Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BlizzCon 2008 to be Televised

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the g4-really-stretching-for-guest-hosts-this-year dept.

Blizzard has just started pushing their BlizzCon 2008 agenda in earnest and the big news this year is that apparently the highlights of the show are going to be televised. DIRECTV users will apparently be able to call up the show as a pay-per-view item and if you switch to the satellite service in August you can even get this item for free (I would love to see the numbers on how many people actually do this). Hopefully Blizzard continues to learn from their convention mistakes and capitalizes on the many new and exciting releases they have on the horizon. Tickets go on sale August 11.

64 comments

  1. Confused by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Hopefully Blizzard continues to learn from their convention mistakes...

    What, exactly, are you referring to here? I went to BlizzCon last year and it was an awesome time, the best two days of my life. It can't even be that you're complaining about not talking about upcoming games, because there was a fair amount of material for both Starcraft 2 and WoW: WotLK at BlizzCon last year. Nothing on Diablo 3, but then, that hadn't been made public yet.

    What more do you expect, that they aren't delivering?

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    1. Re:Confused by twolfe · · Score: 1

      Starcraft 2, Diablo 3... Everyone's expecting them and (thus far) Blizzard isn't delivering :P

    2. Re:Confused by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      They had SC2 at BlizzCon 07, why wouldn't they have it at 08? I'm sure they'll have Diablo 3 as well. Blizzard doesn't generally talk about their products until they're good and ready to do so (they're rather like Apple in that respect), and that includes what you may or may not see on the agenda at BlizzCon.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    3. Re:Confused by Daswolfen · · Score: 1

      Starcraft 2, Diablo 3... Everyone's expecting them and (thus far) Blizzard isn't delivering :P

      Hmmm.. maybe that's because their release schedule is that it is done when it is done, rather than an release date set by corporate overlords who have no idea of when a game is finished.

      And they due deliver, just not on your timeframe.. Id rather wait a few months or so and have a kick ass game rather than a crappy game just to make the release date.

      --
      Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
    4. Re:Confused by Paralizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      The two best days of your life were at a video game convention? They better have had blackjack and hookers...

    5. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      So, if the best days of your life aren't supposed to be spent on your hobbies and interests, what exactly are they supposed to be spent on?

    6. Re:Confused by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

      "..the best two days of my life."

      And what a life it must be~

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    7. Re:Confused by Lulfas · · Score: 3, Funny

      In fact, forget the blackjack!

    8. Re:Confused by twolfe · · Score: 1

      Ahh, but they demo'd them, which is not quite the same as delivering them, at least I haven't been able to order or download a copy yet..

    9. Re:Confused by twolfe · · Score: 1

      Hmm, Starcraft came out in 1998, it's now 2008... 10 years isn't exactly a few months :P Not that I seriously expected them to deliver any fully finished games at their Con, though it wouldn't upset many people if they did...

    10. Re:Confused by thedrx · · Score: 1

      Hehe, my thoughts exactly.

    11. Re:Confused by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      That's because Blizzard has always been more of a one-trick pony. They prefer to work on one project at a time and do that one thing to the highest standard possible. Instead of looking at the time-span between Starcraft releases, you need to look at the time-spans between all their releases.

      Although lately with WoW expansions, the impact of people they've lost is becoming more and more apparent as their QA has slowly eroded.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    12. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      sex

    13. Re:Confused by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      Mmm gambling and hookers in cosplay, wheres Tifa?

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    14. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      If sex is neither a hobby or interesting, you're probably doing it wrong.

    15. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno, but I always thought that the best 2 days of your life were supposed to be spent doing something crazy and exciting outside the bounds of your everyday life and/or hobbies.

  2. So, this means we can watch it on G4 by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Cool, and watch it offline if we miss it while on vacation!

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  3. The Revolution will not be Televised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    We interrupt this revolution to bring you BlizzCon!

  4. Penny Arcade by Drakin020 · · Score: 1

    The only Expo I would really care to watch on TV would be PAX. With the live shows and what not, I would think it would be very interesting.

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    1. Re:Penny Arcade by TranscendentalAnarch · · Score: 1

      Convention/Expo wise, I think televising the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo would get the most viewers. :)

    2. Re:Penny Arcade by LostCluster · · Score: 2, Informative

      You've got your wish... G4 is promoting PAX as part of their August convention coverage on X-Play.

