I just spent the weekend at Blizzcon, the once-annual convention dedicated to all things Blizzard. There, I interviewed a number of different people about their respective projects—World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, Diablo, and Overwatch—and I’ll be running those interviews in the next day and change, so you can read them here on Kotaku as they come out.
But I also got hands-on time with two things. One was World of Warcraft: Forever. The other was pizza. Night Elf Pizza and Orc Pizza, to be precise
Despite being a long-time World of Warcraft fan and a dabbler in most of Blizzard’s other games, I’ve never managed to attend Blizzcon before. I’ve wanted to, for a long time. I used to be a very avid WoW player, but back then I couldn’t afford the trip all the way to Anaheim. As I got older and grew more financially stable, I’ve just become too busy. Year after year I’ve watched from afar as dozens of guildmates and friends attended, cosplayed, played games, and made memories. I’ve played WoW less as adulthood has caused my free time to steadily dwindle and Blizzard’s propensity for piling content into the game has only grown. But with anticipation for exciting announcements in my game of choice at an all-time high, this year was my year. Blizzcon!
And that anticipation paid off! What a show! But it also meant I spent most of the show upstairs, in the media rooms, working. I only managed to get onto the show floor for a few hours, near the end of each day. By the time I made it down, all the lines for activities were closed, and the merch booth was cleaned out. I had just enough time to take some pictures of the cool set pieces, do one little arts and crafts project (look at my “amulet” everyone!), and stand for a bit alone on the show floor watching groups of friends, guilds, and little communities love their respective games all around me.
I encountered the Night Elf Pizza, along with its counterparts the Orc Pizza and the WoW Pizza, as I walked out of Blizzcon last night. I was with two members of my World of Warcraft guild: one of whom (our team’s evoker healer) I knew before I ever played WoW with him and am close friends with, and another of whom (a mage) I was meeting in person for the first time.
I love my guild. I love our Saturday nights spent together walking a careful tightrope between taking the art of killing bosses quite seriously and goofing the heck off. I love our little inside jokes, how someone’s always Leap of Faithing me all over the map or when the other shaman and I trade off casting Skyfury on the raid to make a big “woosh” noise or how someone’s always making a terrible pun. And I love when we finally accomplish our big goal in each tier, when the game lags a little bit and everyone’s Ahead of the Curve achievements pop together and we all cheer.
I had been really nervous to meet our mage, but I hadn’t said that. He’ll probably find out from this article if at all. This is the first time I’ve met someone I only knew through the guild in person, so there’s that. And I’ve been a bit distant from my guild lately. Life has been busy. I’ve missed a lot of raid nights. It’s made me a little touchy and sensitive when I am there. Everyone has been so patient with me though, and kind. Still, I thought, maybe I’m annoying to be around! Maybe this mage who I have spent a lot of Saturdays with won’t like me very much, and maybe I’m going to make things totally awkward!
The three of us found each other. I didn’t make it awkward, I don’t think. For a little bit, we stood in the halls together, just another little WoW community laughing and chatting about the show. A small part of Blizzcon.
But, the pizza! We were debating where to go and eat dinner together and had just managed to decide we would leave the convention center area for some falafel, when we passed this sign:
All three of us stopped in our tracks together. We were all thinking the same thing: Night Elf Pizza? What? Like, made out of Night Elves? Or pizza a Night Elf would eat, more likely? It sounded silly. Like a proper shit post. We had to try it. Our falafel plans were quickly abandoned.
Between the three of us, we each ordered a different personal pizza, and then traded slices so we could all try all three. I got the Orc Pizza, a pepperoni pizza with jalapenos on top. Mine came with some, uh, odd jalapeno placement that required some finessing to really get the idea the pie was trying to convey. Once I got it assembled though, the orc pizza was properly and expectedly spicy, but reminded me more of dragons than orcs. I briefly felt like breathing fire; the flavor was nice, though.
