An Update on BlizzCon - No BlizzCon This Year, Potentially Early 2021 Online Event

[exochaft]

I do work in the Convention industry.

The fact that so many people haven't clued into the fact that conventions are basically over until there is a vaccine and/or a 100% effective treatment makes me want to cry a little.

You cant pack 30,000 people into a convention center.

Cant.

Chances of those scenarios coming true are slim to none, historically speaking. Reality is that conventions will resume when everyone involved is okay with the risks associated with a convention. A more succinct way to put it is when the panic dies down in the general populace and cooler heads prevail, conventions will resume with or without a vaccine or 100% effective treatment. Considering the state where Blizzcon is located, it's not surprising that a physical convention is being canceled due to various external pressures... however the state/city data offered by their local governments and the typical attendee demographic of Blizzcon, there's no real risk not to have a convention right now beyond what they would normally experience. It's likely Blizz covering their butts legally until the panic dies down with a dash of virtue signaling to taste, although I can sympathize with covering their butts legally considering how insane people are getting over the entire scenario.

[KyleEverett]

Chances of those scenarios coming true are slim to none, historically speaking. Reality is that conventions will resume when everyone involved is okay with the risks associated with a convention. A more succinct way to put it is when the panic dies down in the general populace and cooler heads prevail, conventions will resume with or without a vaccine or 100% effective treatment. Considering the state where Blizzcon is located, it's not surprising that a physical convention is being canceled due to various external pressures... however the state/city data offered by their local governments and the typical attendee demographic of Blizzcon, there's no real risk not to have a convention right now beyond what they would normally experience. It's likely Blizz covering their butts legally until the panic dies down with a dash of virtue signaling to taste, although I can sympathize with covering their butts legally considering how insane people are getting over the entire scenario.

100k dead and you're calling people insane over cancelling things as unimportant as a convention?

[Video Games]

Ill miss the cringe

[TickTickTick]

however the state/city data offered by their local governments

Ah, yes the data. The perfectly non suspicious data of pretty low covid deaths, while pneumonia deaths surprisingly tripled (and in some cases, are even 5x more) than during the same period in the last couple of years.

[|Dexter|]

As long it's a free online event, with real game panels and stuff and have the esport stuff on some other stream that people can watch who care about that stuff!

[Kagthul]

Chances of those scenarios coming true are slim to none, historically speaking. Reality is that conventions will resume when everyone involved is okay with the risks associated with a convention. A more succinct way to put it is when the panic dies down in the general populace and cooler heads prevail, conventions will resume with or without a vaccine or 100% effective treatment. Considering the state where Blizzcon is located, it's not surprising that a physical convention is being canceled due to various external pressures... however the state/city data offered by their local governments and the typical attendee demographic of Blizzcon, there's no real risk not to have a convention right now beyond what they would normally experience. It's likely Blizz covering their butts legally until the panic dies down with a dash of virtue signaling to taste, although I can sympathize with covering their butts legally considering how insane people are getting over the entire scenario.

You're insane.

The way this thing propagates, having a convention with 30+ thousand people packed into one small area is asking for 300,000+ fresh infections. At least. And that's if maybe 5-10 people attending are asymptomatic.

Those protests in MI (where im from)? Less than 600 people showed up for the biggest one.

Its already led to over 4,000 new infections that they know about. And they figure that only 3-4 people who showed up (at most) had COVID.

And thats the important part. that they know about. And it spread it all over the state to places who hadn't had any cases.

We have effectively NO real testing or contact tracing in the US. We've tested almost no one. We dont have the capacity to test the people that need to be tested every day, much less almost anyone else. The "X million confirmed cases" - is just confirmed cases. There are MILLIONS more that never got tested, and just sat it out at home, and continued infecting others without knowing it before they showed symptoms.

Blizzcon gets between 40-50k people. Lets call it 45k for simple math.

Lets say, super conservatively, that "only" 4,000 people get it, and utterly miraculously, NONE of those people spread it to dozens of others when they go home (which is literally impossible, but hey, we're best casing here). Of those 4,000 people... about 3% will DIE. 120 people.

120 corpses is acceptable so people can enjoy a convention? Get fucking real. And thats best-case, never-going-to-happen-in-real-life numbers. Those 4,000 people (and itll be more than 4,000 people in those tight of quarters) will infect others.

And its not JUST the convention center you have to worry about. To make it financially feasible to even go to these things, a lot of fans are forced to pack hotel rooms - hotels will be filled to beyond capacity with 4, 6 or 8 people per room. There will be NO social distancing. Staff are the same way - crammed into hotel rooms to save money on the cost of the event.

"cooler heads" have prevailed. Cooler heads are saving lives. Its not a joke. Its not overblown. If we hadn't clamped down as hard as we did, the death toll would easily be quadruple what it is.

