My thoughts on the Blizzcon live feed

For a while now the Internet has been abuzz with information about Blizzcon.

Each and every statement has been picked apart and analyzed, hoping to somehow squeeze more information out than was originally intended. Honestly, as a group the Wow playing blog reading/writing community has quite a knack for figuring things out.

That’s why I don’t have a single thing to say about all that.

I’m not even going to go into the faction change service that went live this week.

 

What I will do is share a few thoughts on the Direct TV coverage of Blizzcon.

What I liked:

• I did not have to stand in line for anything.
• That goes doubly for the restroom (unless one of my teenagers decided to camp out)
• I did not have to eat con food, although I hear it was not half bad.
• No travel was involved.
• The live stream did not sell out in 53 seconds.
• The coverage of the panels was well done for the most part. Excellent visuals, and good sound quality.
• The interviews in between panels, while not the best in the world, were a damn site better than empty airtime.
• If I missed something I was able to go back and watch it later.

Things I did not like:

• No choice in streams, one program – you get what they feed you.
• The schedule was confusing, this should simply have been done better.
• The setup for the replay was horrible. Seriously Direct TV, this was a shot at new customers, you fail.
• The playback was in 15 minute blocks and not labeled as to content – just time stamped.  
• The time schedule was not even included on the same page as the time stamped footage. I actually found myself checking live blogs to find out what part of the stream to go back and watch. 
• I would like to have seen more of what the convention floor looked like, but thats just me.
• I was not able to choose which panel to watch, nor was I able to sort the programming by panel on the replay.

What I would like to see next year:

• First and foremost I would like to see Blizzcon somewhere less that 2000 miles away. They mentioned looking into another venue, might I suggest Chicago or Indianapolis? Just being selfish here =)
• As for the live stream a broader variety of coverage would be nice. Perhaps record the panels that are not going to be broadcast live and add them to the replay.
• After each panel is over have your folks list it as one cohesive segment as opposed to the time stamp method.
• Post an actual guide to the programming schedule, and update it as it changes.

 

I suppose the live stream is a mediocre substitute for actually being there, but it is the most many of us could do. Reality being what it is I could barely find the time to watch the coverage before it was closed out a week after the fact.

Oh well, maybe next year.