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

[Omedon]

I've never been to Blizzcon. I will likely never go to Blizzcon for various reasons. If this question seems crazy to ask, it's because of those two things, but I would like to ask it all the same.

It had to be on their minds with the Diablo Immortal fiasco last year, it's DEFINITELY on their minds now, so my question is this: Are the "fan with live mic" moments at Blizzcon so integral to the format that it couldn't function if all Q+A's were read by blizzard staff, and any and all situations that would usually point a mic at random fans in the audience were just... quietly removed this year? Of course there will be content creator interviews off the main floor, and some host with a phonebook-like contract, under threat of blacklist may read all the questions. Is this viable given the usual flow of the con?

I can't help but feel that Diablo Immortal last year was this moment of realization that, with the hyper interconnected social media age being what it is, there is no... I guess awe now to self-censor people at events like this. We've all "met our heroes" and now have a hard time seeing anyone, particularly game devs as "special enough" to watch what we say to them. Everyone's just another follow on twitter, no one is seen as big enough to just be unapproachable, which leads us to this moment, well before all the international incident stuff.

The fans "can't be trusted" to be "civil" on a live mic when the vibe of the convention and particularly the virtual ticket are on the line, it's clear. Will that have them change the format in this singular way this year?

[Azerate]

I don't think it's a big deal that a couple people will ask uncomfortable questions. If you mean the Hong Kong situation specifically, they can always just give some official response, or say they won't be answering non-game related questions, or whatever.

[Video Games]

Theyre not gonna have a qa this time because of china

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

You can now submit questions via the Bizzcon app is my bet.

[God Save The King]

Q&A questions are screened after you submit them into the Darkmoon Faire at Blizzcon themselves. You don't just get up there and ask whatever you like. The guy who did the April Fools thing last year went off his proposed question to the developers.

I think Red Shirt Guy was the last "open mic" BlizzCon, all since have had prescreening.

[Ghostile]

Theyre not gonna have a qa this time because of china

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.

[Nathasil]

I think "fan with mic" is not the problem, nor is "fans can't be trusted to be civil in this day and age".

If Blizzard says/announces something that most people in the room are cool with/excited for, one random person who tries to hate on it or ridicule it won't matter; the person will simply be shut down by the crowd arround him.

Diablo Immortal was that bad because the player said what a majority of people in the room were thinking. If Blizzard announces someting which most players they invited - and who paid to be there - hate, then they have to live with the backlash. Having staff read "selected softball questions" will either make the crowd more hostile or - worse - simply turn them off from attending at all.

I have stopped watching the Blizzard Q&A videos because of the way Blizzard responds to questions. If they pulled this style of Q&A on a life stage to the face of a player, they would not get away with it. Which is a good thing.

So, long answer short: If they put more effort into their answers and product announcements to actually make the players, who spend a large amount of money to attend to what is basically a huge commercial-gick, excited and happy, they do not have to worry about fan questions+reactions. If they get too afraid of the fans, they are already doomed to fail with everything.

[ArkantosChampion]

I wonder, if they will be able to arrange a fake QnA, where ONLY people who create content will stand in the line?!

[arandomuser]

I hope so, look if you want something in regards to china, ask your senator/congressman, its not blizzards job to do foreign policy.

and its not like china is the only case where business do ties with genocidal dictators,

there is overwatch tournaments in russia and saudi arabia too. Yes blizzard are hypocrites, but protesting and trolling wont change hong kong or chinas government.

[Calfredd]

Even with the question vetting, I betting at least 1 person will still try to ask about Hong Kong.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Also if they get rid of the "fan with a mic" entirely it'd help speed things along. No more "Uhhhh I'm Larengarenheist from uhhhhh Argent Dawn EU. And shoutouts to my guild Heroes of Eleysium. Anyway my question is uhhhhh what made you think to make those.... those.... weird bloody ghost mobs. Thanks!"

[Lochton]

I've never been to Blizzcon. I will likely never go to Blizzcon for various reasons. If this question seems crazy to ask, it's because of those two things, but I would like to ask it all the same.

It had to be on their minds with the Diablo Immortal fiasco last year, it's DEFINITELY on their minds now, so my question is this: Are the "fan with live mic" moments at Blizzcon so integral to the format that it couldn't function if all Q+A's were read by blizzard staff, and any and all situations that would usually point a mic at random fans int he audience were just... quietly removed this year? Of course there will be content creator interviews off the main floor, and some host with a phonebook-like contract, under threat of blacklist may read all the questions. Is this viable given the usual flow of the con?

