BlizzCon: interview with Alice Taylor of Wonderland

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 6th 2007 at 2:59PM }

It's pretty impressive when you meet someone who writes extensively about video games, handles digital content and video game R&D for the BBC, and finds time to maintain an extremely popular blog, only to find out that they also rock some high level characters inside of World of Warcraft. Seriously, where do they find the time? By the end of the day, if I've managed to finish at least a third of the items on my to-do list, I feel like I've accomplished a lot. Alice Taylor does all of the above and manages to make me feel damn lazy.

Anyhow, I caught up with her during BlizzCon, and asked her a few questions about her experiences. She asked what my highest level character was, and when I told her a Level 42 Human Warlock, I think her look of scorn was burned into my brain. Forever.

Check out the interview after the break, and be sure to venture over to Wonderland, which is filled with video gaming goodness. Blizzard, take special note: her suggestions for improvements are spot-on. It would be nice to see BlizzCon 2.0 next year with some of these things implemented. Plus, free passes to Disneyland. Although that's just my little addendum.

So, what did you think of BlizzCon? What were the hits and misses? Was it anything like what you expected? Favorite part(s)?

It was okay. It was expensive, and sparse on content, really. Lots of showy stuff from Blizzard, and some from sponsors, and very little from the players, considering, and they're a very important part of the whole thing!

Also, too many low-volume rides, e.g. gameplay areas, and Blizz shop (queues were Disneylandesque).

Favourite part, by far: dance and costume contests.

What could have made it better?

Fan areas:

by-server gathering spots
by-server tabled banquet (like SOE)
fan art gallery
player panels: be fun to hear the hardcore talking
developer pods: devs can man a pod and show off their work, answer questions, etc
social games (e.g. tabletop areas, werewolf tables, etc)
special area for cosplayers to show off (podiums!), like Tokyo Game Show
historical galleries, e.g. the history of WoW music (which is brilliant), who composed it, how it was made, how much it cost, the story behind the making, etc. More STORIES...
better lighting

How often do you play WoW? What others games do you play?

4-5 times a week. Also playing: Overlord, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Brain Training.

What do you think of the "Con" experience as a whole? Re: Comic-Con, E3, BlizzCon, etc.

Usually, love it! Comic-Con was fun. WorldCon has a ton of fan participation. E3 used to be awesome. Tokyo Game Show is almost a con, considering the price to get in. BlizzCon is the most expensive of the lot, btw.

If you had oodles of free time and dough to make a WoW costume, what would you be?

A'dal, that giant floaty twinkly thing in the middle of Shattrath.

Tags: Alice Taylor, AliceTaylor, BBC, Blizzard, BlizzCon, Wonderland, World of Warcraft, WoW