blizzcon08
Latest
BlizzCon 2008: Bingo results
Bad news. We didn't hear about a WoW expansion, or anything solid about the next-gen MMO at the convention in Anaheim, so this year's BlizzCon bingo failed. There might be hope, if you're willing to fudge things -- in the Art panel, they did obliquely mention the next expansion, and quickly corrected themselves, so if you take that as an official announcement (and you saw someone playing the TCG or Board Game throughout the weekend, you could win with the free space). Or, if you saw Jim Lee while he was there (we didn't), and consider all the talking about Dance Studios to have actually seen the studios themselves (we don't) then maybe you hit five across that way.Otherwise, you're out of luck -- unfortunately, no one predicted that they'd cut Starcraft II up into three different games, and L80ETC didn't say anything about DLC for Guitar Hero. The good news, however, is that instead of giving out a prize to someone who presented us with a winning card at BlizzCon (no one did), we'll eventually over it to all of you readers. Stay tuned, and better luck with BlizzCon Bingo next time around.
BlizzCon 2008: A followup with FigurePrints
Last time we talked to Ed Fries, he was a man setting out with a brand-new company, new not only in terms of age, but new in that they were doing something no one had ever tried before: bringing 3D printing to retail. FigurePrints started printing 3D figurines of WoW characters last year, and since then, they've been through good and bad (the earliest figures were plagued by quality concerns, but the company is doing well enough that they've even raised the price since they started already). So we were very curious to each up with Ed at BlizzCon and see how things were going. Was demand still up? Has the process changed at all? How's the quality thing being dealt with? And we were perhaps most curious about just what people were putting on their figures when they got them printed.Ed answered all of our questions and more: demand is still up, quality is getting better, and people are dressing in.. tuxedos and beer steins? Click the link below to check out our second interview with Ed Fries, founder of FigurePrints, and catch up on the company that promises to bring your virtual WoW characters to real life.
BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II lore panel
Chris Metzen and Andrew Chambers sat down at BlizzCon to chat about the lore and story behind the universe of Starcraft II. As we saw in the gameplay panel yesterday, Blizzard is aiming to really break a lot of new characters into the foreground using the adventure game-style cutscenes, and Metzen and Chambers seem really excited to bring some new faces into the RTS staple sequel. To start off the panel, they ran through a few of the folks we'll meet in the Terran campaign. Dr. Hanson is a "Dr. Lady with glasses (so she looks really cute)," said Chambers -- originally she was designed to be a male citizen kind of person (someone the player just helps to make their way through the campaign), but they moved on to try and make Jim Raynor (Starcraft's protagionist) a sort of romantic interest. As much of a romantic interest as a hard-bitten mercenary can have, anyway. Lots more from the SC2 lore panel below.
Blizzcon 2008 DVD production panel reveals WoW tidbits
Here's a secret gem from BlizzCon from our sister site, Big Download: The DVD Production panel. The DVD Production team, despite the name, actually oversees most of the video produced by or at Blizzard. That means that they had a hand in the South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft," as well as the "What's your Game" and "Lawgiver" commercials.They also work on the gameplay trailers from World of Warcraft, and walked us through the creative process for the patch 2.1 Black Temple trailer, revealing some interesting lore behind Akama's betrayal. Finally, they revealed that they were the force behind the Wrath Gate cinematic. It's no wonder they were able to make such an epic cut scene though: One of their team members was a member of Rufus Cubed Productions, the creations of the epic machinima Return.There's some other nice information from the panel, including the real identity of the villain from "Make Love Not Warcraft" and a preview of the lore of Diablo 3. Be sure to go check it out at Big Download!
BlizzCon 2008: The Retro Arcade
Diablo III, Rock 'n' Roll Racing, and The Lost Vikings 2. What do all of these things have in common? They're all made by Blizzard, and they're all playable on the floor of BlizzCon 2008. The last two, however, are hidden in the Retro Arcade area, where Blizzard has set up all of the old games from their past for visitors to experience and play. It's not a complete display (no Starcraft 64, and Justice League Task Force would have been fun to play), but there are a lot of great titles in there anyway. It's too bad I've got to play Starcraft II for a hands-on later today -- I'd kind of rather go play the original again. But that's not a bad problem to have.Check out our gallery of the retro arcade, and revisit some old Blizzard favorites.%Gallery-34294%
BlizzCon 2008: Everybody out
Our folks on the floor of BlizzCon have said a fire alarm has gone off, and they're asking everyone to leave the convention. We can't get inside to verify, obviously, but people are streaming out of the front of the hall. Currently, things in the press room here are unchanged, and we haven't heard anything officially yet.More as we learn it.Update: We were heading into the hall, and saw an alarm go off. The guards at the doors started turning people away, and when we asked what was up, we were told it was a fire alarm and that we should exit the building. There's still no action in the press room (and they haven't interrupted the class panel on the floor), so it's likely a false alarm.Update2: Whoops, the class panel is being held upstairs, not on the convention floor. We just sent our man Adam Holisky down to see what the ruckus is all about and get the inside story. It's good having bloggers to boss around, and nice to know they'll even walk into possible injury to do what we say.Update3: A security guard told Holisky that somebody tripped something they weren't supposed to, and they are now letting people back onto the floor. Crisis.. averted!
BlizzCon 2008: The Art Gallery
It's not the flashiest place at BlizzCon -- until you step inside. While the gameplay demo areas and the developer panels have claimed most of the attention here at the convention, there are a few hidden treasures inside the booths, one of which is the Blizzard art gallery. The art inside spans across all of Blizzard's games, and though their games are beautiful, the art used in designing them is even moreso.Check out the gallery below to see what's in BlizzCon's art gallery -- from the Barbarian brutes of Diablo to the frozen tundra of Northrend and the starscapes of Starcraft, here is Blizzard's creativity and design mastery put into form on the wall. Whether it's concept art, quick sketches or full paintings, it's really amazing stuff.%Gallery-34291%
BlizzCon 2008: WoW Q&A Panel Liveblog
Hello Everyone! The Panel is about to start, and we have a front row seat. Check out the latest updates behind the break.
BlizzCon 2008: The costume and dance contest
One day of BlizzCon is already behind us, and with it came the announcement of the Wizard class for Diablo III, the fact that Starcraft II is going to be a trilogy, and the truism that World of Warcraft players really love their costume and dance contests.Check out the video of the pants-off dance-off above, hit the links below that for some highlights, and then be sure and crawl through our galleries below for all that we've seen so far. Today brings more panels, more Diablo III news (omg wtf?!), and a closing ceremony featuring Patton Oswalt, Video Games Live, and Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain. We'll be bringing you audio and video, so keep watching.%Gallery-34251%%Gallery-34238%
BlizzCon 2008: WoW PvP Panel
We're liveblogging the PvP panel from the floor of BlizzCon. Updates start after the break.
BlizzCon 2008: WoW Insider meets The Guild
We here at WoW Insider have been big fans of The Guild since day one -- way before Felicia Day sold appliances or hung out with Dr. Horrible, we knew she and her show were something special. And so, when we finally got a chance to meet The Guild today at BlizzCon, we made sure to take it.They've been doing a lot of press lately -- they've been to ComicCon recently, they're actually hosting a panel here at BlizzCon, and lots of different community sites are sitting down to talk with Felicia and her Guild. So we wanted to try and ask them something they'd never heard before, and we think we pulled it off: the entire cast, made up of Robin Thorsen (who plays Clara), Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), Jeff Lewis (Vork), Vincent Caso (Bladezz), and Felicia herself submitted to even our strangest questions with grace, dignity, some chipmunk-related jokes, and the kind of pull-together attitude that makes watching their adventures as a guild so much fun.Jeff Lewis had actually just come off the main BlizzCon stage when we retreated behind a curtain for the interview -- he'd done a quick set of silly jokes in character as Vork (right after folks had come up telling their own bad jokes for the joke contest), and as we started talking, all of the cast members were congratulating him on the job he did.
