Brushing off the dust…

Well, it’s been a while kiddies hasn’t it. What’s been going on while old man Q has been slumbering away…and by slumbering I mean coaching 3 soccer teams and trying not to loose my mind 🙂

Let’s see…

1. Blizzcon is around the corner (November 7th & 8th in Anaheim CA) – I will be there, roaming the halls with Ceraphus, Xia, Wil, Tristan, Noel, Adam, Fimlys, Vee, and others.
2. World of Podcasts is also around the corner!! I ABSOLUTELY will be there participating as a panel member as well as meeting and greeting with people and helping set up and clean up. For anyone who backed WoP on kickstarter, thank you. For anyone planning on attending sign up at Eventbrite! Incidentally, I also may have been crazy busy with all the design work for WoP. Stickers, posters, cards, tees….lots of stuff! The  entire WoP planning committee really hammered me, so they are buying all the drinks that night 🙂
3. TeePublic – I started a tee shirt storefront on Teepublic! I only have a handful of designs up so far, mostly related to Blizzcon attire. Phalanx of Nod, Azeroth Pirate Radio, and The Nexus Podcast are all represented there. Post Blizzcon I will most likely add some additional Blizzard based items like World of Podcasts, more APR, perhaps something for The Sundering or other Catalyst Gaming Media partners. Plus I have a host of non gaming related designs I’ve started including Marvel & DC heroes, film properties like Star Wars, and TV properties like Farscape and Star Trek. stay tuned.
4. Azeroth Pirate Radio – Ceraphus and I hit our 66th episode and had Vee from Ask Mr. Robot on. A great discussion ensued regarding AMR’s upcoming features for Warlords of Draenor and focus shift away from min maxing around reforging as it leaves the game. Great stuff in that episode. We spent nearly 45 minutes chatting prior to recording, and needless to say Ceraphus was rather sleepy. You may hear snoring in the episode.
5. Warlords of Draenor and Patch 6.0.2 – So there’s that. Its a big deal. I guess.
6. HUNTING PARTY PODCAST RETURNS!!!! – So big kudos to the new host lineup: Darkbrew, Solarflair, Artemishowl, Delirium and Bendak. Awesome job bringing this back to life. The hunter community has always been the best part of WoW for me personally, so I am very happy HPP is back. Additionally, welcome back Warcraft Hunter’s Union. Definitely a welcome return to be more active in the community. There is a Hunter gathering taking place at Blizzcon on Saturday night if I am remembering things correctly. Check out the WHU site for more info or contact Artemishowl via Twitter.

I suppose that’s mostly the news from my little corner of Azeroth. If I missed anything let me know.

Q

Blizzcon 2014, the announcement everyone was waiting for.

With baited breath so many fans of Blizzard watched the calendar flip by, day after day, week after week, month after month. No announcement. Nothing. Silence. Then a pop, someone saw an update on the Blizzcon site regarding the terms of service date being changed from 2013 to 2014…could this be it. Hearthstone goes live, Diablo RoS goes live, Heroes of the Storm alpha goes live…still nothing. Most have given up hope. Some were determined to not speak on Twitter again until Blizzcon was announced (See: @Zerenahoofs).

LO AND BEHOLD! Blizzard Entertainment announced today, Blizzcon 2014. The full announcement can be found here. Major points:

• Tickets on sale May 7 and 10 via Evenbrite
• Cost: $199 per Blizzcon ticketand $750 for Benefit Dinner ticket (includes 1 Blizzcon pass)
• Hands-on play time with the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment games
• Global finals for Blizzard eSports, including the StarCraft®II World Championship Series Global Finals
• In-depth discussion panels with Blizzard game developers and artists
• Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
• Community contests with great prizes
• Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes
• More activities and attractions to be announced

Yes, the cost per event ticket went up by $25 and the Benefit Dinner ticket went up by $250. That’s a serious mark up on that, and we could speculate plenty about why – honestly I won’t though, not here anyway. The $25 main ticket jump isn’t that bad, year over year its a minor increase.

I’m less than please with Eventbrite doing the ticketing here. They’ve had past issues, not that it should scar them forever; but Blizzard has proven capable of doing it themselves. Why change that?

I suspect that Warlords of Draenor will have dropped by then. So we’ll have that, Diablo, and Hearthstone in full swing. I presume the next chapter in SC2 the Protoss expansion will be on tap to announce. Heroes of the Storm I think will be close to release if not already released, so there will be that to discuss.

Could this be the Titan/Next gen Blizzcon we’ve all wondered about for years now? Possibly. There will be plenty of scuttle butt and rumors between now and November. Biggest hurdle…getting tickets. Its always the hardest part getting in queue, availability of funds, etc etc.

See you all in Anaheim…I hope!

Q