I completely sympathize. Unfortunately, the Portal Passes you paid for were used to pay for plane tickets, hotel accommodations, and food for the streamer youruber influencers Blizzard invited from each country. They were even escorted by Blizzard employees to the front row of the opening ceremony, where they had a great view.
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I flew all the way up from Mexico. This was my first BlizzCon. I have been a fan of Blizzard since 2009. One of my dreams since then was to assist a BlizzCon. My dreams come true this year, but I expect much more. I´ve talked with lots of people, and they said that last´s Blizzcon was better than this one. The waiting lines were more extensive than I expected. I spent more time making lines than I enjoyed the event. I tried for two days to get into the Darkmoon Faire, but the waiting time was 4hr+. Fortunately, an Old Couple gave me some patches, that calmed my sadness. Even the guys from Murloc March were having problems starting the march due to the lack of organization and empathy from Blizzard employees.
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I agree with everything said. Very disappointing, especially for being the first BlizzCon I’ve attended. From the sounds of it, maybe they should look to rehiring/hiring new event planners instead of sourcing it out to 3rd party vendors.
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In past Blizzcons, day 1 is the big hype day. cosplayers all show up and reveal what they have been working on for months, they go through judging in the afternoon, then walk the stage that night. Then on day 2, they can show up in regular clothes and be able to relax, and actually be able to do stuff.
This year, they did the judging on day 1, then a ‘rehearsal’ on that first night, then come back the 2nd night to walk the stage… I wasnt there this year, so I don’t know 100% that they needed to wear it day 1, but saving it for day 2 really kills the hype as well.
So not only do they have to dress up both days, being uncomfortable for the whole con (trust me, it is so hard to do ANYTHING when dressed up), then probably miss the closing ceremony right afterwards too.
So many costumes are struggling to stay together for 1 day of wear. In 2014, the winners costume actually got destroyed before she could make it to the stage. A lot of costumes are really only made to be fully worn once, or may take hours to put on and take off, so requesting 2 days of it is kinda ridiculous.
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Viewing from home compared to previous years was bad. Felt very low budget. After reading all the comments here i feel bad for the people who wasted their money on blizzcon. I’m glad I didn’t waste a single €. I guess thats the one upside in hindsight of no virtual tickets available this year.
Main stage beeing just generic, barely any panels, streamers sitting outside cause lines are long and inside is little to do, no SC or HotS, still no VOD’s, no URL’s for all the external channels, Virtual collection pricing, Asian girl group as closing ceremony, feels like i saw just as many trailer replays & advertisement as actual content.
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Blizz I understand you went through some stuff the last years but guys, you need to apologize for this mess from overpriced tickets, lack of anything and wait times. this is shameful.
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Agree with most of this, especially disappointed in the portal pass, huge waste of 500 dollars.
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Agree with everything the OP said
We didn’t buy portal pass thankfully.
This was our third Blizzcon. My son and I and we spend 75% of our time at the DMF along with Demos and photo ops.
Blizzard listen up there are hundreds of people that come to Blizzcon just for the DMF
Cramming it in a corner and having it closed by the Fire Marshall at 11AM is shameful and you need to make a statement and amends.
If it wasn’t for a lovely security guard taking pity on a father and son and letting us back in at 11:30 the entire Sat would have been ruined
I thought we were a family Blizzard
Do better
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This was my 9th Blizzcon and my husbands 11th! We have loved previous years and this year- well I agree with everything the OP said. It felt as though everything was mismanaged. The line for us plebs to get in was insane. We stayed at the Courtyard and we were waiting for the line to die down- it never did. Poorly handled.
