Oh geez! you are right! Thinking on it i remember being able to have beers and cheer on teams at the live OWC in the Arena, and the portal pass was awesome coz we had a private bar basically. OOF i really wish they did refunds 
I can’t imagine spending hundreds of dollars on tickets and then complaining you can’t get wasted inside the event because that’s what ruins it for you.
If you need alcohol to have a good time, maybe you should spend the money on substance abuse counseling instead.
I may be bitter but a drunk at the WoWhead party shoving through the crowd injured my back and I had to have major back surgery after the last Blizzcon.
5 Likes
I am sorry to hear about your injury and hope you are doing better. I also hope you filled a police report at the time. However, like I said in the other post, how is banning alcohol solving an issue that happened outside the con?
You immediately go to being wasted as the only reason someone would complain about not having alcohol in the con. Everyone there is on vacation and hanging out with friends. Maybe a beer or two over the course of a few hours adds to the fun and it is something they will miss. Especially when some of those beers were made specifically for the con in the past…
Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it should be banned for everyone. Especially, when the banning seems symbolic at best.
1 Like
What if they did the Blue Lagoon strategy of limiting the number of drinks per person? At Blue Lagoon you are given a bracelet (working basically like hotel credit) that’s the only accepted payment method at bars, and it limits your purchases to x drinks a day. Of course drink trading might still happen, but come on, it won’t be done on such scale to make someone disorderly drunk.
I like that idea. It has some potential issues, but really they are the same issues with the current policy. Neither policy is going to stop someone from going to the Hilton having 6 martinis and then going back to the con.
Assuming they aren’t going to breathalyze people when going into the con with this zero tolerance policy…
the Blue Lagoon bracelet idea sort of is - well, you’ll have at most 3 martinis unless you are with a friend who’s sober but doesn’t mind you being drunk.
My assumption is the blue lagoon/drink ticket idea would just be in the actual convention center. Anyone would still be able to go out the convention center, say the Hilton hotel right next door (bar or room), and get whatever drinks they want.
I have my concerns about this year’s event, and what might happen under Microsoft’s banner going forward, but the absence of alcohol is an extremely welcome change, and I hope they never backpedal on that one.
5 Likes
All conventions are better with alcohol. Maybe just refuse to serve people who can barely stand anymore?
2 Likes
Smoking is banned in California. Really hard to smoke anywhere. There might be designated smoking areas.
I didn’t fill out a report. Honestly I didn’t even get a good look at the guy as my wife was up on the stage at the time and I was looking at her.
But yeah, it’s possible to have fun without alcohol. Shrug
We will all know how it ends up in less than 3 weeks. Will be quite an interesting experiment. Sadly I still think there will be many folks that will overcompensate drinking outside the con.
Blizzard taking this stance removes all liability on their end and there are no official Blizzard parties hosted so you can’t blame Wowhead or Con before the Storm folks either. No chance the Hilton or the CVS/Walgreens will have any liability.
Best thing to do is be responsible and look out for each other, there are many community ran groups that will be out in force at Blizzcon that will be willing to help with uncomfortable situations (Club Tito’s, BlizzNerds, Ladies of Blizzcon, and folks displaying Red Drake, Pink Safety Pin, Gaymers & Friends buttons).
This is exactly what people are complaining about. They can’t have alcohol so they won’t have fun. Like it’s core to their entire experience.
1 Like
I don’t see a single instance in here of that. Plenty of people saying that being able to have a drink during the event adds to the experience, and it’s sad to see it taken away to solve a problem that could have much more direct solutions instead.
The people you’re talking about, that need to be sloshed to function? They’ll still be sloshed.
3 Likes
Blockquote I don’t see a single instance in here of that. Plenty of people saying that being able to have a drink during the event adds to the experience, and it’s sad to see it taken away to solve a problem that could have much more direct solutions instead.
Blockquote
Exactly, it is nice to have a drink while I wait in line or watch what is essentially a sporting event (OWL) while I am on vacation.
Thanks for starting this thread and bringing the policy to the forefront. I think it will still be a surprise to a number of attendees. I owe you a drink at the Hilton.
2 Likes
The second that policy was posted I knew it would be the most talked about change this year and sure enough no matter which social platform you use the highest traction has been the no alcohol discussion.
There has been a lot of constructive chatter imo and while Blues may not respond to all of it, I am sure they are keeping tabs and reading these forums.
1 Like
#(#)(())(#)!#()!(#)_#)$ — If I’d seen this thread before I bough a ticket I wouldn’t have bough a ticket. I went for the last 3 before COVID and while people did drink, I never observed anything that would warrant this. This is going to suck…
2 Likes
Everyone needs to realize there is no “Blizzard” anymore. We are attending an EA sponsored event. It is branded as Blizzcon, but EA attorneys are all over it… I am curious what it will look like now 
Pay an extra 100$ for a ticket
No HoTS or Starcraft
Can’t sit in main hall during ceremony
Band is a K-Pop group which is outside the norm for this convention and likely not a lot of cross-over fans
smaller venue than years prior
Can’t even have a beer while watching an eSport
going to be an interesting year
Band is a K-Pop group which is outside the norm for this convention and likely not a lot of cross-over fans
I’m curious as to what genre you think Blizzard fans do cross-over with. Based on the genre of the games, do you hope for medieval lutists? Blizzard fans are a huge demographic spanning decades of age, race, gender, culture, etc.
Le Sserafim is huge right now and arguably the biggest get Blizzcon has snatched up in terms of relevance at time of the show. They’ve certainly gotten bigger names, but not ones that were in their prime the way Le Sserafim is.
I get that you aren’t into K-Pop, but that doesn’t make this band an automatically bad choice.
1 Like