California wild fires, Blizz HQ, BlizzCon

General Discussion
1

I hope all of you guys @ Blizz HQ and BlizzCon attendees are safe and uneffected by the wildfires. With the regularity of the seasonal fires and now preemptive blackouts maybe Blizz should consider relocating to NYC.

If the lights and internet go out due to a blackout or mandatory evacuations there’s no D3, no BlizzCon, no Overwatch, no WoW, no revenue, no FUN. NYC has the best of what Cali. has to offer and so much more, including a massive population of GAMERS.

Think NYC:

  • no seasonal wildfires and no worrying about earthquakes
  • no blackout worries
  • NO seasonal hurricanes or tornadoes to worry about
  • Jacob Javitz Convention Center (for BlizzCon)
  • it is the crown jewel of the Empire State (Wall Street, NY Stock Exchange)
  • a large number of hotels (the 4 seasons, Ritz-Carlton, the Hyatt, the Plaza, Waldorf Astoria)
  • multiple international airports (JFK, LaGuardia)
  • join other tech giants like Google and IBM
  • a cultural center piece (food, Broadway, music, visual/graphic arts, art galleries)
  • a large diverse population with every culture, country, and language represented
  • a tech brain and financial brain cluster state
  • part of the tri-state diverse economy (NY, NJ, CT)
  • public transportation (multiple bus and train options)
  • highway and public transportation options connecting the city to the suburbs and rural areas
  • great public and private colleges and universities (NYU, Columbia, Fordham, CUNY, SUNY)
  • a massive set of public and private schools below college (perfect for raising a family)
  • great commercial and residential real estate options
  • multiple high speed telecom, ISP, wireless, and cable operator options, with healthy competition among them (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile, Cablevision, Time Warner, RCN, etc)
  • lots of co-location and IT disaster recovery site options
  • home of the United Nations and the Statue of Liberty
  • local pro sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey)
  • shopping, entertainment, restaurants, pubs, night life, loads of tourist attractions
  • this city never sleeps
  • large Healthcare services industry including university connected hospitals (for people and pets)

It’s time to think different and get the Blizz team to a safer and more vibrant location. You can bring the rest of Activision too.

(* this is gaming related because when natural disasters strike it can affect the game, the company, and the employees, so please leave it in general *)

2

I don’t know how that works in the US, but an event this size should have backup generators the size of a large truck. It’s relatively cheap to rent and a MUST, because blackouts are not the only concern on this size of events.

Now, about mandatory evacuation, I don’t believe Blizzcon is near any risk zone, but I could be wrong on this one.

3

Places like convention centers aren’t going to be kept online by those generators for long, if at all. Not when at full capacity. There may be built-in generation capability on-site, but that’s going to be limited and would likely force the shutdown of all but essential areas, meaning the demo/Arcade area goes down and only the main halls and floor area are kept energized.

It isn’t a major concern unless the ACC is in the middle of a zone that meets the following criteria:

  1. Has primarily overhead wiring for power transmission.

  2. Is at risk for high winds.

  3. Is serviced by interconnects that are being de-energized.

It’s that last one that’s going to be a problem more than the other two given the ACC’s location. Thankfully SoCal Edison is handling their transmission lines far better than PG&E is up here. I had power during the last major outage on the 23rd, but no internet due to Comcast’s infrastructure being in areas where the interconnects that service them were de-energized. And with no cell phone service where I live, that meant no updates or info other than on the morning, evening, and late night newscasts since thankfully DirecTV isn’t affected by the power outages.

4

This advertisement paid for by the New York State Division of Tourism.

6 Likes
5

@TheTias:
What I find messed up is that as a regular citizen you actually know about what areas are being de-energized (didn’t know that term until now). Cali needs some serious government economic investment and some innovative ideas for handling and preventing these natural disaster events. Its heart breaking to see folks losing their homes/businesses to these wild fires, and folks lives are so badly impacted. Anaheim may not be directed impacted, but indirectly it will be, as in federal $$ diverted to impacted areas and away from Anaheim. Inbound flights might affected. This doesn’t even touch on folks who have loved ones spread across the state of California who might be directly impacted.

@Morgan:
My original post wasn’t about tourism per se. I’m talking about Blizz/Activision moving their HQ and operations to NYC in a permanent move. Bring the employees as well. I know that BlizzCon is a tourism event because its advertised to folks in the US, Europe and Asia, which is why I included stuff that would be of importance to the BlizzCon event. However, it would apply to e-Sports events as well.

