Mike Morhaime takes the stage after an introduction that asks show attendees to respect each other and not act like a bunch of tchotchke hungry douche bags.

Mike talks about how awesome Blizzard is, before taking a brief pause to resume talking about how awesome Blizzard is.

He talks about how this years tickets sold out in less than one minute — less time than it takes Ret pallys to storm the forums after a nerf.

Thanks go out to the service men and women around the world.

Mike now talks about what has happened since last years Blizz Con. The first thing mentioned is Wrath’s sale records. He now shows a video clip from last years Blizz Con and the WoW LtlK midnight launch.

Video concludes and Mike makes a joke about long lines at midnight release that bombs (yawn). He then transfers into changes Blizzard has made including faction change (and the crowd boos). Mike talks about the Mobile Warcraft Armory and segways into the 5 year anniversary plans for WoW including a revamp of Onixia.

He talks about Battle.net and Sam Rami signing on to make the WoW movie.

Mike now explains the layout and availability of games on the floor during Blizzcon 09. The crowd cheers.

He now talks about the exclusive collectible in our goodie bags that will never be reproduced. He calls the nube and “instant collectible” that we can save or put on Ebay for the price of a small car.

MC Front Alot and Jay Mohr will be on hand to entertain the show attendees. On the musical side of things, level 80 elite Tauren chief is back, along with…the Prince of Darkness Ozzy (crowd goes wild).

Thanks everyone for their support of the show and asks us all to give ourselves a “/cheer”. (my god the nerd level just shot through the roof). Mike’s segment concludes.

Chris Metzen takes the stage…

Whats up Blizzcon! Chris talks about how the company prides themselves about not putting games out until they are “done”. (pshhhhh my ass). Thanks crowd for support, understanding, and enthusiasm. Asks them to clap for themselves. Shows the crowd the shirt that Blizz employees will be wearing and urges the show attendees to mug them whenever possible (I’m going to guess Chris will be hiding during the show).

Chris asks “where’s the ALLIANCE AT??!!” (crowd erupts). Then he asks “Where’s the HORDE!!!??!” (crowd erupts just a little louder). He then says that with a roar like that the Lich King is going to pee his frozen panties. He then asks “where are the Diablo players in the house?” Crowd erupts again.

He tells the audience sarcastically that they have been working on a small internal project in secret called “Diablo 3″.

Chris introduces new Diablo 3 playable class…THE MUNK. Video rolls. A staff wielding character with a long brown beard and beaded necklace approaches a sand filled city escorted by an ominous character covered in cloth from head to toe — face concealed. He battles enemies after being locked in and survives only to confront the mysterious figure that led him there afterwords, demanding that the deceiver “reveal himself. He does and a battle ensues.

View ends and the crowd cheers. He then shows an actual gameplay sequence so people can see how the Munk plays. It looks pretty standard for what players would expect from Diablo. Fans clap (so it must be good).

Chris now segways into WoW. He talks briefly about rumors around the internet. Touching on new races, possible expansions. He then says, Blizzcon, the wait is over. In just a second he promises a glimpse at a trailer showing the first Blizzcon Expansion set. (crowd erupts).

WORLD OF WARCRAFT CATACLYSM!!! Video rolls. As the war against the lich king continues, the fight for peace goes on, but there can be no peace. Kalimdore and the eastern kingdoms have been transformed. Destruction of the world is shown.

Shows goblins as a new horde faction. Worgens are alliance faction. Flying mounts are now allowed in Azeroth.  New monsters revealed. Some look like mutant turtles and rock beasts. Some new dungeons and changes to Azeroth. Rated teams in battlegrounds, new level cap (I think it said 85). Heroic Shadowfang keep. Guild leveling system. Gnome priests. There will be new race class combinations along with new achievements. Archaeology will be a new secondary profession (on the same level as cooking and first aid).

Logo hits screen…crowd goes wild.

WOW Panel will be coming up soon. I will be there as well. As for now, this concludes the opening ceremony live blog. Thanks for reading. I have to go find something to eat and try not to get stomped on by the freaks.

Have you seen Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie Brüno? Did you like it? Well, if you did then you’ll probably love Blizzard’s new Alliance specific tier 9 gear — if not, then I suggest you re-roll Horde, which will soon be much easier as Blizzard announced their intent to let players change their faction.

Seriously though, as a former art major, it doesn’t take long to figure out that more time and thought was put into the Horde tier designs than the Alliance. Either that or one set was thrown together after a company rushed out to see Brüno on their lunch break.

Both the Alliance rogue and druid appear to be wearing girdles, and while the shoulders on the Horde Shaman and Hunter have a clear design difference, their Alliance counterparts are exactly the same. The Alliance Warrior, Paladin, and Death Knight look like car hood ornaments that belong on a Dodge Ram truck.

The latest Alliance tier set is pure loss on the part of Blizzard’s designers. Heck, they even took the time to show the Horde Paladin gear on a Blood Elf but couldn’t muster up the effort to show the Alliance Shaman gear on a Draenei.

If this garbage goes live I can bet you that more than a few people will give the soon to be released MMO Aion. My proposed solution — scrap the faction based tier concept and give everyone the Horde design. After all, it’s obviously the set that had more attention given to it.

HORDE SET

ALLIANCE SET

Source: mmo-champion.com a few laps around the track.

Mountain Dew and popular MMO World of Warcraft team up to offer gamers two new beverages capable of changing skin color, muscle tone, and sexual orientation. Oh, I’m sure they promise to give some sort of energy boost too.

Hit the jump for a lovely demonstration of the beverages in action by a gamer who looks nothing like the lovely ladies in the commercial above.

BlizzCon 08 had no shortage of special guest appearances. In addition to the truck loads of draenei and night elves, the outskirts of the event are being patrolled by none other than Thrall.

Check out the mighty Horde Warchief in action after the jump.