Boomjack's BlizzCon Impressions

[Cody Bye]

Is there a price tag on fanaticism? What will a person spend to prove that they are a true fan? Without a doubt, that question can probably be answered by one of the 15,000 individuals that crowded into the Anaheim Convention Center this last weekend for BlizzCon 2008. Ten Ton Hammer's very own John "Boomjack" Hoskin was in the middle of that seething crowd, and he makes his own judgment on the entire event, which includes a dog-humping analogy. Intrigued? Read on!

BlizzCon stretches the full height, width and depth of the game fanaticism spectrum. 15,000 tickets at $100 each is 1.5 million dollars. The convention center, the setup staff, the equipment all the staff hours spent planning surely don't equate to that much, or do they? Perhaps they do, but even so, one astute fan who stood in line at the store for over two and a half hours deduced that if each person rolling through the store spent $100 that Blizz was receiving approximately $30,000 an hour from souvenir sales.

To read the rest of Boomjack's BlizzCon impressions, click here!

[Deg]

When Valve received criticism for not meeting the episodic expectations of Half-Life 2, they responded by releasing the most game-for-your-buck box in existance by packaging EP2, TF2, and Portal into one box and less-than-current-generation price. Although I'm saddened that the (unreasonable) expectation of one Half-Life episode per year was not met, I was overjoyed with how much fun I've had with the Orange Box.

Why are people complaining that they're getting three great Starcraft games instead of never getting a game because it's been indefinitely suspended?

Sure, the Industry needs to be more responsible about managing expectations. But who can control the drool of fanboys? And EA's strategy of expansion packs seems reasonable to me. It's just turning into an industry-strategy instead of just the Sims method.

Cheers,
- Deg -

[Boomjack]

Originally Posted by Deg

When Valve received criticism for not meeting the episodic expectations of Half-Life 2, they responded by releasing the most game-for-your-buck box in existance by packaging EP2, TF2, and Portal into one box and less-than-current-generation price. Although I'm saddened that the (unreasonable) expectation of one Half-Life episode per year was not met, I was overjoyed with how much fun I've had with the Orange Box.

Why are people complaining that they're getting three great Starcraft games instead of never getting a game because it's been indefinitely suspended?

Sure, the Industry needs to be more responsible about managing expectations. But who can control the drool of fanboys? And EA's strategy of expansion packs seems reasonable to me. It's just turning into an industry-strategy instead of just the Sims method.

Cheers,
- Deg -

They are upset, because in the past, they would get a new game (multiplayer and all) every couple of years. Essentially, SC2 appears to be giving them MP in the first installment and single player campaigns for the rest of the journey.

They were also upset because none of them had issue with a 30 mission (10 per faction) campaign in the original. Blizzard made the choice to provide 30 Terran missions, alienating the Protoss and Zerg players. Blizzard admitted to biting off more than they could chew and in the end it bit the players.