blizzcon
Latest
Seen at BlizzCon: Waiting for tickets
Here's our first video from BlizzCon (don't worry, they'll get better). I just went down the "line" for the passes at the Convention Center, and by "line," I mean it's a bunch of players standing around waiting for Blizzard to show up. They've even taken up residence inside the actual booths where passes will be given out in about 5 or 6 hours from now.That'll be around 4pm, so these guys have a while to wait. But they're diehards, and the reward will be the first passes given out at BlizzCon 2007. Wait on, linewaiters!
WoW Moviewatch: Azerothian Supervillains, Episode 3 teasers
BlizzCon begins tomorrow, and with it comes the world premiere of Azerothian Supervillains Episode 3! Ian Beckman has crafted it as his entry in the X-Fire Video contest they'll be holding there. Hopefully Episode 3 will be available to those of us who can't attend BlizzCon in person tomorrow too. If you are attending though, be sure to find Ian there and tell him his movies are really funny!While we wait for the real deal, I bring you two teaser trailers to whet your appetite. (Click on the jump below for Teaser 2, or click the following links for Azerothian Supervillains Episode 1 and Episode 2).
WotLK trademarked by Blizzard
And it looks like the final nail has been hammered in to support the "Wrath of the Lich King" speculation-- as MMO Champion points out, Blizzard Entertainment has registered "Wrath of the Lich King" as a trademark (you've got to do a search for it on the USPTO's website, as they don't allow links to searches), all but confirming that the next expansion will take us to Arthas' domain in Northrend.Now, just to play devil's advocate, there is still a chance that Blizzard did this as a smokescreen, and that the expansion has nothing to do with the Lich King. But the trademark was filed on July 28th, which by my estimation puts it a few days ahead of the speculation-- that's a pretty strong indication that while Blizzard waited until the last minute to do it (knowing BlizzCon was only a week or so away), they didn't wait long enough to keep us from leaking it out.The other note is that the patent trademark (note to self: don't piss off the lawyers!) covers not only computer games, but also "comic books," "trading cards," "coloring books," and "greeting cards," among a number of other types of items. I don't know if I ever saw any Burning Crusade greeting cards, but maybe Blizzard expects their little WoW empire to get even bigger in the future.So: Friday. BlizzCon. Wrath of the Lich King. Be there!Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Reminder: WoW Insider meetup tonight!
If you're in Anaheim for BlizzCon this evening, don't forget: Our first official WoW Insider meetup is tonight at 8PM!We'll be meeting up at the Lost Bar at 1150 W. Magic Way in Anaheim, just minutes away from the Convention Center. We'll be having all kinds of good times, including a trivia contest, some fabulous door prizes, and most likely the imbibing of drinks all night long. All of the WoW Insider staff at BlizzCon will be there, so come by, say hi, and have a good time on the eve of Blizzard's big event! See you there!
BlizzCon Countdown: Tomorrow's the day!
For those of you who have been living under a rock, tomorrow is the first day of BlizzCon 2007. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM PDT, we'll be standing in line for StarCraft II demos (we'll try not to get to involved in playing -- and remember to get back to you with all the details!) and starting at 11:00 AM we'll be liveblogging the opening ceremony, where we're expecting to hear the official announcement for the next expansion. For those of you who have missed out on our BlizzCon announcements, I'll use today to bring you up to date on what's happening: We've got an official schedule of events, showing off all of the various panels we're going to get to see. We have our very own BlizzCon Bingo game to play on the convention floor (hey, you need something to do while waiting in line!) A whole slew of expansion rumors! A supposed Wrath of the Lich King FAQ An anonymous source at IGN saying the next expansion is going to be Into the Maelstrom A number of sources suggesting the expansion's title is going to be Wrath of the Lich King A round-up of lore-likely expansion locations For those of you attending, we'll see you there! And for those of you not lucky enough to get tickets, don't fear -- we'll be providing you with all of the information from the show floor!
BlizzCon Shopping
Now that we know what BlizzCon Attendees are getting as swag, Blizzard has published the list of things they will be offering in their store at BlizzCon.The poster above will be $15 and, for me, it just wins out over the Valor poster. Just.Other than the standard fare (posters, hats, t-shirts, keychains, etc.), they will be offering such choice items as: Alliance and Horde license plate holders BlizzCon USB Drive 512 mg + blank printed lanyard Burning Crusade FragMats Mouse Pads Tavern music CD Belt Buckles The TCG sets and boosters The board game and expansion And much more... Go to the BlizzCon Store Merchandise Information Page to make your shopping list.
