I enjoyed Diablo 2 quite a bit, but the changes that are being made to bring about Diablo 3 are fantastic. We got to see a lot of great information, some awesome game clips, and the three of us are looking forward to loading up the game and wrecking some demons when it’s released. By the end of it, they asked for any questions, and I was actually on DirecTV (if you got it, I was the guy who asked if Wirt would have a ‘fourth leg’ in the D3 release), which ended up being the cause of a change in my guild note. I’m now more famous than Jay Mohr (since there are a few people in my guild who don’t even know who he is).

After that panel, there really wasn’t much else that we wanted to see. Rusty and I were itching for the PVP panel, but that was on Saturday. The costume, dance, and /silly contests were that night. StarCraft seemed fairly interesting, but wasn’t starting until later. A quick discussion led to taking a walk to get lunch, and we ended up at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. If you’ve never been, find one, and go. They’re pretty awesome.

During lunch, we got a call from Jordan (who spent FOUR HOURS in the BlizzCon store line) who said he’d meet us at the StarCraft panel, where we were treated to this…

After the StarCraft panel, we waited for some people to file out, then found some (mostly) front-row seats for the contests. We chatted a bit, and at 4:30, started taking turns to get our quest rewards from BradyGames – we ended up with card game booster packs that didn’t give us in-game loot cards. A shame. After that was all done, we sat and talked and joked and played with yo-yos until suddenly… Jay Mohr.

I wanted to add my commentary here, but the video is just too long. Suffice to say, there were a lot of awesome costumes (and a lot of lackluster ones).

The costume contest was followed by…

Some good jokes, some bad jokes, and lots of people booed off stage. We had fun.

And then the final contest I took video for, and unfortunately ran out of battery before the recording ended…

The winning dance was a woman doing the undead female, and she was pretty good. Sad to say that she was on stage just after the battery died. (Dammit!!)

All in all, it was a great day. The following day, I hit the BlizzCon store for some souvenirs and games and gifts, and then Rusty, Mandy and I caught the PVP panel. Once that was all done, we drove around Anaheim looking for something to do, and then in the end just decided to head back home. The convention itself was a fun event, but in all honesty, I don’t feel that it quite lived up to the hype. Would I go again? Certainly, but my expectations would definitely be lessened. Maybe next time, I’ll rent a van. Jordan, you can come with us.

Friday started out much like any other day, except for the fact that there were three ‘con-goers running on minimal sleep. The drawback to being on the bottom floor of a hotel when there’s a gaming convention going on is that the people above you tend to be louder than Hell all hours of the night. It was like having a herd of BRK‘s rhinos trampling around upstairs.

The three of us got cleaned up and dressed, and headed off to the convention center to meet up with Jordan, Selene’s brother, to give him his goody bag and convention pass. We got there fairly early, so we wandered around and got a look at a few of the things that would be at the Blizzcon store. About 15 minutes or so after we got there, I got a phone call from Jordan, and we walked outside to meet him.

He wasn’t quite as tall as his avatar. Then again, I’m probably not, either, and mine is a girl.

Introductions finished, Mandy, Rusty and I decided that we were hungry, and headed out to grab some breakfast, Jordan in tow. We took some time to get to know Jordan (he lives in Tucson – talk about a small world), updated him on the Column System, and learned about his last visit to Blizzcon in ’07. We talked shop on Warlocks, PVP, the expansion, and the wierder people in our guilds.

Finally, we headed over to the convention center.

In The Line

By the time we got to the hall, the line was huge. From the front door, it snaked all the way around, into a parking lot, and doubled back on itself so many times, it was like watching politics in action. We had the chance to people watch a little bit, make some Column entries, and got to see some costumes…

…and how people can find each other if they get separated.

We chatted a little about what we expected to see, and eventually we found ourselves filing into the convention hall.

Inside The ‘Con

After passing through security, my first reaction was, “Man, it’s really dark in here.” (Some gamers do like a little more light, Blizzard!) A quick glance at the map showed Jordan where the Blizzcon store was, and he headed off, telling us that he’d call us when he was done. For the rest of us, it was a trip to the BradyGames booth to take on the Quest.

On our way to start the quest, I passed by this…

…and couldn’t resist taking a picture. EpicWeapons really does some impressive work.

Arriving at the BradyGames booth, we were given our instructions, and headed off to obtain Alisard Brady’s alibis to complete our quest.

The problem is, I came to realize something as I was halfway through a long, involved post that had lots of photos and links to videos and all that other fun mess…

You’ve probably already seen what I was going to show you.

