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Breakfast Topic: Are you heading to BlizzCon this year?
Alas, BlizzCon tickets -- aside from the pricey Benefit Dinner option -- are all gone. And even with a $750 price tag, Benefit Dinner tickets will probably sell out quickly, too. So did you manage to score a ticket to this year's convention? Even if you didn't, a BlizzCon trek to Anaheim can be a fun opportunity to meet up with friends without even stepping foot on the convention floor -- but still requires a hefty travel budget. Of course those without tickets or travel plans can enjoy BlizzCon virtually -- even though virtual ticket details have not yet been announced, we've already heard of some virtual BlizzCon parties planned around the country. So today, tell us, readers: are you heading out to BlizzCon? And if not, what are you doing instead?
BlizzCon Benefit Dinner tickets on sale tomorrow
If you've missed getting BlizzCon tickets so far, you've got one last chance: on Wednesday at 7PM Pacific tickets to this year's Benefit Dinner will go on sale. Though they're pricer than the usual ticket -- $750 each -- these get you into BlizzCon as well as a pre-BlizzCon dinner with Blizzard staff and developers. While this isn't the budget-buyer's way to BlizzCon, these tickets do benefit Blizzard's favorite charity, the Children's Hospital of Orange County. So if you want to lend a helping hand for the kids at CHOC -- and get to enjoy BlizzCon -- head over to the Eventbrite tickets page tomorrow at 7PM sharp. Good luck, ticket-buyers!
Blizzard: Eventbrite meant to combat scalpers
On the BlizzCon forums, CM Phenteo explains that one of the reasons Blizzard is using Eventbrite for ticket sales is to combat ticket scalping: Phenteo One reason why we're using Eventbrite is because there is a quick and easy system to help us monitor purchases and be able to take tickets back from scalpers/bots. source We're all for getting tickets into the hands of fans rather than scalpers, but considering the number of BlizzCon tickets up on Ebay, we're not entirely sure this strategy has worked. However, if Blizzard is able to take tickets away from scalpers, this makes Ebay ticket shopping even more hazardous than usual -- and with the way ticket pickup has worked in the past, it's always been a bit hazardous. If you didn't score BlizzCon tickets last night, you'll have another chance this weekend.
BlizzCon Tickets on sale today
Do you intend on buying tickets to BlizzCon? If you do, then get ready, because today at 7:00 pm pacific, you can attempt to do that very thing. If you don't manage to get your hands on tickets, don't immediately despair, for a second round of tickets will also be available this Sunday, May 10th. From what I understand (having never actually managed to go to BlizzCon) it can be pretty crazy when the opportunity is presented, so you can make use of these resources to try and maximize your chances, also provided on the Blizzard official site. Best of luck to everyone out there trying to snag those tickets. Remember, that's 7:00 pm Pacific, through the Eventbrite site.
How to buy BlizzCon 2014 tickets through Eventbrite
In previous years, Blizzard has sold tickets through their own store -- which meant old hat BlizzCon attendees knew what to expect when it came time to buy their tickets. But this year's switch to Eventbrite means that most of us aren't quite sure how the ticketing process will work. However, Blizzard has posted a comprehensive walkthrough of the ticketing process so you know just what to expect when the first batch of tickets goes up for sale this Wednesday. Key points to note are: General admission tickets will be on sale at Wednesday, May 7 at 7pm PDT and Saturday, May 10 at 10am PDT. Benefit dinner tickets will be on sale at Wednesday, May 14 at 7pm PDT. You can buy a maximum of four tickets -- or just two benefit dinner tickets -- per household. You'll need names and email addresses to associate with each ticket -- but if you don't have them when you buy, you should enter your own name and email address. Just be sure the names are accurate before June 6th! A commonly used trick in the past of clicking "buy" for a single ticket and changing the number at checkout won't work on Eventbrite -- the number of tickets you selected to purchase originally cannot be changed later, so be sure to select the right amount up-front! We still don't have details on the ticket pickup process, but if it's like previous years you should expect the buyer to have to pick up tickets with an ID and possibly credit card.
