BlizzCon 2008 Report! :D
Lots of crappy stuff has been going on (my husband is officially unemployed, wat) but I'd like to post something a little more light hearted before I delve into all that crap. Blizzcon was amaaaaazing, and the glorious calm before the storm that both Mike and I needed so desperately. So without further ado, I present...
Mikezanne does
BLIZZCON 2008!
So, this was pretty much the best convention I’ve ever been to. There, I said it. I’m officially the biggest nerd ever :B.
A large part of it was probably because it was just me and mike so it was very laid back, plus we didn’t bring any sort of costume to stress over… the second I started stressing about getting our guild tabards done in time I just said FORGET IT and didn’t even bother. No stress was the motto for the weekend ;P.
But more than that, it was simply an AMAZINGLY well run convention with a fantastic fan base. It was just so awesomely cool to be engulfed in the Blizzard universe for 2 days with 18,000 of my closest friends… at least that’s what it felt like, because everyone there had something in common. Whether you were Horde or Alliance, Paladin or Rogue, you were among family. Yeah. It was pretty pimp.
This was the line to get in on the first day o___o! It actually wrapped all the way around to the back of the convention center; this is in the parking lot that's behind the arena. But once the doors opened, we got in surprisingly fast. Plus, people watching made standing in line somewhat entertaining. Nerds are a funny bunch to watch, after all xD. Everyone was "representing" by wearing horde, alliance, or class related shirts, so it was kinda fun to analyze what types of characters different people played ("A Rogue, huh? You would >P.")
A bunch of cosplayers were posing outside the main events hall as we were going in, so of course I had to stop and take pictures :B. I gotta hand it to Blizzard costumers, there was a lot of costume creativity! On the left, Mr. T the Nightelf (a la the WoW commercials xD) and an awesome female dranei. In the middle, Verimathras -- he was especially in character, he even had shoes with springs in them so he'd bounce when he walked! On the right a cute blood elf mage with a food table; Mike, who plays a BE Mage, appreciated that one especially ^^.
On our way to opening ceremonies, we spotted the cast of The Guild at their booth! Fan-girling ensued! We stopped to buy a DVD of the first season and had it signed by the cast, and then I got my picture taken with Penny Codex Felicia Day :D! I totally want to cosplay her character in Dr. Horrible, Penny, at Comic Con next year, but she was obviously busy so I resisted bombarding her with questions ^^;;. She was just as petite and adorable and bubbly in real life as she is on screen... so cute xD!
REASON #1 WHY BLIZZCON WAS THE BEST CON I'VE EVER BEEN TO:
The seating for the main events was SOOOO convenient!! Most of the con took place in the main 3 halls of the con center, Halls A, B, and C. Halls A & B had all of the interactive stuffs; the vendor booths, blizzcon store, tournament areas, gameplay preview areas, etc. Hall C was for main events. But here's the thing; the walls between the three halls had been taken down, so you could basically walk into the main events hall WHENEVER YOU WANTED without waiting in line. OH. MY. GAWD. We literally walked into opening ceremonies 2 seconds before it started and got seats. AMAZING. *hugs blizzcon*
Anyways, at Opening Ceremonies, Blizzard Founder, Mike Morhaime, and other Blizzard big wigs spoke and got everyone all pumped up; they played the Lich King Cinematic on the BIG SCREEN with BLARING AUDIO and it was fabulous. Then they announced a new class for Diablo III, the Mage, and everyone screamed a lot. I've never played Diablo, but it was still exciting xD;;.
After checking into our hotel (score a $79 room at the hilton, woooo!), we went back to the main events hall for the WoW Class Panel. The energy of the crowd alone was ridiculously entertaining. The Devs (including Kalgan, who is quite infamous on the forums) presented their reasoning for why and how the different classes will be balenced in Wrath of the Lich King. The crowd was especially vocal during this panel, voicing appreciation/objections for their favorite class. In fact, they started out the panel by asking everyone in the crowd who thought their class was the crappiest, most underpowered class in the game, and the place EXPLODED. Pretty hysterical xD;.
Only a couple of the pictures I took came out un-blurry enough to read... conveniently enough they were the slides for the classes Mike and I play. Oops! xD
REASON #2 WHY BLIZZCON WAS THE BEST CON I'VE EVER BEEN TO:
The ambiance of the whole thing was AWESOME. The whole con looked like this ^ . Lights dimmed, fog machines, crazy rock and roll lights, plus they had big screens EVERYWHERE that simulcasted whatever panel was taking place or played epic Blizzard trailers; excellent for line waiting! And line waiting we did... 3 HOURS in the BlizzCon Store line to be exact ^^;;.
