I arrived in Anaheim on Thursday evening, just in time to make the BlizzCon VIP dinner/fundraiser for the Laguna Art Museum. It seemed fitting that I attend given that I own an art gallery, and a virtual items business, both of whose existence are largely thanks to Blizzard.
I was greeted at the door to the event by super cool guy, Jeff Donais. I was sure I'd seen him somewhere before but couldn't place him at the time. Later I realized it was from Wizards of the Coast, where he'd been involved with Magic. The 'dinner' turned out to be more of an hors d'oeuvre mixer cocktail party thing. The food was good though, and the live music was nice.
I was a little disappointed with the selection of Blizzard employees in attendance. It seems like they made sure not to put anybody in there who could potentially leak anything. Everyone I ran into was in art or lore development. I was much more hoping to speak with some guys who had their hands on the meat of Diablo. Not in that way. Well, sort of.
I stuck around until the silent art auction was over. Some pieces went for over $700! I thought that was pretty nuts considering that they were merely signed/framed prints, and not even part of an edition. It went to a good cause though, and some people got some cool stuff so what the heck. I grabbed my swag bag on the way out and hit the sack.
I woke up in a Northrend wind tunnel. The vents had been blasting ice cold air all night, despite my having set the thermostat set to 73 before bed. It turns out that the heater had somehow been disabled in my room and rather than the system just shutting off when it had no means of raising the temperature, it decided to keep bringing the chillstorm instead. FAIL.
So, I thaw my junk out and head downstairs for breakfast.
I stepped into line at 10am thinking I'd have no trouble making it in before the opening ceremony at 11:30am. Boy, was I wrong. Things seemed to be moving quickly at first, and after about half an hour of the line heading away from the entrance I thought I spied the apex. When I actually got to it, I saw this mess:
Where is the Prince of Darkness when you need him? We met the sun in that parking lot for a blistering hour straight. Some men perished but it was their tent-like shirts that provided the shade to save many others. They will not be forgotten.
Finally, 1 hour and 43 minutes after the quest began, I made it inside.. just late enough to miss the opening remarks. I noticed that about 15 minutes later there was no line to speak of. Tip: screw getting in on time. Sleep in, show up late, and don't wait in line.
This was my second year attending BlizzCon. I hadn't been back since the first one in 2005 where rumors were already flying about Diablo 3. I was surprised to see how much bigger the venue was this time around, and how many more people showed up. It felt overcrowded and commercialized. It was almost as if the whole event existed just to sell you more crap.
What's up with every member of every panel having a Mountain Dew bottle in front of him? I think that if Blizzard is going to have your ass addicted to your seat for 16 hours a day, the least they can do is promote a healthy diet. Diabetes Dew certainly is diabolical, but not in the good way.
Did anyone else have problems with AT&T? I'm guessing that 20k iPhone users descending on Anaheim, all simultaneously trying to blog and tweet and mobile upload totally wrecked their shit.
I managed to play Diablo 3 twice, and Starcraft 2 once. They had a ridiculous number of computers set up so the wait was less than 10 minutes each time. The downside to the short wait is that they accomplish it by kicking people out after 10 minutes. It kind of limits how deep you can get into your quests.
My impression of Diablo 3 is that they've still got a lot of work to do, and they're still making major changes to the things we've seen so far. I'd estimate it's at least 2 years away from completion. We'd be lucky to see it hit shelves by Festivus 2011. The game looks great and is very fun. I'm really looking forward to the finished product.
I sat in on the Diablo III Heroes & Monsters panel, which was pretty interesting. Unfortunately, a lot of video clips they'd prepared weren't playing. I'm guessing they've since gotten those online somewhere. Some issues I had with the game are apparently already being addressed. I was glad to hear that they have plans to make endgame content more challenging, and more random.
After the panel, I was trying to think of a reason I should stay for 2 more days. There wasn't one. Everything else could be seen online. I went back to my hotel room, packed my bag and checked out 2 days early. I dropped my car at the airport, flew back and watched the rest of Blizzcon in my underwear from the comfort of my mom's basement.
Just kidding. I have my own house, and a girlfriend.
In Second Life :'(
During the D3 Q&A session on day 2 someone asked if the Diablo 2 1.13 patch was going to introduce some lore that would facilitate the transition to Diablo 3. Jay Wilson gave the answer that while the D2 team consults with the D3 team, they're entirely independent and he can't speak for them. That answer was pretty much par for the course. It seemed like 3/4 of all the answers given by panelists were "wait and see" or "we don't know yet" or "we can't say but you'll be pleased". I'd be pleased with some F'n answers... not that everything couldn't completely change by the time the game launches anyway but wtf are you doing Q&A for if you're all locked down on NDAs? I've lost interest.
P.S. I just found out that Mountain Dew has been rebranded Mtn Dew. How ExTrEmE is that!!?! Man bro, how could you drink the Dew and NOT be a better gamer!? You know what would be better is the straight syrup. How are you supposed to game non-stop when you've gotta pee all the time? Wait wait.. product idea! MTN DOO: The world's moste extreme diapers for the world's most extreme hermits!
P.P.S. I quit Second Life after 10 minutes.