Blizzcon 2019 Report

For those interested in talking games, not just Blizzard, sign me up.

For those interested in hearing about how day 1 at Blizzcon went then great, let's chat.

For those that want to flame or complain or degrade their are plenty of official social media channels to do that on.

A few people have PM'd me questions based on previous posts I have made so I'm posting for them and anyone else that wants to know.

Opening ceremony started with an apology on how we handled the Blitzchung scenario. Again I'm not interested in getting into a debate on that, social media channels can handle it.

From there in rolled into one of the two primary announcements that most people that attended this year were interested in.. A Diablo IV cinematic made the rumor real and the crowd in the live stage and the streamed stages loved it. Definitely a good feeling after our choices last year. Energy in the crowd was great for this with various moments of ohhs and ahhs or thunderous applause.

Next up was the WoW announcement for Shadowlands and IMO the cinematic for this got the loudest chear which is saying something given how loud D4 and O2 were.

HotS and Hearthstone went next with their various updates and the crowd was good though not as loud as the D4, WoW or O2 news.

Finally it ended with the official Overwatch 2 announcement which the crowd ramped up for again.
Great energy and great response. Just about equal to the D4 announcement.

Just about everything above has a playable demo of some sort which resulted in large queues throughout in each area.

On the positive side overall the crowd was huge, energy was great, people seemed happy which was a great change from the choices we made last year. Additionally the cosplayers took things to a new level. It always amazes me seeing how into it they get, how dedicated, creative and competitive they are.

On the neutral their were a very small number of pro. I can't even call this a negative as I, like many employees, don't necessarily agree with all elements of the HK scenario. So it's good to see what could have been handled differently and to own it.

Anyway.. On to tomorrow, the events of the day and the band closing it out. 😎

A positive spin on blizzcon????

You must be a chinese plant.

Honestly though I'm not in the loop, have fun though.

On the topic you want to avoid discussing, I'll only comment that I just read J. Allen Brack's statement from the event and, honestly... Not impressed. Kind of reminded me of that SouthPark "We're sorry" thing that - I think - was about the Gulf Oil thing back in the day.

On the other hand, it's probably a great year to work for any publisher not owned by Zenimax. I mean at this point simply saying "We didn't make Fallout 76" instantly invokes a lot of street cred.

As for the other stuff... I'm cautiously optimistic about Diablo IV. Diablo is a game I played on my OG Playstation until the disc wore out. Diablo II a bit less because it came out during the part of my life where parenting was my primary focus. Diablo III... Well the launch of that game put me off and I never got around to playing it... BUT - the winds are shifting and quite a few devs are realizing that hyper monitization may not be the best approach... So cautious optimism.

As for Overwatch 2? My best friend plays Overwatch daily. Last Christmas I built her a fairly high end gaming PC as a gift because of her love for that game, my appreciation of her friendship and a desire to let her know what 1440p/144hz gaming was like.

In fact I just checked my phone because I figured I'd find about 200 all caps text messages from her saying "OVERWATCH 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Guess she hasn't heard yet. lol

a reply to: opethPA

Blizzard is still in business?

Why?

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: opethPA

Blizzard is still in business?

Why?

China, mostly....Just like hollywood.

Awesome, feel free to take the snark to one of the official channels. Not why I posted.

More then willing to talk to Heff since like usual his posts are fair IMO.

From a team perspective I personally felt like JAB did as good a job as he could. It's a bit of a lose lose scenario and people seem more caught up in Internet justice vs actually talking about the scenario but that is the nature of the modern world.

Overall what I know is the energy was great, the crowd was huge, the community on site seemed excited, friendly and happy to be there which was.ice knowing how much work went into this year.

originally posted by: MisterSpock

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: opethPA

Blizzard is still in business?

Why?

China, mostly....Just like hollywood.

Not really but hey you are more then welcome to whatever thoughts you want to have

originally posted by: MisterSpock

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: opethPA

Blizzard is still in business?

Why?

China, mostly....Just like hollywood.

Fortunately, we will soon have a Space Force so we can nuke it from space.

The best part of Blizzard left and made Guild Wars.

a reply to: opethPA

I get you're vested in the team, the community, and what it's all about. But I don't think you can be surprised by the responses this will bring.

Blizzard had polarizing topics before the last month... I don't think it's fair to demand a purely positive discussion on them.... Though I do think it's fair and needed someone represent the other side.

There will be no reconciliation in hiding from the controversy.

I don't think they have any politics aside from being a profitable business, but part of that is what rubbed the gaming community the wrong way before recent events.

