I know that it’s been very quiet here the past week, but there was so much to do at Blizzcon I just didn’t have the time to throw up even the shortest post! Anyhow, now that I’m back at home with a mostly function brain, I thought that I’d give you some of my thoughts on what we learned and what I did over the weekend. One thing that I am not going to do in this post, however, is go over what are very early stages of the new druids talents or talk about what Blizzard should, or should not, have done with the next expansion. To the former, I think it’s far too early to even feel panic. I’m not thrilled with what I saw in much of the druid tree, but I’m also not going to decide that the world is ending for my class over a five minute mock up that I saw of my new talents. It just doesn’t seem the best use of my time.
Anyhow, let’s get on to talking a bit about the con, should we?!
The People
Every year one of the best things about Blizzcon is getting to meet new, and old, friends. Honestly, for me, Blizzcon is more about the people that it is anything else. They could have announced the Hello Kitty meets Thrall expansion, and I’m not sure it would have changed my Blizzcon in the slightest. The people are amazing. I love the meet ups, I love the random runs ins on the street. I love that the guy where we had dinner the last night came over sporting a Horde Tattoo and thanked us for being awesome. There is just something magical about the environment in Anaheim that weekend, and 100% of it has to do with the people that are there.
I did not get to run into everyone that I wanted to over the weekend, but I did get the chance to chat with some truly amazing folks. And of everything else that happened during the con, it was the connections that I got to make that were truly the highlight of my trip! I got to chat with the Flavor Text ladies, Pewter, Hamlet, Jasyla and the Apotheosis gang, Lissana, Oestrus, Ophelie, Lodur and Tart and the list just goes on and on. I didn’t even include in there the time I got to spend with my guildmates or other favorites that I have in the community! If I wasn’t watching a panel I was looking for someone to chat with. It was truly an amazing experience.
The Costumes!
Always one of my favorite parts of Blizzcon, without fail! It amazes me what people can do with some creativity. I love every costume. I can spend hours just snapping pictures, and in fact I was extremely disappointed that they seated us early because it took away from prime costume time! However, that did not stop me from finding our seats and then marching myself right back outside to get as many pictures as I could! You can find my entire Blizzcon photo album here.
Pandas.
Hey look! He’s not even a crab in the morning before he gets his coffee (as I accosted him with my camera for a picture – truth be told he was probably like “FUCK, I just want my damn coffee, get that shit out of my face!). Sadly, I forgot to ask him why heroic Rag drains my soul on a nightly basis, but such is life.
As for the Mist of Pandaria announcement, I feel sorta of “whatever” about it. It doesn’t excite me, it doesn’t disappoint me. It just is. I think that it looks beautiful. I don’t mind the pandas. And I think a lot of people in the community have gone off the deep end prematurely at the announcement. Wait to see what it is before you decide that your WoW world has ended! Artistically, it looks like it’s going to be one of the most gorgeous expansions we’ve seen. And a lot of the features that we’ve seen look to be pretty interesting.
I know that there is a lot of talk about the Pokemon invading WoW feature being added. As you may know, I am an avid non-combat pet collector. I am currently sitting at 183 non-combat pets. And for me this new announcement feels…overwhelming. I’ve never played Pokemon (I’ve asked Brade to pick up the newest one at work for me so I can get a feel for what it is), but the thought of having to level all of those pets is intimidating to me. I’m sure I can just do a few, right? Anyhow, most people that know me thought I’d be very excited. But right now, that is not the case. Perhaps it will warm up on me.
As for the pandas themselves – no, I am not irate that I cannot make my druid a panda. I did get a chance to play the demo that they had up, and I will say that both pandas and monks were a lot of fun. And the scenery is just amazing. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s all true! The only thing that I was the most disappointed by was that I couldn’t jump from the top of the training tower and experience my “bouncy” racial. Hopefully they will remedy this most important thing before the game launches and goes live!
Druid Changes
HAH! FOOLED YOU! I’m not really going to talk much about this, I mostly just wanted a chance to use this awesome picture.