WRUP: The desert of our dis-content
We're caught in the desert of very little news. But at least some news is starting to trickle in about 2014, such as the many contests for BlizzCon. (I hear they're on the left side, and must be handled.) We asked our intrepid staff what big hopes and dreams they were secretly harboring for BlizzCon 2014 this year. I'm hoping that we'll finally hear some hints of that mysterious project. I'd say a release date for WoD but there's no way it can wait that long, right? Right? Oh, gosh, I hope we're not still waiting for WoD by then.
BlizzCon 2014 - Many contests, handle them
I have never been to BlizzCon, so I assume it's a lot like a raid. This year, amongst the many encounters will be a series of contests that you have the opportunity to defeat. As is customary, there will be an excellent costume contest (at least, it's always been excellent when I watched it on the stream) with some fairly sensible rules, like 'no real weapons' and 'please design your costume so you can see and walk because otherwise you'll fall down a lot'. Then there's the expanded talent contest. Can you sing, dance, or make people laugh? Send 'em a YouTube link with your intended performance and make sure you keep it within their suggested limits so they can use it during the con if they like it and you. There's also an art and a movie contest, for the artistic and visionary types among us. So go ahead and check out the dungeon journal for the BlizzCon contests. There's also an email address for any questions you may have - BlizzConContest@Blizzard.com.
How to go to BlizzCon 2014
Hooray -- BlizzCon 2014 is officially coming to the Anaheim Convention Center on November 7th and 8th. That may seem far off, but if you want to head out to BlizzCon this year you need to start planning now, because tickets are going on sale in May. And if you want to get a ticket, you'll have to act fast because they tend to sell out in minutes. So just how can you get to BlizzCon this year -- and do you even want to? We'll take a look at your options for going to BlizzCon or keeping up at home -- as well as what it's going to cost you.
BlizzCon 2014 dated, tix on sale next month
BlizzCon 2014 is coming, boys and girls, to a city near you (that is, if you live near Anaheim, California)! Blizzard announced that its sometimes-annual convention will be on November 7th and 8th at the Anaheim Convention Center. Even at two hundred bucks a pop, tickets for BlizzCon will no doubt be sold out within minutes thanks to Blizzard's legion of fans. The studio announced today that it will be putting tickets on sale in two separate batches: one on May 7th and the other on May 10th. There will also be $750 tickets put on sale on May 14th for the benefit dinner. BlizzCon tickets include offer hands-on demos with its games, an e-sports world championship, dev panels, player tournaments, and live admission to the convention. Virtual tickets will also be available at a later point for an unknown fee.
BlizzCon 2014 on the way?
Sharp eyes over at MMO-Champion discovered a small change to a page on the official BlizzCon site yesterday. The Terms and Conditions section of the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket page has been updated to read BlizzCon 2014 on the header title. At this time, there doesn't appear to be any other adjustments made to any page on the site -- not even in the Terms and Conditions itself, which still lists the year as 2013. While this is by no means any kind of a definite confirmation that we'll be seeing another BlizzCon this year, it's the first sign we've seen of another event happening. Statements made at a panel at BlizzCon 2013 indicated that Blizzard very clearly didn't want to take another year off from the event. This year marks not only the tenth anniversary of World of Warcraft, but the twentieth of the Warcraft franchise -- which is more than enough reason to throw another convention, even beyond the multiple games being released this year. Although we don't have any real confirmation, information about BlizzCon is usually released in the spring -- so we might just be hearing more about the event soon.
Anaheim Convention Center expansion will be ready for BlizzCon 2016
So far, Blizzard has kept BlizzCon close to home at the Anaheim Convention Center, even as the number of people wanting to attend has skyrocketed. But there's a chance BlizzCon could get a little bigger in the future, since the Anaheim Convention Center is about to start on a new expansion, adding an extra 200,000 square feet -- bringing the total size of the convention center to 1.8 million square feet -- set to open by fall 2016. The addition will sit on Katella Avenue and match with the towering glass structure of the rest of the convention center (and you can check out concept art on the OC Register for a sneak peek). This should make the new space available just in time for BlizzCon 2016 ... not that Blizzard has announced BlizzCon 2016 (or BlizzCon 2015 or BlizzCon 2014) yet, but we can hope.
