Over the years, I have been to many different conventions, and BlizzCon is the one I am always the most excited about. Sure, other conventions have a much broader offering of games than BlizzCon does, but BlizzCon is also where my guildmates and I will meet up and get to spend time together outside of our computers. It’s also generally a fun and exciting time in the community, which feels far more cohesive than other video game conventions. However, I am starting to question if we’ll get another BlizzCon this year.
BlizzCon 2023
Last year’s BlizzCon was the first since 2019, and those years without BlizzCon felt quite long indeed. We did have some virtual events, which filled the need for big news releases, but they did not provide the sense of community that the real in-person BlizzCon does. I honestly don’t really consider the BlizzConline event in 2021 to be a real one at all. It just felt too far removed from the experience of being there.
Although we had confirmation from Blizzard very early that BlizzCon would return in 2023, we didn’t get the announcement of the dates until the middle of May. Generally, BlizzCon dates have always been announced in March/April, and the lateness of the announcement for 2023 meant that some of the best community-hosted events were unable to swing the logistics for a much shorter planning cycle. It also pushed ticket sales to much later in the year, which put a crunch on everyone who wanted to attend.
One of the goals for BlizzCon 2023 was to make the event more immersive than ever before. This manifested in more of the floor space devoted to statues and community areas. There was space for things like the Hell’s Ink Tattoo event, Tarot Readings, and Artists Nooks. Another huge change was there was only one stage for all panels, which meant there was only one panel going on at a time. This did solve the problem I often ran into of multiple panels at the same time. However, that wasn’t normally a huge deal because I could always go back and watch the video from the panels I missed.
There was also a big logistical downside from only having the stage in the arena have panels; fewer people were sitting and watching panels at any given time. One of the ways this manifested as an issue was the incredibly long lines at the Darkmoon Faire. To be fair, the lines for the Darkmoon Faire have always been long, but an eight-hour-long line is far too long. There was also a ton of confusion, with many Portal Pass holders not knowing how to access their perks until far too late in the event.
I can’t help but wonder if Blizard lost many of the key people who planned past BlizzCons over the years without an in-person BlizzCon. Many of the issues that have been brought up come down to poor preparation and planning. There’s a reason planning and coordinating events like this is an actual profession and takes specific knowledge to do well. Of course, BlizzCon wasn’t the only convention that had these types of issues last year; Final Fantasy XIV Fest Las Vegas is a big one that comes to mind. So there is an argument to be made that last year was a “shake the dust off from things” year.
Now Microsoft is in Control
I can’t help but wonder how Microsoft feels coming into all of this. On top of last year’s BlizzCon not being a great experience, from what I’ve heard, Blizzard has always lost money on BlizzCon. Of course, it’s a community event, so doing it with the intention of making money would have an extremely negative effect on the event overall. If there were to be a BlizzCon this year, there certainly would be a lot of pressure to make up for the missteps in 2023, and that could definitely be a damper on Microsoft’s interest as well.
Additionally, I could understand why Microsoft might feel that having a convention for just one dev’s group of games is pointless. Why go through all of the expense and risk of fully putting on a convention when you could just send devs to the larger gaming conventions and have a few booths? It’s certainly safer on the money side of things. However, scrapping BlizzCon would be a huge mistake.
One of the big issues with BlizzCon 2023 was the lack of panel variety. It’s easy for everyone to just focus on the big announcements at conventions, but some of the best moments in BlizzCon have nothing to do with the big announcements. For example, one of the most popular panels has always been the one with various voice actors. Aside from stunning surprise performances, it is always a treat the hear from the people behind some of the most iconic characters in Blizzard’s games. The strike that was going on last year certainly was a big reason why this was missing, but being able to bring that and other fun and interesting panels back would be a huge boon for BlizzCon this year.
However, the biggest reason for having a BlizzCon this year is to celebrate the community as a whole. As I previously mentioned, my best memories of BlizzCon have all been with the friends I’ve met up with, as well as the new friends I made while at BlizzCon. There are only a handful of conventions where the focus is on such a small group of games. There really is a sense of being one big community, which I just don’t feel at other conventions. It’s also good for the dev team as well. As much as the community loves coming together for this, the devs always talk about how invigorating BlizzCon can be for them as well.
Part of what made the issues in last year’s BlizzCon so frustrating is most of them could have been prevented. However, a lot of that prevention requires preplanning by people who know what they are doing with this kind of event. I hope behind-the-scenes plans are well underway, and we will be getting a BlizzCon that’ll be remembered, not necessarily for all the amazing announcements but rather as a fun experience that made the community feel recognized and appreciated. The longer we go with no news, the more concern builds that not only will there not be a BlizzCon this year, but there may never be one again.