We sat and chatted about the convention: our favorite announcements, what myself and my fellow journalist guildmate had learned in our respective interviews, and our hopes for our favorite games. My newly-met mage friend told us about enjoying the Arena matches and other competition in the hall, and about the Darkmoon Faire I hadn’t managed to find time to get into. He explained how pin trading at Blizzcon works. Myself and my evoker friend talked about the WoW: Forever dungeon we had done with three other people.
My evoker friend ordered the simply-named World of Warcraft Pizza, or WoW Pizza. It was the most basic of the pizzas, including pepperoni, sausage, and ricotta, but it was also the best. He used napkins to dab a lot of grease off of it before he shared it, but under that grease was some well-spiced sausage and perfectly melted ricotta. Surprisingly tasty, from what I had anticipated would be rather garbage con pizza.
As we sat there, a few other passing con-goers, strangers, joined us briefly in turns. They carefully dodged several blops of dried bird crap in the middle of our rickety picnic table, sat down, and chatted with us. They shared their own experiences at the show, and chimed in with their own expectations. Wouldn’t it be cool if The Last Titan included a revamp of Icecrown Citadel? What classes would we all play in WoW: Forever? When did we think the new Worldcore raid would drop? Next to us, a group of streamers recorded themselves eating snacks. Several cosplayers strode by in full regalia. A parade of individuals dressed as a cult dedicated to the beloved orange World of Warcraft bird friend Pepe walked by and showed off their many, many plush Pepes (I’m jealous!). One of them offered me a 3D-printed coin with a Darkmoon Faire symbol on it, and the words “Blizzcon 2026” emblazoned on the back. I hadn’t been able to get much in the way of souvenirs during the show, so I accepted it. What a gift!
My mage guildmate ordered the ridiculously-named Night Elf Pizza, which was thematically vegetarian. As I ate my slice I tried to think of night elves, wondering if they would enjoy the pesto, the cherry tomatoes, the cheese, or the basil. We debated if night elves even had cheese; there certainly were no cows to speak of in Teldrassil. Aging a pizza dough for 72 hours did seem like the sort of odd thing you’d encounter in Darnassus, though they’d probably bask it in the light of Elune before baking. The night elf pizza, to me, was also unexpectedly good; the basil pesto and cheese were tasty, and while the whole flavor combination didn’t come together the way I expected it to, I wouldn’t say no to eating it again sometime.
The evening light dimmed around us and con-goers continued filing out of the hall. My friends had a plane to catch and a long drive home, respectively, so it was time to part ways. We took a photo together, hugged goodbye, and walked in three different directions. We said we hoped to do this again, at the next Blizzcon, but who knows when that will be? Who knows where I will be? For all I know, this may never happen again.
I spent most of this first Blizzcon apart from Blizzcon. I don’t think anyone who’s been to this con one or a dozen times would count my experience as a normal one, or remotely emblematic of what this show is about. Some of that comes with the job. I’ve been to PAXes not unlike this, where there was a marked difference between how someone who works most of the show experiences it versus someone who attends purely as a fan. But I also think there’s just something about Blizzcon that demands a different approach from its attendees, one that I wouldn’t have been entirely prepared for even if I wasn’t here to work. I imagine it’s because of the narrower focus of Blizzcon: it’s a locus for a handful of very particular, long-standing communities, where groups of people expect to see old friends, meet new ones, and make memories together beyond just the typical con experiences of trying out game demos or meeting celebrities. It’s a real, digital community briefly made tangible to itself, all at once, for two short days. I couldn’t help, as I walked the hall this year, but feel that I had missed something by not plunging into the thick of it all and letting myself just openly and unapologetically enjoy a game with strangers who could become friends.
But I also couldn’t help but believe that I did find a little bit of it, eventually, eating greasy convention food truck pizza with my guildmates, my friends. Overall? The Night Elf and Orc Pizza wasn’t half-bad. Not if you have party members to share it with.