Many BlizzFans mounted up and rode towards the portal that is Blizzard’s BlizzCon 08 ticket purchase page yesterday only to be turned away. After what one can only assume were several attempts to resolve the issue, Blizzard eventually pulled the site offline and issued the following statement:

Update: 9:40 PM PDT – We have appreciated everyone’s patience as we’ve worked to address issues with the BlizzCon ticket sales today. To avoid having people stay up into the early hours attempting to make ticket purchases, we will take ticket sales down and continue implementing optimizations through tonight and tomorrow morning.

There are still plenty of tickets available, so if you weren’t able to purchase tickets today, please check back tomorrow. We’ll continue to provide updates on the World of Warcraft forums here.

Tomorrow is now today, and while everything should be up and running, I went over to the site to test out the link a few moments ago only to be greeted by a “The site is down for maintenance” page. If you are determined to raid this years convention, you will likely get your tickets soon — but don’t flask up just yet.

Update: As of 10:30 AM PDT, Blizzard issued the following statement:

Update: 10:30 AM PDT – We’ve made significant progress throughout the morning on implementing optimizations for the BlizzCon ticket website to better handle the load of purchase requests. We’re continuing to work on these updates, and we currently estimate that tickets will be available for purchase again after 12:00PM PDT today.

Further details regarding ticket availability will be posted on the World of Warcraft forums, and we’ll post another update here when tickets are up for sale again.

While I still wouldn’t flask, you may want to sharpen your blade and get your 100 gold ready. It appears that you will be able to loot your tickets in about an hour.

The first ever Sonic convention is to be held this summer in London, UK. The event will combine the efforts of the two largest Sonic fan sites; The Sonic Stadium and Sonic Wrecks, with support from Sega Europe.

Taking place on Saturday the 9th of August, Sega have said that the event will have “competitions for big prizes, interactions, special guests” as well as a chance to play the upcoming Sonic Chronicles a good two months before it’s released.

Summer of whaaaa? Yes, SEGA has teamed up to give some backing to a fan venture for the first full on Sonic Convention which will be taking place in London on Saturday August 9th. It’s a creation of the Sonic online fan base and its arguably two most involved websites The Sonic Stadium and Sonic Wrecks – whilst we’re still confirming details, the event is scheduled to have competitions for big prizes, interactions, special guests (tbc) and the chance to look at how Sonic as a brand has diversified over the years and the output of both fans and the company behind the gaming icon. There’ll also be some surprises in store, Sonic in attendance and the chance to get a play on Sonic Chronicles a good couple of months before it comes out. Anybody intending to come will need to register their interest on the website. Find out more details at http://www.summerofsonic.com.

If you fancy spending a day running round with blue face paint on (if they don’t have blue face paint, I’m going to cry), make sure to get yourself registered with the Summer of Sonic website and we’ll see you there.

Have you heard about these things called Comic Cons? They’re really very bizarre. Large groups of people get together to discuss books with pictures of men in bright costumes! And some of the followers dress up in the very same colorful costumes. Crazy! All that hoopla over picture books!

I’ve been going to the NYC Comic Con since its inception three years ago, and let me tell you, they’ve come a long way. I couldn’t believe it. The convention felt at least twice as big as last years, in both space and in attendance.

In previous years it just felt nerdy, which is great, but this time it felt like “a big deal.” And there were a proliferation of hot chicks! I couldn’t believe it! Since when do cute girls like nerdy stuff? What happened to all the fat hairy middle aged men of years past?! It felt cool, but almost unsettling. I kept on thinking, “Man, that girl was cute. Am i cool enough to be here?”

And the passion of the attendees was different too. Less of a low key comic book store atmosphere and more of summer rock festival atmosphere. The crazy high percentage of people who dressed up as their favorite characters helped.

I love the new NYC Comic Con!

This was also the first year that the Comic Con featured a programing schedule full of gaming sessions and many booths from Konami, Activision, 2K and more.

Now check out the weirdos I photographed!