This is going to be my last one for sure. It felt as thought there was a huge push to pay for portal pass, I was all for it in 2019, but they jacked the price up so much I refused to pay for it (glad I didn’t reading through the comments though). We didn’t even get to see the arena, we tried and were denied each time and at the end we simply gave up. The line to the Darkmoon faire was insane on day 2! I was dying to see if I could go get vouchers for the stuffed animals (collect those) since on day 1 they ran out, even after waiting in line for a while they only told us as I was up to pay (like, really???). Same thing happened when I waited in line to get a Christie Golden book- they ran out (after waiting in line for an hour, no one told us). By day 2 we had left by 2 pm- We basically paid to sit in the Diablo area to watch the announcements on a screen- I could have done this at home. Such a disappointing year, will never go back after this.
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Agree with everything said in this post.
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I also wanted to add that this was a dry event- I mean, why??? Microsoft apparently came in and decided no alcohol at this event. (asked the staff why and they told me it was all last minute by Microsoft). I had my own pains there, I thought a beet may cheer me up, but the higher ups decided it wasn’t a good idea? Ughh! I loved that little beer garden outside- it may have cheered everyone up a little!
There were two different “kinds” of blue shirts. The ones in blue in the store were Blinks employees and/or supplemental staff to help Blinks. The ones outside Blinks were, AFAIK, all Blizzard employees. And yes, some of them were a bit out of their depth. The communication of policies and processes was pretty confused, clearly, even within Blizzard.
On the other hand, some were amazing. I think it’s growing pains really. They’ll do better next year.
At least three. Maybe four. Possibly five if you include police officers, who were giving instructions and not always correctly. My friend was told by a police officer that no bottles were allowed, then told by security that metal bottles were not allowed, and Blizzard employees who got it right and said that glass bottles were not allowed.
Blizzard employees: blue shirts with “Blizzcon 2023 Staff” on the back. Also black shirts for mostly what appeared to be managers+ of same.
Convention center employees: mostly janitorial and food service.
Security company staff: Suits and other more formal civilian attire.
3rd part event organizer staff: Usually civilian attire of various sorts. (I was helped by one of these)
Security was definitely not very well informed. I spoke to one Blizzard CS manager (social/online CS) and we complained mutually about the difficulty with getting the right messages out. Especially when Blizzard changed some practices to improve them on Saturday and some of Security didn’t get the message.
They know that was a Charlie Foxtrot and I’m sure they’ll work to do better next year.
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I went to BlizzCon 2023 and agree with all of what you said. BlizzCon 2023 indeed was very disappointing.
The game news for WOW was encouraging and looks to be really good for the game in the future. However, you could have gotten that news from the comfort of home watching 2 panels .
The Merch was low quality. The 2023 mug was tiny 11oz, thin walled and you can only fit 3 fingers into the handle. The 2018 mug by comparison was great, large, comfortable to handle, sturdy and has had years of use.
I wish I could post a side by side photo comparison, it is truly shocking to see the decline in quality.
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Hi there, I really wish Blizzard had actually sent out surveys, but since they didn’t I wanted to share my feedback here so hopefully the Blizzcon team/dev’s can see it. I will say first and foremost it was my first Blizzcon. I have been playing the game since early 2000 and prior to this I was never able to get tickets because inevitably the system would crash before I could get in the queue to purchase the tickets. I did have a blast for my first time going but mostly because I was there with my very small guild comprised of my husband, my best friend, his best friend, and one of his co workers. We are a very small close knit group but it was a guild run none the less LOL ! Now some of the group like my husband had been to Blizzcon in previous years and one of the things that they said they missed was the fact that this time around no one registered their gamer tag/or could even be recognized by their toon names/Blizzard ID. This was disappointing because the “community” or those identifiers that makes someone from anyone of the blizzard games known was basically non existent.
I totally understand that most likely the reason that Blizzard went to using AXS was so that everyone had the option to be able to buy tickets and the system didn’t crash… but by doing that it took away the “blizzard community” aspect of it. I hate to say it but legit if someone wanted to sell their ticket to the highest bidder and that person doesn’t even play the blizzard games or had any sort of foul intentions (not saying they did ) they could have gotten in without an issue because no one had to tie a name or ID to the wrist bands or lanyards. BTW the wristbands were kinda annoying because of how tight they got… maybe next time if Blizzard is going to do wrist bands at least have an adjustable clasp like a watch band for it. 
