blizzcon-2010
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BlizzCon 2010: WoW Insider interviews author Richard A. Knaak
Not only did we get an interview with Christie Golden here at BlizzCon 2010, we also met up with Richard A. Knaak, author of the World of Warcraft novel Stormrage. Richard sat down with us for a few questions about his work on Stormrage, his work with Blizzard, and his views on the often vocal fan reactions, both positive and negative. WoW Insider: Richard, thank you for joining us, it's great to meet you! Obviously you did Stormrage earlier this year -- how closely did you work with Blizzard on the book? Richard A. Knaak: Everything was back and forth with them. I've been very fortunate from the beginning to work with a group of really fantastic people and I've been able to immerse myself in the game. Mick Neilson, who's the publishing lead right now and Evelyn the lore mistress, between those two especially every one of my questions would be answered quickly and efficiently, with a lot of graphics in case there was something that wasn't visible for me to see on the game. They sent you screenshots? I get lots of screenshots -- I see lots of things you won't be able to see for awhile! There's other people like James who works with Mick, he's one of the top publishing people too. And of course Chris [Metzen] has been there from the beginning -- he basically grew up reading my Dragonlance work, that's fantastic to me. Everyone's been great at Blizzard.
BlizzCon 2010: Defense of Orgrimmar live raid
I finished watching the current No. 1 guild in the world <Paragon> tackle a unique live raid event developed just for BlizzCon 2010! It was a big thrill watching them do their stuff. I only wish I could've heard their communications in real time. I've always wondered what is being discussed on unknown encounters. Except these weren't unknown encounters. We were fighting past foes like Shazzrah, Baron Geddon and the Beast. It wasn't limited to older encounters. Some newer bosses included Ozumat and Rom'ogg Bonecrusher. Apologies for the image quality on some of these folks; I'll need to select a better location and grab a better camera.
BlizzCon 2010: Emerald Dream and/or Nightmare in the future
There are a lot of questions that come up from the WoW community at events like BlizzCon. Will we ever have player or guild housing? Why doesn't Blink work right? Where's my moose? One question that keeps coming up is will we ever see the Emerald Dream or its corrupted version, the Emerald Nightmare? While there is no announcement for an exact date or even which expansion it will appear, Alex "Valnoth" Afrasiabi (lead world designer for World of Warcraft) has finally answered this for us, and that answer is yes. The problem comes down to a matter of finding the right place to fit it in. This might mean something in patch 4.2 or all the way in patch 6.2. It really comes down to when it will fit in the game storyline. At least we now know that it is something they will do. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: World of Warcraft Open Q&A liveblog
Aaaaaand we're back with another liveblog! The open World of Warcraft Q&A session will start in about 20 minutes, so we'll see you back here for that. With any luck we'll have ... um ... I don't know how to put this politely. Less whining than the last panel. We'll settle on that. Seriously, folks, don't fly all the way to BlizzCon just to be a jerk at a mic. You can be a jerk on the forums for free! I probably shouldn't be encouraging that. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: Man breaks leg in dance contest
During the BlizzCon 2010 dance competition, one of the competitors reportedly broke his leg. The man was performing a particularly enthusiastic rendition of the male undead dance when he slipped and fell on the stage. He got up a moment later to resume his dance, but quickly fell a second time and did not get back up. Jay Mohr, host of the competition said, "He's tapped out. He's done, he tapped out," indicating the band to stop playing. Then Mohr leaned over to help him up and spoke with him away from the mike. Mohr then stood back up and asked for medical attention, saying that they had a broken leg. The competitor was carried off stage by four employees, by the arms and legs, and the show continued. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: WoW Insider Reader meetup recap
