Blizzcon 2007!

[furtech]

I know I'm way behind-- I haven't even touched SDCC yet. But Blizzcon's on my mind and fresh, so here goes:

Blizzcon was this last weekend, August 3-4. Odd that it was only Friday and Saturday-- it's thrown off my sense of time: Saturday felt like a Sunday and today (Sunday) felt like the next Saturday.


There was plenty of room-- though the halls were very dark (probably to simulate the typical environment of their players-- it had that black-light/basement feel to it). Not too noisy. Pretty cool, actually. Certainly a refreshing break from the jostling of SDCC!

As much as I thought the Star Wars Celebration was a highly focused convention, Blizzcon takes this to a whole new level. All about Blizzcon and their games (particularly World of Warcraft). Still, they really treated the members well: they had a "goodie bag" with all the usual flyers and program stuff-- but it also had a sealed "Heroes of Azeroth" starter deck; a limited Murloc card; a small bottle of hand sanitizer/moisterizer (in a neoprene holder); buttons, temp-tattoos, a t-shirt and of course the special card with a beta key (rumor has it that it's for the new Starcraft beta) and a murloc suit that your character can wear. Wow.

Tons of people there eager to try the new expansion for the Warcraft : the lines for those terminals was always huge. As opposed to the terminals for the new Starcraft (2) game, for which there were always available terminals. No dealers to speak of, with the exception of a few selling WoW licensed stuff. Lots of cool art-figures based on the card game. There was an Nvidia booth, WoW collector card booth and even a company that lets you get credit cards with Warcraft art on them (warning: a 500k image). The Blizzard Store was pretty sold out of everything by Saturday (like the cool murloc shirt ), but I did get a set of baby murloc figures and a t-shirt (that I ended up trading with Roz).

Talk about focused! These people looked like new convertees to a cult! The main stage audience was always packed with eager, beatific faces hanging on the speaker's every word. Like a religious epiphany. I remarked to Roz that it was ironic in that most of these people are the most hard-core of a pretty hard-core group of gamers-- yet they had to pry themselves from their gaming to come to this con to immerse themselves in every aspect of the game-- yet not play (for the most part). Like heroin addicts drawn to a methadone convention. And happy-- very happy! Both of us felt a little out of place. Still, any huge convention center filled with giant orc banners and costumes and fantasy stuff is still very cool even to non-players like us. And generally people were very nice-- maybe because they socialize so much in-game they have better manners than the shut-ins at other cons.

There were a lot of exhibitors there, most having mini-contests for bling. Nvidia had a "match the number on a button" contest that won you a bag of swag, including this graphics card with the cool wolf-thing on the front !

I have to thank waynekaa profusely for helping Roz and I to get this cool shirt with the South Park tie in! He is a master of ferreting out freebies! We can thank him for the extra posters and oversize WoW collector cards, water bottles, pins and posters, too!

Along with Mr. Kaa, Roz and I caught up to auryanne and got the dope on the con; an animator friend who knew the winner of the video contest (amazing stuff!) and a few cosplayer-crossover fans! Unfortunately we totally missed shoka (we tried, though!)

Tons of contests! Here are some examples of the fan art contest-- cute stuff! Contests for everything from dance contests (warcraft in-game dances) and imitating Warcraft voices/sounds and videos created using the Warcraft engine/models. The prizes were usually pretty cool: $$$ Dell laptops, graphic cards/accelerators, two years of Warcraft. Speaking of contests...I was mainly there to enter the costume contest-- but that's for another post!

Comments

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

Oh I was unpacking and found this nice autographed by the artist and writer WoW manga poster from Tokyopop. It's one of those half size ones. I can bring that over the next time I see you if you think your friends would enjoy it. I won it earlier when "Henry" was in costume and had packed it away with the wig so it wouldn't get damaged and forgot about it.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Sure-- that would be great! I need to get downtown to get my mags sometime soon anyway. Huge props to you on your costume (did NOT look like a 3daywonder!). I found some pics and a vid (but not one showing our "skit"), but not many good ones. Will post in next post on the costume contest.

And HUGE thanks to you on the "Sword of 100 Truths" t-shirt: very cool item!

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

if there's free stuff, I need to get it!

[mistahbojangles.livejournal.com]

STARCRAFT TWOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Yeah!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

...I guess you'd've had a GREAT time, then! You could have been on the Starcraft terminals the whole weekend! I'm no expert, but the gameplay looked a LOT like those games you showed me last time (lots of tanks and troops moving around with a bird's eye view). Not much in the way of cool creatures and grappling, tho' (except for those lizardphant-things).

You can probably make use of Tracy's beta key, then!

[mistahbojangles.livejournal.com]

I'm not too surprised at the focus on Warcraft overshadowing SC2, WOW is rather unique for mainstream crossover appeal and "lifestyle" level of audience devotion. Starcraft 1 is nearly 10 years old; a major accomplishment for a videogame that still enjoys so much attention, but it can't touch WOW. Considering that this was one of the first opportunities for Joe Average to play the game I'm surprised that more of the attendees weren't showing it some love.

Starcraft 2 does have the possibility of showcasing some neat critter designs as the evil alien race holds a lot of similarities to Geiger's Alien and other grim-toothed visages, but of course it skews towards the sci-fi rather than natural wildlife. Blizzard hasn't released much info on these guys yet however.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

Sigh...I move from California and miss THIS.