Additionally as was previously stated the lines/directions/security were horrible! No one knew where to direct people. People were getting routed to incorrect spots which made lines longer and unbearable. Also you LINE CUTTERS out there ( you know who you are) you guys sucked balls! That was really jacked up that there wasn’t enough security outside to keep people from cutting the line. I get if your there with a group and they are holding your place in line… but no joke people I literally watched two people who just got out of a car duck under the rope and just walk up and cut in… no meeting up with anyone just or anything… and then when they realized they were still really far back move to another place in the line they thought was closer. The rest of us who stood in the line and weren’t dicks were like WTF but there was NOTHING we could do about it.
I could have done without overwatch in the middle hall to be honest. There is a select group of people that like that and I feel like that should have been in the hall where diablo was and overwatch should have been at the end. World of Warcraft/darkmoone faire, rumble, hearthstone (all things wow) needed ALOT more space.
Darkmoon Faire was AWESOME don’t get me wrong. It looked like the game… but I wish the tokens would have been for a simulated tonk game or even the shooting gallery. Games that you can actually play like you would in the Darkmoone faire. More carnival food inside the Darkmoone faire area would have been awesome (cotton candy, popcorn, etc…) One thing that REALLY REALLY REALLY sucked was the 2nd day you try to go into the darkmoon faire area and they are telling you that you can’t because some YAHOO of a “fire marshall” came in and said that there was too many people in that area so we all had to stand in a jacked up 4 hour line just to get to do basic stuff and once you were in you were able to spend as much time as you want so the other people waiting got aced out because some people would NOT leave. It was AWFUL. IT RUINED THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE! As guests of the blizzard community that should have all been worked out BEFORE we had to experience that. Instead of being fully submersed in the experience you got jerked back to reality that the outside world sucks and of course someone has to make rules 
Blizzard needs to do better about planning for the amount of people they were expecting. The convention center has multiple levels!!! Utilize them!!!
It did suck that I did purchase blink items on Friday and set the pick up time for 5pm (when you set a specific time you expect to at least be in that window time- not that long in a small line) Instead I did not get my confirmation/pickup email till almost 6 pm and I stood in a NON MOVING obnoxiously LONG line until 630/645 PM. It was really annoying. If your going to make times for people to pick up/select then only do a certain number of pickups during those time blocks so there isn’t those obnoxiously long lines… It defeats the purpose of selecting a time.
I would have liked a Blizzard store so that I could try on some of the shirts/apparel before I bought them. I am a bigger girl and sometimes those women’s cuts of shirts do not look right on my curves/fit right. Also blizzard your women’s 3xl still run’s small!!! For women with bigger breasts or menopause weight your sizes need to be modified to fit those types of body types. If you need an example check out Torrid sizes for women. They actually fit!!!
Going back to the original point up top. I would have really loved for my entire group to somehow be able to get a guild run achievement for Blizzcon. Since all of us are in a guild and we all made it to Blizzcon, It would have been EPIC to get a guild run achievement when I logged back into the game after attending the convention. This really goes back to them somehow making it so we can identify ourselves with our Blizzard identities.
One of the guild members (my husband’s co worker) said he has been to many of the Blizzcon’s prior and it felt like Blizzard was celebrating themselves more than the players or community of Blizzard. I feel like that is correct because as someone who had never been to Blizzcon prior but had heard about it… I had fully expected to have to link my battle tag/ put my husbands account or name on his ticket after I purchased them to identify myself in the Blizzard community.
