Today, all fansites that Blizzard paid for to come to BlizzCon were invited to a tour of their head offices in Anaheim, not far from the convention center that will host the big event.
We were taken to Blizzard’s offices, and given a brief welcome in their movie theater. Hopes of seeing an exclusive cinematic or new trailer were dashed as we were told we would be given a short tour of the Blizzard campus, before a lunch with the developers. We got to see where the Community Managers work as they moderate the official forums, the cafeteria and gym, then, in the scorching California sun, we were shown around the various buildings. We stopped at one large building, and were told that inside was were they were developing Starcraft II, Diablo III, and other unannounced projects. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go inside.
Before long, it was time for lunch where we could sit and chat to developers. Tom Chilton and Jeff Caplan were there for WoW, and there were also guys for Starcraft and Diablo. The WoW table was pretty packed, so you were lucky if you got a glimpse of those guys. Don’t worry, we’re saving our questions for one of the many Q & A sessions and interview opportunities during BlizzCon 
We then came back to the convention center, were hundreds of fans were waiting for the doors to open so they could pick up their passes for tomorrow. When the doors opened, a huge cheer went up, and the crowd surged forward. The end of the queue disappeared around a distant corner, but we were able to go straight in with our Blizzard escorts, and up the stairs to one of the conference rooms, looking down on the milling multitudes below, waiting for their turn at the ticket booths.
Once in the room, being worked on by sound engineers in preparation for following day, we discussed the fan site program, and how Blizzard could improve things for us, and vice versa. After around 2 hours, we all made our way back downstairs and got our Press Passes and goody bags. Once everyone had collected their gear, we headed to a restaurant for dinner. At the end of the meal, most of the people drifted off to go back to the hotel and get some rest before the big day tomorrow, but not us, we had our Incgamers meet at the Rainforest Cafe in downtown Disney. We had a good turnout, and thank you all for attending!
So it’s been a very busy day, and I’m going to crash now. Tomorrow will be insane, but remember to come here for every new bit of info. We have a large team covering the event, so rest assured we’ll catch it all!
