wow BlizzCon Is Set to Return in 2023

[Staff 1,488]

 

It seems Blizzard are planning on bringing back BlizzCon next year, after an almost 3 year absence, as Blizzard President Mike Ybarra mentioned while talking to the Los Angeles Times.

While talking broadly about the new culture at Blizzard, Ybarra talked about plans for a 2023 BlizzCon, saying that the company is commited to bringing it back:

We previously announced we’re taking a pause on BlizzCon while we reimagine it for the future but do want to return to a live event that enables us to celebrate the community. We recently hired a new leader of BlizzCon, April McKee, who is hard at work on that plan. ... We are committed to bringing back BlizzCon in 2023.

The interview goes in-depth on the topic of Blizzard culture, both new and old, as well as touches on Diablo Immortal's monetization, Jen O'Neal and more, so definitely give it a read. 

[Kaelos 74]

Amount of censorship it's going to have to look good after all this drama... No red shirt guys allowed.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Kaelos

[Teufel 331]

2 hours ago, Kaelos said:

Amount of censorship it's going to have to look good after all this drama... No red shirt guys allowed.

No guys allowed in general. Powerful whamen only.

[Arcling 898]

3 hours ago, Kaelos said:

Amount of censorship it's going to have to look good after all this drama... No red shirt guys allowed.

Afaik they did select questions back then, red shirt guy just asked different one than he was supposed to.

Now they could simply have selected questions read by some moderator/host.

[Andser 34]

5 hours ago, Arcling said:

Afaik they did select questions back then, red shirt guy just asked different one than he was supposed to.

Now they could simply have selected questions read by some moderator/host.

The safest process would be among the lines of "Here you have 50 questions to ask, vote for your favourite one and we will answer them".

The game is too big, too many interests to satisfy, too many niche groups, you can't satisfy everyone nowadays, the splits for vanilla players was nice but they should have followed through by having a stronger vision in retail instead of pandering to vocal minorities and dealing with guilt. A great example of how its done is Path of Exile where people regularly ask questions freely and Chris talks to community representatives, while holding onto the core idea of the game without allowing any pollution through bad actors, slander or cultural shifts

[darkgreenwax 412]

The aura of Blizzcon has been tainted for me; I'm not sure I will ever feel the magic as I once had in years prior. I don't know if it started with the Diablo Immortal blunder, it going cold during the pandemic, the behind-the-scenes scandals, the disappointing handling of Warcraft 3: Reforged, the letdowns of the previous two WoW expansions, or some combination of it all.

 

Probably some combination of it all.

 

I predict this next one to be a heavily controlled environment, I don't think they trust their fans to loyally eat everything they're spoon-fed anymore. Time will tell.

[Arcling 898]

1 hour ago, Andser said:

The safest process would be among the lines of "Here you have 50 questions to ask, vote for your favourite one and we will answer them".

The game is too big, too many interests to satisfy, too many niche groups, you can't satisfy everyone nowadays, the splits for vanilla players was nice but they should have followed through by having a stronger vision in retail instead of pandering to vocal minorities and dealing with guilt. A great example of how its done is Path of Exile where people regularly ask questions freely and Chris talks to community representatives, while holding onto the core idea of the game without allowing any pollution through bad actors, slander or cultural shifts

Yeah, there is potential downside to community representatives that they might only represent various niches. Change something like, let's say, reduce the speed of flying mounts and suddenly you have many upset people, even though some vocal minority would be happy for whatever reason. As for questions, I doubt they would prepare them themselves. They could just select them as usual, but (as mentioned) have the host read them, so no risk of some red shirts changing their accepted questions. Anyway, Q&A from them are rarely worth listening, they often give half-answers or say something that is going to be contradicted later on.

[Devylknyght 83]

Will Commie-fornia allow it? Wonder if they might go for Austin this time....