A friend was able to help me to get tickets to Blizzcon this year. Just found out that my son’s high school water polo team made CIF, and I will be missing a few hours on Friday, but wondered if there was something that guild members wanted to see/know more about? It’s a first for me, so it’s a little bit of the “blind leading the blind,” but if there is something you’d like to see or know about, I will do my best to get that info for you.
Just back from Anaheim. Although most everything you probably wanted to know about Blizzcon is all over the internet, I thought I’d put a little post-Blizzcon note up.
First of all Blizzcon is HUGE. Thousands of people and the venue is ginormous. Entire halls devoted to each of the games and people everywhere! (Lines, lines, lines, too!) Each hall is decorated to match the game and Overwatch had a circular arena that was truly breathtaking. Despite being big, the Hearthstone area felt quaint, like a little tavern with benches and the Darkmoon Faire was decorated with trees and small “tents” where trades were made with the different collectibles.
By now, you’ve seen the game announcements and except for Diablo Immortal, I will let you decide about them. In the past, I have watched the announcements after the event and made comments to myself or to guild members and then had to wait for implementation. There, I had a chance to react with thousands of others as announcements were being made. (When horses were announced for the new Boralus human race, folks groaned. When sea-horses were announced for the Ashara content, folks laughed.) It was neat to be within the crowd for the immediate reaction and discussion. I sat in on the Q and A session and one of the people asking questions was the voice of Thrall (Chris Metzen). The crowd went wild and it was fantastic entertainment. Some of the folks asked well thought out questions and I just couldn’t believe the lack of thought for some of the others.
I did play Diablo Immortal. It was smooth, and also pretty. (Well, if you call killing bad guys pretty…). Although it was entertaining, I stated to miss my large monitor almost immediately and my “joystick” thumb started sticking to the screen. I know that by age, that this medium is not really right for me, but my boys (15 and 19) also complained of it a bit, too. It will be interesting to see how Blizz prices the app as I think that that may make or break the final release.
E-sports were the main event and even for games I don’t play, I was not disappointed by one match. It reminded me of watching an NFL game on TV versus being at the game. Being at the game doesn’t always have the best view, but being in the crowd males it all so much more fun. This was no different and the watching the games live, and with a crowd was a great.
The closing ceremonies reinforced how these games accept all for who they are and are inclusive of all human beings. The sense of community was stressed and I was proud to be part of the OTG community and the gaming community Blizz has created.
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How many people from OTG went to Blizzcon 2018?
I don’t have an official answer, but my understanding was that I was the only WoW OTG member there. I don’t know about some of the other games to know if those members attended. I was hoping to meet up with guildies, but where no one responded to the thread, I assumed that I was the only one there.
What were the big WoW announcements? I think Diablo is dead by going mobile, POE now is king of that genre.