Conventional Wisdom Pt1

    Well I finally got to my first Blizzcon. After playing and loving Blizzard games for around 10 years, and trying desperately every year to get tickets, I finally procured one through a friend and got to experience it first hand.  I will admit that, this event would have had a lot bigger impact on me several years ago when I was deep down in the rabbit hole of World of Warcraft, but even now, as an ex player that loves and enjoys Blizzard games like Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Diablo3, I found it to be very enjoyable and is an experience that needs to be had by all, gamers and the general public alike.
 

     There's something about visiting a convention that reinvigorates everyone in our wonderful hobby.  The developers, the attendees, everyone feels like theve just plugged in their souls to a wall charger and powered up to 100%. In gaming, the fact that we feel so out of place from normal mainstream society, we can experience and meet like minded people and feel "normal" is so crucial.  I've seen comments on social media from convention goers saying things like "I never want to leave Blizzcon" or "I finally feel like I belong somewhere".--- It's truly a satisfying experience.

Another thing I noticed is how mature and caring the Blizzard developers are.  Every single panel I went to, they had large amounts of things to say about their game.  Statistics on who and how players play their game.  They talked about what was coming next.  They would play to the crowd by asking questions that would lead to cheers like Who here plays the Horde? What about the Alliance? Their passion was on display and it was obvious it was for the love of their craft.

These folks are passionate about what they do, and I think it shows in their work.  Blizzard games have the most interesting characters, the most finely tuned systems, the most interesting stories. They have a laser focus on what makes a game fun but also what needs to be removed from a game. The art design and detail are both gorgeous and sublime, and probably the greatest compliment I can give their games are---They are full of life.

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above pictured: Hearthstone Dev team after the finals
next time: the eSports phenomenom, Overwatch, and the Warcraft movie.