first paragraph last this time around. What follows is a discussion of J!nx clothing and a big thumbs-up to its ever-evolving lines of licensed Blizzard goods, as well as a bit of a manifesto on geeky nerd shirts, clothing and audience. From here on out, J!nx is Jinx, not out of disrespect for the brand, but because that many exclamation points within the article would probably give my editor a heart attack, and I'm usually liberal with the exclamation points. Jinx has, over the past few years, become ubiquitous in the geek community as purveyors of fun clothing and merchandise, licensed and original. It was only a matter of time, really, until a company founded on geeky wear had to make strides into broader clothing lines. If there's one thing that Jinx showed at BlizzCon this year, it was that it is growing.
Bashiok announces BlizzCon pre-sale shipping delays
Bashiok has just posted on the official forums to let people know that any items purchased through the BlizzCon pre-sale have been delayed up to two weeks. Bashiok -- Pre-Sale Shipping Delays Due to an error in our shipping process, BlizzCon items ordered during the pre-sale have been delayed by approximately two weeks. We're expecting all items to now be shipped by November 3. The intent of the pre-sale is of course to allow you to buy your items ahead of time, and get them as close to BlizzCon as possible, if not before. These issues, while unforeseen, are entirely regrettable and we apologize for any inconvenience they've caused. We're working to get you your goodies as soon as we possibly can. Thank you for your patience. source I ordered a horde towel at the beginning of the pre-sale, and mine came a few days before BlizzCon. Maybe some items had an issue in the warehouse, or one of the vendors was late. Who knows! But you should be receiving your items sooner than later. Thank you, Bashiok, for the update. BlizzCon 2010 is over! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. You'll find our liveblogs of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2010 exclusive pet Deathy still has no custom emotes and sounds
Deathy the murloc, BlizzCon 2010's exclusive companion pet, is currently without his own animation set. At this point in time, Deathy occasionally will make the rifle sounds that Grunty, his space-faring murloc counterpart, usually makes. In addition, his sound emotes are the same as Grunty, and some of his animations include those of the murloc suit. At the World of Warcraft art panel during BlizzCon, however, we were treated to a sneak peak of Deathy's custom animations, including jumping up into the air and scorching the ground in a torrent of fire breath. Suffice to say, it was really awesome. Hopefully we will get an update soon or, potentially, with 4.0.3. BlizzCon 2010 is over! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. You'll find our liveblogs of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2010 48-hour sale merchandise gallery
After a little bit of a snafu earlier this weekend, Blizzard has finally opened up the BlizzCon 2010 48-hour sale for ticket holders. Getting in early is advised, as some items, like the sheet music to Lament of the Highborne, are already sold out. We've included a gallery of the official, exclusive merchandise from the site for those of you without tickets. Get your BlizzCon ticket-holding friends on the phone now, because this stuff is going fast. %Gallery-104714%
BlizzCon store's 48-hour online pre-sale
If you've ever been to a convention and seen all of that wonderful swag, you've also seen the lines to procure that wonderful swag. It's annoying to wait in a line for an hour just to buy a T-shirt that you can only get at that venue. Blizzard is bypassing this issue by allowing anyone who has purchased a BlizzCon ticket to grab those unique merchandise items ahead of time and online. No fighting over the last murloc head can cozy or Raynor onesie for your child, just simple online transactions with the goods being shipped directly to your home. This is only for people who have actual tickets to the event. Anyone with a virtual ticket will have to wait until the 13th to get in on their own 48-hour sale. If you don't fall into either of those groups and still want to get in on the swag, then you need to go buy your virtual ticket before 11:50 p.m. Pacific on Oct. 10 to qualify for the sale or you're out of luck. Zarhym on the 48 hour sale Heading to BlizzCon 2010? Planning to purchase some souvenirs at the show? From October 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific time until October 11 at 9:59 a.m., BlizzCon 2010 ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase select BlizzCon 2010 store merchandise online (while supplies last). Items purchased through this sale will be shipped directly to your home, giving you more time to take in the panels, tournaments, and other events at the show. To participate, log in to the online Blizzard Store during the sale hours using the Battle.net account provided when you purchased your BlizzCon 2010 ticket (viewable in the buyer's Order History), and head to the More Products section. A second 48-hour sale for BlizzCon Virtual Ticket purchasers will be taking place beginning October 13 -- place your order by October 10 to participate. http://us.blizzard.com/store/ source
NBC's The Event giving away BlizzCon 2010 tickets
Miss out on your chance to get BlizzCon tickets this year? No worries -- NBC's The Event, an upcoming conspiracy thriller television series created by Nick Wauters, is giving away five pairs of tickets to BlizzCon 2010. You can enter at the sweepstakes page, and you can check out the official rules on the sweepstakes page as well. Unfortunately, the contest is only open to residents of the United States; however, for those who couldn't click quickly enough to purchase tickets, this is an opportunity to make it happen. Check out the sweepstakes page and make sure to get your entries in by Aug. 31!
