12/04 BlizzCon 2007 Announced!

A year and a half ago, Blizzard hosted the first “BlizzCon,” a convention celebrating the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo game universes and the amazing community of players who contribute to their continued popularity. Today, Blizzard announced that BlizzCon will once again open its doors on August 3, 2007.

Highlights for this year’s BlizzCon will include:

• Discussion panels with Blizzard game developers;


• Competitive and casual tournaments, including a World of Warcraft TCG tournament;


• Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes;


• Live orchestral performances of music from Blizzard games;


• And many more exciting activities to be announced soon!

Check out this press release now to learn more about the when, where, and what of BlizzCon 2007!
http://www.blizzard.co.uk/press/070412.shtml

And check out this post for F.A.Q.:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=277037731&sid=1

Q u o t e:
I'll let you borrow my backyard if you wanna host it in the lovely town of Bromolla! =D

Bromölla? Who could resist that offer!

Gotta comment on a few things... :)

Q u o t e:
Once again in America? *sighs* Why not in Britain?

BlizzCon has a lot of dev presence - personally I think that's the core of the event. It's much easier having all the devs drop by at Anaheim, which is close to HQ, than fly them all to Europe (or Asia) for the entire event period. Think of it like a tour of the dev offices, but extended offices due to so many taking the tour. We can't move the offices to Europe just like that, unfortunately.

Q u o t e:
Blizzard is located in france, europe.

Blizzard Europe is. Blizzard HQ is in California.

Q u o t e:
Europeans...

Second rated customers.

A poor attitude towards your fellow Europeans.

Q u o t e:
And if there is really only going to be a US one, is this really news for the EU forums? It would seem to only influence your US fans.

There were several Europeans at the first BlizzCon, and I don't see why we should not inform European players about this. True, it's generally much harder (read: expensive) for European players to attend, but it's not just a bus ride downtown for Americans on the East Coast either.

Q u o t e:
Asia has a number of events more as well as US.

I believe that number is 1 (each). World Wide Invitationals in Korea. BlizzCon in California.

Of course it would be cool to do something similar in Europe though. It's just not as simple as some might think. Nothing wrong with being disappointed, but please keep in mind that it's a matter of location, not of valuing players differently.

Q u o t e:
Thundy, how difficult would it be (note: actual question, not a sarcastic insult, love you!) to fly the devs over here for a day some time?

I know they're very busy an all, but it would be nice sometime in the future

Now, my field of work hardly touches on arranging travel and accommodations for hundreds of people, finding a location in Paris (as we'd need us here to help with the event too) suitable for having them facing thousands of players (plus fan sites and press), and making sure those thousands of players have a chance at finding accommodations in the same area, but I do imagine it's not exactly a simple task.

In any case, it couldn't be for just a day. 12+ hours of travel doesn't put you in the most presentable state. So take the above and make it two days, minimum. As said, not my field of work, but I'm sure it's not simple. :)

(And of course somebody will be an expert and say it's a piece of cake for anyone, and a CM should be fired for not knowing better. :p)

Q u o t e:
Considering 99% of us do not have £1000+ to go galavanting off to America for a day, we will not be able to gain any of the ingame special items you will likely give out. How is this fair at all one Europeans?

Visitors to the first BlizzCon got a special pet (Murky). Europe received a specially made pet too (Gurky), given out through e.g. fan site contests. I think that part worked out pretty evenly between the regions.

Just added a link to the F.A.Q. in the OP.