BlizzCon 2008: WoW Insider interviews J. Allen Brack
Here at BlizzCon, we just got to sit down with the head honcho of our favorite game, J. Allen Brack, lead producer of World of Warcraft. And the biggest surprise of the interview wasn't a nice tidbit about the future of WoW (and its battlegrounds) or how class changes are made, though we did talk about both of those things. No, the biggest piece of news we got out of him is that he loves WoW Insider -- he told us that Blizzard is paying close attention to what not just us bloggers but you commenters are saying on this site, and that the community plays almost as big a part in directing the game's development as the developers themselves do.But the WoW Insider love didn't stop us from grilling him on what's next for the Wrath release and the game beyond. We talked about what changes Blizzard aims to make to battlegrounds, what kind of ideas Brack and his team have for after the second expansion, and even what he wants WoW to do that it hasn't yet. And yes, we got the story on dance studios, and why we won't be cutting a jig quite yet in Wrath.Click the link below to check out our exclusive interview with J. Allen Brack.
BlizzCon 2008: The costumes
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_covers_the_costumes_of_BlizzCon'; The best part of coming to a convention like BlizzCon? Sure, the news is great, and it's fun to meet the devs and fellow WoW players, but let's be serious: everyone comes to see the costumes.If you didn't make it to Anaheim, here's the best part of the convention for you. We'll be updating this gallery all weekend long with all of the costumes we see on the floor, so make sure to check back throughout the next two days to see all of the people that showed up looking silly awesome. Ok, so yes, some of these are more awesome than others. But you have to give it up for anyone who has the courage to go out in public dressed like a Blizzard character.%Gallery-34205%
BlizzCon 2008: Opening ceremonies liveblog
10:55am: Waiting anxiously for the show to begin. The crowd is excited and ready for a big announcement. WoW movie announcement? Mobile game announcement? Your guess is as good as mine.More after the jump.Update: It's over, and the only real announcement we heard was that Diablo 3 has a new class: the Wizard. Stay tuned all day for more news from BlizzCon, including the WoW UI/Addons panel, a classes panel (always fun), and lots of news from the show floor. And have you seen the costume gallery yet?
BlizzCon 2008: WoW Insider's second annual BlizzCon Reader Meetup
We had our second annual Reader Meetup last night here in Anaheim at The Lost Bar, and it was a blast. Tons of people showed up (maybe 200?), and every single reader we met was completely awesome. We introduced all of our bloggers (Adam Holisky, Daniel Whitcomb, Alex Ziebart, Krystalle Voecks, Elizabeth Harper, Dan O'Halloran, and myself were all there), we drank plenty of libations (the bartender, unfortunately, wasn't moving as fast as we would have liked), and we gave away a bunch of swag, to all kinds of readers, for everything from answering trivia questions to just saying hi.The Horde, I have to say, seemed to have the higher population, but Alliance made a good showing as well. And a few full guilds came out to see us: shoutouts to Thee Unforgiven on Destromath (the good folks above), Keine Neuen on Malganis, and Dread Pirates on Blackrock, not to mention all of the other awesome readers and guilds that stopped by. They're all in our gallery below -- thanks to everyone who came out for making it such a great time.%Gallery-34196%
A sneak peek at the BlizzCon floor
Our good friends at the Orange County Register were lucky enough to be let into BlizzCon yesterday (we'll be on the floor in just a few hours here), and they've got a preview gallery of what it's like in there up on their site right now. There's nothing super revealing in there, but there are lots of pictures of vendors setting up, and the various stages they'll have at the event. The Illidan statue from last year is making a re-appearance, and he's joined by someone Starcraft fans will want to see.We can't wait to get in there -- Diablo 3 will be playable, and of course we'll have coverage from all the panels, tournaments, and booths inside the convention center all day today and tomorrow. The Opening Ceremony starts at 11am PST, so stay tuned here to watch our coverage as it goes down live.
