Continue reading »]]> Ayman ‘Allen’ Adham is an American businessman, who along with Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearce, was one of three co-founders of Silicon & Synapse, which changed its name to Blizzard Entertainment. He led the creation of The Lost Vikings, RPM Racing, Rock N’ Roll Racing, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, among others.

One of Allen’s many persuits was an intense interest in the exact height of Mt. San Gregorio in Southern California.

He received his bachelor’s degree in 1990 from UCLA.

Continue reading »]]> Mike Morhaime is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, a video game developer located in Irvine, California and currently owned by Activision Blizzard. He is also an alumnus of Triangle Fraternity and received his bachelor’s degree in 1990 from UCLA.

Morhaime appears in animated form in the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft,” which deals with the World of Warcraft MMORPG.

In 2008 Morhaime was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Blizzard’s creation of World of Warcraft. Along with Don Daglow and John Carmack, Morhaime is one of only three designers or producers to accept awards at both the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.

Morhaime plays poker and reached 2nd place in edition 2006 of DICE’s Celebrity Poker Tournament. In the last round, Mike faced Scott Fischman and Perry Friedman (World Series of Poker professionals), as well as Ray Muzyka, co-CEO of video game developer Bioware. After a dramatic 45-minute battle, Ray emerged victorious, with Mike placing 2nd overall in the tournament.

Morhaime graduated from Granada Hills High School in 1985. Morhaime is also a member of Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, a Metal Band formed of and by Blizzard Employees, where he Plays Bass.

In 2008, Morhaime was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame.

Incoming search terms:

• academy of interactive arts & sciences award Michael Morhaime
• Blizzard Entertainment Irvine CA
• michael morhaime email address
• Mike Morhaime

Continue reading »]]> Frank Pearce was Co-founder of Silicon & Synapse (later named Blizzard) in 1991 with Allen Adham and Michael Morhaime.

As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s executive vice president of product development, Frank Pearce plays a critical role in the development of all Blizzard Entertainment® titles. This involves coordinating the work of multiple teams in order to ensure that every project maintains the same polish and quality that mark all Blizzard games.

Pearce takes an active role in the ongoing development of World of Warcraft as the current executive producer, and he recently oversaw the development of World of Warcraft’s first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade. Before this, he directed the development process of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Currently, Pearce is coordinating the development of the highly-anticipated StarCraft II and World of Warcraft’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Since co-founding Blizzard with Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime in 1991, Pearce has been deeply involved in the company’s projects. Games he has worked on include Amiga ports of various licensed titles, as well as The Lost Vikings™, Blackthorne™, Justice League Task Force™, and The Lost Vikings II for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness™, Diablo, StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War, and Diablo II for the PC, among others.

Pearce holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and engineering from the University of California in Los Angeles.

Incoming search terms:

• Powered by Article Dashboard wow sound files
• Allen Adham
• Powered by Article Dashboard television trivia
• Powered by Article Dashboard world of warcraft: wrath of the lich king
• Powered by Article Dashboard entertainment system
• Published News Upcoming News Submit a New Story Groups michael
• Powered by Article Dashboard los angeles
• Powered by Article Dashboard entertainment las news vegas
• Powered by Article Dashboard science current events in the world
• Powered by Article Dashboard computer science

Continue reading »]]> Blizzard Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California. It is a division of Activision Blizzard. Blizzard is the creator of several successful computer games, including World of Warcraft and the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo series.

Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Ayman Allen Adham and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse in February 1991, a year after all three had received their bachelor’s degrees from UCLA. In the early days the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I and Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess. In 1993, the company developed games like Rock N’ Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay Productions). In 1994, the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed. That same year, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for under $10 million. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On-Line by a company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant’s stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line which included Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard was part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi. In July 2008 Vivendi Games merged with Activision, using Blizzard’s name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which had been working on the game Diablo for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, and has since developed hit games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North was located in San Mateo, California.

Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle.net in January 1997 with the release of their action-RPG Diablo. In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them under Game Boy Advance. In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France, responsible for the European in-game support of World of Warcraft. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, its MMORPG offering. On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin’ Ape Studios, a console game developer which had been developing StarCraft: Ghost. The company was then merged into Blizzard’s other teams after StarCraft: Ghost was ‘postponed indefinitely’. On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters at 131 Theory in UC Irvine’s University Research Park in Irvine, California.

In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of World of Warcraft. Mike Morhaime accepted the award.

