BlizzCon 2009 opens its doors: California, brace yourself

California has been invaded by tens of thousands of gamers, all united by a common bond: an undying love of all things Blizzard. Blizzcon is the annual celebration of Blizzard games – essentially StarCraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft – and it just kicked off at a crammed Anaheim Convention Center, where it is currently 31°C. It’s probably not the most fragrant place to be right now.

This usually means a few big announcements involving the aforementioned franchises. This year, I’m expecting more about potential World of Warcraft expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, as well as oodles of new details on StarCraft II and Diablo III. For reasons that are not immediately apparent, there’ll be a stage performance by Ozzy Osbourne.

Attendees can also buy a quite ridiculous amount of Blizzard merch (I really want a 5 Dragon Stein), watch top professional players of Blizzard’s games go head-to-head, participate in Q&A sessions with Blizzard developers, and pick up a special, Blizzcon-exclusive pet for their World of Warcraft character: Grunty the Murloc Marine. Nice.

If you’re not going, you can watch all of this take place – and I do have friends who have camped in for a weekend in front of the PC with supplies of Doritos and Coke – via the Internet.