BlizzCon Roundup: Last year's fun and games
BlizzCon 2010! Anaheim! October! Players are buzzing about the new announcement, and already making travel plans -- but what can a person expect to see at BlizzCon? What kind of stuff is there to talk about? Last year's BlizzCon was all about Cataclysm -- a trailer, playable demos of the new races, lore information, and of course the usual cavalcade of costumes and dance routines. Here's a quick roundup of what you missed at last year's BlizzCon, to give you an idea of what to expect this time around: Pre-show guides and activities: Preparing for BlizzCon -- a quick pre-con checklist Guide to BlizzCon 2009 The goody bag! The WoW.com meetup, including the cast of The Guild The BlizzCon 2009 show floor The official program
Jay Mohr is hosting BlizzCon again
Love him or hate him, it looks like Jay Mohr is hosting BlizzCon again this year. Recently, we reported that the Anaheim Convention Center would be hosting BlizzCon toward the end of October. But there has been nothing official from Blizzard at this time. Of course, we will keep you up to date with any information we receive about BlizzCon in general and Jay's announcement in particular. Update 6:00pm: It looks like he has deleted the tweet.
Officers' Quarters: Cataclysm's guild revamp -- guild currency
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.After Blizzard's big announcement about how they plan to improve guilds in Cataclysm, I've been examining the changes in detail. First, I wrote about the lack of guild improvements over the years and how the expansion will, for better or worse, change WoW guilds forever. Then I speculated on possible leveling system options, guild talents, and guild achievements. This week, I'm going to finish up the series by talking a bit about guild currency and suggesting some products that Blizzard should let us buy with this new system.Here's what we know so far. Guild currency will be earned by players in your guild who earn experience. It remains to be seen if experience (and thus currency) will still be earned by players once they reach the level cap, but I assume that it will. So far, they've only mentioned a few items that we can buy: Vanity items like mounts, tabards, and standards Reagents like frost lotuses for flasks Recipes Heirloom items that scale with level
Grunty the Murloc Marine arrives for DirecTV viewers
Memories of BlizzCon have started to fade over the last month, but today another reminder of the event pops up. If you watched it via DirectTV you should shortly be receiving an email letting you know that soon you too can have a Murloc Marine shadowing your character's every step. The email comes with a code and a URL to visit in order to redeem the little guy. Be careful of any phishing scams, the correct URL is http://www.blizzcon.com/pet. You must also have a Battle.net account in order to receive him.Once you have entered you code and gone through the simple redemption process the next time you log on you will have an in-game mail from Master Handler Sylvester. This will contain your special delivery of a Heavy Murloc Egg and a thank you. Grunty the Murloc Marine, we salute you. When it comes to murlocs, you are the best of the best of the best. Sir! With Honors.
