everyday gamer

I know I’ve been absent from here for a bit and I assure you that there’s a good reason for that: I was one of the fortuitous few that was able to attain tickets for this year’s Blizzcon in sunny Anaheim, California.  My original intent was to keep an up-to-the-minute log of news coming from the multitude of panels to be occurring over the next two days.  No laptops allowed.  Boo.

I already sort of knew what to expect going to the convention:  the twelve-thousand plus tickets sold out within 45 minutes of the Blizzard store reopening up after a day infrastructure difficulties.  So clearly, there were going to be a lot of people in Anaheim.  After my good buddy Tom and I unsuccessfully camped out Hall C in hopes of attaining a prime seat for the opening ceremony, we were shepharded outside to join the official line to enter the main entrance at Hall A.  One thousand steps later, we reached the end of the line at the convention parking lot.  If you had ever wondered what twelve-thousand Blizzard fans assembled in a parking lot looks like, here you go!

After almost an hour of waiting in line, we finally made it into the convention center and booked it straight toward the opening ceremony that was scheduled to start a few moments later.  At this point, we had already seen half a dozen cosplayers including a really bad ass Eredar Twins costume.

In any case, the ceremony started with Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime welcoming us and poking fun at the fact that the Blizzard store really wasn’t prepared for the demand: according to him, the tickets sold out in 15 minutes [note to self for next year ].  It wasn’t long before Morhaime announced the first news of the convention by unveiling the next Diablo 3 class – the Sorcerer the Wizard.  Which despite being totally called by me, was met with thunderous and emotionally overwhelming applause from the doting audience.  The slightly asian looking Wizard was described a brash, overconfident head-of-the-class character looking for the next big challenge.  The official trailer (done with the in-game engine) echoed that sentiment as she skulked into the decrepit Tristram cathedral knowing full well that a horde of skeletons was tracking her movements.  After crossing a bridge, the wizard stops…and then leaps into the air and unleashes a decimating radial shockwave – a technique that I learned later during my demo playthrough called “Wave of Force .

I had the chance to try out the demo later in the convention with the female version of the wizard available to play.  I had blogged previously that I wasn’t really feeling a new Diablo since the game didn’t really look all that new to me.  While this feeling hasn’t yet subsided, I will say that the game looks stunningly beautiful despite the fact that it doesn’t diverge too far off the well-trodden Diablo and Diablo 2 path.  Streamlined and modernized for 2008.  Still a lot of clicking.  As with all Blizzard games, I’m still there day 1

Starcraft II was also playable on the show floor in both the single and multiplayer flavors.  I had the chance to play in two rather abbreviated sessions.  Starcraft was the game I was most looking forward to getting my hands on.  To say that I was impressed is a definite understatement.  The big news regarding Starcraft was the announcement that the game was to be turned into a trilogy spanning the next few years.  I have a few thoughts on the subject, but I’ll have to save that for a later post as this one is already getting unmanageably large and unwieldy.

All in all, the trip to Blizzcon was very worth it.  The panels were fun, the costume and dance contests were completely amazing, and there was even an enjoyable Videogames Live concert: Blizzard Edition at the end that impressed even my picky friend.  This may sound a little bit cheesy but when you’re at Blizzcon or another one of these fan fests, you pretty much have free reign to totally geek out.  That reality is possible because you know everyone else who’s there is just as big of a geek and that you’re basically among friends.  It’s like you’re at home.  It’s particularly interesting to know that you can pretty much start up a conversation with the folks next to you in line and have a good time waiting for whatever is about to happen next.  That is the reality of Blizzcon – everyone here is a friend.

I can’t wait for next year.