Costumes from BlizzCon 2011

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for BlizzCon, the annual gathering in Anaheim, California, where fans celebrate the massively successful WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises created by Blizzard Entertainment. And BlizzCon means costumes.

Gamers got their hands on yet-to-be released Blizzard titles such as Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard DotA and the World of WarCraft: Mist of Pandaria expansion while surrounded by life-size statues and cosplayers of familiar game characters.






















































































Source: flickr

Joyland, China’s Unlicensed Warcraft/Starcraft Theme Park

If you love Chinese knock-offs you'll love this bit of news: World Joyland, the famed and unlicensed World of Warcraft theme park in Changzhou, China, is now open for business.

In actuality, the park is less of a WoW rip-off and more of a Blizzard rip-off. It includes a Starcraft-themed area named "Universe of Starship" in addition to its World of Warcraft area, which is named "Terrain of Magic."

It claims to be the world's first video-game-themed park, it cost 200 million yuan (about $30 million USD) and spread over 600,000 square meters. Pictures after the jump.