I know it’s been over a week since the event but I am just now getting all my pictures off the camera and have the opportunity to sit down and tell you more about this awesome Blizzard event!

The day started with me leaving the hotel and walking down to the event. As I turned the corner I saw a line about two blocks long. This must be the place! I walked past the line - all donned in their Jinx.com attire - and noticed that the demeanor was not what I had expected. During the Blizzcon event in Anaheim I witnessed an excitement I had never seen before. While I know it was nothing compared to the WWI in Korea last year (from what I hear from those who attended) I was really hoping to see Europe a twitter of excitement for the new announcements.

I got to the venue and the security would not let me in. I had to fight my way through the door to get to the press registration. Why they would put press registration on the OTHER side of security (before getting our badges) is beyond me. I picked up my bag and headed into the venue.

The convention hall was laid out on two floors. The entrance floor housed the costume contest sign up area, Starcraft II playable systems, A stage where future Starcraft/Warcraft and WoW Arena games were to be held and the ever so popular Blizzard Store.

This area was also home to the sponsor booths. In attendance was ATI (with PMS Clan leaders Athena and Athena Twin bellowing out Simon Says commands from the booth), Intel and more. There really wasn’t much of interest in this area aside from more computers set up playing games. I’m not sure that any of the attendees really walked away thinking “Wow… I’m going to go out and by that new graphics card as SOON as I leave today!” That being said, it’s always nice for a company to allow their sponsors an area to set up.

After gazing over at the 90+ line (they really should have had a wait time sign like at Disney) for Starcraft II I decided to head upstairs where the magic, and my true interest lay.

The very first thing I saw upon entering was an enormous pillar of ice. Ahh… the throne of the Lich King himself. Guests were invited to step up to the throne and fondle the Lich King’s well known helmet. When I got my opportunity to step up (hours after the raging crowds had died down) there were two young ladies accompanying me. I THINK they were suppose to be elves (based on the little ears) but I wasn’t sure as they weren’t wearing the typical Blood or Night elf length style. Never-the-less, they did their job and kept a close eye on me as I sat on the masters thrown with his precious headgear.

After narrowly escaping with my neck in tact, I perused the merchandise for sale at the upstairs version of the Blizzard shop. There they offered board games, action figures, mousepads, keychains and t-shirts to go home with. I REALLY wanted to lay my hands on the Diablo III t-shirt they had available however, I wasn’t willing to shell out 20 euro for it. I figure I’ll get the “American” version at Blizzcon this summer.

Directly across from the Blizzard store was an area where WWI attendees could don armor, get all painted up and have a photo taken on a green screen backdrop. The resulting image looked as though the individual was actually in the game. I loved the idea of this area, however, was a tad dissapointed with the quality of the images. I felt that Orionsaint or myself could have done a better Photoshop job! That being said, the face painting and armor looked pretty damn snazzy and if the line hadn’t gone on for miles I may have jumped into the fray and done my own little photo shoot.

Our friend - Jessica Chobot - from IGN DID try on one of the outfits so I’ll swipe a few pictures from her blog to show you what some of the armor looked like. (Click to enlarge)

After moping that I couldn’t try on cool armor (yea…. I moped) I spotted an area to the back of the hall where there was a lot of color. It seemed as if they had set up an entire Ogre village (Oooooh… a little Ogrimmar!) where they were playing the WoW card games and board games. Here are a few photos from the Ogre village with your lovely models Tommy Tallarico, Martin Leung and Myself.

I decided to go out and grab a bit of air while I waited for the opening ceremonies to happen. Mistake. I forgot that I was in Europe where air is not as valued as smoking area. As Heather would call it, “The Save Point” was completely packed to the hilt with Europeans getting their cancer puffs in for the hour. It had begun to rain so I decided to forgo my precious oxygen and go back up to the mainstage.

Yes … this is the smoking section!!!

Now, prior to going to the event, I checked the website to see if laptops were allowed. The website stated that we should leave them at home as they didn’t want people just plopping down and playing WoW anywhere on the show floor. I took that to mean press as well and did not bring mine with me from the hotel. I was wrong. Everyone was sitting around me with their laptops blaring and their free wi-fi cards in hand. I kicked myself that I was not going to be able to blog the event live as I had hoped. Future lessons for this novice journalist!

I was early for the event so I began making friends with other press members around me. There was a group of British writers who were actually very funny sitting right infront of me. Is it wrong to think of Harry Potter every time someone with a british accent speaks? I REALLY wanted to ask him if he had the Mauraders Map on him!

As the event drew closer seating became scarce. I decided that I wanted to have someone I knew sitting next to me so that we could talk about the event and about, what I was sure was going to be, a HUGE announcement. Jessica came by to say hi and I quickly invited her to sit with me. Phew … I didn’t have to worry about any stinky Mc’Stinkersons - there were already enough of them walking around.

President and co-founder - Mike Morhaime took the stage after a PAINFUL first few minutes with our WWI hosts. I’m not sure WHERE they got these two from but I can’t remember the last time I was that uncomfortable watching two people on stage. He held nothing back and went into a brief overview of all the new games and expansions coming out for Blizzard.

Watch the opening ceremonies here:

Finally, the lights dimmed and a lone guitarist took the stage. A red light shone down upon him and a familiar chord was hit.

The Official D3 Trailer

More videos from the event can be found by clicking here.

I was like a kid in a candy store! ZOMG! ha ha. I was such a HUGE fan of the original Diablo … I was practically Squeeing the entire time. I pittied everyone around me who had to put up with my excitement!

After the event, I went back to the hotel and caught up on some much needed sleep before the costume/dance contest that night. Since there were just SOOOO many entrants, Here is a thumbnail gallery from the event to peruse:

All in all the event was a fun one. I will be doing a seperate blog for Video Games Live which performed on Saturday night. I will leave you with IGN’s quick coverage of the show floor so that you can get a visual on everything I mentioned here!

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