Posts with tag DragonCon

World of Warcraft has a large presence in the online gaming community, and that presence is you guys, the people playing the game, reading about it and discussing it. Now, our friend Zarhym the floating, burning skull reminds us all that we can vote for WoW in the Dragon Slayer awards. You can even vote for yourselves in the Most Passionate Fan Base category.

As someone who writes about this game and has spent years interacting with you, I think you guys definitely count as passionate. You should totally vote for yourselves. Also, vote for Zarhym for Community Manager of the Year, since he asked nicely and he reminds me of Morte from Planescape: Torment.

Community spirit isn't something WoW players lack, in my opinion. With the Dragon Slayer awards being aimed directly at community, here's a chance to show it off. The awards will be presented Sept. 2 at this year's Dragon*Con, which runs from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Buff(ing) for BlizzCon is a bi-weekly fitness series written by ShrinkGeek authors Rafe Brox and Michael McGreevy. Join the WoW.com team in getting in shape for the ultimate WoW geek event: BlizzCon 2010.

BlizzCon is still three months away, but convention season is in full swing. The San Diego Comic-Con ended a few days ago, and in the seemingly endless days that stretch out between now and Blizzardpalooza, there are several huge conventions that may be occupying your time. I'll be leaving next week for Gen Con, and a month after that you'll be able to find Rafe and me (along with a large handful of staffers from Massively) at Dragon*Con. I often wonder if we geeks have not subconsciously scheduled some of the biggest conventions of the year over the summer months as a result of the countless dull hours in our youth because we didn't appreciate the "traditional" summer activities. Whatever the reason, though, this is the time of the year when it's truly grand to be a geek.

It is not, however, such a grand time if you are trying to make healthy dining choices.

Oh, Dragon*Con, I missed you before I even left. Though I'm not entirely certain if you can really enjoy the MMO track's annual World of Warcraft party -- which included Gnome punting and Horde vs. Alliance dodgeball -- vicariously, I tried to catch the experience in photographic form nevertheless. (Note: if you want to really experience the meaning of the "war" in Warcraft, you need to do so in a room filled with hundreds of WoW fans cheering for their faction of choice.) Of course, Dragon*Con is more than parties (after all, some of the parties had Tesla coils), there was some great MMO programming and we had a chance to talk addons with the infamous ckknight. With twelve long months to wait until Dragon*Con 2010, we'll all have to live on memories until then. So, until 2010, I leave you with photo galleries.

PAX wrapped up over the weekend in Seattle, and from what we've heard of our friends' experiences over at Joystiq, it was a wild, wild time. Blizzard was there as expected, and it sounds like the setup was pretty awesome. They had all three playable demos up from BlizzCon, including the Starcraft II singleplayer game, the Diablo III monk class, and of course the Cataclysm Worgen and Goblin race starting areas. We hear that Blizzard had their GMs in attendance as well, and reader Aveiceae (whose pictures you can see in the gallery below) reports that she saw both Drysc and Bornakk there. She also says that Blizzard gave away some of their famous hand sanitizer throughout the show -- very important, especially at a gaming convention during swine flu season.

Tisoi also has a report over on WoW LJ, including a few pictures of the setup on the convention floor, as well as a few (sneaky) screenshots of the Worgen and Goblin areas. He also got to meet Jeff "Vork" Lewis and Sandeep "Zaboo" Parikh of The Guild. Felicia Day wasn't there (she spent the weekend at Dragon*Con, where there was other WoW-related shenanigans going on), but as Sandeep reported on his Twitter, she wasn't needed, thanks to cosplayers. Sounds like a great time was had by all. Next year, PAX is headed out east -- we'll have to keep an eye out and see if Blizzard is going there as well.

We were live on WoW Radio as usual last Saturday with our weekly podcast, and this past week we welcomed Krystalle Voecks of our sister site Massively into the mix, as well as Daniel "BigRedKitty" Howell, and of course the Turpster. Krystalle chatted with us about what's planned for the big DragonCon event in Atlanta this weekend (WoW Insider will be there, even though I unfortunately won't be), and we also talked about:

• The pending release of Warhammer Online and what it means for WoW players.
• More beta talk, including those changes to Warriors that made it into the game and BRK's favorite things about all the pets he's been trying out.
• Sylvanas' model change, and whether she's hot or not.
• And of course we answered emails, including your questions about our legendary missing show, why female Draenei broken are the only ones who wear hoods, and what exactly private servers are.

It was a fun show -- we wandered around a bit, but don't we always? You can listen to it right now over on WoW Radio's website, and of course in iTunes as well. If you have questions or comments about something we said, send them along to theshow@wow.com and you might even hear them next time around.

And if you missed the live show this past week, we do this every Saturday afternoon at 3:30 Eastern, so tune in live on WoW Radio's website, and you'll even be able to join us in IRC chat. Enjoy the show this week, and have a good one.

We are just about to hit full steam on the convention season, and Blizzard isn't taking any time off this year. Not only did we hear about BlizzCon on Monday, but we already knew that WWI was going to happen in Paris, and then learned that Rob Pardo would be visiting the Paris GDC. And while Blizzard may not be officially a presence at other cons this summer, their presence is going to be felt for sure -- PAX, GenCon, or DragonCon, whereever there are gamers together, there is WoW.

