BlizzCon 2010's Opening Ceremony Transcript

Did you miss our liveblog of BlizzCon's opening ceremony? Have no fear: We've got Phil Kollar's entire transcript right here.

12:40
Now up and running on Cover It Live. There will be a link to the liveblog on gameinformer.com shortly. More tweets later!

12:41
Woo! (Sort of) working Internet!

12:41
We've still got about 20 minutes till the opening ceremony begins, and TONS of people are still pouring in. Lots of loud, dramatic World of Warcraft music playing.

12:42
I'm actually only a couple of seats back from the front in the press section, which is pretty rad. Elaborate stage setup with a bunch of different screens.

12:43
I've got Internet working here, but it's slow, so bear with me through any delays.

12:44
Also, I always forget how international Blizzard's fanbase is. There's a German dude to my left, a bunch of guys who sou

12:44
*sound like they're speaking Russian to my right, and a whole row of Australians in front of me.

12:47
WHAT IS THAT NERD SMELL? Oh, it's EVERYONE HERE. ...including me. :(

12:49
Things I did not do before coming to the convention center that I should have: eaten. Think anyone here could put down a fish feast?

12:49
(Just a little bit of World of Warcraft humor for you all. I'll be here all day.)

12:58
'Our show is about to begin.' They want cell phones off. Whoops!

1:00
Lights darkened. We're starting up. Trailer playing

1:01
Intro trailer showing off all Blizzard's properties. Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Cataclysm.

1:01
Artist from World of Warcraft team is on stage.

1:01
He guarantees we'll make friends here. I HAD BETTER MAKE FRIENDS HERE.

1:02
Just some boring blizzcon stuff right now. He's going over "appropriate audience reactions"

1:03
#1 is basically a golf clap. "Courtesy clap" he calls it. "If you're really not sure what Mike just said, but you're just happy to be here."

1:03
This artist guy is pretty weird. I LIKE IT.

1:04
"I want you to be as loud as you can. I want them to hear it all the way back in Korea."

1:04
Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime taking the stage!

1:05
Morhaime says Blizzard fans are the most passionate and creative gamers everywhere.

1:06
Mike points out how they're launching two games in one year -- StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. A bunch of other milestones for Blizzard this year.

1:06
"If we took every World of Warcraft player and lined them up to go to Disneyland, we would hit max capacity at the park for five months straight."

1:07
(Disneyland is real close to the Anaheim convention center.)

1:07
Blizzard was founded the year that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released.

1:08
Mike is thanking the fans for keeping Blizzard on their toes and "elevating gaming throughout the world." He's asking us to applaud myself. NICE WORK, PHIL!

1:08
Over 100,000 people are watching via the DirectTV stream. They could've just watched this liveblog for free!

1:09
Whoa, Blizzard is releasing a bunch of free Starcraft II custom game modes including...BLIZZARD DOTA. Gauntlet thrown down to Valve.

1:10
Those new StarCraft 2 game modes will be shown off at BlizzCon for the first time.

1:10
Blizz donated $1.1 million to the Make-a-Wish foundation based off people buying the Pandaren pet on their World of Warcraft pet store.

1:11
Mike asked everyone to scream "For the Horde." Then "Is the Alliance here? Just checking." Yeahg

1:11
*Yeah, screw the Alliance.

1:12
Putting a Moonkin Hatchling charity pet on sale in the coming months. They're also going to auction off server hardware and donate 100% of the proceeds to charity.

1:12
The Lich King has been killed 489,000 times in World of Warcraft. Poor guy!

1:13
"First time since 1998 that we will have launched two games in one year." He calls it a "double rainbow year."

1:13
StarCraft 2's "Ghost of the Past" trailer was the most viewed video on YouTube that week. "For one glorious week, the Terran marines managed to beat Justin Bieber."

1:14
More than 91 million ranked StarCraft II matches played on the new Battle.net since launch.

1:15
Talking StarCraft e-sports now. Some player named "Fruit Dealer" won $90,000. StarCraft fans probably know this already. Fruit Dealer.

1:15
Highlight reel of Blizzard moments from the past year beginning with Blizzcon 2009. That's like this, except for last year! And Geoff Keighley!

1:16
Last year's Blizzcon had some pretty major announcements (especially Cataclysm) as this video is reminding. I wonder if any of the announcements here will live up to it.

1:17
StarCraft II launch is now being shown off on the highlight reel. People were excited about that launch, apparently.

1:18
Now showing off some clips from StarCraft II and World of Warcraft tournaments.

1:18
Fruit Dealer.

1:18
Fruit Dealer WINS!!!!