I can't help but feel that Diablo Immortal last year was this moment of realization that, with the hyper interconnected social media age being what it is, there is no... I guess awe now to self-censor people at events like this. We've all "met our heroes" and now have a hard time seeing anyone, particularly game devs as "special enough" to watch what we say to them. Everyone's just another follow on twitter, no one is seen as big enough to just be unapproachable, which leads us to this moment, well before all the international incident stuff.

The fans "can't be trusted" to be "civil" on a live mic when the vibe of the convention and particularly the virtual ticket are on the line, it's clear. Will that have them change the format in this singular way this year?

Of course no but fans who acts like like idiots will most likely lose their tickets.

[Mozu]

There is a 0% chance that anybody will have a live mic that isn't employed by Blizzard. If there is a QnA, it'll probably be questions read off by employees that are given to them by the crowd.

[Omedon]

The guy who did the April Fools thing last year went off his proposed question to the developers.

I think Red Shirt Guy was the last "open mic" BlizzCon, all since have had prescreening.

Of course no but fans who acts like like idiots will most likely lose their tickets.

Ok, so, regarding the gist of both of these good points, it's important to say that I believe that it's one thing to take someone aside for trolling the devs regarding immortal and giving him a little talking to... but if someone gets up there to HK-it-up... ANY response will be scrutinized and posted all over, and it's way, WAY uglier. You can't yank them away, you can't kick them out (I mean you can but holy cow the backlash), literally the only response here seems it has to be pre-emptive and... the comments not be allowed to happen in the first place.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Ok, so, regarding the gist of both of these good points, it's important to say that I believe that it's one thing to take someone aside for trolling the devs regarding immortal and giving him a little talking to... but if someone gets up there to HK-it-up... ANY response will be scrutinized and posted all over, and it's way, WAY uglier. You can't yank them away, you can't kick them out (I mean you can but holy cow the backlash), literally the only response here seems it has to be pre-emptive and... the comments not be allowed to happen in the first place.

The moment that question is asked Blizzard loses.

Even if they just give a canned answer (which if they do live mic you can bet they'll all be prepped on the canned answer) Twitter will be up in arms that "it doesn't go far enough and you should declare you are ending WoW service in China."

Just look at how the NBA has handled their PR gaffe well and it's still not enough for some people.

[Lochton]

Ok, so, regarding the gist of both of these good points, it's important to say that I believe that it's one thing to take someone aside for trolling the devs regarding immortal and giving him a little talking to... but if someone gets up there to HK-it-up... ANY response will be scrutinized and posted all over, and it's way, WAY uglier. You can't yank them away, you can't kick them out (I mean you can but holy cow the backlash), literally the only response here seems it has to be pre-emptive and... the comments not be allowed to happen in the first place.

I know, and that is why I know some dickhead is going to do it. Doesn't matter if you call it out at BlizzCon, my first tag on that person will be, "you want your 15 mins of fame, you don't want or care for anything else". If you want to fight something honorable, then Blizzard is a MINOR goal compared to hundreds of other companies more rooted into the Chinese system and government. The person can be a troll, and Blizzard still can't do anything because people are going to go in an uproar for the sake of it.

I want people to not waste people's time at BlizzCon, ask relevant questions so we don't get a censored BlizzCon as we once had, where everyone were just asking pre-selected questions that wasn't their own but a card given to them.

[Clozer]

Nothing lost if no questions answered this year.

Should just remove that part altogether.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Q&A questions are screened after you submit them into the Darkmoon Faire at Blizzcon themselves. You don't just get up there and ask whatever you like. The guy who did the April Fools thing last year went off his proposed question to the developers.

I think Red Shirt Guy was the last "open mic" BlizzCon, all since have had prescreening.

There're two kinds of Q&As they do. One is a post presentation Q&A where people can ask questions to the panel hosts and people can free-wheel it.
The other is the one you're talking about, pre-screening questions submitted from the DMF, and also taking questions from Twitter/forums.

Red Shirt Guy's famous callout was in one of those first kinds of panels.

[Khaza-R]

Even with the question vetting, I betting at least 1 person will still try to ask about Hong Kong.

not if they just take the questions electronically. Which is probably the best case scenario anyway

[fikcrim]

It is entirely possible. They already shifted away from that in the last years, with more and more questions from the internet being picked.