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

I posted a photo of the troll figure in my gallery, if you haven't seen it you should go see! It looks very much like that icon.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you. I just wish I had a teleporter to Orange County.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah-- sorry about that. Roz and I were Blues'in about your absence on the way down. For all its faults (haha!) and high prices, things like this -are- some of the few neat things about the place. I'm guessing they're going to continue to have them here because it's in their backyard and all the employees can attend. It was fascinating to see programmers and developers have -huge- autograph lines!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Blizzcon sounds like it was a lot of fun! Maybe next time they have one I'll get around to going. I'd definitely like to see all the art...

I'm just wary though. Already the photos are appearing on the general forum boards, mocking the congoers. *sigh*

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Never worry about the mockery sites-- I have nothing but disdain and no-respect for people whose only purpose seems to be denigrating the happiness of others. I used to be pretty sensitive about that with furry and cosplay, but both fandoms seem to be weathering the jibes to the point the mockers are getting bored (and having to deal with their own miserable lives instead). They're like the "bullies" that were so pitiful that their only victims were the nerdy kids.

On the other hand, we did make a point of not sitting behind video cameras...no harm in being cautious!

Considering how much fun we had as non-players, I'm sure you would have had a BLAST! I was a little envious of all the meet-ups and socializing everyone had-- even the friendly Horde vs. Alliance poking.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

There are often posts on the WoW general forum about fat/ugly chicks playing games. *sigh* I shouldn't let it get to me, but it does.

I'd stop reading the general forum but there are sometimes some decent, informative posts.

The rest of the forums tend not to be so bad, at least the ones I read.

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

Sure, people were nice to you because you don't have any faction allegiance ;) I'm sure you noticed the friendly rivalry between the two sides, although I'm not bitter that the staff and developers all play the other side. Really...

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

The Horde versus Alliance thing gets on my nerves. I have characters on both sides and have met good and bad players on both sides. Maybe it is more intense for people on pvp servers. I pvp both as Horde and Alliance and I get irritated at specific players but not at Alliance or Horde as a whole.

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

Even on my PVP server characters I'm not all 'OMG I HATE THE ALLIANCE!'

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

Your icon is hawt :D

And I've played both sides too, so I know there's very little difference, I guess that's why I find the stereotyping annoying :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I'm still stunned that you made the move to the "good" side! Next thing I know you'll say that Hannibal bores you! Besides, evil has all the neat, pointy designs. I will admit, though, that I usually prefer to be on the minority side of anything. Just surprised that there were so many Horde-rs there.

So, I got the low-down on Blood Elves...how about gnomes? Mockery value? Horde is easy: until they get Worgen pc's, I'd go with the wolfy-looking Tauren. But Alliance really doesn't have neat creature races. Dwarves and their pens creep me out (sorry, Tracy!); Humans-- bah!; Elves have a worse reputation than Broadway fans. At least gnomes get those cool robot-bird things.

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

My three main draws for being on the "good" side are the dwarves, draenei, and elf druids. I really like their stories and find it more compelling than the sort of rough tribalism of the Horde.

Draenei are the most exotic looking of the Alliance races, that's what my priest is (in the icon).

[mognetcentral.livejournal.com]

I'm still waiting to see what you wore to the WoW prom, Lance!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I'm debating posting a link/pics. I saw what I look like from the side and (unfortunately) realized that he REALLY needs a more prominent hump. So I'm going to make some major mods and then do a local photoshoot. But! Wayne's costume is so fantastic that I -need- to post pics. Torn!

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

nooooooo, if your costume is not good enough, then don't post pics. Even if I'm there! *influences*
And you're missing two teeth on each side of the belt. We'll do some nice woodsy shots later.

[mognetcentral.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you NEED to post pics. YEAH! :D

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

NO FAIR using your feminine wiles!

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Ooo Christina DeLong won the fan art contest. That's awesome.

I've ALWAYS loved her dancing druid piece.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

If hers was the one with the dancing creatures-- yeah, that was neat! And the videos were amazing! The dance contest was one by someone dressed as Napoleon Dynamite doing the Blood Elves dance (and who stayed in-character the whole time! Bwa-haha!).

[shoka.livejournal.com]

Yah, I didn't have your cell number, only the one for the phone you loaned to Roz. Which I called and got a very confused Dwight.

I screwed up and forgot my cell phone charger and so the phone went dead late Saturday morning. I missed calls from Dave K and Roz as a result.

I'm glad you guys had a good time though. It was a /great/ con.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah-- we figured it was either dead cellphone or you were too busy having a GREAT TIME (we hoped it was the latter). And Dwight promptly felt the irrational compunction to erase all data on Roz's phone, so we couldn't even call you early Saturday on our way down.

Would have been nice to drag you to dinner on Saturday-- but there's a good chance you wanted to go to the concerts anyway.

[brokkentwolf.livejournal.com]

Glad that we touched bases - even briefly. Next time let's get together outside the con for dinner or something.

[millencolinf0x.livejournal.com]

one of my coworkers was there and won a laptap for his video. Sounds like everyone had a great time!

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a really neat con! I would have been wondering where all the Diablo Stuff was. I think that's the only game they made that I played. Heh.

[mirabem.livejournal.com]

squeeeee!!!

any word on those walrus people? playable race or no?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

From what I heard, no new races (some people were grumbling about that). I'm still holding out for the worgen, but I'm told that this is as unlikely an event as the Panda people.