Posts tagged Fans at WOW Insider

Posts with tag fans

BlizzCon 2008: The first day of mayhem

Posted Oct 10th 2008 2:45PM by Krystalle Voecks
Filed under: Events, WoW Insider Business, WoW Social Conventions, Blizzard, Features, BlizzCon

The crowds have been let in to the main convention center floor, and it is an absolute mad house of Blizzard fun here. BlizzCon 2008 has started in earnest, with a full day of panels and gaming ahead. Knowing Blizzard, it should be truly epic.

If you weren't able to join us here at the Anaheim Convention Center, have no fear. As the day progresses, we'll share many of the sights of BlizzCon 2008, straight from the front lines. So if you're hungry for more of what's going on here, be sure to check back, as we'll be updating the gallery throughout the day!

Gallery: Blizzcon 2008: General floor gallery

BlizzCon 2008: Fun in the badge pickup line

Posted Oct 9th 2008 9:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, BlizzCon

We've all got our badges for BlizzCon now -- badge pickup was a little less chaotic than last year, if memory serves us correctly (though they really need to split up the "S" names -- our line was longer by three times as much as any of the others). There were lots of people waiting outside right before they opened the convention center at 4pm, but once they opened up the doors, things moved quickly. We didn't notice any recognizable Blizzard staff around, but we've heard rumblings from vendors that they're setting up inside, and there's certainly plenty of activity going on back there.

None of the rest of the center is open until tomorrow, obviously, but we also grabbed some pictures of the art we could see posted inside. No, there aren't any big exclusive reveals, but there is a particularly nice piece of the Diablo III Witchdoctor that we hadn't seen before. Enjoy.

Gallery: BlizzCon 2008 Badge Pickup

BlizzCon '08: The Game updated

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 9:00AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, NPCs, BlizzCon

You may remember BlizzCon '08: The Game, the fanmade Flash game by Toneslice that came out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week. Toneslice originally promised that if he got a certain number of views, he'd update it to be a better game, and he got more than that, so he completely revamped it. Now, you play as the Fail SCV, and you have to shoot Blizzard fans coming in all directions (who are strangely shooting back at you). The game's a fun little distraction, and just another example of something cool coming out of the problems last week.

Unfortunately, unlike Blizzard's games, it's still only for PC, but a Mac version may be on the way soon. Fanmade games about a game company -- what will they think of next?

Tauren needs ticket to BlizzCon

Posted Aug 20th 2008 2:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, WoW Social Conventions, Odds and ends, Blizzard, BlizzCon

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.

Why do people blog about WoW?

Posted May 31st 2008 9:00AM by Natalie Mootz
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves

Why do we feel compelled to spill out our guts all over the intertubes for the entire world to read? The answer, of course, is a subset of the larger question, why do people blog about anything? It's probably a variation of the same question that medieval bards asked the operators of the first printing press: "Dude, why do you want to put yourself so, I don't know, out there?"

The "serious" answers get all sociological and some junk. We want to be heard popping off about our opinions on talent trees, bragging about one-shots, or feeling part of the larger WoW community outside our own servers.

However, as a WoW blogger myself, I know that the truth about us isn't nearly that pretty. We blog to brag about Kara exploits or show off our expertise on the Hunter class, a frame addon, or prime Oily Blackmouth fishing spots . We dream of demi-celebrity status in the WoW community. We try to provoke people into replying, sometimes with generous link love. We like to have the first scoop on expansion news (essentially, more showing off). We gossip about guild drama, sometimes wrapped up snuggly in the ignorance of our fellow guildies that we even have a blog. (There is a sweet freedom in finding the comfort of internet strangers.) We blog for artistic expression and to make others laugh.

And the main reason we blog? The same reason we feel itchy when we haven't called Mom in a few weeks: guilt.