BlizzCon 2008 Breakfast Topic: We need your questions
Today's the day! BlizzCon 2008 is underway in Anaheim, and WoW Insider is of course here -- stay tuned all day today for news from the panels going on all morning and afternoon. We're going to see Blizzard, talk to Blizzard, listen to Blizzard, and if we can get close enough, we may even smell Blizzard, too (Bornakk probably has a musky Old Spice kind of odor, right? Chris Metzen probably smells like bourbon and granite).And we need your help -- let us know what you want us to ask Blizzard. Is there a class question you need an answer to, or something that's been bugging you since launch? Want to know something about Wrath of the Lich King that we haven't heard yet?And let us know if there's anyone else you'd like us to talk to -- FigurePrints, Upper Deck, and DC Comics are all here, and we'll be talking to the folks from The Guild later today, so let us know what you want to know and we'll make sure you get to know it. Thanks, and enjoy the show -- we definitely will.
Overheard at BlizzCon 2008: A real, live Blue
Scene: Just outside the BlizzCon badge pickup area, the Thursday before BlizzCon, 10 minutes before 4pm badge pickup.Crowd: (Mills around, is huge, waits patiently, talks occasionally about everything from the Protoss to the weather. Throws out a random "WoW Insider rocks!" yell as we pass by -- thanks for that!)BlizzCon Employee: (Steps out of Convention Center to address the crowd) Hi everyone! We're going to open up the doors here in just a minute, but we will not be giving out badges until 4pm. So when we open the doors, in about five minutes from now, come on in and line up, but we won't give out badges until four.Crowd: (Various murmurs of excitement, until, from in the back:) Why aren't you wearing a blue shirt?(Laughter from all sides.)Employee: Ha, that's funny. No, I'm wearing a black shirt today, not a blue shirt. Ok, so in five minutes we'll let you in, and then we'll give out badges at 4pm. (Turns and heads back inside.)Crowd: (Follows immediately, calmly flooding inside without waiting, while convention center employees stand and shake their heads.)
BlizzCon 2008: Fun in the badge pickup line
We've all got our badges for BlizzCon now -- badge pickup was a little less chaotic than last year, if memory serves us correctly (though they really need to split up the "S" names -- our line was longer by three times as much as any of the others). There were lots of people waiting outside right before they opened the convention center at 4pm, but once they opened up the doors, things moved quickly. We didn't notice any recognizable Blizzard staff around, but we've heard rumblings from vendors that they're setting up inside, and there's certainly plenty of activity going on back there.None of the rest of the center is open until tomorrow, obviously, but we also grabbed some pictures of the art we could see posted inside. No, there aren't any big exclusive reveals, but there is a particularly nice piece of the Diablo III Witchdoctor that we hadn't seen before. Enjoy.%Gallery-34144%
More on dual specs at Blizzcon
In the midst of a mostly unrelated post about the Druid Balance tree, Ghostcrawler let slip the following: "The dual-spec feature will shine more light on talent design (more on that at Blizzcon) and we'll have a better idea of what we want to do with trees when that goes live." Now I don't know about you all, but as someone who plays a healing class for a main, I am very interested in the dual spec idea. Knowing that we'll get more information on it at Blizzcon, just a few days away, makes me a happy priest indeed. But what could she mean by the dual-spec feature shining more light on talent design? It's a slightly mysterious statement, but my interpretation is that when everybody can have two specs and switch between them either freely or at least cheaply, the load each spec needs to carry lessens. It's OK if Holy can't solo, because you can just switch to your Shadow spec for that. It's not such a big deal if Combat isn't as strong in PvP; just swap out to Assassination for the BG weekend, and swap back in time to raid. The trees no longer have to be strong in all areas of the game. But that's just guesswork on my part; GC may well have meant something else entirely. Either way, we'll see in Anaheim this weekend, and WoW Insider will keep you posted with live reports.