WoW Insider chats with Xfire at BlizzCon
Oh Illidan and Kael'thas, you two are so silly. The folks behind Azerothian Supervillians put together a fun little trailer for Xfire featuring two of Azeroth's most heinous masterminds.But what they're planning is what we're doing-- covering every single second of BlizzCon. WoW Insider has teamed up with Xfire (yes, the use of "teamed up" was intentional there) to cover Blizzard's big event like it's never been covered before. If you haven't checked out Xfire's main BlizzCon page yet, here it is. And if you haven't gotten an Xfire account yet, do that too (it's easy and free), because on Thursday (tomorrow) at 4pm Pacific, WoW Insider bloggers (including myself) will be chatting live on Xfire. You'll have the chance to ask us about our official predictions for the show, check in with what we think of Anaheim so far, and tell us exactly, in chat-room person, what you think should be covered at BlizzCon.Get on Xfire and get online (put the account "blizzcon2007" on your friends list) tomorrow, Thursday August 2nd at 4pm Pacific to chat live with WoW Insider from Anaheim. And of course, stay tuned all weekend for great BlizzCon open-to-close coverage, courtesty of Xfire and WoW Insider.
Roundup of expansion possibilities
While we'll know for certain what the next expansion will be in just a few more days, it's hard to stop speculating. Right now we've got lots of evidence supporting the idea of a Northrend expansion (there's the music, as well as some excellent supporting facts), but we've also got unnamed sources suggesting the next expansion will send us into the Maelstrom currently located between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. But for those of you still wishing to speculate, BlizzPlanet has a list of potential expansion candidates, and WoWWiki has an excellent list as well, though theirs ranges into perhaps more far-fetched suggestions. Obviously, there's Northrend, which contains 13 distinct regions, then there's the South Seas, 5 islands located off the southern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms (and include Zandalar, which I must note already exists in the game) -- on one of these isles you'll find the well-known Goblin city of Undermine, then there are a number of other islands located in the Great Sea: Kul'Tiras, Tol Barad, Crestfall, Zul'Dare, Dragon Isle, Balor, and Pandaria, the Emerald Dream, which could be as large as Azeroth itself. However, considering the size of the last expansion, it would not be impossible for Blizzard to, perhaps, pick more than one of these ideas to implement. Perhaps Northrend will focus on new end-game content while the South Seas will provide new mid-range content? We'll find out soon!
BlizzCon Goody Bag contents revealed
Blizzard has announced the contents of the Goody Bag which attendees will get when they pick up their badges.Contents include: Murloc Suit to be redeemed in-game for one character. (My husband has claimed mine in return for babysitting.) Beta Key for "an upcoming Beta Test." Could this be StarCraft II, Diablo III or World of Tacocraft? StarCraft II Colossus Magnet World of Warcraft J!nx T-Shirt Probably one of an assortment. Heroes of Azeroth Starter Deck The Upper Deck Entertainment booth will hold free beginner tournaments at their booth. Other items such as coasters and buttons will also be included.Warning: Not all items are guaranteed and the Goody Bags may vary, so pick your badge up early to make sure you're not left out.You can pick up your badges and Goody Bags as early as Thursday, August 2nd at Will Call booths set up outside of Hall A from 4:00pm to 11:00pm.Update: More Murloc swag! The Goody Bag will also contain Mrglrglmrglmrrrlggg, "an exclusive piece of WoW TCG history" from Upper Deck Entertainment. Be careful, they rarely attack alone.
BlizzCon: Convention Center setup
I just sauntered over to the Convention Center here in Anaheim to see what I could see, and the results are in the first exclusive gallery of pictures from BlizzCon, available right there below!There's nothing really groundbreaking here, unfortunately-- it looks like they're still setting up the banners (so I'll go over and check again later today), and I couldn't get close enough to get a really good look inside the Exhibit Hall. But they're definitely close to being done-- while there's lots of carts and equipment around, not much is coming in or going out. I did see a pallet of boxes, but I couldn't get close enough to read what it said on them. Here's an original size version of that one if you guys want to try to decipher what might be in there.Unfortunately, no "Wrath of the Lich King" banners yet, but I'll keep my eyes open and bring you more when I find it.Update: Added some more banners, because when I stopped by this afternoon, they were done putting them up.%Gallery-5417%
BlizzCon: Welcome to Anaheim
Looks like the gray weather followed me all the way here from Chicago, doesn't it? But no worries-- even as I post this, the sun is breaking through the clouds and haze here in Anaheim, CA, home (in the next few days) of the second BlizzCon.I still haven't quite gotten my bearings-- I'm pretty sure the convention center is north of here, and this picture from my hotel room looks east, so you can't see it there. But later today I'll head over there and see what there is to see, and of course tomorrow all the festivities start with something pretty boring: the picking up of the convention badges, and end with something pretty amazing: our first official WoW Insider meetup.Stay tuned to WoW Insider-- we are here, live in Anaheim, ready to bring you every single second of this show.
