Elizabeth's final BlizzCon impressions
by Elizabeth Harper 
Aug 9th 2007 at 7:10PM
Most enjoyable: Playing the WoW TCG in a beginner's tournament! Even though I had to leave after two rounds of play to make the L70ETC concert, I had a blast, and have spent time since BlizzCon tinkering with different deck setups and talking friends into playing with me. And besides the game being just fun, the tournament was a very social event. We were all seated at long tables, and before rounds and between rounds we all got to chat about our favorite classes and what realms we played on. BlizzCon overall was a bit anti-social, with many events being held in dark rooms where the focus is purely on the Blizzard folks who are hosting the presentation -- there wasn't much opportunity or encouragement to meet or socialize with people you played with. For this same reason, I also really enjoyed our Meet and Greet on Thursday night, where we got to hang out and chat with some of our readers. Of the official Blizzard events (the panels were incredibly interesting, but I'm not sure about fun), I've got to say that my favorite was the L70ETC concert. It's not every day that you get to sit with a crowd of 8,000 of your fellow players cheering on a World of Warcraft-themed rock band singing nothing but in-jokes for the gamers in the audience.
More after the jump!
Least enjoyable: Everything you might have wanted to do at BlizzCon, including give Blizzard your money for Blizzard-branded gear, had massive lines. Plenty of the conference was a game of hurry-up-and-wait where you went from waiting in one long queue to another. And possibly making the top of my "least enjoyable" list is Jay Mohr. Yes, he had his moments -- and I have to praise him on his ability to adapt and pick up on concepts the gamers in the audience found funny. (His act seemed to improve through the course of the first night and was quite good on the second.) But on Friday night during the contests when he was ad-libbing while the judges picked winners? Owwie. Kevin over at Joystiq managed to get audio of his performance on Saturday night, for the WoW fans out there who are also Mohr fans. (Though, admittedly, he was an incredible improvement over some of the entertainment at this year's E3.)
Most excited about: Even though I wasn't entirely thrilled about the new World of Warcraft expansion, I'm (obviously) a big World of Warcraft player and an expansion is going to have a big impact on my gameplay. And, though we didn't get to try it out at BlizzCon, the gameplay for the Death Knight sounds fascinating. Though details are still lacking, I look forward to hearing more details on the new class, the new profession, the new talents, and the new zones!
Most disappointed about: No Diablo news? Not even a teensy bit? You guys couldn't even spring for just one Diablo-themed poster so the Diablo fans in the audience could keep the dream alive? Though I suppose having three major games at BlizzCon would have been overkill... Also, while I consider the expansion to be the most exciting thing on display at BlizzCon, I'm also disappointed by the announcement. Only one hero class? (You know this means that the game is going to be absolutely swarmed with Death Knights, don't you, Blizzard?) No details on the new talents to level 80? Obviously the game is still in its early stages, but I'm disappointed to see it when there was relatively little to show.
Filed under: BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
crazed Aug 9th 2007 7:42PM
I totally agree about the TCG, I spent some more money when I got home on boosters..just depressing that none of my friends play and who wants to spend a few hundred making a deck for tournies?
Coherent Aug 9th 2007 8:07PM
You make good points, Elizabeth! I thought the con was a tiny bit anti-social. But then, Blizz is in the game business, so their cons will slowly improve as they get more practiced at it. Blizzcon was a success, and I loved it. But it could have been better, too.
I would have liked more emphasis on guild & server community, maybe have server parties or something :)
The lack of Diablo presence at the con IS interesting, isn't it? For a con dedicated to "All Blizzard Products" they did seem to be studiously ignoring one of their headliner successes. Personally, I think they're actually working on it but taking great pains to keep it totally silent so that fan expectations won't affect whatever creative foundation they're building.
And the Death Knight criticism is right on. Only 1 hero class? How long will it take them to roll out enough hero classes for everybody? Hopefully they'll get ambitious and announce a second hero class before the expansion rollout date.
Ugkul Aug 9th 2007 9:12PM
A blue has already announced on the forums that the DK will be the only Hero class for WLK.
Coherent Aug 9th 2007 9:27PM
They're just being cautious. They're all scared they won't be able to balance a whole new class so they're limiting themselves to just one hero class until they have more experience with the whole "introducing new classes" thing.
Well I guess it isn't a bad thing. Their extreme caution has made for a pretty good game so far, and very few (if any) upset applecarts.
NGE in SWG would be a good example of not being particularly cautious, and also of extremely upset applecarts.
Quixote Aug 9th 2007 11:50PM
Since one of the main concerns seemed to be the somewhat anti-social environment of Blizzcon, let me fill you in or remind you of an amusing little detail...
For those of you who happened to be at the first Blizzcon a couple of years ago, did anyone remember the whole corner section of large round tables with realm names on them which were supposed to be for realm meet-ups? Anyone? You see, I think it was set up this way for a reason. Those tables were an almost complete waste of space last time and I think they learned from that.
To me it sounded like the TGC with it's high top tables for people to stand around and play, I think that is what they went for this year. So, I think they did try to leave room for people to socialize at the first Blizzcon and very few took advantage of it. So I think it is more of the fault of the user community, not Blizzard. If that had been a big hit the first time around I bet it would have made a return.
Seif_wfc Aug 10th 2007 12:16AM
I was under the impression that most of the Diablo team had left and formed ArenaNet, which is currently working on the Guild Wars series. If true, that could explain the relative dearth of Diablo information.
VegasHorde Aug 10th 2007 3:50AM
I looked for a shirt that said, "I survived the queues at BlizzCon 2007", but I was unable to find one...
Tyridan Aug 10th 2007 4:30AM
People go on about Diablo, and while it was a great game - what exactly do you want to see from it? Diablo 2 with The Lord of Destruction expansion is basically an isometric version of WoW (WoW Lite). Why would Blizzard want to create and support two games with basically the same classes, talent system, locales etc. It would harm WoW too (I would imagine a lot of WoW players will go play Diablo 3 and drop WoW - if only for a while). So then they have to create twice as much content to support perhaps slightly more players. The only way I can see them resurrecting the Diablo franchise is in some new game style, or waiting until they have flogged all the life out of WoW (Level 120 fighting Sargeras in your Epic Spaceship in the Twisting Nether etc)...