Forget the presidential election: The really big news is that the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, comes out on Thursday. In a second, I’m going to show you the opening cinematic for the expansion.
But before I do that, watch the following one first. It takes place five years earlier, and is the end of the human storyline in Warcraft III. Arthas Menethil, Prince of Lordaeron, has discovered what’s been causing the undead to rise in his country, and has journeyed to Northrend, the setting for Wrath of the Lich King, to end the threat once and for all. He returns a changed man …
Four years later, the transformation is complete: Arthas Menethil is the Lich King, ruler of the Undead Scourge.
Sorry I didn’t post this earlier: A 75-mile commute each way is more than I can handle nowadays. I was beat. I used to drive 55 miles each way to Blizzard, back in the day, and braving the Orange Crush meant that the drive was at least as long as a 75-mile trip most days.
In any case, the convention was even better the second day, partially because of its more targeted focus on WoW. I appreciate — in every sense of the word — how great it was to have a convention talking about all three of Blizzard’s big franchises, but having sold more tickets than ever, it would have been nice if Blizzard had kept all the old WoW panels and just used the other conference rooms in the Anaheim Convention Center for the smaller panels (lore, professions, etc.).
Next year, I’d like to actually stay down in Anaheim with Jenn (who didn’t attend this year) and have James hang out with his grandparents for the weekend. Partially because it was less fun sitting there by myself, tapping away on my iPhone without company much of the time, and partially because 150 miles of commuting made me useless (well, more useless than usual) when I finally made it home each night. I would also have liked to have seen the Video Games Live concert that wrapped up the show.
I did bring the power cord and plug for my iPhone on Saturday, but just like when you bring the car to the mechanic and the noise that was bothering you stops, I didn’t end up actually needing it. Still, next time, I’ll get a supplemental battery pack ahead of time and bring it with me.
The Big Blizzard Bear in-game prize won’t be available until tomorrow, when WoW gets patched to be ready for the new expansion next month, but a good looking mount like that is worth the wait.
It was a long day, despite traffic not being particularly bad driving to and from Orange County. Previous years didn’t really prepare me for what 15,000 fans in the Anaheim Convention Center would be like — thank goodness for press passes and press seating.I got there early, so I picked two murloc toys, one for James, and one for a friend. (James loves it, although he needs help making it gurgle, so he brings it to me over and over.)
As I guessed, there was no big World of Warcraft announcement, but they did announce a new class for Diablo III (the wizard).
I wrote up most of it in my Twitter feed. The iPhone’s batteries started to go in the afternoon, and I think tomorrow I’ll bring the charging cord and plug and try to plug in somewhere while I write.
Not as good of a Blizzcon for a die-hard WoW fan, but better for Blizzard fans in general. I suspect the pay per view version is actually a pretty good deal, if you don’t need to buy the stuff from the vendors now and can wait for them to stock it in their online stores.
So, Blizzcon 2008 starts in beautiful downtown Anaheim on Friday morning. And, for the first time, there’s no hint as to what new game or expansion Blizzard may announce or even if they’re going to make such an announcement.
By this time in 2005, people had already found the domain name registrations that tipped them off that the World of Warcraft expansion would be called The Burning Crusade.
Now, there will be a third expansion at some point. (My money is on it centering on the Maelstrom, the homeland of the trolls, the homeland of the goblins, the kingdom of the naga, the tomb of Sargeras, and so on.) But there is nary a hint that this is going to be announced at Blizzcon. Indeed, the number of Warcraft panels is down from previous years, to make room for Diablo III goodness (and who can blame them, especially given that WoW was the 800-pound gorilla at the first two conventions). But it may not be announced this week.
Now, Wrath of the Lich King won’t be out until November, and maybe there’s a worry that an announcement about a third expansion would distract attention from it, but Blizzard has repeatedly said that their goal is to move to a one expansion per year schedule. (Stop snickering.) So an announcement at Blizzcon would seem logical.
In any case, we’ll know Friday morning, even before the keynote address is given, since the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King banners in the convention center gave it away last time.
Assuming AT&T can penetrate the Anaheim Convention Center, and assuming my iPhone’s battery holds up, I will liveblog Blizzcon 2008 at http://twitter.com/blizzconnews.
So, 
