Moscow Midnight Opening of Cataclysm

On the December 6th of 2010 in the north of Moscow at the «Metropolis» trade mall the Russian launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm happened. This third global expansion to the famous MMORPG – World of Warcraft (2004) – has attracted a lot of game’s fans to the event. Not a single cataclysm or even a cold weather could stop them from attending this midnight opening.

Blizzard Entertainment has included Moscow in a list of key world cities, where fans got a spectacular show. The midnight opening was truly international. The same days similar events were held in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and even in Taiwan. For the presentation of the project to the first customers on December 6-8th, 2010 to nearly opposite ends of the world members of the development team traveled to answer media questions, attend the opening ceremony and sign the first bought game boxes of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

It is remarkable that Moscow once again was included in the cities list, where the sales of the game began at the very first day of the world premiere of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Thus, the Ukrainian fans of the series, who were not able to get to the Russian capital for the standard or collector’s edition, had to wait for one more day. Blizzard Entertainment visited Kiev later – on December 7th, 2010.

Place for the Moscow premiere of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was chosen properly. We have things to compare: in July in another mall Blizzard made a similar event tied to the sales start of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010). This time journalists had more freedom in their moves, though it was rather difficult to find a free spot to film the videos because of the cheering crowd all around.

Given the years of experience in huge queues, event organizers have constructed a spectacular Fan-zone. The first level of it had a stylish rounded entrance and a decorated fence to limit the number of viewers closest to the stage. The security shut off one of the lifting platforms and blocked the passage on the second floor leading to the shop’s entrance. In general, everything was created in mind of the comfort of the general public attending the premiere and true Blizzard’s fans.

Moreover, those who got close to the shop, didn’t have to miss the performance on stage thanks to the huge plasma screens installed in various locations to cheer up the queues. On the shiny screen gloss the broadcast was shown in real-time reflecting everything happening below. Fan-zone on the first floor was looking like a maze made of barriers, where people were admitted to portionally to preserve air flow. The Fan-zone was fully occupied as well as nearly all the space on the first and second floors, where some of the angles provided a good view on the event while really limiting the available space.

Journalists wishing to videotape the event had to contrive. Our operator, for example, has tried to ride up the escalator a few times to get a good view on the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm concerto. Of course, we did not miss a chance to go to the crowd, but at the same time checked out a few guards and promoters who were standing at some strategic key zones to influence the people’s movement. We showed some of them our official media badge issued at the event, though the reaction on seeing it was quite unstable just like the Warcraft’s world after the Deathwing appearance.

We asked some employees working at the event a simple question about the entrance location for the media to get into the Fan-zone, but the answers were surprisingly different. The most unexpected replicae list tried to send us to somewhere out there, to behind the scenes, to make us explain what a media is and which media exactly wants an entrance or to where we would like to enter and why. The funniest comment told us that the media had already left the event encouraging us with a chance to pursue it successfully. The backstage guard was unaware of anything, that’s why he was anxiously gesticulating and loudly shouting that he didn’t know anything we asked about and never heard of it.

Sometimes it seemed that the presence of the media at the event on the first floor was unexpected to some security guards and promoters. Fortunately for us, one of the staff members was kind enough to help us find the shortest way to the store, whose employees certainly were aware of what was happening. Of course, here we are also sharing with you some photos and videos we made at the premiere’s day.

With that said, we couldn’t mention a calm oasis opened on the third floor at the Lizarran restaurant, «1C-SoftClub», the official Russian distributor of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, created press-zone for the media and developers from Blizzard Entertainment. Here it was possible not only to communicate with colleagues in an informal setting, but also to relax from the noise of the crowd on the lower floors.

Blizzard’s official delegations sent to Russia consisted of cheerful Monte Krol, Head of application development, as well as Joe Shely, Senior game designer for Cataclysm, and Russell Brower – Director of Audio/Video department at Blizzard Entertainment. The developers were quite friendly and happily worked at the event, although at the evening they looked a little tired after the long day including interacting with the media and the fans. The devs also had a special goal: to select three major winners of the Costume contest.

Russell Brower is a well-known person in the media industry. Earlier in his career, this American composer and sound engineer worked as a Director of sound design at NovaLogic, familiar for the game series such as Comanche (1990-2001) and DeltaForce (1998-2009). In addition, Russell also served as a Media Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering, being responsible there for the artistic development of amusement parks.

