While Blizzard always cultivated a reputation for excellence, that excellence was also tied to a degree of conservatism.
That's a pretty massive shift for Blizzard, which has spent the last two decades being the " Warcraft, StarCraft, and sometimes Diablo" company. But the old gang is like Mickey and Goofy at Disneyland: everyone loves them, and everyone recognises them, but just as Disney's younger fans are there because of Pixar, Blizzard’s are there because of Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.
You still see all the same old characters: a haughty Illidan cosplayer strutting around the convention hall lobby, a Jaina Proudmoore in line at concessions. That was always the joy of Blizzcon: it was a magical place where 1990s PC gaming never ended.īlizzcon 2015, on the other hand, was about a Blizzard that's reaching new audiences in new genres without compromising its identity. Two years ago, Blizzcon was about flattering people like me, a fan with rosy memories of Warcraft RTS battles and early World of Warcraft quests that was still hung-up on whether Kerrigan could be redeemed in StarCraft, or whether or not demon-slaying could be made even more efficient in Diablo. Not because enthusiasm at the two-day event has dropped, but because Blizzard and its audience have changed so much. That didn't happen at this year's Blizzcon. I'd been to fan conventions before, but Blizzcon was something else it felt like a celebration and renewal of an old faith.Įnlarge / Despite Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm stealing the show, fans still payed homage to Blizzard classics like Starcraft with impressive cosplay. So frenzied was the crowd that he could have led the combined forces of the Horde and the Alliance on a crusade to storm the gates of hell-or at least the Disneyland just down the road. Looking like a comfortably retired rock star, Metzen went into a long speech that involved excursions into the now-ancient history of Azeroth, and trips down memory lane to long-ago dungeons and battlefields that made the room ring out with cries of "For the Horde!" Such a thing wouldn't have been out of place at a professional wrestling event, the crowd somehow whipped into a frenzy for a decade-old game with slowly eroding subscription numbers by Metzen’s nostalgia-infused rhetoric.īy the end of Metzen’s speech, I was ready to fight Blizzard customer services to reopen the Warcraft account I had lost eight years ago. There, Chris Metzen-the man with the unenviable task of being in charge of Blizzard lore-took the stage to talk about the new World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor. The closest I have ever come to attending a big-tent church revival was at Blizzcon two years ago in sunny Anaheim, California.
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