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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Blizzcon Feels



Blizzard has announced the dates for this year’s Blizzcon: November 8-9. What does this mean? It means that this year there will be a Blizzcon in Anaheim where hopefully we will get all sorts of new info about the next expansion for WoW/Starcraft/Diablo/Lost Vikings. I have always wanted to go to Blizzcon and see all the cool stuff in person but logistics have made it extremely difficult. However this year is different. I turn 30 this year(I know I’m a baby to some and old to others) and my lady love asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate and I told her I wanted to go to Blizzcon. She has agreed to make it happen for us so if we can get tickets we will be at Blizzcon in November!! We booked a room and once the tickets go on sale we will be camping out in the online queue to get tickets.

Of course immediately after reserving the hotel room I looked at twitter to see who was planning on going to Blizzcon. There were several people made the decision to go and there were some on the fence about whether they could go or not. Sadly there were a few people who either couldn’t make it or were choosing to not attempt to go. I was excited about the prospect of meeting some of the people who were going to try and go to Blizzcon when suddenly my brain decided to be a scumbag.

For those of you who are new around these parts, I have made mention before that I am an introvert (shocking I know) and while I tend to have a few extrovert tendencies I tend to have social anxiety hit me often. It’s why I have been on twitter for 2 years now and I barely have 5000 tweets compared to people who have been on for a quarter of that time and have triple the amount of tweets. I tend to spend most of my time watching the conversations going on between people and often I don’t see any place where I can join the conversation. Most times I see an opening I the conversation where I can join in, I stop and think about what I’m about to say and over think it. What if what I say isn’t relevant? What if they hate what I said? What if they just keep on talking and ignore what I said?

Well I started thinking about Blizzcon and possibly meeting some of the people I interact with on twitter and the social anxiety started kicking in.

It honestly reminded me of a scene from the movie “How the Grinch stole Christmas” when the Grinch is debating showing up to the Whoville Whobilation:

Grinch: (after standing grumpily with his arms crossed) All right. I'll swing by for a minute, allow them to envy me, grab a handful of popcorn shrimp and blow outta there. (heads for the door, then stops abruptly and returns nervously) But what if it's a cruel prank? What if it's a cash bar?! How dare they! (scowls, then calms down) All right, I'll go. But I shall be fashionably late. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes! (groans in frustration) Definitely not. (firmly, heading for the door with his hand behind his back) All right! I've made my decision. I'm going, And that's that! (shows his hand) Ah! Had my fingers crossed.

My brain started asking me similar questions. What if people don’t want to meet up? What if I meet them and they hate me? What if I make an ass of myself? What if I do or say something that causes a large number of people to unfollow me on twitter or stop reading my blog or listening to my podcast? Damn it brain why can’t you just let me be happy????? My brain had me thinking that maybe I might have made a huge mistake in wanting to go to Blizzcon.

Thankfully the awesomeness of actually being at Blizzcon outweighed all the things my brain thought up. I will be at Blizzcon and I will see all the cool panels in person and just maybe I might even participate in a lore question thing or a contest or something. I will be at Blizzcon! If any of my readers are going to be going as well and want to meet up and hang out at the bar, let me know! I plan on having a great time and if I can meet people that’ll be awesome but if I don’t, I’ll still have a great time.

5 comments:

  1. Been reading this lately. You might find it interesting. Possibly even useful. Either way, have fun at BlizzCon!

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  2. as long as I am able to get a ticket, I will be going and I'd love to hang with you mang.

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  3. When you're shy and/or socially awkward, Blizzcon is the place to be. Everyone is weird and dorky, so there's absolutely no pressure.

    The two big meetups that most bloggers go to are the WoW Insider party on the Thursday and Twisted Nether on the Friday. WoW Insider is kinda big and can be a little intimidating (I had a minor freak out on my first year - but that's the beauty of Blizzcon: I was surrounded by people with equally embarrassing panic problems so everyone was super empathetic). Twisted Nether is more intimate and easier.

    Blizzcon itself is so huge that you just tend to get lost in the crowd. But again, everyone is in the same boat so there's no pressure to behave a certain way at all.

    I know it's really scary to think of (I'm still nervous and it'll be my third Blizzcon), but it's SO totally worth it. It's like the one time of year that you can just be yourself and still fit in. You'll have a blast for sure.

    I'll see you there!

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  4. If you want to blend into the crowd wear a black T-shirt and jeans at Blizzcon. It is like the unofficial gamer uniform. But please bring multiple shirts and use one each day.

    And if you dont show up to the Twisted Nether meetup ... I will find you.

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  5. lol Don't worry Hydra, I'll be at the meetup and you'll be able recognize me because I'll be the one drinking heavily and claiming to be the Mayor of the TNB Chatroom! ;-)

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