Will Blizzcon be devoid of "fan with live mic" elements?

[Yunru]

They will use paid influencers.
But i am sure some1 will smuggle one of those into blizzcon:

To get their voice heared. Or the smaller versions.

[Syegfryed]

no one ask important stuff anyway these days, the Q&A with ion show that most people have some kind of brain damage to ask the same shit they explained before

[Kathranis]

I'd be surprised. It was unlikely even before the HK thing, considering what a PR disaster the Immortal Q&A was. Now there's even less reason to risk it.

They can just have the moderators read submitted questions. If they hand a mic to anyone, they'll surely be vetted.

It's not like people were ever satisfied with the Q&As anyway.

[Zyky]

I don't think they'll straight out block direct QAs. They should have a good year this year...in all the years of Blizzcon, I feel like last year was the first time that such an outrage question actually got to the stage to be asked.

[Kathranis]

They will use paid influencers.
But i am sure some1 will smuggle one of those into blizzcon:
-snip-
To get their voice heared. Or the smaller versions.

Do you realize how heavy the security was last year? With the mass shootings they've been taking no risks at events.

Even some content creators last year couldn't get recording equipment through security.

[VinceVega]

If anyone did that it would be stupid. J allen Brack or Bobby Kotick will not be sitting at the Q&A panel. And a developer or even executive game designer cannot answer anything in this regard.

Someone who would do this would just be wasting everyones time. Take a sign wit you or don't go as a protest. Blizz doesnt mind either way. If you are at Blizzcon you allready payed a good amount of money just to be there... soooo, what would you reach with this? Standing around like an idiot. People will propably cheer. But that is it. There will be no answers.

Also: I think this completly blown out of proportion. No one cares about other companies catering to China. *cough* Apple *cough* Google

Even CDPR the golden child wants to expand to china. And the only way to do this is to adhere to the rules of china. People always screem murder when those evil SJW bring there evil political propaganda into games, but here it is ok to get political? Why?

/rant over... sorry bout that.

But on the original question: I still think there will be audience questions

[Kathranis]

I don't think they'll straight out block direct QAs. They should have a good year this year...in all the years of Blizzcon, I feel like last year was the first time that such an outrage question actually got to the stage to be asked.

Yeah, but that happening one time opened the door for every asshole who wants their 15 minutes of fame.

[TheProphetLord]

I enjoy the Q+As, I think they are a fun part of Blizzcon it is the only time we can ask the devs questions directly. I’d love to see them at this year’s Blizzcon because certainly when you have so many new projects to announce you are going to gain more from Q+As than when it is an off year Blizzcon.

That being said, given everything that has happened, that is still ongoing and that there is still no schedule released yet, I don’t hold out much hope.

[Guildenstern]

Am I really alone in thinking that people should just get over Hong Kong? Why potentially ruin everyone else's fun by acting like a dick and bringing up something that's been dealt with already?

If you're so pro-Hong Kong or whatever, buy a ticket, fly to China and ask questions there, where it actually matters! But you won't do that, because that might land you in real trouble, which is so much more than your snoflake ass can handle. I hate those people. Everyone's a hero when they've nothing to lose..

[Th3Scourge]

I think the majority of people going probably wont give a fuck by the time blizzcon comes around and will be high on the xpac reveal

[Orby]

If anyone did that it would be stupid. J allen Brack or Bobby Kotick will not be sitting at the Q&A panel. And a developer or even executive game designer cannot answer anything in this regard.

Someone who would do this would just be wasting everyones time. Take a sign wit you or don't go as a protest. Blizz doesnt mind either way. If you are at Blizzcon you allready payed a good amount of money just to be there... soooo, what would you reach with this? Standing around like an idiot. People will propably cheer. But that is it. There will be no answers.

Also: I think this completly blown out of proportion. No one cares about other companies catering to China. *cough* Apple *cough* Google

Even CDPR the golden child wants to expand to china. And the only way to do this is to adhere to the rules of china. People always screem murder when those evil SJW bring there evil political propaganda into games, but here it is ok to get political? Why?

/rant over... sorry bout that.

But on the original question: I still think there will be audience questions

Best line ever. Which is funny because people like The Quartering and HeelvBabyface are crying about this stuff yet constantly tell it's viewers that politics shouldn't even be in video games. One even got a website up and running thats supposed to be a safe space against 'SJW' and 'politics'

This to them is less about China and more about clicks and outrage and to dunk on a company he has always seen as 'gone WOKE', so now he can call them hypercritical while he himself is being hypercritical...