To be clear, I don’t work for or have any affiliation with local or state government in NY, NJ or CT. I’m planting the ideas of what Blizz/Activision could do and what NYC/tri-state has to offer. Kotick might want to switch over to the east side… the money side. I heard he likes money.
:smile:

6

The fire department should hire Blizzard’s PR company.
I hear they’re trying to put out fires all the time…

3 Likes
7

I’m just jerking ya chain, bud :wink:

I’d try and make a case for my home country, but I think we might possibly have an even worse track history with wildfires than California has (at least, in my lifetime). And terrible internet. And overpriced… everything. On the positive side however, we do have:

  • Beer
  • Umm… sometimes the weather is okay…?
  • Did I mention the beer?

A compelling argument for moving Blizzcon, if I do say so myself :beers:

1 Like
8

I want to like Meteor’s post another 3 or 4 times.

@Morgan:
All good… I figured you were joking.
Beer is good.
:slight_smile:

1 Like
9

Author probably never been in a city very close to original Disneyland ( about 20 miles). So heard anything about that at risk from fire? All you get from NYC is umbrella salespeople’s on most corners. Compared to low humidity and mostly sunshine here. Then you have roads you can actually drive, rather then yellow taxi’s trying to run you over. But if that is what you really love, hey it’s what you are used to. Lol.

10

Anaheim convention center isn’t near any fires and not likely to be in a power shut-off zone.

11

No, I’ve never been to Florida. My Disneyland fantasies ended in my early teens. I’ve been to Cali twice. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut all have roads. New York City is an international urban center… you know a CITY… not a small town with population of 8,000, apart of rural America. New York State has urban, suburban, and rural parts. Paved roads running through its entirety. The same can be said for Jersey, Connecticut and California.

In the north east we enjoy all four seasons. However, we don’t have seasonal tornadoes, hurricanes, mud slides, flooding, wild fires, etc. We don’t have earthquake drills. The vast majority of our urban areas have underground power lines. The suburban and rural areas have the huge electrical power line towers.

Your taxi and umbrella comments sounds like you’ve never been to NYC or lived here. The north east isn’t London. We don’t have a near constant rain/over cast weather forecast. However, the lack of rain is why Cali has large areas of dense, dry, forest, which enables wildfires. Yes, it is connect to climate change, which is why I said that Cali. needs some serious government economic investment and innovative strategies for preventing and dealing with wildfires.

Cali. is part of the US and as a US citizen, in the richest, most technologically advanced nation we should have solved the Cali. wildfire problem back in the 1980’s or 90’s. Its a completely 55A drawkcab look to have our fellow citizens in Cali. subjected to something that is cyclical, preventable, and gracefully manageable.

So, NYC and the greater tri-state has what Cali. has to offer and more, without the negatives. I made a partial list. Now pack up all the drawings, carvings, and sculptures and come to NYC. The crown jewel of the Empire State.

@Wurger:
Its good to hear that the Blizz HQ folks and convention attendees are at a safe distance.

12

Nice try, but NYC weather gets bad at times, we don’t freeze or have snow during the winter, and have airports close occasionally from same weather. The only thing that causes airports to close here is fog on occasion, usually LAX, not John Wayne airport close to Irvine. You guys get the storms moving north from remains of hurricanes during the season. Enjoy your high humidity! :rofl:

13

What do you mean by bad weather? What do you mean by freeze?

You would have to be in the northern areas of NY state to reach -30f or -40f or even minus -50f. However, at that point you are close to Canada so it would be considered normal if one is that far from the equator. The tri-state is not the northern mid-west. By contrast NYC will hit low teens, single digits and sometimes in the negative single digits (ex: -8f) in the winter time. Airport closures in the tri-state tend to happen only in very extreme weather events but:

  • that is not the norm
  • its not multiple times per week or per month
  • its not cyclical or seasonal
    … a simple rain shower or minor snow fall does not close the airports.

This freeze you are talking about doesn’t exist. We don’t get freeze locked like the northern mid-west. As I stated in my original post. This city NEVER sleeps. In winter weather we toss on hats, scarves, gloves, and other winter attire and head out like nothing. This isn’t Canada.

The remains of storms you talk about is less than 2 inches of water, over a 24 hour period, of regular rain showers that are intermittent. We don’t have 20 inches of water flooding through the tri-state after a hurricane leaves the Florida region.

Again you sound like you’ve never been to NYC, never lived in NYC, or you grew up land-locked.

Right now at 12:10pm EST it is 46f with a real feel of 50f and the high in today’s forecast is 53f which we’ll reach between 3pm and 4pm EST. This is light jacket weather at most and there are people in my neighborhood in summer shorts. This is laughable. Go to:
~https://newyork.cbslocal.com/category/weather/~
put in zip code 10016… LMAO