BlizzCon is a mere month and a half away, and I can just imagine the excitement building up. With Wrath certain to be released this year, there has got to be some big news about the expansion during the convention. Who among you are going? Better yet, who among you are going and joining a contest? If I actually managed to get tickets to BlizzCon (or at least be in the United States in October...), I would have wanted to join -- alright, maybe just check out -- the costume contest. I know, it sounds silly, but some costumes are actually pretty cool.
For sure, when BlizzCon rolls around, WoW Insider will put up a gallery of the costume contest entrants. But there are contests that don't require you to be at BlizzCon. Quite a few of them are online contests like the poster making, songwriting, and movie-making. Will you be joining any of them? Everybody loves swag, after all. Even if you aren't, what entries are you looking forward to seeing this year?
If you like winning stuff, you might want to check out BlizzCon and its contests. Whether or not you'll be going to the sold-out event this October, there's something for you to participate in. Obviously, if you're not going, you won't be able to join staples like the costume contest or the impressive (and often hilarious) dance contest, but most of the BlizzCon contests can be joined online.
If you think you've got the chops for stuff like making movies, ace graphic design skills to make motivational posters, or even songwriting skills and making dioramas, then head over to the BlizzCon contest page and read about how to submit your entries. Unfortunately, if you think you're a funny guy (or gal), Blizzard wants to see you in person.
And here's another BlizzCon ticket contest (see, we told you there'd be more). Pixelated Executioner got his hands on an extra ticket (though he's taking the goodie bag, but beggars can't be choosers, we suppose), and he's offering it up in a story contest -- to enter, you've just got to punch out an original Wrath of the Lich King-related story, at least 700 words, and send it over to him on his blog.
It's only for US residents, and you've got to find your own ride and hotel at BlizzCon -- you'll have to meet him at the gate to get in, and he apparently wants a picture (and to supposedly publish the story, so anyone who doesn't want to be in the spotlight can probably pass now). But after you say hi to him, the rest of the conference is yours -- if you're interested in hitting every chance to grab a BlizzCon ticket you get, better start writing.
The entry is due by September 14th, and PE's email is on his blog. Good luck to everyone who enters, we can't wait to read the winning story.
Gametrailers hit up Tom Chilton for an interview at Leipzig and here's the video. His main point is that Wrath is bigger and better than before -- more, better, cooler content. Intercut with lots of cool video from the beta (though some of it was seen as far back as BlizzCon last year), he lays down what's up with the next expansion.
He says that Wrath is meant for high-end players, but that there's lots for lowbies as well: recruit-a-friend was actually designed as part of the Wrath feature set, and Blizzard thought it was better to release it earlier. Inscription is also seen as a "whole-game" feature, since you can pick it up right at level one, and Achievements will work for everyone as well.
He also talks about how the new gameplay features Blizzard is building in let them do all kinds of things with quests and instances -- he specifically mentions one encounter in the Oculus where you'll get to choose a ride with different abilities, so it'll be a different experience than your normal class play. There's some great footage of air combat in there as well, and even a little tidbit about the official threatmeter. Nice interview, and it sounds like Blizzard is rolling right along with their progress in the beta.
A few of Blizzard's partners (including Jinx, Upper Deck, and SteelSeries) have all teamed up to offer you what for many, Blizzard couldn't: two tickets to BlizzCon in October. Yes, in the first of what we're sure will be many contests and sweepstakes for BlizzCon tickets, these guys have set up a giveaway to hook up one lucky winner with passes for two to the event that's a Blizzard fan's dream.
All you've got to do to enter is put your info in over on their site -- the Grand Prize winner will pick up an all expenses paid trip to BlizzCon, and ten other winners will get some WoW-related gear from the contest's sponsors (SteelSeries makes the Zboard, and apparently they're releasing one for Wrath, so you might get one of those as well). There is a checklist that you can leave unchecked to supposedly keep the sponsors from contacting you, so even if you don't want your info opt-ed in, it looks like you're in the clear.
If you do enter, good luck! (And if you win, we'll see you at BlizzCon!) There are bound to be a few more of these contests showing up before the big event, so even if you don't walk away with a trip from this one, stay tuned.
That Blizzard-issued BlizzCon badge not enough for you? Want something a little more customized for your character? Of course, if this year is anything like last year, Blizzard's badges will have some custom art on there (that's why they asked your character, realm, and favorite Blizzard game when you bought tickets), but just in case you want to go the extra mile, Shyka's got you covered.
She's offering custom art of your character to wear around at BlizzCon in October -- for $40 and a screenshot or two, she'll make a piece of custom art that she'll print laminate, and clasp right up for you just in time to show it off at the Anahiem Convention Center. Her art looks great -- no matter what your character is like, odds are that she can come up with something cool for you. Her schedule's way open as of this writing, too, so while the price may be a little steep (it is a custom, ready-made piece of art), you can probably jump right in and be sure to get one.
