Old School Gamers

well today the tickets for Blizzard's BlizzCon 2005 are on sale. When they first announced it, I wanted to go, but now that I see what little they are offering for $120+ I think I will pass. I am even one of the type of people that buy special edition extras for DVDs and games, but this price is realy hard to justify. Here is what the web sight said they will be offering.

Q&A panels with the World of Warcraft and StarCraft: Ghost developers

I am expecting this to be more along the lines of a press conference and they may pick you to ask a question, or draw questions out of a hat. Question will probably be along the lines of...'why did it take so long','why do you not just wait a bit more and put it out on Xbox 360','do you think you will get sued by Bungie or EA for a knock off of Halo and Command and Conquer Renegade','will there be DOA type posters of Nova in skimpy beach cloths'

Playing World of Warcraft Battlegrounds live with friends

Can't I do that at my place now for free? High speed DSL is a good thing

1st public hands-on gameplay of StarCraft: Ghost

This could be cool, but not worth $120 to play a three year old game when a demo will only be a few months from now.

BlizzCon Invitational Tournament, featuring top Warcraft III and StarCraft professional gamers from around the world

So sit and watch the best Battle.net player fight it out. May be get a few new ideas, but not worth $120.

A separate LAN area stocked with PCs for your gaming pleasure

$120 LAN party with total strangers minus cheep pizza, chips, coke, and movie. I thought the point of LAN partys was to play with friends, get crazy, talk smack, and have cheep food.

Contests for die-hard gamers to compete in for great loot

I.E. people that have a level 38 dwarf (me) need not apply. I am guessing this is in game loot and not desk top nick nacks, and the closes you will get to showing people on your server that you went to BlizzCon. Much like the people that got a panda, or mini Diablo pet get to show off they got the limited edition WoW.

Custom BlizzCon merchandise and other Blizzard merchandise in the BlizzCon store

More ways to con(get it, ha ha) you out of your money? I went to BlizzCon and all I got was this T-shirt.

A blowout closing night concert featuring a to-be-announced band – more details to come!

I have not paid over $80 to see a band that I like. Why would I pay $120 to see a band that they are still unable to get to sign on to this gig?

I like Blizzard, and their games are a lot of fun to play. I have a lot of great memories playing them with my friends. This convention is just leaving a lot to be desired to justify the cost. Travel is not even an issue for me, I live 2 to 3 hours away. Not even a Custom BlizzCon badge with my toon's name and server will win me over. I am sure they will sell out of the 4,000 tickets, and not miss me one bit. May be next year.