Fan-created documentary about BlizzCon: An event for fans
Reader Encifer sent us a link to this excellent fan-directed documentary short about BlizzCon. Just a few days ago, I kind of panned the LA Times for treating BlizzCon as such an alien thing, but this video kind of takes a different look at the same event -- instead of coming at it from an outsider perspective and treating it as if it's something 20,000 crazy people do over a weekend, it's much more about how exciting it is to be a part of an event this big. I don't know, maybe the difference is just something I see, but this fan documentary, I think, does a really great job of showing just why BlizzCon is so great, while the LA Times piece, in my view, kind of dismissed its subjects even as it was portraying them.At any rate, Chris Nguyen did a terrific job on this -- he says that he created the short film to prepare for a few doc film classes he's going to be taking, as well as challenge his doc-making skills, and it seems like he did just that. He interviewed two of his former guildies, as well as the winner of this year's costume contest, as you can see in the video. And he says the whole thing was shot over the two days at BlizzCon and then took about eight more days to edit. Definitely a fun little film to watch, and if you've never been to BlizzCon before, it'll give you a nice look at just what it's like to show up in a hall with thousands of people who play the same games that you do every day.
The Los Angeles Times visits BlizzCon
The LA Times has a story up that's about a month late -- it tells the story of a guild meeting up at BlizzCon last month (they were actually at the Lost Bar, a place we at WoW.com know well from past meetups) and doing everything players do at BlizzCon: meet each other face to face, talk Warcraft, and enjoy everything Blizzard has set up on the convention floor. Truth be told, the experience sounds pretty tame to us -- BlizzCon is BlizzCon, it's a ton of fun, but it's not that alien of an experience to go with your ingame friends to a gaming convention.Then again, maybe we're just biased. Maybe having guildies as friends is really a fascinating thing to someone who's never done it before, and maybe the spectacle of BlizzCon really is so interesting that you can just report it in the paper. They do chat with Morgan Webb (why?) and they get one line from Blizzard COO Paul Sams, but otherwise, it's just basically the story of the Dread Pirates and their trip to BlizzCon (complete with veiled accusations of misogyny and a dictatorial guildleader -- thanks, LA Times!). To folks who don't play World of Warcraft, it might be interesting, but for most players, especially those who've been to BlizzCon already, it's mostly business as usual.
Joystiq interviews J. Allen Brack
Intrepid reporter and all-around cool guy Kevin Kelly over at Joystiq scored an interview with J. Allen Brack during the festivities at BlizzCon 2009. Just in case you're not aware, J. Allen Brack is the lead producer for our beloved World of Warcraft, having joined the team back in 2005. Kevin's a pretty smart cookie, and managed to get some great insight into the game from Brack. The interview's worth a full read, but there's a lot of insight that's worth spending some time talking about.It's not any surprise that Brack told Kevin that there's no end in sight for WoW, and that he expects the game to survive at least another 10 years. But Brack immediately followed up by saying that Blizzard has changed the way they view the franchise novels recently. Back in the day, it seems, they just let authors go wild. "Go off and create a kind of story in the world," Brack told Kevin. Now, however, it seems like the creative team is spending more time trying to make sure the novels reflect what they plan in the game, as well as vice versa. Brack confirmed that Blizzard still keeps an eye on what other games are doing, and will bring that into the World of Warcraft by giving it their own take. That comment reminded me of the discussion about upcoming Fishing changes in Cataclysm, and how the new fishing system was inspired by Animal Crossing.
WoW, Casually: A casual BlizzCon and what the future holds for us
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.Usually, geeky conventions (sci fi, comic book, gaming, whatever) are considered for hardcore fans only and I guess that's pretty accurate. But while the fans at BlizzCon were certainly hardcore, their playstyles ranged everywhere from casual to leet. You don't have to raid every night to be silly about WoW and excited about the future of Azeroth.
Officers' Quarters: Cataclysm's guild revamp -- leveling and talents
Last week I talked about the massive guild overhaul unveiled at BlizzCon, and the impact these changes would have on guilds, for better or worse. This week I'd like to delve into the leveling system and guild talents. (I'll cover achievements and guild currency in a separate column later.)Currently we know that guilds will level up as players participate in the following: Boss kills Rated battlegrounds and arenas Leveling professions Increasing faction reputations Blizzard has stated that only the top 20 experience producers per day will count toward leveling. This is a smart idea. Without this limitation, I could easily see guilds recruiting every player possible just to level up quickly, and then discarding the players they don't really want once they hit level 20. Guild size should help in a small way, but it shouldn't be the determining factor of leveling progress. One other factor I'd like see contribute to guild leveling is player achievements. Many of them, particularly for Heroic dungeons and raiding, are very difficult to get without a solid guild. Aside from a few vanity items along the way, there's no great reward for racking up a ton of achievement points. Yet, well-designed achievements (i.e., not the exploring or holiday achievements) demonstrate mastery of various aspects of the game. Shouldn't your guild be rewarded for having such players? Besides, it never hurts to give players more incentive to go out and /love some squirrels.
