Welcome to the World..... of Blizzcon.
Greetings from Anaheim TL! Blizzcon is here once again and we've got quite a number of Staff/Users on the ground. For anyone turning up today, be on the lookout for the TL parade that will be bashing its way around the room, pushing its way between the WoW-nerds. We shouldn't be too hard to spot so please do make the effort . Yesterday the 2nd Annual community summit was held at the Anaheim Convention center and I was given a tour of Blizzard and had a chat to Dustin.
The Blizzard campus is quite surreal for a gaming company. There's three major buildings and it covers a lot of ground. They have their own Volleyball court, Basketball court and Valet Parking for employees. They've also got plans to install a huge bronze statue of an Orc on a Wolf (ie Thrall) in their courtyard; but that's still just a pit at the moment. The folks from Blizzard are really awesome guys, and really care about the community and their games passionately. Which is a really good sign obviously.
The building where SC2 and D3 are being developed
Unfortunately, we were barred from entering any of the development areas so the closest we got to the actual development of SC2 was outside that building. Nevertheless things were rather cordial and the folks from SC-L and starcraft.org were really friendly and great guys. I also met up with the guys from ygosu and pgr21 who were also great guys. There were, however, some notable exceptions from the group that visited including gosugamers.net and sc2gg. That is, that these two sites did not attend (amongst others).
We got given a chance to talk to Dustin over lunch and well, the guy is simply legendary. I know every time we get the chance to talk about Dustin we say that he's such a good thing for Starcraft 2 and that the game is in very good hands. But it's just so true. Dustin cares about all the issues that have been raised in the SC2 forum both here and on other sites. He has listened to the community on a number of issues and is trying to find the balance. He's doing a great job for the game and won't be content in releasing a game he feels is not perfect.
Thus, even at this late stage in development the game is still undergoing some major changes as well as more minor balance changes. There is still the option for Blizz to scrap any idea before launch that they feel is not up to standard regardless about what the idea is. The willingness to do such things is simply reassuring and I have every confidence that SC2 will be the amazing game it has been hyped to be. I can't really say much more, just trust in Blizzard - they have your best interests at heart.
After the tour of Blizzard we headed over to the convention center just in time to see the masses pile in and try to get their tickets. It was an impressive view. We were barred from taking our cameras so unfortunately I don't have any pictures just yet- but rest assured plenty will be taken tomorrow. In the convention center the 2nd Annual Community summit was held where we discussed issues of the community and whatnot. Rather strangely, the views of TL coincided with some of it's less-than-amiable colleagues which I guess shows that no matter what website is involved, we all are trying to make the community as good as it can get.
Afterwards we got to play some SC2 for the first time, or watch the progamers play it! The pgr21 guys reported to me that Savior and the rest of the progamers were particularly worried about Moon destroying everyone once SC2 comes out. I'm sure most of you recall the Moon vs Savior vid, and it's those kind of games which make them believes that Moon is going to be the greatest SC2 player right off the bat. SC2 still feels very much like SC and is a really fun game to play. There will be lots more information at a later date when we've had a better go. But at least thus far I am undefeated in SC2!
Blizzcon is set to be huge once again, and here's hoping you guys come along as say hi. Rest assured TL has got all of you who can't make it covered, and hopefully we'll be able to have updates from the day as well a myriad of photos taken. For anyone with their Blizzcon pack, check out the information book (the square one) and read on the SC page. I'm sure you'll all be smiling to yourselves
Plexa
P.S. Idra is going to take YellOw down easy LR