Nerd Fall

Item #1 - As faithful readers know, I'm going to EVE Vegas this year, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Item #2 - We're now also going to attend Blizzcon. I'm excited about that too.

Item #3 - These two events are separated by barely 10 days.  My wallet is not excited about this, but the rest of me is ok with it.


For those that don't follow WoW/Diablo/Blizzard nerd lore, Blizzcon is Blizzard's version of Fanfest.  It takes place in Anaheim CA and is attended by 25,000 folks.  It sells out almost instantly, despite annual price increases that bring a tear to your eye.

I'm not really playing any Blizzard games.  I dabble in D3 a week or two every few months.  I didn't buy the latest WoW expansion.  I'm approaching the age when I'll be slow and old to be any good at Overwatch (the new shooter / Team Fortress clone).

So here's the backstory:  Mrs. Durden expressed some interest in going to Blizzcon this year.  It was a passing thing that kept popping up, like "hey can you take out the trash, and by the way wouldn't it be cool to go to Blizzcon?"

Interest perked up after I bought tickets for EVE Vegas.  If EVE Vegas would be "my" trip, then "her" trip would be Blizzcon.    We're not doing any big trips this year, so a couple of west coast weekend trips fit our budget.

We went to Blizzcon in 2007 and 2008 and then bought virtual tickets via DirecTV the next few years.  In 2007, getting tickets was easy and we kind of blundered into it.  In 2008, there were server meltdowns and lots of drama, but somehow one of my orders managed to go through and we went to Anaheim.  After that, we were kind of "over" the fuss of getting tickets ... we tried (not very hard) to get tickets in some of the intervening years, but staying home and inviting friends over to munch popcorn and watch nerdTV from the virtual ticket was kind of fun in its own way.

Anyway, the first batch of Blizzcon tickets went on sale at 10pm last Wednesday.  We had decided that we were serious about going.  We were both woodpeckering F5 in our browsers as the clock wound down.  As 10pm struck, I managed to click through first and thought I got stomped by a laggy javascript checkout button, but somehow landed in the full legit checkout while Mrs. Durden got sent to the waiting room.

Still not believing I was "really buying" tickets, I skeptically walked through the checkout.  "Can't be happening," I kept thinking.  But it was.  A few minutes later I got the email from eventbrite to prove it.

So, in late October we'll be heading west to Vegas for EVE stuff.  We'll come home on a Monday, maybe Tuesday.  About 1.5 weeks later, we'll get back on a jet and fly to Anaheim for Blizzcon, a day at Disneyland, and maybe a road trip somewhere outside the LA basin.  I'm perhaps more excited for EVE Vegas, but Blizzcon is familiar territory and I'm excited to go there in a different kind of way.

I hope there are good shirts for sale at EVE Vegas.  In 2007, I went to Blizzcon attired in a swanky Guristas logo shirt, and drew comments from Blizzard staffers about CCP and EVE during the first day.  Good times.