Blizzard
Grab your gear and saddle up, because we’re headed to PAX East! PAX attendees should ready themselves for three days of demon slaying, sword swinging, hero playing, and card slinging awesomeness, as this year we’ll be featuring all-new builds for our most recent and upcoming games, hands-on time at demo stations, an epic developer panel, and awesome giveaways and prizes. Come by and check everything out at
BOOTH #848! We’ll be there from
10AM to
6PM, Friday, April 11 through
Sunday, April 13. Here’s what you can expect at this year’s Blizzard booth:
- Warlords of Draenor hands-on demo featuring updated character models and the intro experience for the upcoming expansion.
- Hands-on time with the in-development Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition, playable on PlayStation 4.
- A chance to find out what’s in the cards for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and play the mobile version on iPad.
- A brand-new demo for Heroes of the Storm, featuring new Heroes playable for the first time anywhere outside of Blizzard.
- Blizzard developers will be on-hand to chat about your favorite games.
- Blizzard developers will also be giving a presentation at the Albatross Theatre on Friday, April 11 at 10:30 a.m. EDT titled Heroes of the Storm: The Ultimate Blizzard Mashup (streamed live on one of the official PAX Twitch channels for those not in attendance).
- And did we mention there will be giveaways, prizes, and more? If not . . . there will be giveaways, prizes, and more!
Head on over to
east.paxsite.com for panel schedules and hotel and travel information.We hope to see you there!
Blizzard
We’d like to welcome you to step inside the Nexus once more for our fourth live Q&A session with the Heroes of the Storm development team. We took a close look at the art of Heroes during Q&A Session #3, and this time, we’ll put the Talent system under the microscope.Join us at
Twitch.tv/BlizzHeroes on
Wednesday, March 19 to get your questions answered during the Q&A panel. The show will kick off at
11:00 a.m. PDT with a brief round-table discussion on the Heroes of the Storm Talent system, which will be immediately followed by the Q&A panel. The following members of the Heroes development team will be stopping by for a chat:
- Dustin Browder, Game Director
- Richard Khoo, Senior Game Designer
- Matt Cooper, Game Designer
- Kevin Johnson, Senior Manager, Community Development
Once the Q&A session wraps up, our very own Kevin Knocke will drop into the co-caster’s chair alongside Dustin Browder in order to commentate a live Heroes of the Storm showmatch played between members of the Heroes design team.We’d love to hear all of your burning questions about the Heroes Talent system, and much more! Be sure to tweet your inquiries to
@BlizzHeroes now using
#HeroesQA and we’ll get to as many as possible during the broadcast. We hope you’ll tune in, because this week’s show is going to be an absolute blast.
Blizzard
*Excerpt – Chapter 13*
“Are you afraid?”“What?” The water splashed. Anduin’s bones suddenly ached.“Are you afraid?” Garrosh repeated. The question was casually posed, as if the orc were simply making conversation. Anduin knew it for a verbal grenade. To either answer truthfully or to lie would blow open a door to things Anduin had no desire to discuss.“There’s no reason to be. You are restrained by chains and enchanted prison bars. You’re quite unable to attack me.”“Concern for one’s physical safety is only one reason to fear. There are others. I ask again: Are you afraid?”“Look,” said Anduin, deliberately placing the glass on the table, “I came here because you asked me to. Because Baine said that I was the only person you agreed to talk to about . . . well, about whatever it is you want to talk about.”“Maybe your fear is what I want to talk about.”“If that’s so, then we are both wasting our time.” He rose and went for the door.“Stop.”Anduin paused, his back to Garrosh. He was angry with himself. His palms were damp and it took every effort he could summon to refrain from shaking outright. He would not let Garrosh see fear in him.“Why should I?”“Because . . . you are the only person I wish to talk to.”The prince closed his eyes. He could leave, right this minute. Garrosh was almost certainly going to play games with him. Perhaps trick him into saying something he shouldn’t. But what, possibly, could that be? What could Garrosh want to know? And Anduin realized that afraid on some level though he might be, he didn’t really want to go. Not yet.He took a deep breath and turned around. “Then start talking.” Garrosh pointed at the chair. Anduin shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then took the seat with deliberate, casual movements. He lifted his eyebrows, indicating he was waiting.“You said you believed I could change,” Garrosh said. “What in this world or any other could make you think that, after what I have done?”Again, no real emotion, only curiosity. Anduin started to answer, but hesitated. What would Jaina . . . no. Jaina was no longer the sort of diplomat he wished to emulate. He felt a flicker of amusement when he realized that for all his threats of murdering Garrosh, Varian had now become more of a role model for Anduin than Jaina. The realization was both sad, for he loved Jaina, and sweet, for he loved his father.“Tell you what. We’ll take turns.”An odd smile curved Garrosh’s mouth. “We have a bargain. You’re a better negotiator than I expected.”Anduin let out a short bark of laughter. “Thanks, I think.”The orc’s smile widened. “You go first.”The first point goes to Garrosh, Anduin mused. “Very well. I believe you can change because nothing ever stays the same. You were overthrown as warchief of the Horde because the people you led changed from following your orders to questioning them, and finally rejecting them. You’ve changed from warchief to prisoner. You can change again.”Garrosh laughed without humor. “From living to dead, you mean.”“That’s one way of doing it. But it’s not the only one. You can look at what you’ve done. Watch and listen and really try to understand the pain and damage you’ve caused, and decide that you won’t continue down that path if given another chance.”Garrosh stiffened. “I cannot change into a human,” he growled.“No one expects or wants that,” Anduin answered. “But orcs can change. You better than anyone should know that.”Garrosh was silent. He looked away for a moment, pensive. Anduin resisted the impulse to cross his arms, instead forcing his body posture to seem relaxed, and waited. A bright-eyed, coarse furred rat poked its head out from under the sleeping furs. Its nose twitched, and then it ducked back out of sight. The warchief of theHorde once . . . and now his cellmate is a rat.“Do you believe in destiny, Anduin Wrynn?”For the second time Anduin was blindsided. What was going on inside Garrosh’s head?“I-I’m not sure,” he stammered, his carefully maintained image of coolness dissolving immediately. “I mean—I know there are prophecies. But I think we all have choices too.”“Did you choose the Light? Or did it choose you?”“I—I don’t know.” Anduin realized he had never asked himself that question. He recalled the first time he considered becoming a priest, and had felt a tug in his soul. He craved the peace the Light offered, but he didn’t know if it had called him, or if he had set out in pursuit of it.“Could you choose to deny the Light?”“Why would I want to do that?”“Any number of reasons. There was another golden-haired, beloved human prince once. He was a paladin, and yet he turned his back on the Light.”Outrage and offense chased away Anduin’s discomfort. Blood suffused his face and he snapped, “I am not Arthas!”Garrosh smiled oddly. “No, you are not,” he agreed. “But maybe . . . I am.”