After spending waaaaaaaaaaay too much money at the BlizzCon Store, it was time to head over to the evening Contests; Costume, Dances, One-liners, etc :). This one was standing room only. We only stayed for the costume portion because our feet were freaking tired from standing in line for so long, but let me tell you, the competition was FIERCE! I was too far away to take decent pictures, but the Blizzcon Site actually has really good coverage. Just to give an idea, among the runners up was a kick-ass Warchief Thrall, and the winner was a Dranei Shaman ON A TURTLE MOUNT. And that's just the beginning... seriously check it out, you won't be disappointed :D
The competition was definitely different than any masquerade I've seen or participated in... perhaps that's why it intrigues me so. I think it will be very difficult to resist making costumes for Mike and myself for next Blizzcon... but we'll see >:3!
After the contest, we headed back to the room, realized we hadn't eaten in hours, and ordered a banana split for dinner. A romantic evening with my husband... ^^;;
DAY TWO!! We spent all of day 1 eyeing the adorable talking (MRGlglglglgrl!!) Murloc plushie being sold at the Jinx booth, so we ran and got in line the moment the con's doors opened. Even so, we ended up waiting in line for 2 hours ^^;;. It was still fun though, because...
REASON #3 WHY BLIZZCON WAS THE BEST CON I'VE EVER BEEN TO:
The fans were awesome :DD! We spent the time in line chatting with fellow WoW fans, and got lots of advice for a pally that just turned 70 :3. One of the guys we talked with in line was a Rogue that had just moved to America from Australia in order to pursue his career as an Opera singer... how cool is that?? xD
After grabbing lunch with waynekaa (weee, thanks for the fabrics <33!), it was time to head over to The Guild panel! We saw this cute blood elf on the way there :3
This panel took place in the room upstairs, which was standing room only. The panel itself was HILARIOUS. All of the cast members (except Clara and Tink) play WoW, so the jokes were flying... particularly about Felicia not being lvl 70 yet (she's 68 and a half) xD! They also showed the first episode of the new season, which was amazing... particularly so since we were in a room with 1000 people laughing hysterically. They had a new opening credits too, which was still somewhat cheesy but extremely charming :D.
Next we went to go try out the Wrath of the Lich King demo! After waiting in line, you are assigned to a computer station for 20 minutes. The character you start was already lvl 80, with all the epic gear, mounts, and skillz you could ever dream of. Northrend is gorgeous. We played the demo twice, once as our main classes (paladin and mage) and once as DEATH KNIGHTS. Um, Death Knights are the shit, btw. And my Pally kicked some ass too (she was specced Retadin, naturally...). And Mike got to try out his Mage's much anticipated "Mirror Image" skill, so there were several Mike's running around. BLARGGG I can't wait for the expansion xD!
Time for the most anticipated event of the con (at least for me :P), closing ceremonies :D!! We grabbed some tacos with Murky and got some semi-good seats about an hour early. The show started off with a comedian, followed by a performance from the Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftans ~ I had no idea Blizzard's founder, Mike Morhaime, was a part of that silly band xD! It was pretty hilarious to see them live, especially the random "achievements" they would flash up on the screen during the performance (ie: make 100,000 people gurgle like murlocs). And their performance of I am Murloc was an absolute RIOT xD!
The BEST part though was the Video Games Live performance... there's nothing quite like a live orchestral performance, especially of fabulous nerd music <3. Unlike most orchestral performances you might attend, they played video to go along with the music and encouraged the audience to cheer when they saw/heard things that were awesome, and cheer we did xD! The Hordies in particular went bonkers when they played the theme of Orgrimmar, lol! My favorite though was The Lament of the Sin'dorei... the song Lady Sylvannas sings for you when you finish the quest to turn in her lost pendant. Sylvannas is my favorite character in the Warcraft lore, and I cried like a nerdy baby during that song. It was truly amazing <3.
When closing ceremonies were over, there was still about an hour before the con's doors closed... and we certainly didn't want to call it quits yet! So we ran around taking pictures of random cool stuff xD!
... and of course we had to take silly pictures with all our swag once we got back to the room xD;;.
So yeah. It was pretty much one of the best weekends ever. As much as I love going to cons with the Undergrounders and doing the whole cosplay thing, there was just something so fabulous about the raw fandom that I witnessed that weekend... plus Mike was extremely happy and stress-free, surrounded by all the WoW he could ever hope for, lol <3. Much harassing will occur over this next year because ALL OF YOU UNDERGROUNDERS ARE GOING WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT BECAUSE IT WAS AMAAAAAZING AND YOU WILL LOVE IT <33.