I am quite happy to report that the WoW Insider BlizzCon 2010 reader meetup was a huge success! The patio near the poolside of the Anabella hotel was full of our wonderful readers, and I know we here at WoW Insider had an awesome time meeting all of you. For those of you who couldn't come to join us at this year's BlizzCon, I hope you got a chance to tune into the live stream of the event. Now, not only did we get to meet you, our loyal readers, but we also had a ton of prizes to give away both through our live stream and on site at the Anabella. Cryptozoic was there handing out boosters of of its current Icecrown TCG expansion, as well as a handing out quite a few loot cards, including the Wooly White Rhino and Blazing Hippogryph. Razer and Steelseries also provided loot in the form of Razer Naga mice, amazing mouse pads, Zboard keyboards and awesome headsets, and we would like to give them a big thank-you for supplying us with some truly amazing prizes for our readers including MMO-Mumble! For those of you who either couldn't join us live or on the web, I'd like to recap the events of a most wonderful evening. Photos courtesy of Mari Provencher.%Gallery-105834%
BlizzCon 2010: DirecTV Ghostcrawler interview
Between panels, the DirecTV folks had an interview with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street (lead systems designer for WoW) on some various aspects of both Cataclysm and the recent 4.0.1 patch. Just a warning, this is essentially a live blog and a lot of things will get paraphrased to get it out. We'll try to clean it up a little bit on a second pass, but just think of it as a live blog and you should be golden. Everyone wants to know where their moose is. They can't handle the moose. Are wintersabers still available or should we get them before the sundering happens? No, they'll still be available. We're not doing anything with them. What about the mounts in AQ that we use in the instance? Now that it's going to be a zone, can we use them there? AQ or ZG? AQ mounts will still be there. So you can still get them. What is getting ready to happen with the sundering? Are we going to be able to watch it happening or are the servers going to go down and when the come back up it's all done? Pretty much that assuming all goes well. The two old continents will go away and the new ones will just appear almost over night. Players will experience that and then shortly after that Cataclysm will go on the shelves and people will be able to level their goblin, worgen, or go up to 85.
BlizzCon 2010: Class Q&A panel liveblog
The class Q&A panel will go live in roughly 20 minutes, so get ready. We'll be liveblogging every minute of it past the cut! I'm afraid you guys are stuck with me again, but the other writers have already warned me that liveblogging any Ghostcrawler panel usually results in fingers falling off by the end, so I've taken the precaution of arranging some Motrin and heat packs off to the side of the computer. I type at 127 words per minute. Bring it, Dr. Street. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: Tom Chilton interview transcript -- Dance studio still in the works
DirecTV did a surprise interview with Tom Chilton, and there's some interesting stuff out of it. In particular, the famed and somewhat vaporware Dance Studio is still in the works and will be released once they have enough content! This is the first thing we've heard about it in a very long time. A great little surprise for the day! The full interview transcript below and after the break. Interesting decision to make Tol'Barab similar to the Isle of Quel'Danans. What is your thinking? What is it going to look like? It's what you'd consider an Alcatraz to be. It's an abandoned island. It's a central hub for daily quests. Really where players are going to be and do their daily activity. On PvP servers it's going to create a lot of friction and action all the time. At the central part of the island, it's going to feel a lot like Wintergrasp did. Tell me a little bit about Twin Peaks Twin Peaks is one of our new BGs where introducing. Capture the flag, solid game play. A lot like Warsong Gultch. It's a proven game play style, a lot of people like to capture the flag.
BlizzCon 2010: New Cataclysm worgen cinematic
As hinted during the Starcraft 2 cinematic panel yesterday, a new Cataclysm cinematic just debuted at the Cinematics: Cataclysm panel. As any beta worgen player could tell you, the "transition cinematic" that really kicks the story into high gear has been missing, and now we know where and what it is. As a quick gloss on what you'll see without spoiling anything too heavy, you'll see your character's transition from human to worgen, with some quiet speculation on whether your humanity's salvageable or not. We'll post it as soon as we can find/get a copy on YouTube, but suffice it to say -- it rocks. I'm amazed at the quality the cinematics team can get out of the in-game models these days. EDIT: A copy just went up and I've posted it past the cut. The quality's not that great, but I'll post a better copy as soon as one appears. EDIT: High-quality copy now available past the cut. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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!