Russell Brower holds three Emmy awards for his sound production works, the American «Golden Reel» award for his work on the soundtrack to the game - StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010). Mr. Brower made all the sound for Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) and collaborated with Steven Spielberg while recording the audio for Animaniacs (1993-1998).

In the game industry the first experience of Russell Brower was the creation of sound for Joint Operations (2004) developed by NovaLogic. Later on he moved to Blizzard Entertainment, where soon became the Director of Audio/Video. If you enjoyed the music from Warcraft III (2002), World of Warcraft (2004), World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (2007), World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (2008), StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010) and the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (2010), your thanks for this great music should be also addressed to Russell Brower and his team. You might have guessed, who had already composed and recorded the soundtrack to the future Diablo III (TBA).

At the premiere of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm some journalists right at the restaurant, contrary to all known rules of etiquette, tried to distract the developers from the long-awaited dinner with their questions and photography affairs. Courtesy of foreign visitors knew no bounds: they didn’t hide from the Russian paparazzi and were quite willing to forget about the food to satisfy some more media curiousity. Luckily, PR-representatives were close enough to save a short Blizzard’s meal from any further disturbance.

Meanwhile, on the first floor the fans of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm were trying to win various themed souvenirs with their extensive knowledge of the World of Warcraft universe. Also a big lottery was taking place. We talked to some gamers, and it turned out that not everyone understood the meaning of this contest, although certainly everyone was willing to participate. In fact, the guests just had to fill in the survey with some personal information for the chance to win a powerful video card.

As a result, the six winners left the day with powerful Nvidia graphics cards, while the rest were still able to try their luck at winning prizes presenting the universe of World of Warcraft. To do this, they had to be faster than the others in answering questions about the game, where the major role played topics about the history of Cataclysm.

Entertaining part of the show program included musical performances during the World of Warcraft Concerto. Opera singers enjoyed the background harp melody, played out by a blonde fairy. Although the stage was not too big, it became a great dancefloor for new performers showing their truly gorgeous costumes and make-up while they tried to enchant the audience. The show, indeed, was really charming, and we admired it with pleasure.

The hosts were actively joking from the stage to cheer the crowd and reward them with more and more prize stuff. Apart from branded T-shirts and books there was also high demand on game time cards and exclusive downloadable conten. The winners of the Costume contest received entire sets of various gifts. Though initially ten finalists had just a few seconds to show themselves and their robes to the devs from Blizzard Entertainment.

Among the three winners of the Costume contest were two girls, including an Elven representative, who climbed up to the stage nearly the last moment before the audition ended. It isn’t surprising that girls were encouraged with precious prizes. Not only their costumes were looking really nice, but also the jury consisted of all the males. Russell Brower tried to film the fans with his professional photocamera, but the contestants were too actively spinning around and couldn’t stand still. The Grand Prix reached its owner as well. It happened to be a Horde member wearing a luxurious robe and holding a huge race banner. We can note that many of the participants in this competition showed some worthy clothes design including various accessories. The only pity here was the fact that the developers weren’t given enough time to present their greeting speech to the crowd.

Gamers dreamt of winning a Cataclysm copy this evening, but, alas, it was only available at a local shop. Though from the first minute of the sales opening the store was filled with the fans of World of Warcraft. On a separate table pre-ordered collectors’ editions of this add-on were distributed. They had to be booked in advance, since they were release in a limited edition series. All the rest had to settle with the standard version of the game. By the way, to run in you do need to have a copy of the previous expansion – Wrath of the Lich King (2008).

At the exit from the store the buyers had a chance to meet Monte Krol, Russell Brower and Joe Sheley, who were signing memorable autographs for the fans and presented everyone with an encouraging smile. It was a long day for this Blizzard’s team. However, the next day they had to adventure more with Cataclysm, while launching the game in Kiev, Ukraine.

In general, the Russian premiere of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was a success attracting a huge crowd. We got a lot of interesting experiences, while fans of the most famous MMORPG in the world got a chance to purchase the add-on a night before it appeared in all the stores of the country. Besides, the official launch of the game’s servers was scheduled to 2 a.m. the very next night, Moscow time.

Thus, the first customers only had to return home after a night’s concert, to take a meal before the first long play session, and then to proceed to the epic story and get familiar with the variety of new content. However, we will not try to mix things up, leaving the main features of the add-on to be researched in an extensive Review, which will soon be published on our website.

Video #1 of the Midnight Opening / Video #2 of the Midnight Opening

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

The third global expansion to the epic MMORPG – World of Warcraft.

The Story:

Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire. Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

Key Features: