BlizzCon 2010

Honestly, it doesn’t get much better than this, at least in terms of videos that you’d have to be dead not to giggle hysterically over. The subject of this particular Nugget from the Net is an auto-tuned version of that devoted World of Warcraft fan, affectionately referred to as Red Shirt Guy, who stumped two WoW developers during BlizzCon 2010 a few weeks back with a question regarding the current status of one Falstad Wildhammer. The result is something truly special. It’s no Bed Intruder, but, to be fair, nothing is. Enjoy:

The infamous "Red Shirt Guy" from last weekend's Blizzcon has become a nerd celebrity. Blizzard not only added the missing council member, Falstad Wildhammer, to the game, but also gave Red Shirt Guy his very own NPC dubbed "Fact Checker"! These NPCs aren't currently in the live version of the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta, but Alex Afrasiabi, a.k.a. the moderator at the Lore panel, confirmed the NPCs are indeed real via the Cataclysm beta forums. Yay for Red Shirt Guy!

Every fall thousands of gamers descend upon the Anaheim Convention Center for Blizzcon, and this year The MMO Report went all out. Not only did we get Casey a new suit for the occaision, but we got some great new info about the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm. We had a great time, met tons of fans, and can't wait to go back next year. See you in Azeroth!

Don't forget to check out all our Blizzcon 2010 coverage and the cosplay photo galleries!

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Let's face it. Many of you only come here to find out about cosplay, and to see if we have any new galleries or videos up. Well, you're in luck. Why? Because BlizzCon just happened, and that never fails to provide us with a wealth of cosplay goodies. This year, we shot our own gallery along with a video highlighting some of the very lovely Women of Warcraft, and now you can feast your eyes on BlizzCon's actual costume contest.

BlizzCon really is a nerd's paradise. Besides just letting attendees play new build of their upcoming video games, they also enjoy spraying the crowd with a datastream of facts about these same upcoming titles. Case in point this year were the Diablo 3 Gameplay and Open Q&A panels that gave us a ton of new information about the game. Although knowing Blizzard, this could all change at a moments notice.

But, they'll always be kind enough to tell us later that "Oh, that thing we showed you last year? Yeah, we killed that." So currently, this is all of the new information you need to know about Diablo 3. We told you about the Demon Hunter, and now you can read up on the new Skill system, the revamped Runes, the entirely new Traits, and where you'll be sticking your Charms. Read on for all the Hellish details.

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The amount of controversy surrounding the 2010 World of Warcraft arena grand finals is insane. It's been three days since the event and WoW arena junkies are still trying to determine exactly what happened. They're still fighting with one another over who the "true" winner really is. While team aAa took the title over team CompLexity.Red, many hardcore arena fans are absolutely outraged by how the final match went down.

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Feedback goes on the road! We took the short trip down to Anaheim for BlizzCon 2010, and The MMO Report host Casey Schreiner joined our resident Warcraft expert Leah Jackson, previews editor Chris Monfette, and myself for some reflections on Cataclysm, Diablo 3, and StarCraft 2, and of course, BlizzCon itself. We'll still have a full episode of Feedback later this week as usual, but it was fun packing our lunches and heading off-campus for a change.

As you can see, Chris definitely doesn't give a #$@! about Blizzard. That's why we're putting in an expense request for a Clockwork Orange-style device that holds his eyes open and forces him to get some WarCraftiablo on. Check back on Wednesday for our regular-sized edition of Feedback, where we'll be talking in threes with Rock Band 3 and Fable 3 and more BlizzCon news. 

The AUDIO MP3 of this episode of FEEDBACK is available here: Right-click and Save.

The moment I found out I was going to BlizzCon 2010 was one of utter bliss. There is no denying how much love I have for Blizzard's products: I've spent countless hours in Hell fighting Baal in Diablo, tons of fun yet frustrating nights trying to become better at StarCraft 2, and as for that other game Blizzard makes? Yeah, let's just say I've paid my dues to that monster. With five level 80 characters, it's time to admit that I have a problem. To be able to go and spend an entire weekend with people that are just as rabidly passionate for these games as I am was something I will never, ever forget. 

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Did you love the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Deathwing cinematic that came out last week? Did you get goosebumps as you saw some of your favorite areas of Azeroth destroyed by a giant tidal wave or under a surging curtain of fire? At Blizzcon's Blizzard Cinematics: Cataclysm panel, the development team took us through the extensive process that went into creating and finalizing the intro to the next World of Warcraft expansion and revealed the world premiere of the Worgen cutscene that's been missing from the beta.

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The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta brought us the new Goblin and Worgen starting zones, but once you started your transformation into the furry beast a screen popped up assuring players that a cool cutscene would be inserted at some point. Well, that point is now. Revealed for the first time at the BlizzCon Cinematics panel, here is the Worgen cutscene that will be in the expansion that ships December 7.

The opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2010 was a virtual call-to-arms for geeks everywhere, united under a single battlecry shouted and re-shouted from the mainstage: "Geek is…" And after each excited repetition, an image would appear on the ever-present, looming screens. Some small bit of nerdy nostalgia reminding us all where we've been and why we're here now, gathered under one sprawling roof to celebrate some deeply held aspect of ourselves. I connected with almost all of those pictures -- Thundercats, Star Wars, action figures, toys -- but the small handful of images that failed to stir my spirits were the ones that seemed somehow most important to the crowd around me.

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While we didn't get a release date for Diablo 3 at BlizzCon, lead designer Jay Wilson did tell us that there will indeed be a beta for Diablo 3. At this point, it will be a closed beta, most likely for "Blizzard friends and family," but these betas frequently open up to the public at some point, so keep your fingers crossed. While a game going into beta is no big announcement in itself, we'd like to think that this is the first step on the road to a Diablo 3 beta that will find its way onto our hard drives.

He did also say that Diablo 3 will not support mods, so that ambitiously huge GUI user mod interface that you're thinking about building? It won't be officially supported. But hey, you're a hacker, right? Keep whacking away at it and be a rebel.

The masterminds behind the creation of the Diablo franchise gathered today at BlizzCon to discuss the in's and out's of realizing such a rich mythology in a fully-fleshed universe. From story, to world-creation, to the game's visuals and the small details that make the world believable, the panel revealed a lot about Blizzard's approach to visual storytelling in Diablo III. Most importantly, the company's motto is key to the end result:

Play, don't tell…

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StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm ain't coming for a while. Let it sink in but don't despair. As part of a late press conference during BlizzCon 2010, Battle.net project's director, Greg Canessa and StarCraft 2's lead producer, Chris Sigaty, wouldn't share a timeline or any expectation as to when we could see the SC2 expansion. Considering this is Diablo 3's third BlizzCon and we still don't have a release date, it's unlikely we'll be seeing Heart of the Swarm any earlier than the 2011 holidays, if even.

But again, it's not all doom and gloom!

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