But overall I had fun, I am happy with the direction that the game is going. I have to say I am a little more than concerned about Micro-shaft/XBoX having their hand in the Blizzard cookie jar. Don’t get my wrong… XBOX has it’s merits and I like gaming on that console… but they helped ruin the fallout franchise with that epic fail of fallout 76 for me. It was horrid so I definitely don’t want them to try to port WOW to the xbox and ruin that too. As long as our subscriptions, gaming experience and all that stay off the xbox console and they don’t F with it, then I’m fine. But Microsoft needs to learn that the whole of the gaming world should not ALWAYS be there’s and the fans of the franchises of those games are what make it… not necessarily the platform that it is on. Microsoft you don’t be needing to pull a BILL GATES and STEVE JOBS coupe again… It’s already been done in the past we don’t need a repeat of you trying to come in and take over
I DO love that Chris Metzen is back!!! OMG I can tell with what he announced that the story is going to not only get better but go in the right direction! His opening ceremony announcement made me so excited.
I am planning to go to Blizzcon next year and hopefully with all my closest friends/guild mates again. I hope that the blizzard team reads this feedback and does improve some of these experiences. Overall I do not regret going/spending the money but I would have liked just a little better of the experiences mentioned.
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I have played WOW since 2006. I had never attended a BlizzCon until this weekend. In fact this was my first “Con” experience of any kind on this scale. I appreciate your take on this as professional and could not agree more.
For my fiancé and I who met playing this game, the weekend was special to us. We stood in endless lines to purchase, to meet, to do anything. We did meet some nice people and enjoyed the attendees and cosplay.
What really stood out to me is that the event looked to be oversold in a massive way compared to the venue and logistics employed or lack there of. We lucked out on Thursday to just register and buy a few things without many issues. Friday was chaos getting in but we were able to at least see most of everything. The DMF looked like fun, but were turned away at 5pm because they were cutting the line off. I did return the next morning only to see the line backed up into OW. So no DMF.
We decided Saturday to cut it short and go see downtown LA since everything we wanted to do would of been 4+ hours in more lines.
This was our first and last Blizz Con. We did not purchase Portal Passes and were glad we didn’t. We went to celebrate our relationship and what the game means to us. I only wish it did not feel like a money grab, start to finish.
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I agree. I’ve been going to Blizzcon since 2014. I was incredibly disappointed this year. It seemed rushed and disorganized. I get the old Events Director left when the pandemic happened, but use what worked in previous years, then make your own. Not worth the $300 price tag.
Goodie Bag:
Really? A $40 backpack? I was waiting for exclusive merch/digital codes. We’ve had backpacks in years past, but they came with some exclusive stuff, even plastic clappers.
Lack of Merch:
I was waiting for more merch to drop during opening ceremonies like every year before, but when nothing happened, I was disappointed. Also, what is this “get a come back” time to pick up your stuff, but still having to wait in a long line? Good thing my friend was with me (I was in a wheelchair) so we had a faster time.
The whole point was to get exclusive/ rare stuff. Not have the same items I can get at the Gear Store. No wonder it’s 50% off now. Even the Dev posters were lacking this year.
Speaking of which, why is my limited edition Kiriko pin out of 3000, but online it says it’s out of 2000? It’s the same pin. Kind of sus if you ask me.
Lack of Arenas/Demos:
Outside of Overwatch, there wasn’t much to do. In previous years, we’ve had several demos going on. This year, you had overwatch and that’s it. No other tournaments, competitions, demos. The immersion is cool and all, but there wasn’t much else.
Where were the voice actors?
I’ve enjoyed going to the panels and watching the Overwatch VAs, but where were they? The lack of content made it pretty boring. Good thing the Overwatch World Cup was going on. That’s what saved my experience.
What Blizzard did right:
I will praise Blizzard on their ADA treatment this year. While in previous years it wasn’t perfect, they did their best with what they had. This year, doing it like Disneyland’s fastpass (getting a “come back” time) went well. I also liked that the lines were big enough for ADA accommodations.
