Though the WoW Insider team has arrived en masse to cover all things WoW at BlizzCon 2008, our eyes can't help but wander over what other shiny offerings Blizzard has to display. Our sister sites Joystiq and Big Download will be covering Starcraft II and Diablo 3 extensively, but having already been to the Anaheim Convention Center today to get our press badges we couldn't help but notice in the program (see above) that a playable demo of Diablo 3 will be available for the first time.

Don't worry we won't let it distract us from -- is that the new class for Diablo 3? It's class weapon does what?? Shoot witches!? Sorry. What were we saying?

Rob Pardo, SVP of game design at Blizzard, gave the keynote speech at the Game Developer's Conference held in Paris this week. Here are some WoW-related tidbits from his talk and the Q&A session held afterward.

About WoW

• WoW was first conceived as free to play, being supported by advertising. However, the non-subscription business model couldn't support Blizzard's goals for the game.
• Pardo suggested that Blizzard approached the MMO genre "very naively, or else we might not have done it."
• He once hired a WoW player who sent him a 16-page diatribe about the game because, even though the guy was wrong, "he was passionate" about improving the game.

About Starcraft 2

• Blizzard has no problem putting intellectual properties on hold for a while, hence the wait for a Starcraft game. Pardo says that they wanted to make a real-time strategy game but were "tired of green-skinned orcs" so they moved away from Warcraft to Starcraft.
• Starcraft 2 is at a playable stage in its development and he's having a lot of fun with it.

Read more about Rob Pardo's keynote speech.

Avid Blizzard fans are already watching the official StarCraft II website. Much like other unmentionable Blizzard products, information about StarCraft II is slowly making its way into the world. There may not yet be Tauren marines in our immediate future, but sharp-eyed David Craddock at the Big Download Blog spotted new screenshots released this week.

While some of the screenshots won't be recognizable or meaningful to new StarCraft initiates, most of the action is generally recognizable (in a general sense) to a veteran RTS player. You can definitely get an overall sense of troops, constructed bases, and how the fight might progress if it were animated.

These new screenshots feature the Banelings, which sound like pretty fierce critters in their own right. Banelings -- a "morph" of the zergling -- are chemically volatile little buggers who spend their lives angry, temperamental, and ready to explode at any given time. Through tender loving care, Zerg Queens have been able to engineer the banelings in such a way that they'll explode exactly when needed. Presumably, "when needed" means "all over your troops." You can see the Baneling's idle animation on their feature page on the official site. They pump and undulate, and really do look like something that's over-filled and ready to pop given a moment's notice. Kind of gross, really.

Most of the details about Starcraft II will come "closer to release date," but it's still pretty tantalizing to get a first look at notable, trademark troops.

Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Game Design, is speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this afternoon and WoW Insider is here live to catch it all. Though the auditorium is just filling up, Pardo should be out in a few minutes to tell us all about Blizzard's approach to multiplayer game design. Catch the full details after the break.

So I wandered over to Blizzplanet this morning to check out what new information they might have, about the Wrath of the Lich King, about the upcoming patches, really anything of interest. Now, I only recently got into the Starcraft universe, really since the announcement about a sequel being in development. It was at that time that I decided to pick up a copy of the game and see what it was all about. RTS had never been my genre, but I am really enjoying the game for multiple reasons. So when I saw the petition listed on Blizzplanet, I was intrigued.

In Starcraft2, Blizzard's new addition to the genre, there are many things that have reappeared. Characters we know and love are back, albeit with some updates. The most notable change in the characters aside of their appearance is their voices. Evidently Blizzard has decided to go with new voice actors for this project, which leaves diehard Starcraft fans feeling disjointed and more than a little irritated. Thus Blizzplanet has put together a petition, and no it's not to bring back the Firebat. The petition is to let Blizzard know how much the players of Starcraft want to hear the same voice acting in Starcraft 2. The voice work in Starcraft was particularly brilliant, and was a huge part of what gave the game its personality. They ask that Blizzard work with the people that brought that magic to the first game. It really isn't a lot to ask, it just requires a change in Blizzard strategy. Will it work? Sign the petition and find out.

If you were one of the lucky few who happened to attend both this BlizzCon and the one in 2005, you would have noticed, as I did, the subtle changes that separated the two. Some of the changes were physical and others were harder to catch. In 2005 when we arrived at the arena, the sense of excitement was not only palpable, it was visible. For the first time since it's release, WoW fans were able to stand IRL and expound upon their favorite aspects of the game. I know personally, as someone who was at the time fairly new to the game, it was an amazing sight to see so many people who loved the game as I did. When I stood in line to get my tickets this year, however, it felt as if I were surrounded by a different crowd of gamers, a quieter one.

In case you needed any more reasons to want to go to BlizzCon, they've just announced that convention-goers will be treated to a playable demo of StarCraft II. Of course, who knows how much "playable demo" there is to the game yet, but but Blizzard tells us that "attendees can sample the new units and gameplay elements for themselves in multiplayer battles." Ah, sounds like good times to me! (The good old days, pre-WoW, when fun was just a Zergling rush away.)

