Bloggers at BlizzCon: Cory Doctorow and Alice Taylor
by Elizabeth Harper 
Aug 7th 2007 at 6:43PM
Well, it was awfully commercial. I'd envisioned a lot more of the social stuff -- guild stuff, "friends" who'd never met f2f getting together. But that was pretty thin on the ground -- it was so damned dark, you could hardly spot your friends even if they were there.
Then there's Alice Taylor, whom you may know from the excellent game blog Wonderland (StarCraft origami wars ftw!). Asked about her experiences at BlizzCon, she told Joystiq:
It was okay. It was expensive, and sparse on content, really. Lots of showy stuff from Blizzard, and some from sponsors, and very little from the players, considering, and they're a very important part of the whole thing!
In both interviews, comments are made about the lighting in the convention center. I can vouch for the interior being extremely dark (I'm sure they had a couple of lights on, but at least half of my photos only show dark shadows of people), especially when coming in from bright, sunny southern California!
Filed under: BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rick gregory Aug 7th 2007 8:26PM
well I *did* meet up with my guild... didn't really need Blizz for that one..
They had about 1.5 days of actual content and ran it from 9-10 and 10-10.
If I were them I'd start at 10am both days, have the announce within 30 mins of door open on Day 1 and edn by 6 or 7 so people can grab beers, etc in t he evening. If you wanted to do that you needed to skip evening things
Coherent Aug 7th 2007 7:25PM
They kept it dark inside the convention center because it was hot and icky outside and they wanted people to feel cool and happy inside.
Also, it makes it easier to present startling displays using spotlights to light up posters and booths if the ambiance is nightlike darkness.
As for Cory Doctorow's complaint, it's true, they should have made the attendee's names larger on the badges. As for social events, that would be cool if it were held inside a hotel so there could be a party floor where people could meet. There WERE some social get togethers upstairs, but they might have been poorly attended since everyone was interested in the panels. (I know I was)
I think the principal problem with Blizzcon was that it was too short. Just two days of events, that's it? They needed to fill it out to three days so that people could relax and have fun in between hanging on the dev's every word.
And I suppose they could have had space reserved for server & guild meetups on the main floor, let guilds register a banner and hang their flags out for an hour or two each day. More emphasis on community would have made it a more partylike atmosphere.
So yeah, Blizz has a lot to learn about throwing a great convention. But in no way was it disappointing. I've attended a lot of conventions, and it was a real pleasure to be at Blizzcon.
foop Aug 7th 2007 7:30PM
I hate to say this, but what do you expect? WoW now has nine gazillion players. This is not going to be the original Blizzcon. You are not going to know everybody. Let's face it, you're not going to know anybody. There are many countries where there are fewer people than might go to Blizzcon, and you don't expect to know everybody in your country. Unless you're mad. Or a politician. Yes, the hard-core will be there. But the hard-core from nine gazillion people is more people than live in France. Probably,
MMORPG-cons do work. But only if (to use my other obsession) you're something like EvE Online, with a single-sharded world with 30,000 people on at one time form 200,000 accounts and a rabid fan base who would happily beat Murlocs to a pulp if it meant getting to the Fnafest.
Necrous Aug 7th 2007 8:14PM
"High profile"? A fan with above average writing skills and a website to post their opinions on is not an expert on anything. Using phrasing like "they managed to snag an interview" and "high profile" insinuate they are authorities or experts on the subject. They could have interviewed any human being with a pulse and had an equally authoritative opinion on the quality of Blizzard's conference.
michael.singletary Aug 7th 2007 9:34PM
I agree that the convention was less socially-focused than I had hoped. I hardly think it was lacking, however. I attended just about every WoW panel (hey, it's hard for one person to make everything!) and found it to be full of information and very fun... especially the Q/A sessions!
The darkness was something that I really enjoyed. Being a couple-time Anime Expo attendee makes you really appreciate the darkness. AE had a ton more people and being in super-bright lights the whole time was pretty annoying. When I walked into the convention center for BlizzCon and noticed the lights (or lack thereof) I actually found myself very happy with them.
Earthowned Aug 8th 2007 4:09AM
@3 Not that I'm a boing-boing fanboy or anything but I would say that an award winning Sci-Fi author probably has above average writing skills:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow
Eldiablohijo Aug 8th 2007 10:20AM
If outside the convention center was Hot and Icky then i'd love to know where you live.
Weather in Anaheim the whole time I was there was so much better compared to where I came from. If you want Hot and Sticky come to the Midwest where it's mid 90s and high Humidity.
I did enjoy that they had the lights off, but it wasn't so much because of the weather, but more of a fact to make the Screens and Monitors easier to view and stand out more.
I wished Blizzcon would have been longer, but they were kind of running out of stuff to talk about. There is only so many panels they can come up with, maybe if they had done some panels twice, or only did one Panel at a time, but then they would have just been even more crowded.
There were a lot of people at Blizzcon, but honestly not as many as I expected. From what I understand they really didn't sell that many tickets, somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-7 thousand, and that doesn't count the number of people who bought a ticket and didn't attend or bought extra tickets just for the extra goodie bags.
Mal Aug 8th 2007 6:57PM
I read boingboing often and it's normally pretty intelligent. He's got a fetish with EULA's that's bordering on manic, though, and really doesn't seem to "get" WoW.
"Azeroth and Norarth might have two of the world's largest economies, but they're not nations."
What? Largest whats? It's a game, man. You need to at least insert the word 'virtual' in there somewhere. And of course they're not nations. Who said they were? Retorical non sequitur.
"They're corporate fun-parks..."
Definitely. Did I mention that it's a game? Oh, but thanks for pointing out that it's run by a company. Very insightful.
"... governed by insane, abusive EULAs. Blizzard installs freakin' *spyware* on your PC"
Please explain. I'm seeing some insanity here, but it's not where you think it is...
" -- they even sued fans who made their own game-server."
Cory, you really should let me print copies of your novels to hand out to all of my friends. Or better yet, make a copy and change the title page to declare myself as the author.