Costumes and Wares

Fans looking to purchase Blizzard wares were not disappointed either as the Blizzard store was open for business as well as an area where other companies could sell books, hardware, and games. Conventions are always an excellent opportunity to test the costuming skills and BlizzCon was no different. Many of the costumes were extremely elaborate and cumbersome, and Blizzard held a costume contest at night where the winners walked away with new Alienware computers. In addition to the costume contest, there was a sound-alike contest where contestants would attempt to mimic characters and monsters from Blizzard games. There was also a World of Warcraft movie contest made up of short films that employed the game engine for their storytelling.

(Photo by Humphrey Cheung)

All in all the first BlizzCon was very successful. There was a high fan turnout and Blizzard had the support of a lot of companies to offer attendees a large variety of things to see. There were some organizational stumbles and long lines, but that kind of thing is to be expected. I would suggest that if there are items that everyone is going to get (badges, goodie bags, etc) it might be better to have all of them in the same line instead of separate lines. It will be interesting to see how the Con evolves and how they focus on whatever the next release is. This year was very much the Warcraft Con, but if Diablo III is ever announced, I would expect a whole slew of new costumes and banners and trinkets to be made available.