Comedian Jay Mohr rejoins star-studded Saints Row cast
Former Blizzcon host Jay Mohr is again lending his voice to the Saints Row franchise, a series that also boasts Hollywood notables such as Neil Patrick Harris, Burt Reynolds, and in possibly the greatest cameo appearance ever, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Mohr broke the news on Twitter, stating simply, "About to do my voice over work for new Saints Row video game." Alongside this message Mohr posted a photograph of the recording studio he was using where a screen clearly shows several fan-favorite Saints Row characters. Unfortunately, Mohr's image offers no further hints at what the actor's involvement might be in the Saints Row universe. Saints Row 4 is a new enough game that this recent recording session may be related to an upcoming, as yet unannounced DLC addition for the game. On the other hand, the game is also old enough that developer Volition could have pulled Mohr in to record lines for Saints Row 5. While not necessarily a direct indicator of his role, Mohr previously voiced Dane Vogel, antagonist of Saints Row 2. Whatever the case, we likely won't know more any time soon. Mohr's become coy since his initial reveal, and neither Volition nor publisher Deep Silver will say anything further. Edit: This article has been altered to note that Jay Mohr previously appeared as a voice actor in the Saints Row series. [Image: Flickr]
Patch 5.4.2: New chimaera mount video
Adriacraft is at it again, digging through the patch 5.4.2 files and bringing you video of a new mount, discovered in the most recent patch to the PTR. It's simply named the Chimaera 2, not the snappiest moniker, I grant you, but it's just a filename for now. And, of course, it could reflect the fact that it has two heads. Could it be the Iron Chimaera mount that had concept art previewed at BlizzCon? Wouldn't it be great if the idle animation was the heads fighting? Of course, with any new mount the question is always where will it come from? If it's the Iron Chimaera it seems very likely that it's in-game at least, rather than a microtransaction item. Maybe it'll be a rep grind, but those mounts often come in two colors, or are faction-specific. Perhaps a boss drop, then, from a raid, or maybe it's something I wish Blizzard would do more, a mount that simply has a world drop chance off rares or mobs. Like they did with the dinosaurs and the Zandalari Warbringer rares, or similar.
Conan O'Brien tries to understand World of Warcraft
What happens when a guy, who has practically no experience with World of Warcraft, attends Blizzcon? If it's anything like Conan O'Brien's trip, the ignorance will result in hilarity – like how O'Brien discovered the oxygen is really thin in Azeroth or that all life in the realm must have a much weaker lung capacity than we do here in the world of the real. Also: bears in heat. Outside of actually playing, O'Brien also chats with a team of professional players from Europe prior to the World of Warcraft of Warcraft World Championship and even sits down to commentate the finale. It's refreshing, because you never really hear commentators discuss the types of flooring to be found in Azeroth.
Azeroth and beyond: Nine years of World of Warcraft
In 1999, Blizzard Entertainment was well on its way to becoming something of a titan in the PC gaming space. Riding high on hits like Diablo, Warcraft II, and the barely-a-year-old StarCraft, Blizzard had established itself as a purveyor of quirky, well-made, and entertaining games mostly of the RTS variety. However, something else was brewing behind closed doors at Blizzard's Irvine campus. While sequels to Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo were all in development (and hotly anticipated), the company had also quietly started work on a brand-new massively-multiplayer online game set in one of the studio's existing game universes. That game, of course, was World of Warcraft. And nine years ago tomorrow, it completely changed the face of MMO gaming.
Breakfast Topic: Should there be a BlizzCon next year?