One Shots: Sinister moves
Deathwing lies ready to tear the World of Warcraft apart. Meanwhile, thousands of Blizzard fans are getting their party on at BlizzCon this weekend. For those who weren't able to make the annual trek to Anaheim, or aren't glued to the livestreams going on, there's still quite a bit to do in Azeroth as today's One Shots contributor, Kimmara, points out. The note attached read: "Here is my Death Knight dancing with a jack-o-lantern on my head with my new Halloween pet. This was taken after killing the Headless Horseman in the Scarlet Monastery. Happy Halloween!" If you haven't snapped up your Sinister Squashling, now would be an excellent time -- the Scarlet Monastery may not be there next year! Are you enjoying a holiday event in your favorite MMO? If so, why not send us a screenshot! We're always curious as to what's going on out there. Email those in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-85937%
BlizzCon 2010: Charity silent auction
Blizzard is holding a silent auction at BlizzCon to support Child's Play, the charity started by Penny Arcade to help sick children. Up for auction are signed artwork, a signed NOObz marine and actual WoW server hardware. See the gallery below for the items on which attendees are bidding. %Gallery-105843% BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: Diablo 3: A Hero Emerges
At the tail end of yesterday's opening ceremonies at BlizzCon 2010, Blizzard Entertainment's Chris Metzen announced the fifth and final Diablo 3 class: the Demon Hunter. Immediately after the opening ceremonies, Diablo 3's lead designer Jay Wilson lead a panel largely centered on the new class, but also included a few other major details on the new Trait and Rune systems, as well as a few new spells and skills for the other classes.
BlizzCon 2010: Costume contest gallery
The BlizzCon costume contest took place yesterday afternoon with roughly 90 entries (give or take a few, depending on how you count group efforts). We did have a screenshot of one entrant in black that was unfortunately too dark to include, but this is an otherwise comprehensive gallery of all contest entrants, the five finalists and winner. There were a number of extraordinary costumes this year, and we highly recommend giving them a look. However, I think Jay Mohr was correct in observing that it's only a matter of time before someone's going to topple over on digitigrade stilts. Please, folks -- it's okay to suffer for your art, but it's not okay to break your ankles over it! The five finalists (you'll find them toward the end of the gallery) portrayed Ysera, the female monk from Diablo III, Jaina Proudmoore, the female witch doctor from Diablo III, and Illidan Stormrage. The eventual winner was Christina Estrada as the female monk. %Gallery-105850% BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: Art gallery
BlizzCon isn't just about panels, demos and concerts. It's also about shopping and gawking. For those who like to gawk, the Art Gallery shows off the art for all three of Blizzard's games. The gallery below shows this year's offerings. %Gallery-105842% BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: Realm meetups bring together far-flung friends
Ever imagine what that guy you always see hanging out before raid time in Dalaran is like in real life? Players are finding out at the realm meetup tables at BlizzCon. Realm mates are meeting and mingling at scheduled times for each realm. At any given time, the meetup area is peppered with curious players who've stopped by to see if they can't find a few familiar names and faces. These Moonguard (US) players not only did just that -- they managed to take over a good one-third of the entire meet-and-greet area with their enthusiasm. While a handful of players did share a guild in common and were attending BlizzCon as a group, most of the Moonguard gang were at BlizzCon on their own (two of them all the way from Australia!) . While not many players were familiar with one another's characters in game, that didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm -- and I have to say they were great sports with a little gentle teasing about their realm's somewhat exotic reputation. The realm meetups continue Saturday on the con floor. Stop by and discover what new faces might be friends you already know. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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: WoW Insider interviews author Christie Golden
Today, in between the panels and the announcements at BlizzCon 2010, we had the distinct pleasure of meeting Christie Golden, author of the latest World of Warcraft novel The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm. Christie was kind enough to give us a few minutes and talk about her writing, her latest work and some glimpses at the behind-the-scenes work of novel writing. WoW Insider: Christie, thank you so much for joining us. The WoW Insider readers are big fans of your books, especially The Shattering. Can you tell us a little bit about the challenges about writing within the Warcraft universe? Christie Golden: One of the biggest challenges is that it's constantly growing and changing; with every new patch there's something new that comes along -- it's almost a living entity. Books take about a year from start to finish, so we're a little bit more locked in to our schedules. So there's a lot of back and forth. Things will change sometimes from one draft to another, so there'll be something new -- it's like, "Oh by the way, this character blahblahblah, can you update." Unfortunately, a book can't be tinkered with right up to the release date like a game can. You can't hotfix a book, then? I'm sure a lot of authors would love that! That's probably the biggest challenge, though. But the creativity and the appreciation I get from working with Blizzard certainly makes up for the inconveniences. WARNING: This interview does contain some spoilers for The Shattering. Caution is advised!