WoWInsider and a host of other bloggers were just as hard at work as I was, taking pictures and video and all the other stuff that bloggers tend to do, and I realized that there was little point in rehashing what was already being covered on blogs far more established than mine. So I changed tactics midway through, deleted the entire post, and started anew.

This is the result of that change.

Now, that’s not to say that you won’t get to see any of the pictures or videos that I took, or get the photo of the contest winner/Blizzcon attendee on the blog. All of that is coming up. I promised you that, and I will deliver. Just not yet.

Day One

Rusty, Mandy, and I arrived in Anaheim on Thursday evening, checking into The Anabella (which was godawful for the entire stay, but that’s a story for another time) around 6pm. We took our bags full of stuff into our room, dropped it off, and proceeded to the convention center (barely a block away) to pick up our passes, mount cards and goody bags for the following day.

At the convention center, there was quite a line, but it was moving along pretty quickly. All told, it took maybe an hour and a half to get everything the night before. We went back to the hotel, dropped off everything but one goody bag (mine), and went out to Tony Roma’s to eat dinner.

While we waited on the appetizer, we cracked into the goody bag to see what was contained inside. Aside from the mount card (which included a beta key for StarCraft 2), there were a lot of other neat little items, some useful, some not, and some hilarious. So what was inside the bag?

Useful
- WotLK pen (lights up)
- Special edition Blizzcon authenticator
- WoW Action Figures pin (I put it on my camera bag)
- Heroes of Azeroth starter deck
- Pandaren Brewmaster beverage sleeve
- TokyoPop Blizzcon sketchbook
- 2 in 1 comic book (Ashbringer/StarCraft – for the lore)
- Frostmourne Keychain
- Diablo 3 stress ball (health or mana – red or blue, for the non-Diablo players)
- Blizzcon keychain
- StarCraft: The Board Game – Typhon promotion planet card
- Quest card sponsored by BradyGames

Not Useful
- WotLK postcard
- WotLK sticker
- FigurePrints necklace (Alliance or Horde)
- SwagDog Mousepad (Alliance or Horde)
- Cardstock orc or forsaken mask
- StarCraft 2 wristbands
- Various advertisements

Hilarious
- Paladin in a Bubble/Frostmourne (Inflatable)*
- Box of tissues (with “QQ Noob” printed on the box) **
- Instant hand sanitizer **
- Box of mints in a Diablo 3 can, labeled “Sinamints.” (I LOL’d IRL.) *
- Pandaren Brewmaster bottle opener*
- Tube of Zerg Creep (contained a Hydralisk figure for StarCraft: The Board Game)*

* denotes usefulness
** denotes usefulness to certain individuals

Once the goody bag was out of the way, we started talking about the people we were seeing at the convention, and started the development of what was later called “The Column System” by the end of day one. Let me explain the need for it, and then I’ll explain exactly how it works.

As we all know, gamers get lumped into a pretty big stereotypical group. As everyone in the media knows, gamers (especially the hardcore ones) are in their teens to mid-twenties and -thirties, pale, overweight, with bad hygiene and acne. Right?

/waits for shouts of dissent to calm down

Yeah, I know. So here’s how this breaks down.

Column A: People you can look at, and recognize that they are clearly gamers. (I know, it’s stereotyping on a different level, but bear with me.) Not quite the stereotype portrayed in the media, but close.

Column B: People you can look at, and expect them to be mountain bikers, or intramural flag football players, anything but a person who would sit at a computer and play a game like this (I get lumped into this column; at first glance, I don’t look like the gamer type, but talk to me for five minutes about WoW, and you might throw me right into column A.)

Column C: The “Are you sure she isn’t a model?” category. The really pretty people.

Column D: Basically Column A to the tenth power. To borrow a line from Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation, “These nerds are to nerds what nerds are to normal people.” I’d run like hell. These guys make the media stereotype look normal.

Column E: Column C in costumes (which usually ends up being hot girls in costumes… the guys just don’t put that much effort into it… or the ones that do screw something up so that the costume just looks like crap)

As we walked through the line, and past other people coming in for early registration, it was easy to see that Column A was present, but largely outnumbered by Column B and more than a few Column C’s (guys too, as Mandy was quick to point out). We didn’t encounter Columns D and E until the following day.

After dinner, we decided to call it a night. We went back to the hotel, hit the sack, and tried to sleep enough to make it through a long day at the con the following morning.