... and I've been playing WoW more obsessively than ever before lately ^^;;.
That is all. Have some Coco <3.
Mikezanne does
BLIZZCON 2008!
So, this was pretty much the best convention I’ve ever been to. There, I said it. I’m officially the biggest nerd ever :B.
A large part of it was probably because it was just me and mike so it was very laid back, plus we didn’t bring any sort of costume to stress over… the second I started stressing about getting our guild tabards done in time I just said FORGET IT and didn’t even bother. No stress was the motto for the weekend ;P.
But more than that, it was simply an AMAZINGLY well run convention with a fantastic fan base. It was just so awesomely cool to be engulfed in the Blizzard universe for 2 days with 18,000 of my closest friends… at least that’s what it felt like, because everyone there had something in common. Whether you were Horde or Alliance, Paladin or Rogue, you were among family. Yeah. It was pretty pimp.
This was the line to get in on the first day o___o! It actually wrapped all the way around to the back of the convention center; this is in the parking lot that's behind the arena. But once the doors opened, we got in surprisingly fast. Plus, people watching made standing in line somewhat entertaining. Nerds are a funny bunch to watch, after all xD. Everyone was "representing" by wearing horde, alliance, or class related shirts, so it was kinda fun to analyze what types of characters different people played ("A Rogue, huh? You would >P.")
A bunch of cosplayers were posing outside the main events hall as we were going in, so of course I had to stop and take pictures :B. I gotta hand it to Blizzard costumers, there was a lot of costume creativity! On the left, Mr. T the Nightelf (a la the WoW commercials xD) and an awesome female dranei. In the middle, Verimathras -- he was especially in character, he even had shoes with springs in them so he'd bounce when he walked! On the right a cute blood elf mage with a food table; Mike, who plays a BE Mage, appreciated that one especially ^^.
On our way to opening ceremonies, we spotted the cast of The Guild at their booth! Fan-girling ensued! We stopped to buy a DVD of the first season and had it signed by the cast, and then I got my picture taken with Penny Codex Felicia Day :D! I totally want to cosplay her character in Dr. Horrible, Penny, at Comic Con next year, but she was obviously busy so I resisted bombarding her with questions ^^;;. She was just as petite and adorable and bubbly in real life as she is on screen... so cute xD!
REASON #1 WHY BLIZZCON WAS THE BEST CON I'VE EVER BEEN TO:
The seating for the main events was SOOOO convenient!! Most of the con took place in the main 3 halls of the con center, Halls A, B, and C. Halls A & B had all of the interactive stuffs; the vendor booths, blizzcon store, tournament areas, gameplay preview areas, etc. Hall C was for main events. But here's the thing; the walls between the three halls had been taken down, so you could basically walk into the main events hall WHENEVER YOU WANTED without waiting in line. OH. MY. GAWD. We literally walked into opening ceremonies 2 seconds before it started and got seats. AMAZING. *hugs blizzcon*
Anyways, at Opening Ceremonies, Blizzard Founder, Mike Morhaime, and other Blizzard big wigs spoke and got everyone all pumped up; they played the Lich King Cinematic on the BIG SCREEN with BLARING AUDIO and it was fabulous. Then they announced a new class for Diablo III, the Mage, and everyone screamed a lot. I've never played Diablo, but it was still exciting xD;;.
After checking into our hotel (score a $79 room at the hilton, woooo!), we went back to the main events hall for the WoW Class Panel. The energy of the crowd alone was ridiculously entertaining. The Devs (including Kalgan, who is quite infamous on the forums) presented their reasoning for why and how the different classes will be balenced in Wrath of the Lich King. The crowd was especially vocal during this panel, voicing appreciation/objections for their favorite class. In fact, they started out the panel by asking everyone in the crowd who thought their class was the crappiest, most underpowered class in the game, and the place EXPLODED. Pretty hysterical xD;.
Only a couple of the pictures I took came out un-blurry enough to read... conveniently enough they were the slides for the classes Mike and I play. Oops! xD
REASON #2 WHY BLIZZCON WAS THE BEST CON I'VE EVER BEEN TO:
The ambiance of the whole thing was AWESOME. The whole con looked like this ^ . Lights dimmed, fog machines, crazy rock and roll lights, plus they had big screens EVERYWHERE that simulcasted whatever panel was taking place or played epic Blizzard trailers; excellent for line waiting! And line waiting we did... 3 HOURS in the BlizzCon Store line to be exact ^^;;.