BlizzCon Countdown: 3 days to go!
Are you excited yet? In just a few short days we'll be hearing all of the exciting news Blizzard has been sitting on these past few months. We're going to be hearing all sorts of news about StarCraft II, the next big thing (or things!) for World of Warcraft, and who knows what else Blizzard might have in store for us. Just yesterday we got an official schedule of events. So for those of you attending, I ask which panels and events are you most excited about seeing? And to those who won't be making it out to the convention, I ask which events do you most want us to get you video coverage of? (Of course we're going to cover as much as we can, but it's a big convention, and we have a limited number of people with cameras!) So tell us: what can't you wait to see?
Anonymous source says: Next expansion = "Into the Maelstrom"
You know we have one anonymous source, who told us that there'll be "Northrend" music played at Blizzcon, and then there's Boubouille at MMO-Champion who says that the next expansion will be called "Wrath of the Lich King" in which we'll go to Northrend and raid Arthas' little snow castle. Apparently IGN has an anonymous source of their own, though, and his info is quite different.According to their contact, named "Blizz guy," we're going to have an "Into the Maelstrom" expansion, in which we go... into... the Maelstrom! and the Light only knows who we're going to fight there. Also, in lieu of new talents, Blizz guy says we're finally going to get our long-awaited Hero Classes that we can level up in, all the way to 80.Now personally, I see all the hints pointing to Northrend, and absolutely nothing pointing to the Maelstrom, so I'm a lot more inclined to trust our own sources -- but we'll put this out there for all you who just love rumors and speculation! MMO-Champion and IGN can't both be right on this one, though I suppose they could both be wrong.Which one do you think seems more likely? Or do you have an anonymous source of your own?
Last chance to enter BlizzCon contests!
For those of you interested in entering any of the contests happening at BlizzCon, tonight is your last chance! If you're going to be at BlizzCon and fancy you have a chance at the costume contest or the dance contest, you've got until 8:00 PM PDT (that's midnight for you east-coasters) to enter. You could win some excellent prizes, including a swanky new Dell laptop, so if you're attending, why not test out your elite dancing skills?
Official BlizzCon schedule announced
Blizzard has finally announced an official schedule of events for BlizzCon, happening this Friday and Saturday. It's a bit different from the leaked schedule we'd seen, so if you're curious about what's going to be happening on the show floor, be sure to check it out! But if you can't make it as far as clicking that link, here are the highlights: StarCraft II open gaming from 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM Friday and 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM Saturday World of Warcraft open gaming from 11:30 AM - 10:00 PM on Friday and 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM on Saturday Interesting panels, covering the expanded universe, WoW classes, WoW dungeons & raids, sound & music, careers in gaming, WoW UI and mods, WoW professions & items, cinematics, WoW PvP, StarCraft art, StarCraft lore, WoW lore & quests, and the WoW TCG. Legendary Pictures has a time slot -- perhaps we'll get a first glance at the upcoming movie? In addition to the official schedule, we also have word from Oxhorn that there will be a machinima booth in the exhibit area featuring all of your favorite machinima makers at various times throughout the day. So if you're wanting to meet anyone in particular, check their schedule!Friday 1:00 PM: Slashdance 2:00 PM: Riot Films 3:00 PM: Time Gnomes 4:00 PM: Stone Falcon Productions 5:00 PM: Dead Worker's Party Saturday 1:00 PM: Rufus Cubed 2:00 PM Oxhorn 3:00 PM: Spiffworld 4:00 PM: Red Sky Foundry 5:00 PM: Blizzard DVD/Video Production
Next expansion "Wrath of the Lich King?"