So where are you going to be? Planning on visiting any cons this year? I won't say it's hassle-free -- the crowds, lines, and just plain costs of these things tend to make me avoid them, especially right after I've been to visit one. But then again, every year around this time I start to get excited about maybe going to them again, and while I have no idea what my plans are right now, I can tell you for sure that WoW Insider will have a presence at all kinds of conventions this year.

What about you?

This year, Elizabeth and I headed off to Atlanta, GA to cover Dragon*Con. In its 20th year, Dragon*Con is the United States' largest Pop Culture themed 4-day geek-fest, to put it mildly. While you won't get official numbers from the organizers past 20,000 participants, we heard whispers of numbers well over 40k in attendance if you counted each membership separately as opposed to combining the single-day passes like they do.

For our first year, we primarily set out to spread the WoW Insider love and get to know the community. That said, the reception and excitement we got from the Dragon*Con community at seeing us there overwhelmed both Elizabeth and I. It has ensured that we'll both be back in 2008 to cover all the myriad World of Warcraft goings on for WoW Insider! (As well as ensuring that we'll be back to help run the First Annual Dragon*Con MMO Costume Contest, slated for 2008!)

To check out a condensed recap of this year's various events, as well as the two (enormous) photo galleries chock full of various sights from D*C 2007, join me after the jump!

We're packing up the last of the swag (which took up a whole suitcase of its own!) and prepping for the road. But before we head out, I thought it best to go over some of the last details for Dragon*Con. Additionally, for those headed there, we've got the scoop on some last-minute track changes that we've heard about, and some great information culled from various Dragon*Con sources for all your convention needs.

For those of you who won't be able to make it, but are curious to read more about WoW Insider's inaugural trek (no pun intended) to Dragon*Con, I've also added some information that will help you find all the latest and greatest straight from us on the convention floor.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that aside from being a writer here, I'm also a devoted WoW Insider reader. So when all the news from Blizzcon came out, I was glued to it from here in my own office. However, as I also knew Dragon*Con was just around the corner, I was scouring the writing of my co-workers for tips for Dragon*Con. This led to a reminder by Robin that I needed to get business cards, as well as a mention of something called "Moo cards."

Being a great big fan of things with completely silly and incongruous names, I clicked on the link and found the most interesting little culture had sprung up around these wee tiny little Moo cards. There are people leaving art Moos for others to find, Moo swaps where you mail your Moo card(s) in trade for other people's Moos, and even an around-the-world Moo. But as I was going to Dragon*Con, it struck me as a perfect time to check into these Moo cards and get some for myself!

Over the course of planning, I linked the cards to Elizabeth H., who also ordered some for Dragon*Con. Almost as soon as I received my cards, the folks over on the Wonderland Blog posted pictures of a booklet of the coolest Moo stickers made entirely with WoW in-game icons. Thus the WoW Moo-vement began around here.

While not as serious-looking as the official Weblogs, Inc. business card is, I really must admit, I love my WoW MOO cards. To me, they fit the overall spirit of WoW Insider (fun!) as well as finally giving me a use for the gigs of WoW screen-shots I have on my computer. I'd be willing to bet as Elizabeth and I hand them out at Dragon*Con to other folks we meet, our tiny World of Warcraft Moo cards won't soon be forgotten!

One week from Today, Elizabeth H. and I will land in Atlanta, GA for Dragon*Con 2007. As anyone who has ever been to Dragon*Con can tell you, one of the most important things to do is to find out where the panels you are interested in are early. That way you can plan out your weekend and make sure you have more than enough time still open for con parties and catching up with all the other cool folks there!

As such, we thought it would be best to help those of you planning to head to Dragon*Con (or still on the fence about going) with a listing of some of the events and panels that Elizabeth and I will either be featured speakers at, or covering for the site. For those of you stuck at home, think of it as a sneak-preview of some things we're looking to cover over the weekend...

Following an amazing level of success with Blizzcon, Elizabeth Harper and I are headed for Dragon*Con in a little over two weeks. For what? To host this year's Dragon*Con World of Warcraft Meet & Greet! For those who have never experienced a Dragon*Con, it is billed as "America's largest, multi-media, popular arts convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film." Speaking from the experience of having attended last year's Dragon*Con along with over 40,000 other geeks of all flavors, I can vouch for just how utterly packed full of awesome sights and sounds Dragon*Con is.

As part of this year's WoW Meet & Greet, (and with many thanks to Grim and the MMO/Gaming track for helping us organize this) we will be hosting a World of Warcraft costume contest. So for those headed there, be sure to pack the Rogue costume and your Boomkin suit. You definitely don't want to miss a chance at winning some great prizes! Outside of that, we'll be doing some trivia, talking more about the great goings on at Dragon*Con, as well as random giveaways featuring all manner of goodies from J!NX gear to TCG booster packs! (Maybe you'll pull out one of the rare cards that will net you some in-game goodies.) If you were on the fence about going to Dragon*Con, there are still memberships available.

A map of the location for the Meet & Greet at the Con, and more details are behind the jump!