    3. Re:Penny Arcade by ubergoober · · Score: 1

      Yeah, gee... lots of talking about pr0n. can I watch paint dry too?

      --
      * Making waffles just so I have something to Twitter *
  5. Inferiority complex? by Sybert42 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    TV gets more interesting when it airs BlizzCon. BlizzCon doesn't get more interesting when it's aired on TV.

  6. Great! And now Activision and Blizzard... by Channard · · Score: 3, Insightful
    .. are the same company, maybe someone can step up on TV and ask them why they've cancelled or put on the back burner the releases of Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend and 50 Cent: Blood On The Sa...

    Actually, just ask them about Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend.

    1. Re:Great! And now Activision and Blizzard... by Omestes · · Score: 1

      While they are under the same name, and both under the Vivendi, they remain autonomous entities. The Activision in Activision Blizzard has nothing to do with the Blizzard in Activision Blizzard.

      Hows that for a cumbersome sentence?

      Vivendi is too smart to mess with Blizzard, they make FAR too much money to fiddle with their business model (they haven't either).

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    2. Re:Great! And now Activision and Blizzard... by JTsyo · · Score: 1

      Yea, wouldn't want to kill the golden goose.

  7. Oh good... by plasmacutter · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Blizzard's calculated destruction of WoW and fans' the irrational warlock hate-fest will now be publicly available on TV!

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    1. Re:Oh good... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Warlocks need to be nerfed.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:Oh good... by negRo_slim · · Score: 1

      prot warriors need to be able to solo more effectively

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    3. Re:Oh good... by DeadManCoding · · Score: 1

      I'll bite on the prot warriors, they could use some help for grinding. But if any of that help means more PvP buffs, I'm putting my lock into retirement for a Death Knight, maybe then I'll get some happiness in killing everyone.

      --
      "The only constant in the universe is change." - Unknown author
    4. Re:Oh good... by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      actually, I have a warrior and recently tried sword-n-boarding it up for amusement.

      If you use the same rotations you use when tanking a boss, you can aoe grind just like a paladin...

      shield block -> revenge your way through a crowd of 5-7 mobs.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    5. Re:Oh good... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      no, that's not their point.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    6. Re:Oh good... by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      PvE needs to be completely removed, along with battlefields and arena. Bring back the days when it was fun- when people did world PvP, and when gear meant jack shit. In other words, the pre-MC days.

      You can get your wish then too- with no more PvE, no reason to spec prot. I'll even sign the petition to replace it with a useful tree.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    7. Re:Oh good... by Endo13 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's never going to happen. Even for the biggest proponents of it, world PvP is only fun for so long. You just won't have very many people at all who will sit there and do the same world PvP over and over for years on end, with nothing else to mix it up. You need that gear-drive to keep people playing long-term (as in years rather than months). What they do need to do however is bring a lot more balance to PvP and PvE. Pre TBC (but post MC) there was far too much emphasis on PvE to be able to participate in PvP. If you didn't do MC and BWL you were pretty much guaranteed to suck it up in PvP. (Even worse, depending on your class your set gear might not help at all for PvP.) Now it's just the opposite - and the worst of it is, the PvP you have to do to get your PvP gear is the worst form of PvP and is completely unrepresentative of everything PvP was actually supposed to be. PvP gear needs to be equally easy to obtain, no matter which part of the game you want to play. That would include Arena, Battlegrounds, world PvP, raiding, and even 5-man instances or solo questing. Any of those should enable you to get the exact same PvP gear for the same time and effort and give you the same chance to be effective in PvP.

      Ironically, this is how Blizzard consistently ends up failing with WoW: they do listen (too much) to the players, and they overreact and screw things up in a different way than before.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    8. Re:Oh good... by SkunkPussy · · Score: 1

      I find you can last a very long time but its slow going - paladins kill stuff much more quickly.

      --
      SURELY NOT!!!!!
    9. Re:Oh good... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uhuh.. ok paladin.

      why not actually try killing an ele shaman spamming lesser heal as a pvp spec lock.

    10. Re:Oh good... by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      wow that's really saying something!

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    11. Re:Oh good... by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      Actually, no. World PvP never grows old. I can have fun doing that for hours. PvE and instanced PvP gets boring after 30 minutes or so.

