Escape from Geekopolis

It seems like a good few levels ago but after promising to complete my confession of a gamer and dish the dirt on the dark side of the gaming world, the time has come to do so. My friend and I may have had to elbow our way through endless queues, smash and grab our goodie bags after many failed attempts, recover from mid-morning hangovers and sensory overload generated by the hysteria of thousands of geeks, costumed freaks, and even people who had seen the light of day but we made it out alive after our visit to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational at the end of June, barely. I have finally built up enough rest experience, regained the use of my senses and can now regale you with the tale of our escape from Geekopolis…

After eventually making it to our hotel in Paris some 10 hours after starting our trip by car, plane, bus (from an airport as near to Paris as you are now) and taxi we were quite hungry and very thirsty. We headed straight out to get familiar with our surroundings and check for pharmacies, off-licences and bars. After getting some dinner and relishing our warm €9 ($14/£7) a pint beer, we headed off to check the distance to the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre and find cheaper beer. Thankfully both of which were close by (if you count €8 as cheaper). It was quite apparent from the conversations around us about Warlocks, Paladins and the like that either Parisians all play World of Warcraft or the invasion had already begun.

The early bird may often get the worm but in our case it got some beers and a spot, miles down the queue from the entrance to the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre. I couldn’t tell you how long the queue was as we just joined it after boredom set in trying to find the end of the queue. Eventually we got our name (and shame) tags and failed at our first attempt to get the goodie bags, so we headed into Hall 5 to bear witness to the wonders Blizzard had to offer. The excitement in the air was very apparent and by excitement I mean flatulence, so we headed through the first floor, avoiding the humongous queue for Starcraft II and up to see Wrath of the Lich King in action. Here we found yet another massive queue and our first major disappointment. The servers had buckled under the pressure and there would be no chance of a game until they were fixed.

It was time to head into the Blizzard shop to check out what was on offer before it all was snapped up. Not a lot was on offer, a few figures, board games, t-shirts, badges, etc. We decided to pick up a few mouse mats for our mates and so the next instalment in our queuing began. By the time we had got our mats, an hour and a half had passed and the hangovers had kicked in, followed shortly by the opening ceremony. It could have been the sore head but after putting up with the euphoria of the crowd, introductions to the Blizzard high command and the most cringeworthy presenters (since I last watched the Eurovision or daytime TV) I’d had enough. We legged it to get something to eat and have a go at Starcraft II while the crowd were introduced to the pro-gamers contesting the Warcraft III, StarCraft and World of Warcraft Arena tournaments.

Starcraft II may not be due out until 2009 but it looked and felt like a game that is well on the way to completion. There is a new 3-D engine used and as a result the graphics were superb and ran very smoothly, even when I amassed a horde of units for an offensive. I started off with the Zerg and also tried the Terran but the gameplay was so fast and furious I was wiped out on the first few occasions before I even figured out what to do. The Zerg, Protoss and Terran all have a load of new units but with only 20 minutes to get to look at the game per sitting, there was so much more I wanted to do. I was hooked and knew I would be back for another go.

After being underwhelmed by the announcement that a third instalment of Diablo was on the way, being kicked off Starcrcaft II before I’d had my fill, Wrath of The Lich King not working, a deterioration of the hangover, which the warm beer available was not helping and another abortive attempt to get the goodie bag I was close to calling it a day and going back to bed. It was make or break time so I made a break to the off-license, snuck in some cold beers and things started to brighten up. We spent the day watching the tournament games and making various trips back out to the off-license until the crowds thinned out and we finally got a go at Wrath of The Lich King.

Whereas Starcraft II looked like a finished product, Wrath of The Lich King, looked far from being finished. There were numerous buggy moments while I was playing and also for my cohort (hitting for no damage, character disappearing, disconnections). It was difficult to get a go at the Death Knight (a new level 55 hero class) on some of the machines as they had been deleted and needed to be recreated. Eventually though I got to have a go with one and had a look at the talent trees: Blood, Frost, and Unholy and ran around the upcoming new area Northrend. Unfortunately though I had no character points to enable the talents to check what they could do and didn’t have enough time to really explore the areas. I had to check out the Warrior class, a class I am more familiar with and saw that there are wholesale changes on the way to the talent trees, especially Protection. I certainly didn’t have the warm fuzzy feeling after playing this as with Starcraft II and I would be surprised, on the evidence of what I saw, if it is delivered by September/October this year when it rumoured to be out.

We had a good look around the two levels at the Invitational but had a sense that while there was a lot of space, other than the people milling around, there was not a lot to fill it with. The trade areas had much to offer in regards to pc peripherals, but many were not allowed to sell what they had on display due to some bizarre French laws. The most impressive peripherals were the Philips amBx, which provides ambient light, rumble pad and fans that react in relation to the game environment you are playing in on your pc. We visited the card game area where you could learn how to play the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and take part in free hourly tournaments with booster packs on offer for first, second and third place finishes. There was even a costume area where attendees could dress up, have their face painted and get their photo taken.

Our second day mainly consisted of watching the thrilling pro-gamer tournaments and attending the geekiest question and answer session know to man. I would explain more about the Q&A but it was too painful to bear witness to, never mind rehash, suffice to say some characters were nearly in people mode. There were some great matches in the WarCraft III and WoW Arena Tournaments but the definite highlight was the Starcraft final where the best action, riskiest tactics and most tightly fought games were on view. It also had the two commentators most likely to get lynched for giving away vital information mid game. The winners of this tournament had already beaten the Starcraft II development team in a challenge match on Starcraft II after only seeing the game for 30 minutes!

So with time drawing to a close on the Invitational we went to bear witness to the meteoric rise of the all Blizzard metal band from Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain to Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain. Yes. Soon after we headed off to watch the Euro 2008 football final and cleanse ourselves with a beer or two. On the whole I was surprised at the normality of the majority of the crowd at the Invitational, the many couples that were there, the fact that there were girls there at all, but the occasion was far, far too geeky for me and I was glad to escape back to the normality of football. I suppose the lasting image of the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational I have is the football that I found on Saturday morning and was still in the same spot as I left on Sunday evening. At least everyone got some sunshine as they trundled along in the queues to Hall 5 at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre.