That’s right, myself and three others flew over to Anaheim, California to the Anaheim Convention Center for Blizzard’s 3rd Annual BlizzCon!  This year Blizzard featured all three of its games at the Con: World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. I decided that despite the embarrassment which I might endure, I would dress up as a Blood Elf, featured in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. I was a bit nervous at first. While approaching the convention center I saw no one dressed up in costume in sight, and there I was, sporting these ridiculous elf ears.  Once I entered the convention center I was astounded.  About 40% of the 15,000 people who showed up for the convention were dressed up in the most elaborate outfits.  From bulked up Horde warlocks to Alliance elves skimpy bikinis, it was all there.  Our goodie bags were amazing too!  Filled to the brim with fun swag, including a blow up Frostmourne, keychains, Starcraft “Zerg Creep”, Diablo III stress balls, BlizzCon hand sanitizer, mints, Warcraft trading card game starter kit, bottle opener, n00b tissues, paper WoW masks, Starcraft II beta key, polar bear mount for WoW, mouse pads, and these nifty Blizzard Digipass Authenticator by Vasco!

      Tickets to Blizzcon were about $100, which was pretty good considering everything at the Con other than food was free.  They had free pictures with a background of the game of your choice. You can view more of these photo’s at www.politeinpublic.com  Someone actually proposed in one of the photos - and don’t worry, she said yes!

      During many of the developer panels - where they explained the new game World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - I was texting our lead QA pro Dave Loya of all of the awesome new details for the new unveiled class, The Death Knight.  The Con also had several computer set-ups for participants to play Starcraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III.  I ended up demoing Diablo III, and it truly looks fantastic!  They have some more work to do on the game, but they did unveil a new class as well, the Wizard! 

      The Con itself was a sight to see.  There were meet and greets galore! Participants had the opportunity to meet with Blizzard employees and obtain free swag such as professional pictures, figure prints, trading cards and so much more!  We all waited in line for about two hours to get plush Murocs, which Jinx was all sold out by 6 p.m the first evening.  I tried to get pictures of everyone that were dressed up,  I even found a few fellow Blood Elves!  My crew was very recognizable due to the fact that we were all wearing red matching Tabards.  They are a exact replica of our guild tabards in game which are The Bloodrocutioners.  Chelsea (Designer, 1st Playable Productions) made all of the Tabards  worn at the Con all on her own with some sewing help from our other friends who came along for the trip.  The painstaking work totally paid off as people were shouting “Look!  Guildies!” and snapping pictures in our faces.  I think we averaged about 150 photos taken of us by random people per day.  By 10p.m. both nights I was seeing spots.  I couldn’t believe that if you were dressed up, you were photographed like a celebrity.  I even had one kid ask us to sign his Warcraft book with our names, realm name and guild name.  There were also many gals paid by Blizzard to model official WoW costumes! Also, My crew and myself were interviewed my two different websites!

      The final night had a great concert by Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, which is Blizzards metal band. Even the CEO was in the band!  The Orchestra concluded the evening with powerful music from Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.  The theme music from World of Warcraft I must say, did give me goosebumps. I encourage anyone who plays any of the Blizzard games to check out the next Con in 2009, because I know I will be there!  It was an amazing time and so surreal with the ambience of gaming and fantasy combined into two fun filled days which was BlizzCon 2008!

Guild Interview

Our VP of Sales, Peter Ryan is famous!  Well, maybe not, but we’re proud of his post on Gamasutra.  Check it out here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3828/building_social_communities_for_.php

Sometimes, things go wrong.

Sometimes, things go horribly, horribly wrong, and there’s nothing you can do to stop the slow-motion train wreck unfolding before your very eyes. (Like that one senior prom where you spilled your dinner all over your date’s dress. On the upside, you didn’t need that $200 anyway.) When things go that awry, there’s no way to fix it. (She never did return your phone calls, did she?) The only thing you can do with a mistake like that is to make sure it never, ever happens again.

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