A Candid Look at WoW and Fan Events

Given the ravening popularity of World of Warcraft, it was a shock to many a system when Blizzard announced wouldn't host a BlizzCon 2006 this fall. Ethec examines Blizzard's possible motivations for not going annual with what could easily be the industry's largest fan festival and why he believes yearly fan festivals are important both for the developer and the playerbase.

"We can only speculate on why Blizz elected not to give fans a place to meet - forsooth, it's not for lack of subscription revenues. I quietly wonder if someone at Blizzard is concerned about pushing the hype too hard and careening over that precipitous cliff named "overplay" that's undone more than a few music artists: the Spice Girls, Celine Dion, et al. Fans can certainly poison themselves if they drink too often from their own excitement, and one thing Blizzard seems to do extraordinarily well is manage expectations. "

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