We'll tell you right now, also, that our WoW Insider folks will also be custom badged, so consider this your first invitation: if you see us walking around wearing a custom-made official WoW Insider badge (in addition to our standard BlizzCon passes), feel free to walk right up and say hello. We'd love to meet you.
Videogame Price Charts (who?) has compiled a list of seven videogame conventions to attend before you die. Unfortunately, the list seems unattainable by design, as they want you to attend E3 before 2007, but besides last week's Leipzig Games Convention and this weekend's upcoming PAX, Blizzard's own BlizzCon is right there on the list.
We're not sure why you'd want to go to BlizzCon if you didn't happen to be a fan of Blizzard's games, but then again, who isn't a fan? They list the legendary costume contest and the chance to try out PC games as reasons to go (along with meeting your guild -- I did all three at BlizzCon last year), though they forget all of the great Blizzard panels and the entertainment offered at each 'Con (where else can you see Level 70 ETC, besides, you know, in-game).
Especially since it's going to be bigger than ever this year, there's no question that BlizzCon is going to be awesome. And even if you weren't able to grab a ticket (we're hearing just now that lottery winners are being notified), we'll have everything you need to know and see from Anaheim this October right here on WoW Insider.
Zarhym posted on the BlizzCon forum that the opt-in period to get into the drawing for BlizzCon tickets is now over. Blizzard will be randomly selecting winners over the next few days. Account holders who get selected by the drawing will receive an email from Blizzard explaining how to purchase up to two BlizzCon 2008 tickets if they so desire -- so make sure your contact information is updated!
So now the forums are all abuzz as to what are the odds of winning the drawing. Let's do the math, shall we? There are 3,000 tickets available and they'll be offered by pairs to each drawing winner. We can assume there will be no more than 3,000 winning accounts (if every winner buys only one ticket -- unlikely) and no fewer than 1,500 (if every winner buys the max allowed: a pair). According to MMOGChart.com, Blizzard has about 10,000,000 subscribers right now. Okay, now, stay with me... Originally, 12,000 tickets were sold to BlizzCon. Let's assume that all the tickets purchased so far went to subscribers, rather than people who wouldn't show up on the subscription rolls. Let's also assume that each subscriber bought one to two tickets in the first batch. That means 6,000 - 12,000 accounts already have tickets, leaving 994,000 to 988,000 folks left for the opt-in drawing. With my mad Excel skills, it looks like if everyonewho didn't get BlizzCon tickets the first time around opted in to the drawing, you've got a 0.015% to 0.030% chance to get one of those sweet emails in the next few days.
Since it's unrealistic to assume that everyone opted in, I'd say you have a better chance than that. However, keep in mind that in order for you to even have a 1% chance of winning the drawing, only about 150,000 accounts would have had to opt-in. No matter how you slice it, good luck!
To tell the truth, we're not sure why Blizzard made this deal with DirecTV -- well, to be fair, we know why (to make more money), but they did provide a live stream of the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and while sure, there were occasional problems, it worked far better than I ever expected it to. Why Blizzard didn't just upgrade the servers and send the stream of BlizzCon out into the world for free (as much as DirecTV wouldn't like it) is a good question.
The petition has already 1800 signatures as of this writing (more, we'll note, than the actual number of tickets sold to BlizzCon of course Blizzard has sold thousands of tickets, not hundreds. Sorry about that.), and we're sure it'll be way more than that soon. It's likely that Blizzard has tied themselves down by selling the rights to stream the show to DirecTV, but you never know -- maybe a groundswell of public support for an internet stream will make them reconsider.
One good thing that's come out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week is that the WoW community is showing all kinds of creativity in dealing with Blizzard's mistakes. Last week on the podcast, we talked about "DizzCon," an event being organized by players who couldn't find tickets, but still want to go to Anaheim that weekend, and now here's the story of AreEss. He wasn't able to get tickets either, but is now offering a deal to anyone who has an extra -- he'll pick you up on his drive to Anaheim from Cleveland (or "The Cleve"). And as if that wasn't a great enough deal, he's also buying food on the road, and he's going to be wearing a handmade Tauren costume the whole time (which, apparently, you may have to help with -- that might be a dealbreaker right there).
He's now moved over to a blog (and adapted the great name "BlizzCon Cow"), and starting posting how it's going, complete with pictures of the costume and some how-to info on making it. If I had a free ticket, I'd totally hook the guy up, because clearly he really, really wants to be at BlizzCon. Hopefully he'll keep us updated on how it's all going, and especially if he's able to find a ticket -- it'd be great to see him at the WoW Insider meetup.
Creativity like this just shows how committed Blizzard's fan community is -- even when things go bad, the community steps up to make events like BlizzCon something even bigger than Blizzard ever planned them to be.
I didn't realize until right now that that was Radiohead's National Anthem sneaking into the WoW Insider Show's theme song -- shows how much I listen to the cool mix of Warcraft sounds that Duncor put into our intro. But yes, if you listen to this week's WoW Insider Show, now available on WoW Radio's website and over in iTunes, not only do you get the dulcet tons of my voice, Turpster's accented vocalizations, and the stylings of WoW Insider's Amanda Dean, but you also get to hear a little bit of Thom Yorke's band as well. And, you'll hear us talking about:
How the downranking changes might affect both PvE and PvP, among a number of other changes coming in the beta
And lots of other stuff, including Turpster's appearance on How I WoW, and all kinds of emails from listeners, including a tip about a mobile Armory app, and whether I'm still a Shaman fan or not (I am, but frankly I'm slipping a bit -- Hunters are just so much more fun).
If you'd like to email us about something you hear on the show, please do: the address is theshow@wowinsider.com. Enjoy the show this week, and we'll see you next Saturday as always over on WoW Radio for the WoW Insider Show.
So Blizzard apologized for Failoc and the ticket fiasco, offering up 3,000 more tickets to the massively popular BlizzCon 2008. I'd like to think Mike Schramm's insightful essay on the ticket travesty (along with the public's general uproar, of course) had a bit to do with that, and now Blizzard has announced the method by which fans can purchase a ticket to the hottest show in Anaheim this October.
Learning from the experience, Blizzard announced early on that the next batch of 3,000 tickets would be sold via lottery, giving everyone a fair chance at attending the event. There are quite a few limitations, such as having an active Blizzard Account that was created on or before August 12, when the first batch of tickets sold out. Note that a Blizzard Account isn't the same as your World of Warcraft account or an account for other Blizzard games. It's an account made specifically for their online store, so wannabe attendees who haven't created an account are flat out of luck.
Also out of luck are residents of countries that aren't the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, or South Korea. So yeah, all you Blizzard fans in Zimbabwe, I'm looking at you. Alright, the Philippines isn't on that list, either, so we're all on the same unwelcome boat. Just like the Wrath Beta, Blizzard will hold an opt-in period for Blizzard Account holders and will pick 1,500 lucky chumps from those who opted in, allowing the purchase of up to 2 tickets each. Learn more about the details on the BlizzCon lottery through their BlizzCon FAQ.
The failoc, an unofficial symbol of all that went wrong with BlizzCon's ticketing process this year, has appeared in everything from player-created games to t-shirts. But Fawxy of Trollbane decided to go a step farther and bring the failoc to the Stormwind Bank. This failoc features a full BlizzCon murloc suit, a tiny little flag, and the BlizzCon motto, "An error has occured."
Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more sunsets.
This week we have a strong selection of humor, from BlizzCon jokes to hypnotic dancing. If you're not opposed to the disrobing of blood elves, night elves and male dwarves alike, then read on!
Yes, the WoW Insider Show is returning to the virtual airwaves of WoW Radio this afternoon, and after our 50th episode last week, we're ready to stop celebrating and get back to work. Amanda Dean from this very blog will join Turpster and I, and we'll chat about all the biggest stories in the World of Warcraft this past week, including the whole BlizzCon fiasco (and Morhaime's apology), the big downranking change, and all of the other big news coming out of the Wrath beta (which I finally got invited to, by the way).
Plus, you can expect to hear me brag that I was right about potion sickness, and Amanda is apparently going through a tough Arena breakup, so listen for that as well. We'll also be reading your emails as usual -- feel free to drop us a note at theshow@wowinsider.com, and as usual, we'll be in the IRC channel during the show, at irc.mmoirc.com in the #wowradio channel.
It all kicks off at 3:30pm Eastern (8:30pm GMT) in just a few hours from now -- definitely join us over at WoW Radio and listen in, it should be fun.
BlizzCon is a mere month and a half away, and I can just imagine the excitement building up. With Wrath certain to be released this year, there has got to be some big news about the expansion during the convention. Who among you are going? Better yet, who among you are going and joining a contest? If I actually managed to get tickets to BlizzCon (or at least be in the United States in October...), I would have wanted to join -- alright, maybe just check out -- the costume contest. I know, it sounds silly, but some costumes are actually pretty cool.
And here's another BlizzCon ticket contest (see, we told you 
A few of Blizzard's partners (including 
That Blizzard-issued BlizzCon badge not enough for you? Want something a little more customized for your character? Of course, if this year is anything like last year, 
Videogame Price Charts (who?) has compiled a list of 
Zarhym posted
A Hungarian site about 
One good thing that's come out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week is that the WoW community is showing all kinds of creativity in dealing with Blizzard's mistakes. 
I didn't realize until right now that that was 
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