Don't have tickets to BlizzCon? Don't worry -- WoW Insider has a few tickets to give away. So if you want to see StarCraft II in person, tune in next Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for your chance to win!

Eyonix announced that the official World of Warcraft BlizzCon 2007 forums are live. Topics are already blazing:

• What costume are you going to wear?
• Petitions to buy tickets for people who can't go but still want the swag
• How to find a place to stay when every room is already sold out
• And the most important topic of all: FIRST!

No new information yet on additional swag, ticket on-sale date or if a playable Starcraft 2 demo will be available for Blizzcon 2007. But keep checking in with WoW Insider, we'll update here when we know more.

Reading through WarCry I came across this fun little morsel. Evidently, it looks like the devs for Starcraft 2 are having a little fun with their game play, at least in pre-alpha. I knew that the WoW dances are infectious, but I didn't know they bridged genres.

In this video, note the dancing figure on top of the building to the right. It's WoW's own Night Elf female making a cameo appearance. The caption might be slightly off, but they are right about the figure being an elf, though not a Blood Elf. I imagine that this image will eventually be replaced by unique animation, but for the moment the placeholder certainly looks familiar.

Previously on Moviewatch...

[via WarCry]

Here's video, direct from G4, of my appearance on Attack of the Show last night. A little bumpy-- I mixed up Warcraft 3 and WoW (who knows how that happened), and I said the Blood Elves when I meant Draenei, but otherwise I think I got my points across fairly well. I do think Blizzard is going to pull some good elements from WC3 and WoW into SC2, and of course I think this will be a uniquely Blizzard game, no matter who they hire to work on it. For the record, I was right: the poll had 60% of voters saying Starcraft 2 was not a letdown.

I did get a little cut off at the end (that's probably why the mic levels jump a bit), because I was trying to wholly disagree with Garnett: Blizzard is not going to bring this game to consoles. I do agree that they're aiming for Holiday 2008, though, if only because that'll be the 10th anniversary of Starcraft. Thanks to G4 for putting this all together, and thanks to everyone who tuned in and watched it live last night.

Just a note to let you all know that I've been invited to be on G4's Attack of the Show this evening, at 7 and 11 pm Eastern time (so you can watch me on the show, then watch the Heroes or 24 season finales-- I'm recording both, because woot-- and then watch me again!).

They've asked me to talk about Starcraft 2 and Blizzard, so I'll have some juicy tidbits about Blizzard's latest game, I'm sure, and hopefully they'll allow me some commentary about Blizzard at large and how SC2's release might affect World of Warcraft. An entry on their blog (fittingly named Attack of the Blog) says that some other dudes from some other websites may be on there as well (I've always wanted to have a friendly face-off against Crecente on live national television), but we'll see.

So if you get a chance, please check it out. And we should have embedded video up soon. That way you lucky people can revisit my visage on G4 again and again and again. Let us know if you do. Should be fun, see you tonight.

The image above is what you saw if you visited the official WoW homepage this weekend, and a few players wondered why Blizzard was talking about a real-time strategy game on a site meant to discuss a MMORPG. Yeah, how dare they do that!

But it's a good question-- Starcraft II will be (assuming it does get released) the first game Blizzard has published since WoW, and so there's a lot of questions about how this will all be handled. How much do the audiences actually intersect? (personally I love MMORPGs, but not so much RTS, if only because I'm so bad at them) And how is Blizzard going to connect the two games, if at all-- are we going to see ads for Starcraft on the loading screen for WoW, or even in-game? Blizzard fans will probably buy and enjoy both games, but there is likely a larger percentage of the WoW population who just don't care about an RTS, even if it is another Blizzard game.

Of course, Blizzard has faith in both games serving their audiences well-- not only is the Starcraft team well-equipped to build their game, but WoW, they say, won't suffer one bit. I tend to believe them on that one, as Blizzard undoubtedly hired a lot of people to make sure WoW is running as smoothly as possible, and while Metzen is apparently working on Starcraft as well as directing WoW's lore, I'd doubt the two teams have that many people in common. Of course, rumors persist that Blizzard will be announcing yet another game at Blizzcon. Along with the new expansion, multiple sources are still reporting that we'll hear about Diablo 3 in August. Can it be possible that Blizzard might be split three ways at the same time? And can that possibly be a good thing for WoW's development?

It's short, sweet, and to the point. And honestly, I would have to agree. The wait is finally over. Now we have a new waiting game. Any bets on when we'll see this released?

Hot on the heels of screenshots and the trailer from Starcraft 2 comes this gameplay video! Man, it's an exciting time to be a fan. Thanks for the YouTube link, Fisker! You can also download the video from RapidShare. Follow the cut for one more video on YouTube.

[thanks again, Rich]

Yes, folks, this site is going to be Starcraft 2 Insider for the next little while. Somehow I don't think you guys'll mind too much -- we're all Blizzard fans here, right? Anyway, I turned up a few gameplay pictures from the Starcraft 2 announcement, and here they are! IGN also has many excellent official screenshots over at their site [thanks, Rich]. Although that seems to be getting hammered right now, they're definitely worth checking out. The game looks a lot more like Starcraft 1 than I would have expected, which is a good thing, in my opinion.