BlizzCon 2018: A Con that I Shall Forget

It's rare that I'll have a bad convention experience. It's happened once, where I literally had my car towed when I -unknowingly- parked in a private residential parking garage that I thought was for the convention. The gate was open and I was unaware it was a private garage. Plus, I can recall a sign pointing towards the garage and wasn't aware that I was parked illegally. I had to Uber to the tow station and drop 300 dollars just to get my car back. On top of that, I lost a 60-dollar Mophie battery block that was brand-new. Cons are not forgiving.

This year's BlizzCon was difficult for me in numerous ways. First, I wasn't able to go the first day because my day job "needed" me there, even though I don't do much for that company. Secondly, I had very little time to prepare. Friday night I wanted to prepare for the con, but I didn't stretch and I fell asleep around 1 AM, a little bit worried that I wasn't prepped for it. 

Let me be clear, though. The con itself wasn't bad. It was just one of the worst for me personally since I wasn't heavily into a lot of the content they released. 

I was right about not being prepped for the con since the entire time I was exhausted as all hell. After a few hours of seeing some panels and doing contests, my energy plummeted quickly and I could barely walk. Most of my time was spent charging my phone and falling asleep while doing so. 

There were some livestreams for everything around the con, so it's not like you could really miss anything—especially if you had the virtual ticket, which is a wonderful option for those who can't really attend to an event like this. I heard of the backlash of the Diablo announcement, but I am not a Diablo fan and so wasn't really disappointed in Diablo: Immortal. Plus, I think it's downright insulting to ask the Diablo devs, who work very hard at their jobs, if such a release is a "late April Fool's joke." Until you see what goes into a game, you will never fully appreciate how difficult game development truly is.

Most of my time was actually spent charging my phone. I checked out some booths, entered some contests (always do those, trust me), and met up with some fellow BlizzNerds at our party (which was very good). There just didn't seem like there were many things to do. That was the biggest disappointment. I didn't bother waiting in line to try Ashe, either. Plus, being so tired I didn't even stay for the musical artists. This year they had Train, Lindsey Stirling, and the DJ who played Hodor on Game of Thrones.

Not to mention this year's goodie bag was a goodie box. It's a bunch of trinkets that will end up gathering dust on my shelf. Some coins, a Diablo figure, and a commemorative art book which will likely never get looked at. I'm tired of getting shelf trophies. Call me cynical, but I'd rather spend my money focusing on good experiences rather than items that won't do me any good.

Altogether, it just wasn't a good convention for me. I don't have a lot of interest in WoW, StarCraft II is an aging game, Diablo isn't my thing, and Overwatch had the typical fare of a new hero. Not worth spending 200 dollars for a ticket, and most certainly not worth traveling thousands of miles for.

BlizzCon, we've had great times in the past, but I may hang that hat on the shelf soon. I know my bad experience was mostly because of how unprepared and exhausted I was, but hopefully, next con won't be as draining and uninteresting for me. If I decide to go, that is. For now, I'll stick to streaming video games on Twitch, Mixer, and maybe even Facebook Live.

See you online soon.