      Oh sure, gear drive will keep some people playing- but it makes as many people quit. I'm in a guild full of such people. I know a few dozen others, just in my circle of friends. In fact, I know far, far FAR more people who agree with me than who actually like PvE or gear grinds. PvE and gear RUINED the game. The game was fun when gear meant shit because it was a difference of a few stamina and a few int. The game just isn't any good anymore, and hasn't been since raiding came about.

      Sorry, you're wrong. Do me a favor and keep playing WoW though, I'm hoping if your type stays there other MMOs will get it right. Warhammer looks like it may have a chance- a game based on PvP, with world PvP as the most important type, and gear isn't supposed to make much of a difference- exactly what warcraft promised to be pregame but failed.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    12. Re:Oh good... by SkunkPussy · · Score: 1

      haha well prot paladins do get economies of scale due to loads taking damage at once so averaged across all of them its reasonably fast....whereas prot warriors are still mainly dpsing one target at a time

      --
      SURELY NOT!!!!!
    13. Re:Oh good... by j_snare · · Score: 1

      Why is it that people always want to force other people who don't want it into PvP? Does it really harm you that some players might prefer PvE or playing with a friend cooperatively against the environment? It seems that usually when people are forced into PvP, it's because some high level wanker wants to feel cool. For instance, with WoW, what would be the attraction of being a level 70 that can go to a newbie area and kill some level 1 new player?

      This isn't quite possible in WoW as it is, but the case is valid.

      Do you really think that this wouldn't happen? Or that this wouldn't feel frustrated to the new player?

    14. Re:Oh good... by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      Actually, no. World PvP never grows old. I can have fun doing that for hours. PvE and instanced PvP gets boring after 30 minutes or so.

      I know my prior post didn't give that impression, but I'm right there with you. Battlegrounds drive me up a wall, and arena is worse. Raiding is better, but not by much. World PvP is definitely where it's at for me too. The problem though is, much as I enjoy World PvP, it still grows old after a while, especially if there's nothing else you need to do in the game that pulls you away from it periodically. If world PvP is literally all there was to do, I'd have lots of fun with it. I'm sure I'd even stick around for a few months. But if that's all you have to do, after a few months it's just not worth the monthly fee any more. If they game consisted entirely of solo quests and world PvP, WoW wouldn't have half the active subscriptions it does, and very very few players would still be around who started at/before release.

      Oh sure, gear drive will keep some people playing- but it makes as many people quit.

      I'm going to have to disagree with you. The numbers just don't support your statement. 10 million subscribers and still going up? Considering that this game has been based on acquiring gear for the last 2.5+ years, that's a lot of players who don't mind it that much. Even for those of us who don't care for it so much, it's the part that breaks up what we enjoy most so it doesn't get old so quick. As well as being the stick prodding us toward the carrot.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
  8. Remember BnetD by IdeaMan · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Let's not forget that Blizzard was one of the early abusers of the DMCA hammer.

    That plus the fact that they deleted hundreds of my diablo 2 characters is why I have never subscribed to WoW. Play an MMO for the non-add impaired instead.

    --
    They ARE out to get you simply because They are in it for themselves and they don't care about you.
    1. Re:Remember BnetD by Annymouse+Cowherd · · Score: 1

      The fact that you have had hundreds of diablo 2 characters to be deleted is quite scary.

    2. Re:Remember BnetD by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes yes, you broke your agreement, and they retaliated and you lost.
      Clearly they're SOBs

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:Remember BnetD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They expire and get wiped if you don't log in regularly. I've lost dozens, myself.

    4. Re:Remember BnetD by IdeaMan · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      No, as above poster said, they expired, there was no agreement breakage.

      It's fine with me if they don't have the hard disk space to store my characters, just encrypt them and ship them back to me.
      All they have to do is encrypt and md5sum the files and email them back to me. When I want to start playing again, I email them back the save files, they check that the md5 matches the list they saved.

      Just deleting the results of hundreds of hours of my work makes them negligent. The BnetD/evil DMCA usage was what tipped them into SOB territory.

      --
      They ARE out to get you simply because They are in it for themselves and they don't care about you.
    5. Re:Remember BnetD by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure GP was talking about your reference to Blizzard being one of the first to use the DMCA hammer. IIRC, their use of it was to try to oust players using WoWglider (which any brain-dead idiot should know is against the ToS). Unfortunately the link in the DMCA reference is blocked here at work so I can't check it to be sure.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    6. Re:Remember BnetD by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      MMO for the non-windows users anyone?