It's four days to Blizzcon, and Boubouille, long-time source of quality information, thinks he knows what the next expansion is going to be called: Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously this supports previous information pointing to a Northrend-themed expansion, as Northrend is home to Arthas, the Lich King himself. The original post on the MMO-Champion forums claiming this to be the expansion name also asserts that there will be a new class: Death Knight! This seems to be less substantiated, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true. Rumors aside, we'll almost certainly know for sure in just a few days. Are you excited? I am.As far as the Death Knight rumor goes, the WoWWiki page lends a bit of support: apparently, Death Knight (as well as Necromancer) were originally planned to be classes in WoW, but didn't make it to release. Furthermore, there exists a green called Triumphant Shield of Shadow Wrath, which is confusing as no shield-using classes (Warrior, Paladin, Shaman) can use Shadow magic. This could just be an oversight in the random-enchant-generating code, but it could also be a hint at a Shadow-wielding, shield-using class...Update: Over at MMO-Champion, they suggest that this is accurate because the link www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/ leads to a "forbidden" error, whereas accessing any other non-existent page on the site will give you a "not found" error. Continue to enjoy your rumormongering, everyone!Update 2: Again from MMO-Champion, the title World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was found on the web site of Usk.de, which is apparently the German equivalent of our ESRB (i.e. the agency that assigns content ratings to games). It seems to have a "12" rating; although I don't speak German, I assume that means "suitable for 12 and up."Update 3: It's official now -- check out all of the news on Wrath of the Lich King.
WoW Insider's Blizzcon Bingo
Because if you're going to a convention about a game, you might as well turn it into a game, right? Just for fun, we've put together a BlizzCon Bingo card-- save the image, print it out, bring it to BlizzCon, and then make a mark whenever you see something at the convention on the card. There's all kinds of things on there, everything from a Northrend expansion, to someone saying "kek" in RL, to Blizzard CMs and developers.All you have to do is observe five occurences in a row throughout the weekend, and you win! What, you ask, do you win? The satisfaction of a full and fulfilling BlizzCon weekend. I don't know about you, but if I leave Anaheim having seen a new Diablo, new midlevel content, or just a really quality Murloc costume, my weekend will be made.And while lots of these are easy to recreate yourself (anyone can complain about their class), remember: no cheating! You must observe what happens, not cause it in any way. Good luck!
BlizzCon Countdown: 4 days to go!
We're getting ever closer to the Big Day! In our countdown yesterday, we asked what you would ask Blizzard if you had the chance, so we can ask them when we have the chance -- and keep sending us questions! They're great! Today, however, we're tackling a much less serious topic. Judging from the pictures from the 2005 show floor, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing plenty of players taking off this opportunity to show off elaborate costumes. But which of you, dear readers, will be heading out to the con dressed as a Night Elf or a Warlock? (And for those of you who haven't yet considered attire, there's plenty of costume inspiration on the 2005 BlizzCon site -- though it may be a bit late to start thinking about costumes.)
Taking a look at the Arena team finalists
Just yesterday, Blizzard announced which Arena teams will be participating in the tournament at BlizzCon. And in the hours since, players on the forums have been scrutinizing their team makeup and trying to determine what it might mean. Poster Alairia jumps in informing us of the class breakdown on participating Arena teams: 8/8 teams have a Warrior 8/8 teams have a Paladin 7/8 teams have a Shaman 5/8 teams have a Mage 4/8 teams have a Priest 3/8 teams have a Warlock 2/8 teams have a Hunter 1/8 teams have a Rogue 0/8 teams have a Druid And poster Perplexia brings us some slightly more informative percentages: 25% of the players in the finals are Warriors 20% of the players in the finals are Paladins 17.5% of the players in the finals are Shamans 12.5% of the players in the finals are Mages 10% of the players in the finals are Priests 7.5% of the players in the finals are Warlocks 5% of the players in the finals are Hunters 2.5% of the players in the finals are Rogues 0% of the players in the finals are Druids While you can certainly brush off these numbers as personal choice of the teams involved, it does seem odd that when eight of the top Arena teams in the world get together, they have no Druids among them. The breakdown suggests that some classes simply aren't viable in Arena battles. But what's your take on these numbers? Are some classes simply a liability in 5v5 Arenas -- or is it just that the teams who happen to be the best of the best have a fondness for Warriors?
Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain performing now!
Drysc announced earlier today that starting at midnight server time, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain is performing at the new Darkmoon Faire location outside of Shattrath City. Don't be afraid if you've missed your server's performance time, because they will be performing at the top of every hour until BlizzCon is over.You don't need to be high level to attend if you can get a Warlock to summon you, but you do need The Burning Crusade.Happy BlizzCon Week everyone!Update: It seems that the concert has begun on some servers at 1am, instead of midnight and others not at all. The stage should be located at 36, 34 in Terrokar Forest, if you have a coordinate mod -- just outside of the southeast exit of the Lower City.Update2: Screenshot of the show after the jump. Rock on, L70ETC!