Video of the Hogger live raid at BlizzCon
Michael Gray mentioned it in his writeup of the Premonition live raid at BlizzCon 2009, but this is a moment so epic it's worth mentioning again, and now that there's video online, you can see it: in the final fight, none other than Hogger appeared to take on one of the best guilds in the game. And this was no mere Hogger, nor even the slightly-more-powerful Memory of Hogger seen in the Trial of Champions. No no -- this thing was a foul raid boss from the bowls of Deepholm, a one-shotting maniac that couldn't be controlled even by the best tank. As you can see in the video above, he charges like an angry Rhino -- he was originally pulled by a Hunter who was then one-shot so fast the aggro table cleared and Hogger reset instantly. And after the raid changed their collective pants, they took him on again, and it was all over but the Gnoll snickering.He was immune to taunt, and he appeared to just pick a target at random, pinging around the raid like Batman beating up bad guys in his recent videogame. He only had about 600 hit points (some say 666, which would make sense), but he was immune to damage, or at least all forms of damage that Premonition tried to throw at him. In the end, even though they'd beaten Thaddius, Anub'Rekhan, and Patchwerk all at once, this level 80 Heroic version of Hogger was the one who wiped them. I saw Ozzy do War Pigs, but this Hogger fight was probably the most epic thing I saw in Anaheim last weekend.
BlizzCon 2009: Wow.com interviews Richard Knaak
On the second day of BlizzCon 2009, I got the chance to sit down with Richard Knaak, best selling author of countless novels, including many in the Warcraft universe, such as the War of the Ancients Trilogy, Day of the Dragon, and Night of Dragon. His upcoming projects include the Stormrage novel, as well as the Dragons of Outland manga trilogy. We talked about all this and more, and you can read our conversation below.So of course, the big thing on everyone's mind is the new Stormrage book. How's it coming along? Is it near completion?It's near completion, we're in the editing process, getting the OKs from Blizzard. You can find an excerpt in the latest volume of the Legends Manga, along with a story I wrote, sort of a Prologue that ties in with the book.Can you give us a sneak preview of what to expect lore-wise?You know Blizzard likes to keep these secret, so I am going to be very limited in what I can talk about. It is Malfurion. It is about the Nightmare. And it is very current. That's the three biggest things I can say about it right off the bat. You'll see characters you know from the game and obviously from other books, and places you know from the game, and it's very current, very relevant. Of course, that's about all I can say. You know Blizzard, they love their secrets!
BlizzCon 2009 Insider Trader: Cataclysmic professions part two
A week has passed since BlizzCon 2009 and we're still digging up more news, getting clarification from the blues, and analyzing all of the panels. Last week, Insider Trader discussed some of the major professions-related features coming up in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the next expansion pack. Pass through the break to learn all about: Profession racial abilities and how they will be changing. The new direction for Alchemy. A totally revamped Fishing system! Archaeology details and speculation about the leveling process. The evolution of Inscription. Then, continue on to part three of this discussion to learn more about: Reforging and (not) repairing our own gear. Woodworking. Profession specializations and the new direction for differentiation.
BlizzCon 2009: First impressions of Cataclysm races
For those interested in the subject, I've no doubt you've managed to pour through all of our Cataclysm-related coverage during BlizzCon. But lists of racial abilities and descriptions of starting zones only go so far in telling you what the Goblins and Worgen are really like. So now that BlizzCon's come to a close and the WoW.com team has had a chance to mull over time spent with the latest expansion we're going to give you what you really want to know about Cataclysm's new races: our honest impressions. Personally, I think Alex and Daniel's thoughts on the Worgen starting zone sums everything up:Alex: TOP HATS Daniel: FREAKING AWESOME TOP HATSBut for completeness' sake, the rest of the team's thoughts are below.