BlizzCon 2010: Day 1 round-up
This is going to be a slightly quieter BlizzCon than last year, folks. There aren't any major announcements on the scene for World of Warcraft and we already know that Cataclysm is coming this December. Apart from that, the directives this year can be summarized as: Relax, have fun and try to find that bartender at the seafood place who makes the really strong drinks. WoW Insider reader meetup This year's bash drew record attendance (we may have gotten as many as 3,000 people over the course of the evening), drew guests from all over and featured some interesting shirts. We'll have more specific coverage on guests and events once our bloggers recover. The agony of the lines Well, it's a convention -- you're gonna be in line for a while. Fortunately, we found the first people in line, some things to keep life interesting and costumed fans and scenes from the crowd. Alex Ziebart flagged down one of his guildies emerging from registration to get pictures of the 2010 goody bag. Liveblogs We liveblogged the opening ceremonies for our sister site Joystiq, then trotted back to WoW Insider to liveblog the Dungeons and Raids and Quests and Lore panels. Digital downloads Turns out we'll be able to play Cataclysm even earlier than we thought; Blizzard's offering the expansion as a prepaid digital download, so players will be able to enjoy a shattered Azeroth the moment the game goes live. Cataclysm news and patch 4.1 There may not be any major announcements for the moment, but we did get a few tidbits on upcoming features. We got a peek at the Firelands raid and Abyssal Maw dungeon available in patch 4.1, changes being made to classic dungeons to (as Scott Mercer, lead encounter designer, referred to it) "cut out the suck," and upcoming enhanced dungeon maps. Outland and Northrend revamps being planned Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi have confirmed that Blizzard's planning to update Outland and Northrend to keep them current with the Cataclysm storyline. Fun trivia Mike Morhaime shed some light on how many times our buddy Arthas has fallen to the might and magic of Azeroth's champions, and Blizzard's releasing another pet (the moonkin hatchling) during the holiday season to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. %Gallery-105820% %Gallery-105831% %Gallery-105834% BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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 Day 1: Costumes and characters
One of the best parts of every year's BlizzCon are the costumes worn by attendees. BlizzCon 2010 is no different. You can hardly go a few feet without seeing a character seemingly right off the battleworn world of Azeroth. Costuming is truly my favorite part of BlizzCon since it offers an experience you can't get anywhere else. Check out our gallery repeatedly through the day, as your intrepid WoW Insider staff continues to gather images of these awesome costumes. We've also included the previous galleries of costumes in the lines and convention center so that you don't miss anything. %Gallery-105831% %Gallery-105820% BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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!
Breakfast Topic: BlizzCon Day 2 -- just wait, there's more
First off, the Cataclysm: Cinematics panel is today. The cinematic for the expansion is awesome and I'm not sure we really need to talk about anything else. Wait, yes we do. There are other panels ... what were they again? Oh, the class Q&A and some other stuff. Let's take a closer look and see what all is going on. For WoW panels we're just going to be sitting at the main stage for the first half of the day. We have the Cataclysm: Cinematics panel at 10:30 a.m., WoW Class Q&A at 12 p.m., and the WoW Open Q&A at 1:30 p.m. After that, we swap to the development stage for the WoW art panel at 3 p.m. If you keep watching the development stage you'll see -- or rather, hear -- a panel called Blizzard Sound that should touch on the making of the cool sound effects we're going to be hearing in Cataclysm as well as other Blizzard games. The night will be finished off with a performance by Tenacious D at 6:30 p.m. As Mike Morhaime warned us during the opening ceremonies yesterday, this band isn't not suitable for some audiences ... and possibly all audiences, but they should be a fun act to watch. Remember that all times and chai are Pacific. No, I wasn't mainlining caffeine when I wrote this last night. Well, maybe just a little. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging 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!
