Live Blogging the BlizzCon Live Internet Stream: Opening Ceremony
1:38pm EDT: Ugh. I am way too old to be getting by on 6 hours of sleep every night like this. But I just couldn’t get to sleep last night — a combination of excitement and my normal insomnia.
I’m awake now, though, and I’ve just sat down and fired up the BlizzCon 2009 Live Stream. It seems to be showing a StarCraft trailer and I am immediately worried that I’ve mis-judged the time and missed something, but it’s followed by an advertisement for the very stream I am watching and then the Wrath of the Lich King trailer, so I am pretty sure this is just filler. Whew!
1:45pm EDT: Now they are showing snippets of the 2008 BlizzCon DirectTV thing. This is reassuring — the quality is pretty good, and I should be able to hear details pretty well.
My intentions here are to live blog what I am seeing and hearing as I watch the live stream of the BlizzCon 2009 Opening Ceremony. This year the fact that there is a live internet stream has opened up the opportunity to watch BlizzCon for a whole lot more people — including myself — so I expect that many of you will be watching for yourselves and don’t need my running commentary.
But hey, someone might enjoy it. *grin* And it’s mostly for my own benefit anyway.
Now I’m watching a Diablo III trailer. It’s not the same one I saw before — seems shorter and not quite as stirring. Huh. I don’t follow Diablo III news, though, so I’m sure it’s not new.
1:55pm EDT: I’m also watching the web sites, of course. Blizzard has a Warcraft Twitter feed that may be useful, although so far it just says that BlizzCon is officially open (as of about an hour ago) and that it’s filling up fast as people stream in.
1:58pm: The internet stream is still showing trailers and ads. The Opening Ceremony should be starting in just a few minutes. I really wish they’d cut to the live event — I’m terrified that I’m missing out on something!
Ah! I typed too soon. Here we go!
2:01pm EDT: Argh. It’s now showing pre-filmed stuff about the BlizzCon 2009 live stream. Please just cut to the actual live stuff! Ergh!
By the way, the times are here so you can sort of track what’s going on. And they are in Eastern Daylight Time so I don’t have to translate in my head as I type.
2:04pm EDT: Hahaha! I *did* get the time wrong! The Opening Ceremony starts at 11:30, not 11:00! (Which means at 2:30pm EDT for me.) Whew! I wondered why they were so slow to get started.
Well, I do feel silly, but I also feel a bit less rushed now. I’m still trying to catch up on the stuff that’s been posted last night (none of which seems to be news, but which I want to read through anyway).
2:06pm: One of the live stream hosts is named Kat Hunter. Now that is a cool name. She seems up on her WoW news and rumors, but the other host — some guy — seems less so.
Shoot — the stream is lagging badly. It’s intermittent, but I may need to switch to a lower quality.
2:10pm EDT: Ooh! Shots of their NOC! (That’s Network Operations Center.) Now that’s sexy! (Yes, I’m weird.)
2:13pm EDT: The male host was just asking about how WoW arena teams work. Clearly he is the ‘normal’ person here to ask the silly questions about things on behalf of
WoW Insider has an interesting blurb about the Azeroth map being marked ‘outdated’ on the Blizzard WoW site.
2:18pm EDT: I’m also keeping an eye on Bremm, who is updating his site from BlizzCon via his Palm Pre. And Brigwyn at the Hunting Lodge is liveblogging from BlizzCon, too. The Twisted Nether Blog has some sort of video that I can’t watch right now without killing my other many connections.
2:25pm EDT: Getting closer to the actual Opening Ceremony now! Oddly I am having an easier time watching the live stream with English subtitles. The subtitles are distracting, but I seem to get a better connection.
2:31pm EDT: The stream has switched to showing the Opening Ceremony. There is a guy on a stage and people cheering. We should be getting started soon.
Ah, it’s a crowd warm-up comedy thingy. Not very funny, though. … Oh, not so much comedy as announcements about being nice to people. Heh. Oh, well. Now announcements about picking up your program after the Opening Ceremony.
They have over 17,000 computers at BlizzCon. I haven’t seen anything about what’s available in the WoW play area yet, though.
Okay, Mike Morhaime is coming on stage.
2:35pm EDT: I just noticed that some sites do their live blogging with the updates at the top of the post. That seems useful for readers trying to keep up as stuff is posted, but harder for me to manage. Should I be doing that?
“… everyone is rooting for something cataclysmic to happen …” Nice.
Morhaime is talking about WoW in China briefly. Now he’s talking about BlizzCon and how fast it sold out, etc., etc. I’m just going to focus on the interesting stuff. I apologize — I’m just not fast enough to be a good reporter here.
Estimated 50,000 people watching via Pay Per View. Nice!
2:40pm EDT: Now they are showing highlights from the WotLK launch.
2:43pm EDT: Back to Mike Morhaime. He’s talking about WoW upgrades in the past year, like dual spec and such. He mentions the upcoming faction change and gets an odd cheer-boo noise from the crowd. And he’s plugging the mobile armory. How odd.
2:45pm EDT: This November is the 5th anniversary of the launch of WoW and they will be revamping Onyxia to celebrate. Next year they are launching StarCraft II and the new Battle.Net. Sam Raimi will be directing the Warcraft movie. They love him, he loves Warcraft, etc, etc.
2:47pm EDT: This weekend BlizzCon attendees can play the StarCraft II single-player campaign. I think. I missed some of that. I wish this man would either speed up or slow down. Now he’s talking about e-sports. I am phasing out. (I forgot breakfast. Damn!)
2:50pm EDT: Oh no way! They got MC Frontalot! Frontalot is there! Aigh! And I’m missing it! Argh! But people are way more excited about Ozzie, for some reason. Hmph.
2:52pm EDT: Morhaime is leaving the stage and turning it over to Chris Metzen. (I am impressed that I know these names well enough to type them without looking them up.)
Metzen is talking about how Blizzard doesn’t launch things before they are done, and how the flip side of that is that Blizzard’s fans have to wait a little longer for their fix. Ah, he’s talking about how great it is for Blizzard devs to see the fans — I thought he was going to announce a delay. Okay, that’s fine then.
Now he’s going to talk about what’s coming up. Trailers and announcements, and I’m starting to lose the feed again.
2:57pm EDT: Okay, it’s back. Diablo III … the new class is the Monk. And here’s a monk trailer. You know, I don’t normally picture monks with a full black beard.
The trailer had some cinematic fighting, and now they are showing actual monk gameplay footage. It … umm … yeah, it looks like Diablo. There’s a little man and he hits things and lights of various types fly. (I have a hard time distinguishing visual effects. Sorry about that.)
3:03pm EDT: Metzen is talking about the Cataclysm rumors and speculation, although he hasn’t said the name yet. “A lot of wild, unsubstantiated lore, right?” Heh. The WoW preview panel will be all about the expansion, he says. Here comes the first gameplay trailer of the next WoW expansion.
“… an expansion set that is nothing less than earth-shattering … that will change the face of Azeroth …”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: CATACLYSM!”
Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms are transformed. There’s a huge lava-filled rift down the center of the Barrens!
Goblins! Goblins driven from their homes in the islands of the center sea. The Goblins join the Horde.
The Greymane Wall has been shattered. Those who were once human have become something more. Worgen! Worgen join the Alliance! (Ooh, nice hat on that Worgen.)
New monsters. Just line sketches, but the last two looked like beasts. POssibly tameable.
Level cap raised to 85. Guild progression. New secondary skill: Archaeology. New progression: Path of the Titan. Aigh! I can’t type fast enough! I can’t even read fast enough! I missed several important details there!
3:10pm EDT: And that ended the Opening Ceremony. I’m going to try to get the details I missed from the trailer and get it all in one place.
3:30pm EDT: We’re having a thunderstorm here and I’ve lost power once already, so I may get cut off. But apparently the Cataclysm panel is about to start. I’m going to throw that into a new post about the expansion. And in the meantime, WoW Insider has details on the playable WoW stuff from BlizzCon, which is apparently the newbie areas for goblins and worgen.
Table of Contents for Series: BlizzCon 2009
- BlizzCon 2009 – I Am Not There
- Live Blogging the BlizzCon Live Internet Stream: Opening Ceremony
- Cataclysm!
- Live Blogging BlizzCon: Class Panel
- BlizzCon 2009: Day 2 Round-Up
49 Comments
Live Blogging of BlizzCon is much appreciated.
It appears the 4th D3 class will be the Monk, but I haven’t spotted any firm official WoW leaks yet.
Sinnu: WoW Insider just posted something about that: http://www.wow.com/2009/08/21/new-diablo-iii-class-monk/
Awesome, I wouldn’t have wanted to see the commercials and cinematics one single time anymore. This is one of those times when I can take full advantage of my two monitors. The smaller one is showing the feed in full screen, and the bigger I’m using for some hardcore blog refreshing.
The Azeroth map has been offline due to being outdated for months. WoWInsider is stretching on that one.