All in all I’m not even sure I want to go next year. Everything that made Blizzcon great wasn’t there. It was probably the most boring convention I’ve been too. Not worth the price tag, not worth the travel, and not worth going. I could have just stayed home and saved some money.
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I 100% agree with everything OP and others have said in this thread. I was going to do my own write up review but instead ill just reiterate here, this was my 4th Blizzcon and this was by far the most disappointing, disorganized, and dangerous Blizzcon I have been to.
I could go on for 10s of thousands of words about what did and didn’t work but I am glad so many of you all have been vocal in expressing your opinions which I do hope are read here.
I am a guild leader and I had 20 members from my community travel from all over the world to Anaheim. We still had an amazing time regardless of what went on inside the ACC, but I really feel bad for those folks that came to Blizzcon for the convention itself.
It’s Blizzcon … “Blizzard Convention”, it’s not “Hire third party folks off craigslist-Con”. Folks spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to come to Blizzcon to interact with Blizzard Entertainment and see what it had to offer and outside of the opening ceremony there was none of that. I interacted with so many staff that had absolutely no idea what the F was going on it blew my mind. I am not sure how employees were enticed to work Blizzcon in the past, but surely there must be some sort of offer that can be provided that would allow them to work the convention and not hate every minute of it to the point where we are at now with a third party company.
One example that stands out was watching the one actual Blizzard employee try her best to organize a line into the Darkmoon Faire on day 2 just to be trash talked by third party security and literally make fun of her and the folks in line…blows my mind.
Another example is the Mountain Dew quest and result announcement, again normally this wouldn’t have been a big deal if there was actually other things to do at the convention but since this was one of the only quests to do there were literally a sea of people at 4 pm waiting to hear who won and the ACC staff were so unprepared to properly announce the winner. I will give it to the Blizzcon attendees though, they didn’t riot and eventually it was resolved.
Okay I rambled enough TL;DR Blizzard you got to give these folks more things to do, and at least if you don’t do that make sure you have enough chairs for everyone to sit down and do nothing in between whatever is going to go on.
A photo op lasts a couple minutes and there were only 4 total demos in 2 halls. If there is nothing else to do because all of the panels are in an arena that only holds ~20% of the attendees, the rest will flock to the only active area AKA the Darkmoon Faire OR just sit down on the floor when chairs run out.
Solutions are already posted in this thread, bring back ALL of the old panels even the technical ones (a lot of us are nerds and like the sound and server design panels), use Hall E for Arcade (put out to pasture games, SC, HOTS, Blizz classics etc.) While these things may not sound exciting I can 100% guarantee they will be visited and this will help with congestion in the ACC.
Move the DMF back to it’s own dedicated area if it’s not already obvious, most folks that attend Blizzcon buy things and they want to show off and/or trade those things in a dedicated area.
Bring back alcohol inside the convention center. Having the Hearthstone Tavern, Fat Goose Inn, Jim Raynor Bar etc. serving alcohol along with the old beer garden in the outdoor concourse area allow for multiple areas for folks to congregate thus reducing congestion in other areas of the convention center.
I understand the reasoning based on the past issues Blizzard has had however, as it has been stated multiple times in the no alcohol thread, the issues Blizzard had with alcohol occurred at the Hilton and other hotels in the area. Believe me when I say the Hilton was not prepared for the traffic it had Wednesday and Thursday at their bar. Folks want to be able to have a drink while at the convention center, enjoy a nice themed Blizzard beer and it helps pass the time waiting in a long line. Regardless of whatever no alcohol stance was taken during Blizzcon, there were many employees and devs having a grand ol time at the Hilton Lobby getting plastered, which I have no problem with.
Update the Blizzcon App, Update the Blizzcon App, Update the Blizzcon App. So much of the problem of no one knowing what the F was going on was because of the fact that information was provided via a website blog post, some tweets, and a paper roadmap that was not even correct come opening ceremony. EVERY major convention has a dedicated app with everything ones needs to attend said convention. What I found hilarious was the fact that the 2019 Blizzcon App was broken with the exception of the store redirecting to the Blink shop website.
