World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced at Blizzcon 2011

The rumors have proven true! Today at Blizzcon, Chris Metzen announced the upcomming expansion World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. And of course with this expansion we will be given the new race to play: Pandaren. Plus we will also be getting a new class: the Monk. Alliance warships prowl the seas. Horde armies thunder across Kalimdor. Tensions between these factions edge closer to erupting in a savage war that threatens to consume all of Azeroth. Against this backdrop of impending conflict, an uncharted island mysteriously appears… Shrouded in fog since the world was sundered more than ten thousand years ago, the ancient realm of Pandaria has remained unspoiled by war. Its lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains are home to a complex ecosystem of indigenous races and exotic creatures. Will the mists of Pandaria part to reveal the world’s salvation… or will the battle to control this breathtaking new land

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Convention Beat: October 2011

There is a lot going on in October! So much so that even though I started looking ahead early, I am still late this month. Also, it almost makes me glad I don’t have the budget for these conventions–how would I choose? Being broke saves me from these difficult choices, .Note: I have tried to include information on a wide variety of science fiction/fantasy, gaming and generally geeky conventions, but I am not guaranteeing this covers everything. Please feel free to suggest other conventions, for this month or future months in the comments! Archon September 30 – October 2 St. Louis, MO This past weekend, there was actually a convention close to my own home, but I still couldn’t go, what with 4th grade soccer, groceries and a sore knee. I am going to try for next year, though. This group put on the WorldCon in 2007, so they have

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Blizzcon 2011 schedule

For lucky Android and iPhone owners, you can now download an official Blizzcon 2011 app that has the map of the convention as well as the schedule for both days. The app itself is actually designed quite nicely and you can sort the schedule based on game, stage and day to find exactly what you’re looking for. Also like other convention apps, there is a map of the floor which you can zoom in and out of, plus the ability to make your own schedule. As someone who first got into convention apps with PAX and PAX-East, I’m glad Blizzard has made an app. But you all are more interested in the schedule, so check out both days below! Do keep in mind that this is subject to change (especially since there hasn’t been an official press release yet). Friday, Oct. 21 Opening Ceremony 11am -12pm, Main Stage Artists Stage

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Foo Fighters closing out this year’s BlizzCon

Blizzard announced today that the Foo Fighters are headlining BlizzCon’s closing concert on October 22. (The convention itself is October 21-22.) This will be Dave Grohl’s second BlizzCon appearance in two years — last year, he served as drummer to Tenacious D. “We’re pretty sure that in the future, music historians will look back at BlizzCon 2011 as the unquestionable pinnacle of Foo Fighters’ long and illustrious career,” said Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters founder and frontman. “We look forward to living up to that prediction by bringing the Horde and Alliance together to rock the hell out of Anaheim next month.” Grohl & Co. aren’t the only performers at the event — The concert will open with a performance from The Artist Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, followed by Blizzard’s own in-house metal band. (Wait, Blizzard has an in-house band? Why is that ridiculous, awesome and not

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Rumorville: Will we actually see Pandaren in the next WoW expansion?

As many of you know by now, Blizzard recently filed a trademark for the term “Mists of Pandaria” and since then the internet has been a rumormill rumor mill asking “What does this mean?” for World of Warcraft. For those who may not know, Pandaren were introduced as an April Fools joke on April 1, 2005 with Pandaren Xpress to make fun of the business deal between Everquest II and Pizza Hut. What started out initially as a joke turned out to become a huge fan favorite, spawning some small in-game references and a non-combat pet. But does this trademark really mean we may actually see Pandaren in WoW? The trademark seems legit. It also follows a lot of the same patterns with online trademarks and international codes that the Cataclysm brand did. Not surprisingly Blizzard themselves have not commented on the situation. Based on some comments from Metzen at

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Have you had your WOW today?

World of warcraft that is! Well, anything Blizzard really. The first batch of tickets have come and gone and now the second batch will be released tonight…as in Wednesday, May 25, at 7 p.m. Pacific Time through the online Blizzard Store for $175 USD each. “Gamers interested in attending should keep an eye on the BlizzCon ticket sales page (http://us.blizzard.com/store/blizzcon-tickets.xml) at that time for a chance to get theirs.” If you don’t get tickets, or you can’t get enough from Blizzard, they are also releasing approximately 200 tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit Children’s Hospital of Orange County. This will take place on Saturday, May 28, at 10 a.m. PT for $500 USD each (BlizzCon admission included). “In-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available through the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which is offered as a multichannel Internet stream and also via DIRECTV in the United States. BlizzCon 2011

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Blizzcon 2011 Announced

Today Blizzard announced the dates for Blizzcon 2011. It will be taking place again in October on the 21-22 at the Anaheim convention center. “We look forward to holding another exciting BlizzCon this year, filled with some great entertainment and competition, as well as the latest news about Blizzard games,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “BlizzCon is built from the ground up with our community in mind — we’re pleased to be able to host an event where players can come together to have fun and celebrate their passion for gaming.” I’m actually surprised they’ve announced it so early as I was expecting the announcement closer to late spring/summer. There’s no other details yet, but they said that new information will be announced on Blizzcon.com. Here’s hoping they have some good announcements for us this year!

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Final Thoughts on Blizzcon 2010

Well Blizzcon came and went and even though there were some good moments, there were also some underwhelming moments. The keynote could have been a bit more exciting, and I know that I would have loved to have heard even a tiny bit about the new MMO they’re working on, but all we got was World of Jersey Shorecraft. But there were some interesting tidbits that came out of some of the World of Warcraft Q&A panels, and as always the live raid was fun. Sadly not much news for Starcraft II fans, and Diablo III fans only got a new class to play. I know as a SC2 fan I’m anxiously awaiting news on when the next part, Heart of the Swarm, will be released. I do feel for Diablo fans as not hearing anything more besides the new class and the PvP. Hopefully we’ll hear of a release

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Blizzcon Dungeons and Raids Panel

With all of the upcoming changes in Cataclysm, I was interested to see if we’d hear of any new changes or improvements to the system and I’m glad to say that there were some new things announced that I’m pretty excited for. Blizzard’s goal is to make dungeons in Cataclysm more integral to the storyline of the game. With this they’ve also realized that some of the original dungeons of Azeroth were pretty complicated or just confusing (looking at you Maraudon…) and they want to change that and just make them more fun. With this are coming some changes: Methods for fun: - Create wings in the dungeons (a la Utgarde Keep and Utgarde Pinnacle) - Uldaman will now be in two different chunks - Maraudon will be broken into two chunks - Trimming some dungeons - Sunken Temple will be trimmed down -Wailing Caverns: about half being taken out

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Prepping for Blizzcon 2010

With Blizzcon in a matter of days and people beginning to leave for Anaheim, there’s definitely prep-work afoot. Last year I feel there was more excitement beforehand with the buzz about Blizzard announcing the next WoW expansion (which they did), but this year not so much. Fans are excited about the show, don’t get me wrong, but without any big new WoW news and the first part of StarCraft II out it’s seems a bit dulled from last year. Now for all we know Blizzard could come from left field and announce that new secret MMO that they’ve been working on, or a release date for Diablo III (anything besides “soon”) and that will be some great news, but who knows. Things have been kept under tighter secrecy, so there’s no real murmurs (that I’ve heard) about what big announcement Blizzard will have this year. The schedule of events was

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