So, I heard that some convention or other happened earlier this month, and apparently it was kind of a big deal or some junk. Oh, whoa, look at that: It was a big deal! More than 20,000 people attended the two-day affair, and many thousands more no doubt bought virtual tickets. We learned about a new WoW expansion, an upcoming Diablo expansion, an online card game, an upcoming movie -- heck, we even learned about an entirely new game based around cooperative team PvP. There were contests, tournaments, live bands and a guy in a red shirt. Wowhead and WoW Insider threw a party, and oh my dear lord so many people came. Was it all worth it? Undoubtedly. The amount of excitement, community buzz and media coverage coming out of this conference was absolutely incredible, and it was a transformative moment in Blizzard history. But is it worth doing again next year? Making BlizzCon happen takes an absolutely stunning amount of time, energy, money and resources. In the weeks -- no, months -- leading up to it, people up and down the Blizzard company ladder have to stop what they're doing in order to prepare for the convention and then make it all happen. Designers, developers, artists, community managers, you name it: Their work becomes increasingly consumed by BlizzCon, which means it becomes increasingly not consumed by, you know, their actual regular jobs making and managing the games we so deeply love to play (and complain about). In 2012, the awareness of how much work they had to do on their games, and their desire to meet the demands of their players (and perhaps their shareholders and corporate boardmembers, too), led Blizzard's top brass to cancel BlizzCon entirely. If they hadn't, it's very likely Mists of Pandaria would have been released many weeks, even months, later than it was. So. Given how much BlizzCon takes away from Blizzard employees' regular duties, which would you rather see: Another convention next year, or a potentially faster release schedule for new games, expansions and features? What if BlizzCon always occurred just once every two years, but lasted for three or four days instead of two? Or is there some other kind of happy medium? (Besides cloning the entire Blizzard company directory.) %Poll-85725%
Can't get enough of BlizzCon? Check out the post-BlizzCon swag sale!
If you've spent the week lonesome for more BlizzCon excitement, then some shopping in the BlizzCon store may be just the thing. This is the same loot that was available in the store for virtual ticket holders and on sale at BlizzCon itself -- plus some extras from BlizzCons past -- but if you missed anything, you can now pick it up online even if you don't have a virtual ticket. Unfortunately, some things are sold out -- like Hearthstone tshirts and mugs -- but there's plenty of loot to go around, like Warlords of Draenor tees, the Lil' Chen plushie, and the epic purple lanyard. So if you still have cash to spare after BlizzCon, there's shopping to be done! If there's anything you want, you should act fast, because supplies are limited.
Ask Massively: Why WoW's 1.3% matters
Welcome back to Ask Massively! Let's play with numbers and WoW. I like numbers and WoW. "I'm no WoW fan, but a change in population of 1.3% either way is nothing worth writing about," wrote a Massively commenter last week on the pre-BlizzCon news that World of Warcraft dropped another 100,000 subscribers over the last quarter. Sure it's worth writing about! Ever hear the phrase "no news is good news"?
WoW Moviewatch: The Road of War
The Road of War was Fablesim's entry into the BlizzCon machinima contest. It features orcs, war, and the inevitable road to it. See what I did there? I couldn't escape the notion that this video was a sort of apology or love letter to Garrosh, but that could just be because he was such a popular character at the convention. I think it's interesting how terribly relevant this video is to the overall themes of the new expansion. Warlords of Draenor, and all that. Check it out and let us know what you think! Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Soapbox: Instant leveling and the whining fringe
Over the weekend at Blizzcon 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced the fifth World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor. The content add-on brings most of the things one might expect from an expansion -- new zone, new features, new quests, new dungeons -- but perhaps most notably includes the option to instantly raise any one of your characters to WoW's current level cap of 90. While you'll still face 10 levels of Warlords of Draenor questing, killing, and fetching if you opt to take the insta-level, the feature has re-ignited the argument among MMO fans as to whether offering players a maxed-out character somehow violates the core rules of the MMO genre. Should developers really provide high-level characters just to get/keep players in the game? The short answer, of course, is "duh." Here's the long answer.
