Even More BlizzCon Coverage

Three more websites are offering up coverage of Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzCon event from this past weekend. The first article is at Yahoo! Games:
A new feature in the pipeline that won't be exclusive to the expansion is the addition of linked auction houses in every major city. This received by far the most popular reaction from the crowd; this just goes to show how much people hate that long flight back to Ironforge or Ogrimmar. And bringing the world more to life will be the implementation of weather effects -- expect rain, snow, and sandstorms "the likes of which have never been seen."

The second article is at Slashdot:
Blizzcon was a great experience and a hell of a "first try" for a convention. One of the real strengths of this con was the ability for the core of Blizzard (the developers and upper management) to really make themselves available to the common man. I even noticed the president and lead developers wandering the showroom floor and stopping to talk to J. Random Citizen. This meeting of the "old guard" of Blizzard also made something that has been rather intangible in the past very clear. While the core of Blizzard that has weathered so many storms together is still just as strong as ever their "public face" is really struggling to keep up. I remember the days of beta and even early launch when the in game GM's were helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable. I even sent several glowing letters of review to their superiors because it was such a welcome change from the Sony mafioso in Star Wars Galaxies that I had just come from. A prime example of how the public relations folk are really struggling was the press/vip line during con check-in. A regular con badge could be accessed and retrieved in a matter of seconds due to a neat little database check-in program written by one of their technophiles. A press/vip pass however could only be found by thumbing through each and every pass, they didn't even have a list of who was authorized. This led to the "loss" of my badge and if it hadn't been for the use of my wife's badge (general admission) I would have missed the unveiling of the expansion, waiting until noon before they could figure things out.

And the third article is at Legit Reviews:
The line to play the expansion in World of Warcraft (WoW) was steady all day long. It turns out that blood elves are one of the two new playable races in WoW: The Burning Crusade. The Alliance will be getting a new race also, but Blizzard has yet to reveal the new character. We believe that the new race might be called Pandaren, but we could be wrong. Blizzard did allow players to jump into the expansion by letting them sample the blood elf area of Sunstrider Isle. These stations could also be used to play in the upcoming Ahn Qi'raj instanced dungeon, which will be released in an upcoming patch prior to the expansion pack. After waiting in line for nearly an hour the 30 minutes you are allowed to play goes by too quick!