      I'm not demanding linux support or anything, but I use a mac, and their clients are all ".exe"

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    7. Re:Remember BnetD by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      Correction:

      their use of it was to create a court precedent saying you can't make generics using your own talent.

      They claimed DRM violations when BNETD didn't break their DRM at all.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    8. Re:Remember BnetD by Null537 · · Score: 1

      You mean like WoW? Playable on OSX...

    9. Re:Remember BnetD by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      no, i mean like anarchy online but playable on osx.

      wow has become kalgan's own little fiefdom, and hes in the process of utterly wrecking my main in wrath to satisfy some mages.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    10. Re:Remember BnetD by IntergalacticWalrus · · Score: 1

      I don't see the problem here. This is a free service. They have full rights to delete unused characters. On a game with such a large userbase, the character database must have increased by several tens of thousands every day in the early years of its release.

    11. Re:Remember BnetD by Kidbro · · Score: 1

      If EFF is blocked for you, I'd seriously suggest finding another employer. I hear there's positions in China that allow much more liberal access to information.

      However, just looking at the URL makes it obvious that the link is in fact not about the relatively recent WoWglider debacle, but the much older BNETD controversy.

      --
      May we live long and die out
    12. Re:Remember BnetD by brkello · · Score: 1

      Actually, you were negligent by not logging in. There was no agreement that they would store your data forever. It is an 8 year old game. Sucks that you lost all that "work", but your expectations are unreasonable. To me it is amazing that they still maintain servers for this long.

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    13. Re:Remember BnetD by Cornflake917 · · Score: 1

      Blizzard didn't abuse a damn thing. People were using that software to circumvent Blizzard's CD key authentication and pirate the game. People deliberately used this software to enhance the experience of their pirated games. Blizzard allows a variety of software to interact with their games, but they go after the software that ruins the their customer's experience, or the software that encourages and facilitates piracy of their games. It would be foolish for them not protect themselves in this manner.

      As for the "add impaired" remark, I've been playing on Battle Net for years now and I couldn't describe to you a single ad that has been displayed on top of the screen. It's relatively small and unobtrusive. If that's really a huge problem for you, you should probably not be using this website for the same reason.

      BTW, I tried AO. It nearly rivals Eve online in terms of boring gameplay. Enjoy your crappy, "non-add impaired" MMO.

      --
      Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game
    14. Re:Remember BnetD by IdeaMan · · Score: 1

      That's true. The callous disregard of the amount of effort their playerbase went to to build that minuscule amount of information tells me they don't care one bit about their users. I'm not saying they don't have the right to do it. I'm saying it's stupid of them to delete that information. Heck, I bet most any website is storing more information about a users browsing habits than blizz needed to store character info.

      --
      They ARE out to get you simply because They are in it for themselves and they don't care about you.
  9. on demand PPV or live sat PPV or sat push PPV? by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

    direct TV on demand PPV, or live sat PPV, or sat push PPV?

    Why can't they show it for free on the 101?

    FREE SHOWTIME, HBO, and STARZ is better then this.

    1. Re:on demand PPV or live sat PPV or sat push PPV? by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or through that pesky internet thing.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:on demand PPV or live sat PPV or sat push PPV? by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

      on demand PPV is the pesky internet thing.

    3. Re:on demand PPV or live sat PPV or sat push PPV? by n1ckml007 · · Score: 1

      or why can't you "grind" to get to the PPV, watch some "lower" channels...

  10. EvE online. by Dobeln · · Score: 1

    I hear EvE online has Mac OS X clients and Linux clients available.

    1. Re:EvE online. by brkello · · Score: 1

      It is also devoid of joy and fun. (I'm kidding, mostly)

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
  11. If anybody wondered by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if D3 was going to be Pay to Play like WoW, this is the writing on the wall (IE PPV). I love Blizzard and their games, but between Warden (anti-cheat Gestapo app) and Pay2Play (WoW) I'm having trouble getting as excited for D3 as I should be.

    1. Re:If anybody wondered by brkello · · Score: 1

      What kind of stupid logic leads your from PPV to D3 being under a subscription model? WoW is an MMORPG, of course it is pay to play. Get a better job if $15 a month is too much for you to handle.

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com