[Sinyc]

100k dead and you're calling people insane over cancelling things as unimportant as a convention?

**Delete**

[thesimpsonsman]

Just make the online event this year since everyone has suffered enough. Blizzard has made billions so one con won’t hurt the budget that bad.

[Starfals]

Good. Its too risky and for what? Just some fun and announcements? Gather up with friends? Best to delay it a year or 2. Its not the end of the world, plus we had years without BLizzcon.

Its OKAY!

[Carmion]

They´ll probably have nothing to announce this year anyway

[Coolthulhu]

Do you guys not have internet connections? Ok, easy jokes aside, this shouldn't come as a surprise at all. Conventions of all kinds both bigger and smaller than BlizzCon have already been cancelled all over the world. If anything, Blizzard's announcement comes a little late.

[Great Destiny Man]

It'd be naive to think there wouldn't be SOME digital element that's retained (whether that's with a full online only Blizzcon or just bare bones reveals + dev talks).

But yea cancelling the physical aspect is 100% right both morally and in terms of cost/logistics for Blizzard.

[deenman]

100k dead and you're calling people insane over cancelling things as unimportant as a convention?

its not even just about the dead,its also the fact that this virus even if you recover,it can leave permanent damage and cause issues in the long run,people who wave this away like some panic induced propaganda are simply delusional,people fail to understand that we havent seen anyting like this in over 100 years

[Drusin]

100k dead

The death count isn't accurate

They count people with covid as covid deaths even if they were on deaths door anyways.

[Queen of Hamsters]

At least it's not a big expansion reveal-year.

Good on them, regardless of what idiots sticking their heads in the sand might say.

[deenman]

The death count isn't accurate

They count people with covid as covid deaths even if they were on deaths door anyways.

you are right,the count isnt accurate,its likely far far higher

[Tarx]

I can't believe in the middle of the summer we will still have covid 19 infection. That virus really destroyed my life and economy.

[Jastall]

Chances of those scenarios coming true are slim to none, historically speaking. Reality is that conventions will resume when everyone involved is okay with the risks associated with a convention. A more succinct way to put it is when the panic dies down in the general populace and cooler heads prevail, conventions will resume with or without a vaccine or 100% effective treatment. Considering the state where Blizzcon is located, it's not surprising that a physical convention is being canceled due to various external pressures... however the state/city data offered by their local governments and the typical attendee demographic of Blizzcon, there's no real risk not to have a convention right now beyond what they would normally experience. It's likely Blizz covering their butts legally until the panic dies down with a dash of virtue signaling to taste, although I can sympathize with covering their butts legally considering how insane people are getting over the entire scenario.

The problem was never really the target demographic dying (albeit that could very well happen). The problem was the target demographic catching the virus without exhibit much if any symptoms and killing grandma the next time they hug her or putting their friend or relative into the hospital the next time they have a beer with them.

It's a convention. This shit can wait.

[Rotted]

I'm on the fence about this,

Course I agree whole heartily it needed to be cancelled. But I don't see why they need to delay it to early next year to host an online event, frankly they have more than enough resources to sort it out for the original date. On the flip side of that, as a few people have mentioned, I think I would rather forgo an online event in Jan / Feb and wait for the full event next Nov

[Kallisto]

I didn't think that it would be a live event but was sort of figuring they would just do all the virtual stuff. Only 30,000 people watch it in person. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, watch it virtually anyway so what's the difference if they are on a blizzcon stage or in a small studio aside from crowd reactions?

This is almost definitely for the best though. If ever there was a year to skip as they did in 2006 and 2011, this is the year. What could they possibly have to show us this year that is remotely worth the risk of people getting sick? Shadowlands will have either just released or be releasing soon, D4 will just be development updates, SC2 is dead, Hearthstone is just more cards, Heroes is dead, O2 is just development updates most likely... All that could be done with some socially distant produced trailers and dev posts.

It was 2012 that was cancelled not 2011, but you're pretty much right on everything else.

Personally I think Blizzard should cancel every Blizzcon that lands on an even year. 08/10/12/14/16/18 have pretty much all been meh compared to announcements on the years that end with an odd number. 07/09/11/13/15/17/19 All had major announcements. Not just wow expansions in each of them (except 15 where legion was announced at Gamescom) but it was where everything in-depth of all the upcoming games happened.

With Blizzcons generally being a net loss it would likely benefit blizzard to make it a once every 2 year event. Just imagine if there was no 2018 Blizzcon and in 2019 the Diablo stand had both D4 AND Immortal.

Patch updates like what happens every 2 years with Ion or someone else on the stage can easily be replaced by his presentations that he has been doing post the Q&As.

Plus games that are announced generally don't have the "WE need to get it done before next year's blizzcon." if they spread it out every 2 years.