Mania: Completely unrelated to Blizzcon here, but Feed Pet supposedly has a new animation on the 3.2.2 PTR! Players have reported that it shows the hunter actually tossing a chunk of meat to their pet – cannot confirm atm because I’m stepping out the door for work right now :P
Sinnu: Yeah, I thought that might be the case. But it’s something to read while we wait. :>
Nirvana: Ooh, cool! That sounds like the same animation used in feeding your ravasaur for the ravasaur mount in 3.2. I wonder if they were testing it out?
I wonder if the hunter resource changes GC hinted at in the Hunter QA will be mentioned in the opening. Probably save that for the panels, if they have anything read to announce.
@Sinnu
They’d better have, as they promised more info on the matter at BlizzCon.
Sinnu: *nod* I’d expect that in the class panel. (I’ll be watching the main WoW panels as well, but thankfully there’s a bit of a break between all these events.)
Oh, great, we’re getting Tony Shalub
17,000 computers? Typo? Or incoming power outages across Orange County?
Something Cataclysmic? Here it comes! :D
We can scroll, no worries for this one, Mania.
It looks like they may have fixed the Korean D3 site already. I’m keeping an eye on the main community sites though.
Damn, dumb sight wont let me log in and I’ve been sitting on help chat for over an hour…
… I think the thing just died on me. Suddenly it started buffering and won’t stop. o.O
Ack! That’s awful, Rakaro! And Safrienaer, too — I hope it comes back for you soon.
yay! expansion talk!
Oh, great, we get a race that can be punted. . .sigh. . .on the other hand, we get a race that is suicidally explosive.
archeology looks interesting…
That_was_awesome! I don’t know which one I’m more anxious about, flying in Azeroth or the Worgen. XD
wtf is an MC Frontalot?
DEATHWING!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!
And hell yeah, WORGEN FOR THE ALLIANCE!! Now just give them Hunter and I’ll die happy. And did anyone catch that “Heroic Deadmines”? hell to the yeah.
i saw something for shadowfang to.
Rikaku: Seconded, gimme some Worgen Hunters! Rawr!
Goblins and Worgen, and Troll Druids OH MY!
Yes, WoW.com confirms that Worgen can be Hunters among many other classes.
Link to MC Frontalot: http://frontalot.com/index.php/
hmm.if we get an 80 version of sfk,maybe well get new ghost wolves?
Mania, I just got chills reading that last line… what a well done build up on your part.
Or the office is just really really cold and I coincidentally shivered after reading that last line. ;)
Thank you for doing this. My only sources of info will be from people such as yourself, who are liveblogging the event.
Doh! That last line I mentioned, at the time I posted it was:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: CATACLYSM!”
What perfect timing that was! :D
Now I can be a puppy :D
My worgen will tame a wolf named Silence.
Mama Druid: Thanks! I was getting chills myself watching it.
Although to be fair, it is pretty chilly in here. :>
*has problems staying still in all her excitement* I don’t know I can sleep tonight. o.o
Oh man I still havent calmed myself down enough to blog my personal excitement =O
I need to go run heroics and prepare to save up badges/emblems for twink Hunter stuff.
I will be prepared….
Oh before I forget, did anyone see those sketches they showed during the Cataclysm trailer? I could’ve sworn I spotted a chicken/raptor looking thing with a saddle=like device.
Worgen or goblin mount perhaps?
ignore that! I think they just showed the Worgen mount. It looked alot like a wolf-like mount, more like the coyote style wolf as opposed to the horde mount.
Rikaku: Yes, I saw that! No idea how to describe it, though. The preview panel also had a brief sketch of a worgen on a lizard-wolf, but it was just in the background and I have no idea what it was.
*faints from shock and happiness*
Mezza, the hyena, whimpers at her masters side, then promptly goes to town raiding through the unprotected bags for food.
Rikaku: I also just spotted a sketch of a riding Worgen in the Preview panel. Couldn’t figure out what the mount was, though.. Either its head is odd-shaped or it has a helmet?
i thought it was a warped boar wolf thingy…
It looked alot like a wolf to me (I’m watching in HQ). I think I got a screenshot of it though, so give me a bit and I’ll see just what the heck it is.
haha! goblin go kart!
Woo, a car mount for the Goblins. XD
Mania: I added the screenshots I took of the Worgen mount (sorry its so small!) on my blog since I didn’t want to make you have to queue through the comments again =) It looks like a wolf-boar-like creature (in my opinion) with a very strange tail O_o
guild talents for cheaper repairs or mass res sounds NICE.
Rikaku: Nice! I hope you don’t mind — I linked those from Warcraft Mounts.
interesting…i went on the MC Frontalot link, and even though i can’t understand a word that’s being said, i like it! ty for the link.
Heh, I’m up in the northeast, and I think we got those thunderstorms you were talking about not too soon after. Crazy ones for these parts, like midwest weather on a decent day…
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