The gaming show season truly kicks off this week with PAX East in Boston, and as always we’ll be covering all the stuff you care about at the show. With PAX just days away, I wanted to take some this week to highlight some of the things I’m looking forward to most at the show.
Hearthstone
As it would turn out, Blizzard is actually showing up in force to PAX East, which is great, because I’m oddly excited for a number of different Blizzard properties these days. Long story short, I’ve got a bit of a Hearthstone addiction problem, and I’m excited to find out what Blizzard’s plans are for the rapidly growing card game.
More specifically, I want to find out what plans, if any the team has for Rogues. Yeah, I know, Miracle Rogue sort of works, but Rogue just isn’t able to deal with most of the stuff at the very top of the ladder. With Blizzard deciding to take a bit of a hands-off approach to balance, I’m wondering if it has any plans for new cards that may shake things up here.
Heroes of the Storm
I’ve been fiending for more time with this game ever since I had a chance to play it at last year’s BlizzCon. I don’t think Heroes is going to destroy League or DOTA, but like Hearthstone, I feel the game will deftly straddle a line between being great for competitive play incredibly accessible. League did a great job of opening up the world of MOBAs, but it’s still fairly intimidating for many people. I feel Heroes will go the rest of the way and get any remaining MOBA fence sitters off the fence and into the game.
Star Citizen
Truth be told, I’m not as awesome of a pilot as I used to be back in the days of Wing Commander and playing games like X-Wing Alliance multiplayer on GameSpy. Still, the nostalgia effect and Chris Roberts’ impressive efforts so far with Star Citizen have really won me over and got me excited for the project. Probably a little bit too excited, given what’s sitting in my hangar at this point. With the game’s dogfighting module set to release shortly after PAX East, I’m hopeful we’ll get to see it at the show and really get a feel for how the game is coming along.
Our Panel
We hold our ‘Future of Online Games’ panel every year and each year it’s an illuminating event for any fan of the genre. If you’re making it out to PAX East this year and you love MMOs, you’ll definitely want to stop by and check this one out. The genre has been undergoing some fairly rapid changes over the last few years and I feel this year’s panel will be truly exciting as a result. Heck, some things we thought were old hat, such as sandbox games and, apparently, even subscription models, have been making a resurgence as of late. I’m eager to find out what our awesome panelists have to say on these subjects.
Of course, if you’ve got your own questions, we’ll also have time for Q&A.
Are you coming to PAX East? What are you most excited to see or learn about at the show?
Michael Bitton / Michael began his career at the WarCry Network in 2005 as the site manager for several different WarCry fansite portals. In 2008, Michael worked for the startup magazine Massive Gamer as a columnist and online news editor. In June of 2009, Michael joined MMORPG.com as the site's Community Manager. Follow him on Twitter @eMikeB
