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Blizzcon by Maynarde (Part 3)
 

Hi guys! This isn't technically a Blizzcon blog but I just kept the title for consistency This is however a blog about the nerve centre, where the greatest games in the world are created in by the greatest artists and engineers that breathe (and even the ones that don't).


Before Blizzcon, we were invited by Kalikah's friend Jason who is one of the leaders of Team 2 at Blizzard (more on Teams in a minute) to check out the Blizzard headquarters while we were out at dinner together. Of course, it took less than one brain cycle to accept the invitation and thank him endlessly for the hospitality. This tour actually happened on the Monday after the (crazy awesome) Blizzcon weekend. We arrived in the morning, and met the friendly receptionist who had us sign in and get IDs. We sat in the lobby and killed time waiting for Jason (we were early) by reading WoW magazines.


Our friend Jason arrived downstairs, and after hugs and handshakes it was off the to the Blizzard museum which was located directly to the left of the lobby we were in. I was already excited but this room cranked it up a notch. This room was relatively large with little wall columns in the middle of it loaded with Blizzard artwork from all the games. The room also had the original unpainted figurine pieces, life-sized Diablo soulstones, and trophies for awards including the emmy for the South Park World of Warcraft episode lol.


After the museum we moved to the next room, which is basically the Blizzard Cinema. This room is where all the latest CGI cinematics are previewed for the employees, and also when they have educational videos to watch with an invited speaker or what not. It looks like it seats about 100 max.


And now it's off to the offices! Jason swipes his pass, and we're heading upstairs to where the magic is made. First area we walked through was the audio area. We saw the foley room where they make the sounds effects for the games, and then turned to the other side of the hall to see the main mixing desk. As an audiophile, I can safely admit that this room upgraded my half chub to full.


Our next stop was the Team 1 offices. Blizzard's offices are separated into teams for those that weren't already aware. Team 1 is the Starcraft 2 team, Team 2 is WoW, etc etc. We also got a view out of the window of other buildings in the Blizzard campus that were for "two unannounced projects" that we weren't allowed near. Even Jason had limited access to it.

Walking into the Team 1 area we saw the office of Mr. Sam Didier who remembered us from Blizzcon and the after party His office was full of anime posters and figurines, so awesome and such a nice guy. We walked around the cubicles that were all decorated to fit the style of that particular employee. The vibe in this place was amazing. As an office worker myself at a place that I considered laid back, I couldn't believe how happy and relaxed everyone was. The employees I talked to were chilled, but at the same time seemed passionate and driven. We saw Dustin Browder on the way out (who remembered us as well) and promised for a second time to do a good job on HotS!


Team 2 time! The next area of the building were the WoW people, and this office felt very similar to Team 1's offices. Lots of artwork, decorated offices (f*ck I wish I could do that at my office). Saw a few familiar faces, and had a very fun wander with my mouth half open and smiling like an idiot.


Every hallway, every office, every person has their own personality. The building and the offices are a living breathing entity, so much character even on the walls largely due to the creative and brilliant people that occupy it. I bet everyone that reads this that works in an office wished their office were half as cool.


As we left the Team 2 area, we saw some stuff on the walls that blew my mind. They have a giant list of instructions on the mindset for every designer, and a little digital display that showed the amount of people logged into Battlenet all over the world via little lights.


Time for lunch! Jason and Celeste to us to a really nice Korean restaurant just outside the Blizzard campus in Irvine. We got "all you can eat" which is apparently alot lol. Tasty noms.


When we got back to the Blizzard offices after lunch, we were taken to an area I guess you'd call the "memorabilia room". It was full of statues that they had at Blizzcon, and some wall hangings from War3 and a lifesize Hearthstone from the WoW launch days.


We got taken to some rooms that we weren't allowed to take photos of, or talk about, but I can assure you they are all very cool Here are some more random photos of offices in the Web and Mobile and Battlenet areas, cause after the last lot of areas we walked through was basically the end of the tour!


That's basically it for our Blizzard HQ tour! I was buzzing afterwards, so excited and inspired to not only make more music but to draw again as well. Sorry there was such a delay between Part 2 and 3 of the blog, the US trip got pretty hectic after we hit Vegas and didn't really have net access in other areas. This is the final day of our US trip and it's been amazing. Blizzcon and the tour were definitely a major highlight.

Hope that everyone who had time to read my blog enjoyed it! Much love to Kalikah for taking alot of the pics and being awesome Check out her artwork and thank her for being as nerd as I am. Flying home tonight, peace