After spending waaaaaaaaaaay too much money at the BlizzCon Store, it was time to head over to the evening Contests; Costume, Dances, One-liners, etc :). This one was standing room only. We only stayed for the costume portion because our feet were freaking tired from standing in line for so long, but let me tell you, the competition was FIERCE! I was too far away to take decent pictures, but the Blizzcon Site actually has really good coverage. Just to give an idea, among the runners up was a kick-ass Warchief Thrall, and the winner was a Dranei Shaman ON A TURTLE MOUNT. And that's just the beginning... seriously check it out, you won't be disappointed :D
The competition was definitely different than any masquerade I've seen or participated in... perhaps that's why it intrigues me so. I think it will be very difficult to resist making costumes for Mike and myself for next Blizzcon... but we'll see >:3!
After the contest, we headed back to the room, realized we hadn't eaten in hours, and ordered a banana split for dinner. A romantic evening with my husband... ^^;;
DAY TWO!! We spent all of day 1 eyeing the adorable talking (MRGlglglglgrl!!) Murloc plushie being sold at the Jinx booth, so we ran and got in line the moment the con's doors opened. Even so, we ended up waiting in line for 2 hours ^^;;. It was still fun though, because...
REASON #3 WHY BLIZZCON WAS THE BEST CON I'VE EVER BEEN TO:
The fans were awesome :DD! We spent the time in line chatting with fellow WoW fans, and got lots of advice for a pally that just turned 70 :3. One of the guys we talked with in line was a Rogue that had just moved to America from Australia in order to pursue his career as an Opera singer... how cool is that?? xD
After grabbing lunch with waynekaa (weee, thanks for the fabrics <33!), it was time to head over to The Guild panel! We saw this cute blood elf on the way there :3
This panel took place in the room upstairs, which was standing room only. The panel itself was HILARIOUS. All of the cast members (except Clara and Tink) play WoW, so the jokes were flying... particularly about Felicia not being lvl 70 yet (she's 68 and a half) xD! They also showed the first episode of the new season, which was amazing... particularly so since we were in a room with 1000 people laughing hysterically. They had a new opening credits too, which was still somewhat cheesy but extremely charming :D.
Next we went to go try out the Wrath of the Lich King demo! After waiting in line, you are assigned to a computer station for 20 minutes. The character you start was already lvl 80, with all the epic gear, mounts, and skillz you could ever dream of. Northrend is gorgeous. We played the demo twice, once as our main classes (paladin and mage) and once as DEATH KNIGHTS. Um, Death Knights are the shit, btw. And my Pally kicked some ass too (she was specced Retadin, naturally...). And Mike got to try out his Mage's much anticipated "Mirror Image" skill, so there were several Mike's running around. BLARGGG I can't wait for the expansion xD!
Time for the most anticipated event of the con (at least for me :P), closing ceremonies :D!! We grabbed some tacos with Murky and got some semi-good seats about an hour early. The show started off with a comedian, followed by a performance from the Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftans ~ I had no idea Blizzard's founder, Mike Morhaime, was a part of that silly band xD! It was pretty hilarious to see them live, especially the random "achievements" they would flash up on the screen during the performance (ie: make 100,000 people gurgle like murlocs). And their performance of I am Murloc was an absolute RIOT xD!
The BEST part though was the Video Games Live performance... there's nothing quite like a live orchestral performance, especially of fabulous nerd music <3. Unlike most orchestral performances you might attend, they played video to go along with the music and encouraged the audience to cheer when they saw/heard things that were awesome, and cheer we did xD! The Hordies in particular went bonkers when they played the theme of Orgrimmar, lol! My favorite though was The Lament of the Sin'dorei... the song Lady Sylvannas sings for you when you finish the quest to turn in her lost pendant. Sylvannas is my favorite character in the Warcraft lore, and I cried like a nerdy baby during that song. It was truly amazing <3.
When closing ceremonies were over, there was still about an hour before the con's doors closed... and we certainly didn't want to call it quits yet! So we ran around taking pictures of random cool stuff xD!
... and of course we had to take silly pictures with all our swag once we got back to the room xD;;.
So yeah. It was pretty much one of the best weekends ever. As much as I love going to cons with the Undergrounders and doing the whole cosplay thing, there was just something so fabulous about the raw fandom that I witnessed that weekend... plus Mike was extremely happy and stress-free, surrounded by all the WoW he could ever hope for, lol <3. Much harassing will occur over this next year because ALL OF YOU UNDERGROUNDERS ARE GOING WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT BECAUSE IT WAS AMAAAAAZING AND YOU WILL LOVE IT <33.
... and I've been playing WoW more obsessively than ever before lately ^^;;.
That is all. Have some Coco <3.