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BlizzCon 2009: Opening Ceremony

It's only an hour away! Stay tuned to this space for all the details!

10:48: Heartbourne: The live stream was up for a few minutes talking about the Warcraft III coverage, then they cut to a "behind the scenes" something or another. That camera crashed, and they cut back to the WC3 people, who didn't know they were on and muttered something about "is this the reveal for the new game" before getting cut off. Hmm...

10:59: Heartbourne: Live stream is up! Stay tuned!

11:06: Heartbourne: About 25 minutes to the opening ceremonies. Lots of commentary on speculation and the recent WoW leaks.

11:10: Heartbourne: Lots of behind the scenes stuff. Awesome displays of some of their setups that monitor their servers. Hilarious story of the WoW launch and how a tornado hit one of their data centers and they went down there to dry them with hairdryers. One of the devs said he had to get back because he has a "Wrath of the Lich King expansion to ship", so either this is very old or there really is a new expansion.

11:13: Heartbourne: More commentary on the WoW 3v3 tournament. I'm calling SKgaming as the champions. I'm most excited about the WC3 tournament; lots of big names here. I'm cheering for Grubby. No Undead players in the WC3 tournament, only 1 human player. Lyn is the returning champion.

11:21: Heartbourne: Wow.com says that there are two WoW signs draped in a black cloth. Ceremony in about 15 minutes.

11:31: Amatera: Alright, I'm taking over for now. We're on the main stage, awaiting the ceremony to begin.

11:32: Amatera: Gary Platner is detailing the top Blizzcon pet peeves, including people wanting to fight you in real life for not being Horde.

11:34: Amatera: Platner's leaving. CEO Mike Morhaime is taking the stage, ready to wow us with some awesome!

11:35: Amatera: Morhaime: "Everyone's waiting for something 'cataclysmic' to happen!"

11:38: Amatera: On speed of BlizzCon ticket sales: "That's faster than a Ret Paladin can post on the forums after a nerf." Ouch!

11:40: Amatera: Morhaime muses about the launch of Wrath. Now we're being taken back to some of those moments last year, as well as some from the midnight launch of the expansion, itself.

11:44 : Amatera: A mention of phasing technology, equip manager, dual specs.... expansion announcement certainly incoming.

11:45: Amatera: "Looking forward..." "The first encounter with [Onyxia] was merely a setback." Next year, SC2 will ship with the new Battle.net interface. Details on that at the Battle.net panel.

11:46: Amatera: "Does the name Sam Raimi mean anything to you?" WoW Movie talk now. They met Raimi at last year's BlizzCon and learned of his love for the game. Bruce Campbell will not be playing Leeroy Jenkins (but according to Morhaime "it's not a bad idea").

11:48: Amatera: Even Warcraft 2 will be playable on the show floor! E-sports talk now. We'll likely get an expansion trailer at the end of the ceremony that will segue right into the Preview Panel.

11:50: Amatera: Noob figures in the goody bags are 100% exclusive, never to be reproduced. "Could be sold on eBay for the amount of a small car." Oh, Morhaime. You're a funny guy!

11:51: Amatera: Level 80 ETC will once again be playing the show. And, of course, they couldn't get away without a mention of Ozzy Osbourne.

11:52: Amatera: Showing some fan appreciation. "Give yourselves a /cheer, like you mean it!" Chris Metzen taking the stage. Announcement certainly incoming!

11:55: Amatera: "Where's the Alliance?" "Where's the Horde?" Horde totally got the bigger pop!

11:58: Amatera: Hold your horses! If you haven't heard it yet, the Monk is the new Diablo 3 class. Trailer for that playing now.

11:59: Amatera: The Monk looks like a sweet class. He fights with a staff. Looks to be modeled roughly on Shaolin monks.

12:01: Amatera: That was a cinematic. Now a gameplay trailer for the Monk. He has a reflective shield it looks like, and he can make enemies explode from the inside. Specifics coming later.

12:05: Amatera: Gameplay trailer for WoW coming up! "It's a doozy!" Preview Panel at 12:30, which Project Lore will be covering that, too.

12:05: Amatera: WoW: Cataclysm is official. Metzen's words claim all to be true.

12:07: Amatera: HUGE scars down multiple zones, filled with magma. Zone terrain upturned. Life returns to The Barrens. Ashenvale has had many of its resources taken. Goblins are shown, and they are indeed joining the Horde.

12:10: Amatera: Gilneas now. The Forsaken apparently are attacking Gilneas. The Night Elves bring them into the Alliance. New classes confirmed. Sketches of new monsters shown. Some dungeon/raid areas are shown, but they aren't named. 85 Level Cap. New Profession: Archaeology. New Heroic instances: Deadmines and SFK. Guild leveling and achievement system. Flying mounts in Azeroth. New character progression: Path of the Titans. Deathwing returns. Oddly enough... no mention of Azshara or flooding.

12:13: Looks like most of the leaked information is true, though a few things were curiously missing. The Maelstrom was touched on briefly, but magma, not water, seemed to be the focus of the trailer. And though Deathwing was mentioned, little was said of Azshara. Rest assured, the changes made to the existing zones look extensive. That's it for the Opening Ceremony, though. Check the Project Lore main page for WoW Preview Panel coverage. Thanks for tuning in!

Reader Comments (12)

damn : ( do i have to pay to watch it?

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterArmengar

Nice :X can't wait!

It will be great!

First >:P

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterUltimatealex

Got a good laugh from the first entry. Those poor guys... :lol:

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlayea

@Armengar

Yes. You would have to pay for the live stream. I know that's rough, but that's why we're here for you! We'll bring you as much info as we can glean from the stream ourselves, as well as additional content from our people on the show floor.

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAmatera

..thanks..last year i watched it with my friend without paying anything : / i think we used Octoshape Streaming or something

blizzard are so fuckin greedy!

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterArmengar

Im just refreshing this and another site every 1 minut

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMercedese

I'm doing the same as Mercedese, lol

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTrion

which site other site man?

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMercedese

omg theyre rolling the trailer it says on wow.com!

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMercedese

WoW Cataclysm is official woot

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMercedese

One thing, Archeology is a secondary skill, not a profession, so we'll be able to do anything: Cook, bandage ourselves, fish and dig for legendary artifacts that only a trained professional should touch with much care, and not a freaking strong warrior with plate in their hands.

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTrion

No mention of water? I'm yet to check other posts will probably mention something about it, but if not, will this expansion just build up for our journey in to depths next time around? Maybe asking for a new Azeroth and another new area was quite a lot to ask, but I guess we'll see, or more specifically I will in other posts =P

August 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterPhanttas

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