As I said above, I am not going to analyze the five minutes of early boarded talents that we’ve seen. Mostly because they are likely not final and will change. I’m not thrilled with many of them, and more than that the concept of what many of them push us to do (not heal so that we can shapeshift and do something other than healing). But I’m going to stay optimistic and have faith that Blizzard will do right by their shifty friends 🙂
On Starcraft and Diablo
I have never played Diablo before. However, I let Brade convince me that I should try the demo this year. I stood the (amazingly fast) line, and sat down to see what D3 had to offer. I opted to play a witchdoctor and I am going to only say this about my experience: not only will I be purchasing any playing D3, I have purchased both the original Diablo and D2. I started the play through of D2 last night, and outside of not quickly grasping some of the basics, it is a lot of fun. I’m very much looking forward to D3 and finishing up D2.
As for Starcraft, well, I stood in this line as well. Only my experience was much different. Having played the SC2 campaign (but no multi-player) I thought I’d be fine. I was not. For starters, you get a full 30 minutes on the starcraft machines. And they screwed up seating us and Brade and I were two tables apart. So I was alone. I have never played a zerg campaign. I spent most of my time wondering why the hell I couldn’t build anything. It took me probably 20 minutes before I realized I had to morph my larva things into new creatures. I got Kerrigan killed twice because I had no clue what I was doing (and being separated from Brade, could not ask for help). And, frankly, spent 30 minutes feeling like a complete idiot. Unlike my Diablo experience, my Starcraft experience did not leave me wanting to immediately go out and purchase the new campaign.
Falling Leaves and Wings 
My only complaint about Blizzcon: it should be longer.
I agree! At least another day would be awesome 🙂
I drunk the Blizzard kool-aid and bought the Annual Pass. More for the MoP guaranteed Beta access than anything else (I whined to anyone with ears about not getting into Cata Beta, lol). But I’m excited to try Diablo 3!! The Diablo series are games that I probably would never have bought or tried to play on my own before…but getting it thrown at me for free after buying something I would have bought anyways has made it appear very favorably in my mind, and your mini review does nothing but help. =D I’ll probably try to grab a copy of Diablo 2 somewhere and give that a whirl while I wait for Diablo 3 to magically appear in my Battle.net account!
As for the Druid talent previews… I agree that it’s way too early to be upset or overly happy about anything, but I have to admit, I’m intrigued by the direction. I suppose many of the talents aren’t direct healing (or tanking or dps) boosts, but…. I like the idea of pushing druids as versatile. It’s all situational, of course, which I know can be a turn off for many people…. but right now I’m on board with the idea of Druids having the option to choose talents that let us act as shapeshifters. Oh, the tank died and we only have 5% left on what could be a first boss kill? Well, the Moonkin in the raid has a chance to step in in a bit way by popping the proposed Heart of the Wild and tanking the boss to a kill!
haha, I got the annual pass as well. I figure that we aren’t due for the expansion until June, July or August and that’s almost a year away in and of itself. So I don’t have many doubts that I’ll be playing at least until then anyhow. That and I’m totally sold on Diablo now!I was also very happy to see that people who purchase the CE (which I will be doing) will get some WoW time back.
Ah! Glad to have some pictures of your travel there. While I barely play WoW now, I totally understand one being hyped about meeting others (from forums, guilds, Blogosphere and else).
Really happy that Brade and you enjoyed the trip.
We’ve thought about doing a guild meet up, but we are spread so far across the country (and Canada!) that I think it would likely be cost prohibitive for a good many people 😦
I loved being completely undercover and wondering just how many readers, bloggers, and community members I was bumping into without actually knowing it. ::teehee::
Maybe next year I’ll be so bold as to actually sport a shirt a la Hamlet or *gasp* actually brave the Q&A line!
I was sad I didn’t get a chance to say hello! I know Lodur would have loved to as well. Maybe next year! 🙂
I hope you had a great time!
It was nice to meet you and a lot of other fellow bloggers at the con this year! I am also looking forward to whatever the new expansion brings for each of my characters and general gameplay.
I loved it! I am glad we got to chat a bit 🙂
Great pictures! Meeting other community members is what really makes me wanna try to go to Blizzcon some year…
If you get Pokemon Black/White, we should totally trade 😛
haha, I don’t know what Brade will bring home. He’s pretty resistant to buying ANY of them, so I will have to seriously nudge him to obtain one I think 🙂