1:19
Fruit Dealer and some other StarCraft 2 competitive players are here at Blizzcon and will be playing an exhibition match.

1:19
StarCraft II, Warcraft 3, and WoW arena tournaments taking place this weekend. $200,000 being given away this weekend.

1:21
Mike's mostly just talking about different stuff that will be going on at Blizzcon. Costume contest, Tenacious D concert, etc.

1:22
A "near-final version" of Cataclysm will be playable here.

1:23
Just announced: will be able to pre-order and download the Cataclysm expansion directly from Blizzard so you can have it ready to play the moment they turn the servers on .

1:24
Major update on Diablo coming up! Chris Metzen taking the stage

1:24
Metzen called walking onto the stage "very American Idol." "I feel like Bono."

1:25
"I need to slow down because my brain is running way too fast." He's going to throw words out at us.

1:26
"Horde" "Diablo" "Alliance" "StarCraft" - lots of shouting

1:27
Except for "Alliance" - there was booing then.

1:27
Metzen says he has cotton mouth. Is he on drugs?! Fifth word coming up.

1:27
"Fairly contentious" word...

1:29
The fifth word is "Geek". What?

1:29
"This word is power. This word is identity." Walking through "illustrations of what this word means to some of us."

1:30
Showing slides of what "geek is." First slide is Transformers.

1:30
A D&D die

1:31
Conan the Barbarian. He's doing a terrible Schwarzenegger impression.

1:31
Captain America.

1:31
Samurai Shodown - "The greatest fighting game ever made. Get off me, Street Fighter"

1:32
Star Wars, Joust, G.I. Joe. "Action figures with kung-fu grip. Screw your iPod, that's the greatest technology in the world."

1:33
Batman, The Matrix, some Gundam-looking thing, Spider-Man

1:34
Doom! Hell yeah, was just talking about how awesome Doom still is last night. Man, that game is awesome.


1:34
Thor. Metzen says he can't wait for the Thor movie. "That's why Thrall got a magic hammer."

1:35
Still doing the "geek is" thing. Showing Everquest now. huh. "None of us, and none of this would be here without Everquest."

1:36
Wonder when they'll actually get into Blizzard properties. Made a greast Avatar joke about how Na'vi are night elf rip-offs.


1:38
"Geek is" Lord of the Rings. "the story that started it all."

1:38
"Geek is" Superman. With so many superheroes getting shout-outs, Aquaman better damned well get his own slide.


1:39
"Geek is" segment is done. Now onto the Diablo III news?

1:40
Metzen says the point is that despite how Blizzard can feel like big business, the "truest spirit of Blizzcon" is "our collective geekiness -- imagination, sharing games and ideas with friends, having fun, inspiration"

1:41
"With all of that having been said, we've got some business to discuss."

1:41
Fifth and final class for Diablo III is about to be announced!

1:42
A new trailer to announce the last class is rolling.

1:42
Dead bodies lying around. Hooded figure looking at them. Touching their wounds.

1:42
"Someone survived" she says and goes running.

1:43
She finds survivor. "You probably ran until you couldn't take another step. I remember that feeling."

1:43
"As long as I'm here, they are the prey, and I am the hunter."

1:44
Crazy acrobatics while shooting monsters with a crossbow.

1:44
Super-powerful ranged class. Looks like a lot of fun.

1:45
"I stand alone, and if they keep coming, I will never stop killing."

1:45
The final cass is "Demon Hunter"

1:45
Demon hunter will be playable at Blizzcon demo stations. "Diablo fans, this isn't the only thing we have for you today."

1:46
Diablo III will have PvP battle arenas as well. another video is playing to show them off.

1:46
I wonder if they'll have the same problem WoW does with balancing for PvP versus regular play or if classes will operate differently in arenas.

1:47
Looks like 3v3 team battles

1:48
Metzen says PvP arenas will be demoed this weekend as well. Sweet.

1:48
They're going to play the Cataclysm cinematic trailer that got released earlier this week.

1:50
Doing some crazy sound-and-light show stuff to introduce the trailer. the floor is actually rumbling. Pretty awesome.

1:50
(Of course it's possible that the huge earthquake we've been waiting for has just hit L.A. at a perfectly coincidental time.)

1:51
If you haven't yet, look this trailer up. It's posted on GI earlier in the week. Really awesome seeing Deathwing mess up Azeroth.

1:53
Opening ceremony is done! I should be back in 10-15 minutes for the Diablo gameplay panel. Stay tuned!

We'll be posting summaries of Blizzard's other panels throughout the day. Be sure to check out what's happening live at our BlizzCon 2010 Liveblog page.