I'm not trying to crap on you, I can tell you're passionate about gaming and what they have to offer. That's very important in a world filled with plenty of reason to be negative.

Just my attempt at an observation on a clearly delicate issues.

Cheers opeth... Do you and enjoy yourself. We only get so many opportunities.

Diablo is the better of any of the series games by Blizzard .
Wore out the button mechanics on 3 mice with Diablo
Diablo 2 , nearly the same as above
Diablo 3 great.

Diablo 4 ???
It will be a buy for me just on title alone.

Politics aside, any good cosplay this year?

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Good post, well stated commentary on the situation and in a much more balanced way than an off handed quip like I posted.

It's fair to remark on the turmoil of the situation while still realizing that those not at the top have a different perspective. The fans, the bulk of the workers "in the trench" come from a very different perspective than what is in the news cycle and the actions of the few at the top that create such turmoil.

I'm a gamer, though I've never been in the MMO camp of any sort and outside of the foolish crap those at the top take part in I'd love to be on the floor at an event like this to see the REAL people that truly make up the bulk of the enthusiasm for a genre.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

A fair, well written and logical post, thank you. =)

I actually debated even making a post knowing that most likely cancel culture, Internet SJW, people being passionate about their beliefs or people that truly have a vested interest in the HK scenario would most likely troll, derail this post or jump on me in someway but that is alright as I have a thick skin thanks to years on the net, lol, and nothing anyone says here is going to take away the pride from a hard effort in doing my part for BC setup or the excitement the fans-community showed us and the world today.

In the end I'll gladly start another post on the broader topic but was aiming to make this about Blizzcon and what I saw today

Again, Thank you to all discussing this in a fair and logical manner. It makes me proud to call you virtual friends. 😎

originally posted by: Hypntick
Politics aside, any good cosplay this year?

The cosplay element is something we all look forward to..

The community element that gets into it goes so all out.

I'll make sure to post some pics tomorrow.

a reply to: MisterSpock
a reply to: opethPA

Gaming is a very hard thing to navigate. Mainly because many view it as an outlet, and expect there to be a sense of purity from it.

Inherently, it's an escape from everything. But it's evolved for better or worse because it's popularity. That's what brought the elephant in the room. People want it to continue its path of exponential growth while denying thst has to coexist with profit driven models.

Is it fair for gamers to reminisce on the days it wasn't as perceivably "greedy"? Absolutely. Is it fair for some to be concerned a country that doesn't have the same interests and values as ours gets equity in the market, which forces a company to weigh growing to customer wants and needs domestic and foreign to stay relevant? I think so.

Does this mean people can't enjoy their products, or take a realistic position that it's necessary for something they love and enjoy to prosper and continue to create new content to further their nostalgia? No, let's not be so dense to miss the nuance and deny someone of something they love.

But we won't better anything from hiding from these discussions, or making them impossible.

Was there a “Winnie the Poo” demonstration?

What about Overwatchs hero Mei?

Are there enough “Free Hong-Kong” t-shirts?

More infos

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
Was there a “Winnie the Poo” demonstration?

What about Overwatchs hero Mei?

Are there enough “Free Hong-Kong” t-shirts?

More infos

There were a few people walking around in the Mei shirts, masks or other. I think maybe I counted 10 or so people but there were probably more then I saw. They were allowed to walk around like that because they didn't break any contracts they had signed. What I thought was funny was the people in the Mei shirts that I also saw walking around with things they had purchased at the merch store or the one person with a Mei shirt and mask clapping during the opening ceremony and taking pics on what looked like an iPhone that was most likely made in China.

Internet Social or crowd sourced justice can also have more of a pile on mentality for no other reason then something is a hot button topic vs someone truly believing in the cause.

The number of protestor outside the event was less than 20 at least in the main courtyard area. Again that is an unofficial count based on what I saw. I only saw two people trying to go the Poo route.

To be clear I'm glad people are protesting, I'm glad people are voicing their opinions. I hope they continue to do that in the manner that they have to this point. What I have no tolerance for are the threats that have been made to dox employees, regardless of if they are executive or someone else, overrun the event, destroy property or physicallly prevent those of us with work responsibilities from getting into BC to do our jobs.

For those interested in the game side of things some D4 clips starting with a report on the playable demo.



Here is the cinematic that kicked off the announcement and made the crowd errrupt with chears and clapping.



This is the official game play trailer..

Blizzard is in the bag for commie scum.

originally posted by: projectvxn
Blizzard is in the bag for commie scum.

Great, you are more then welcome to your opinion.

I posted this for the people that asked me to update how BC was going from an employee perspective.