So World of Warcraft fans, Blizzard has announced this year’s BlizzCon. My first response, the one that comes out of my gut: “I want to go!”

Suddenly, I’m checking flights and figuring out the finances. I had this urge, before I joined Team Ten Ton Hammer, and now it’s back, bigger and more engrossing than ever. It’s also not as simple as just getting on a plane (I’m disabled and not a fan of flying and, even though I love travelling, it freaks me out on several levels), especially as I live in the UK and can’t just hop over a couple of states on a whim. Added to that, there are the negatives: the people, the queues, the possibility of catching con flu, finding a nice-ish hotel as close as possible to the Convention Centre and the stress of securing a ticket/press pass. Do I want to put myself through all that? Well, yeah, kinda.

The thing is, I’ve been trying to quantify why I want to go. For starters, I’ve never been and I don’t think watching the feed two years in a row has the same effect. I’ve been to a Blizzard event before, the Worldwide Invitation in Paris back in 2008. There was something about being there as Diablo III was announced, something magical. Of course, this year holds so many promises and possibilities: the next WoW expansion perhaps, the first news on Project Titan and maybe even a release date for Diablo III. Right now, who knows, but the air is thick with possibility and I want to be a part of it, to say I was there.

BlizzCon

Is the atmosphere worth the price of admission?

On the flip side though, there’s a part of me that is trying to quantify the point of going. Take last year, for example, I purchased souvenirs like my awesome hoodie, from the Blizzard Store, I watched all the panels from the comfort of my living room, able to go to bed and watch what I missed the following morning while the US slumbered. Anything I couldn’t get from the store was picked up by friends who went to the event, such as the program. Heck, I even got the mascot in the official Christmas card mailed out to the media. Okay I didn’t get to play Cataclysm but I watched the feeds and the videos which showed the demos and, of course, I got press access to the beta which more than made up for everything.

In these times of economic crisis, when money is tight and justification an iron rod, I find myself thinking more deeply about attending events and yet the pull of BlizzCon remains. I confess, even with the knowledge that this will be a great year for the event, I’m still a tad ambivalent. I want to go, I want to see LA properly and be a part of what should be a much more memorable event than last year (sorry, Blizzard, but it really was a letdown). The annoying part is that desire to go, well it won’t go away any time soon. That said does it make me any less of a Blizzard fangirl just because I’m being rational about the whole situation?

What about the rest of you? Anyone else out there trying to weigh up the pros and cons of attending?


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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