Finally, if you are going to charge 900 USD after AXS fees for a portal pass you better have a plan in place that provides a detailed step by step to how every single dollar of that pass will be more beneficial to folks over the regular pass. Otherwise just get rid of it altogether, replace it with the Benefit Dinner pass. That had a hyper unique value that could not be replicated by a regular pass or diminished upon by the convention center staff.
I am a peasant and I bought the peasant pass for 320 USD after AXS fees but as I said at the start of this rant, I venture to Blizzcon not for the show but for my guild and the people.
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I echo everyone’s sentiment here. This was my first BlizzCon…and perhaps my last one. I’ve been to many, many cons over the past three decades. My last one was the Star Wars Celebration in London.
As an attendee, you know what works and what doesn’t work. You immediately assess and recognize the environment, and learn to navigate any event obstacles. If the con is well-managed, the event staff will be able to quickly resolve any attendee problems. But this was not the case at BlizzCon. The event staff was ill-prepared for the magnitude of attendees. This event was definitely oversold. That was the first thing I said when I approached / experienced the mile-long entry line on Day One that wrapped around the block all the way into a neighborhood. It was upsetting waiting in line in a neighborhood at the back of the line. I knew I’d miss OC at that moment.
As a fan of Blizzard for almost 30 years, I played their games since Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness… I have a main on WOW since day 1 of Vanilla, making him 20 years old this month. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on Blizzard…as well as thousands of hours of game time. I’ve been loyal to the brand for three decades. I felt Blizzard did not value me as a BlizzCon attendee. It was disappointing.
I suspect that Blizzard is/was in a transition period without an experienced event planning team and it showed. I suspect this was the case because of their transition to Microsoft. My hope is that now that they are officially under Microsoft, that they will be able to leverage the vast resources of their events team. As someone who lives in the Seattle area, I’m familiar with the various events that Microsoft has managed. There has never been a major problem.
If Blizzard does partner with the Microsoft events team, I can only hope for an improved experience for attendees.
The one joy I had at this first BlizzCon was the people… the other attendees, meeting the devs, and some of the influencers who are big fans of the games. The people was the only highlight for me that made the 3-4 hour lines bearable. Otherwise, the con was subpar compared to all the cons I’ve attended for the last 20-30 years.
BlizzCon can only go uphill now, right?
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My wife and I went to Blizzcon for our honeymoon. We went all out with a nice room at the Marriott, Portal Passes, and allowed ourselves a little freedom with the wallet when it came to merch. I wish I knew than what I know now… We would NEVER have purchased the Portal Pass if the advert had been an honest one.
The communication and organization was a joke at best.
As a “thank you” an announcement was made in the Portal Lounge that all Portal Pass holders could venture into the halls early! There was early access to the halls on Saturday for 13min…
No free snacks or water in Portal Lounge? The food was great, granted. But at 12.00 to 15.00 usd, a breakfast burrito should be nothing less than great.
Who was in charge of the OC seating / drawing? Please rethink that whole concept… Portal Pass at 800.00 usd SCREAMS we want to see the OC…
How do you have all these amazing screens and projection sytems EVERYWHERE EXCEPT the Portal lounge!?! Even the Portal Theater was laughable…
Hell’s ink sold out in seconds? ( get that “seating / drawing” person to help fix that issue ) random draw for anybody interested would have at least been more fair.
With its popularity can the DMF please just gets its own hall at this point? The lines in that area were an alarming example of how never to do that again, my god!
I hope the rumor is true, Blizzard hired a 3rd party. I can’t imagine the company responsible for creating some of the most iconic worlds dropped the ball this badly…
With all the screens across all the halls and food trucks ouside we could have had the exact same experience with GA tickets.
Unless the plastic chair, 50" tv and shaking Mike’s hand is what the extra money was for?
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