WoW theme for Blackberry

Posted Apr 17th 2008 5:34PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Tricks, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, AddOns, Fan art

Not to be outdone by the WoW iPhone theme, Xtina over on WoW LJ took it upon herself to use those WoW icons to create a theme for the Blackberry. This one's even a little more in-depth -- she even skinned the calling screen (which is actually easy enough to do on the iPhone as well, but we just hadn't seen it before). Plus, the best part is that this one is completely legit -- you just download the file from Xtina's page there, and you can install it using Desktop Manager.

Of course, we haven't actually heard from Blizzard about any of this stuff yet -- odds are that as great as their icons are, they're not real thrilled with seeing them used in other places (a friend of mine who just recently saw me playing World of Warcraft shouted out in surprise, "Hey! Those are the icons from that game on Facebook!" I didn't bother telling her about the real DotA or Warcraft III). Then again, both of these are completely fanmade and free to download -- surely themes like this, that let Blizzard fans show off their loyalties, can be let through the loopholes.

WoW Insider at Dragon*Con - Wrap-up

Posted Sep 7th 2007 2:17PM by Krystalle Voecks
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, WoW Social Conventions, Odds and ends, Galleries

This year, Elizabeth and I headed off to Atlanta, GA to cover Dragon*Con. In its 20th year, Dragon*Con is the United States' largest Pop Culture themed 4-day geek-fest, to put it mildly. While you won't get official numbers from the organizers past 20,000 participants, we heard whispers of numbers well over 40k in attendance if you counted each membership separately as opposed to combining the single-day passes like they do.

For our first year, we primarily set out to spread the WoW Insider love and get to know the community. That said, the reception and excitement we got from the Dragon*Con community at seeing us there overwhelmed both Elizabeth and I. It has ensured that we'll both be back in 2008 to cover all the myriad World of Warcraft goings on for WoW Insider! (As well as ensuring that we'll be back to help run the First Annual Dragon*Con MMO Costume Contest, slated for 2008!)

To check out a condensed recap of this year's various events, as well as the two (enormous) photo galleries chock full of various sights from D*C 2007, join me after the jump!

Gallery: DragonCon WoW

Gallery: DragonCon General

Continue reading WoW Insider at Dragon*Con - Wrap-up

Major features in Patch 3.0.2	Patch 3.0.2
WoW Insider's BlizzCon Bingo 2008	BlizzCon
WoW Insider podcast live from BlizzCon	BlizzCon
Who's who at BlizzCon	BlizzCon
(Druid) Skill Mastery: Survival Instinct	Skill Masteries
Tips for new DKs from a fellow tank	Wrath
The WoW Insider Library
Put WoW Insider headlines on your site

Event	Date
Darkmoon Faire (Mulgore)	10/6 - 10/12
BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim, CA	10/10 - 10/11
AB weekend	10/10 - 10/13
Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza	SUN 2p - 4p
Patch 3.0.2	10/14??
Hallow's End	10/18 - 11/1
Wrath release	11/13

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Mike Schramm	99	25
2	Alex Ziebart	58	36
3	Zach Yonzon	44	0
4	Elizabeth Wachowski	36	2
5	Adam Holisky	32	19
6	Allison Robert	29	34
7	Eliah Hecht	27	4
8	Daniel Whitcomb	27	8
9	Matthew Rossi	20	39
10	Amanda Miller	20	3
11	Natalie Mootz	19	7
12	David Bowers	12	38
13	Moo Money	12	5
14	Michael Gray	10	0
15	Daniel Howell	9	0
16	Amanda Dean	8	0
17	Christian Belt	6	0
18	Lisa Poisso	5	4
19	Matt Low	5	0
20	Shelbi Roach	5	5

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BlizzCon 2008: The first day of mayhem

BlizzCon 2008: Fun in the badge pickup line

BlizzCon '08: The Game updated

Tauren needs ticket to BlizzCon

Why do people blog about WoW?

WoW theme for Blackberry

WoW Insider at Dragon*Con - Wrap-up

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