I especially like some of the people complaining here I have looked up their past posts and they too have said 'keep politics out of video games' and here we are when they are now supporting it... as I said its nothing to do with China for some people, (although I do think there are people, like me, who actually do care about China, or more so Hong Kong), it's just some people wanna just get out the old Blizzard bashing hammer. :P

Personally I hope Blizzcon goes smoothly, the problem with protests (and I have been to enough to know) there's always some idiots that wanna ruin it for others... And considering this is America we're talking about - where certain items which can brought with no background checks - it does scare me, and hope everyone who is going is really safe and careful.

[horbindr]

doing open mic just seems like a stupid risk for blizz to take right now.

im sure they prescreen questions since forever, and im sure a few people have gone offscript since forever too.

fully expecting it to be a blizz employee reading out the questions this year, not fans.

[Yunru]

Am I really alone in thinking that people should just get over Hong Kong? Why potentially ruin everyone else's fun by acting like a dick and bringing up something that's been dealt with already?

If you're so pro-Hong Kong or whatever, buy a ticket, fly to China and ask questions there, where it actually matters! But you won't do that, because that might land you in real trouble, which is so much more than your snoflake ass can handle. I hate those people. Everyone's a hero when they've nothing to lose..

The issue here is that if you let ONE company do it, everyone else will start to copy it. Its pretty much legit protest. And they need to be reminded.
Gaming companys were trashing people now for years and enogh is enogh.

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I think the majority of people going probably wont give a fuck by the time blizzcon comes around and will be high on the xpac reveal

Ehm.....let me remind you what happened to Ea and lootboxes with star wars.

[Nnyco]

If you go up there and ask somethin about hk youll just get an answer like: "this has nothing todo with WoW" and you get moved away and then youll be known as the guy who spend atleast 200$ to look really stupid.

[Hekazi]

No, not becaue China, but because useless asswipes thinking they are making a difference by yelling FREE HONG KONG at blizzard, while doing absolutely nothing else about it.

Kids lmao.
Obnoxious kids.

[Kralljin]

no one ask important stuff anyway these days, the Q&A with ion show that most people have some kind of brain damage to ask the same shit they explained before

Those lives Q&A questions are "pre selected", you have to tell some CM guy beforehand your question, they'll approve it or not.
If you insist on asking that, you will not participate, but they'll give you a chance to pick another question.

Source:
Red shirt guy from last Blizzcon (the one who asked the "is this an offseason april fools joke") at the Diablo Q&A said that he lied to the CM, queue the infamous Blizzcon 2018 scene.

[anon5123]

Definitely 100% yes. Literally every single Q&A will have moderated questions with the moderators themselves reading out the questions. No way in hell Blizzard is going to allow any kind of unscripted microphone use with all the shitstorms going on right now.

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Am I really alone in thinking that people should just get over Hong Kong? Why potentially ruin everyone else's fun by acting like a dick and bringing up something that's been dealt with already?

If you're so pro-Hong Kong or whatever, buy a ticket, fly to China and ask questions there, where it actually matters! But you won't do that, because that might land you in real trouble, which is so much more than your snoflake ass can handle. I hate those people. Everyone's a hero when they've nothing to lose..

"hurdur if you like hong kong so much, go fly there yourself!"
"hurdur snowflake snowflake you're only defending hong kong over the internet!"

he says, anonymously over the internet

real tuff guy

Human rights are being viciously violated and here you are, posting anonymously over the internet that we should "just get over it". Real easy to say things like that when you're not the one having your rights violated, isn't it?

[unbound]

I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz pulls the same game some private universities play...vet people ahead of time and call out those that they know will ask safe questions, and include at least a few plants of their own to ask the right questions.

But I'm not familiar enough with Blizzcon approaches of the past to even put in a realistic guess as to what they'll do this year. I guess it will depend on whether the Hong Kong protests get emphasized in the next 1 1/2 weeks or if that dies down, and whether they think they have such an awesome announcement that no one will bother with bothersome questions (which is what happened last year...they really thought a mobile Diablo game was going to be a huge thing which should have told everyone just how out of touch Blizz development is with their customers anymore).

[oplawlz]

Best line ever. Which is funny because people like The Quartering and HeelvBabyface are crying about this stuff yet constantly tell it's viewers that politics shouldn't even be in video games.

There is no parallel between what happens in a video game and what happens to a real person in real life. While I agree with your take on outrage clicks, lets not conflate human rights issues with differences in political ideologies among free peoples.

[Th3Scourge]

Ehm.....let me remind you what happened to Ea and lootboxes with star wars.

Meh, you might have one or two people make a scene

Most people aren't paying in excess of $1,000 of their hard-earned money to get kicked out