Company Information

• Founded 1991 (as Silicon & Synapse)
• Headquarters Irvine, California, USA.
• Key people Michael Morhaime (president and co-founder
• Frank Pearce (vice president and co-founder)
• Rob Pardo (vice president)
• Chris Metzen (vice president of Creative Development)
• Industry Computer and video game industry
• Products The Warcraft series
• The StarCraft series
• The Diablo series
• Revenue $1.1 Billion
• Employees 2,700
• Parent Flag of France Vivendi
• Website www.blizzard.com

Continue reading »]]> Blizzard Entertainment has proudly announced that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability. This fact makes Lich King the fastest-selling PC game ever made.

In celebration of the launch, more than 15,000 stores throughout the world had their doors open at midnight to welcome thousands of expectant players. Several of these locations were attended by Blizzard Entertainment representatives, who met players and signed copies of the game.

“We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead.”

“After a single day of availability, Wrath of the Lich King is already the bestselling PC game of 2008 at GameStop and ranks as one of our top-selling products so far this year,” said Bob McKenzie, GameStop’s senior vice president of merchandising. “In keeping with the tradition established by their previous releases, Blizzard Entertainment has again created a product that not only reflects their high standards of quality but is clearly an instant hit with gamers around the country.”

GameSpy

Continue reading »]]> Thousands of gaming fans left a virtual world to unite in the real one and test an update of their obsession. By day they are human, but in their spare time they become mythical heroes such as wizards, dwarfs and blood-elves. At the weekend, in California, 15,000 of them logged out of World of Warcraft, the world’s biggest online game, to gather in a hall the size of an aircraft hangar for the “big nerdfest” that is Blizzcon.

They were drawn to the Anaheim Convention Centre in California by their love of the virtual worlds they inhabit. Blizzcon is part video game carnival, part trade fair and part religious pilgrimage, organised by Blizzard Entertainment, which makes World of Warcraft and the real-time strategy game Starcraft.

Almost 11 million people pay £7 a month to play World of Warcraft and dedicated fans have flown in from 27 countries around the world to attend Blizzcon, where they can discuss the intricate details of Blizzard’s games with the game-makers, get the exclusive chance to play new games before general release, dress up as their favourite characters and compete against one another.

At the opening ceremony, in reality little more than a glorified press conference, the atmosphere is intense and the noise deafening. The screams reach a peak when Mike Morhaime, the Blizzard chief executive, takes the stage. He’s a gentle-looking man wearing a blazer — the crowd greets him like a rock star.

“We are on the eve of a historic event next month, and I don’t mean the presidential election,” he says. The packed hall roars in agreement. For this mob, something far more important than electing the leader of the free world is taking place in November — “Northrend will be open.”

Northrend is a new continent in World of Warcraft and forms part of the latest expansion of the game, which goes on sale next month. The release of Wrath of the Lich King will be the biggest event in computer gaming this year. Fans will queue for hours to buy a copy. Gamers expect no less than what Blizzard aims to achieve: the greatest computer game ever created.

The first World of Warcraft game was released four years ago. Today, it is the world’s biggest “massively multi-player online game”, or MMO. It has all the elements of a sci-fi fantasy world you might expect; with dragons, gnomes, orcs and such. It is a knowing homage to the likes of Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons. Players spend hours going on quests and doing battle with one another in order to build up their character into something akin to a small god. In an ever-evolving virtual world that is illustrated in rich detail and can be explored endlessly.

Paul Sams, a senior Blizzard executive, said the key to the game was its accessibility. “It’s easy to learn but hard to master,” he added.

Walking around the convention floor, there is a certain Blizzcon chic that is noticeable. The crowds are filled with loads of chubby, young, and pale men. They wear black t-shirts, a back-to-front cap, and sport an ill-advised goatee. There are endless queues for everything from nachos to the gift store. Disneyland just down the road won’t see anything like it.

Blizzcon has been growing in popularity since it began in 2005. This year the frenzy to buy tickets caused the online booking system to crash. Once the problem was fixed, the $150 (£90) tickets sold out in 15 minutes.

The longest queues are for the chance to play new games. After hours of waiting, gamers finally get their chance to play at one of the hundreds of computers screens, lined up in banks. The whole event takes place in semi-darkness; natural light is not let in, ensuring that glare does not distract the players from the digital carnage.

Others quietly play fantasy card games with each other, or take part in intense Q&A sessions with the game creators. Some honest fans admit that they main reason they have come is to get hold of the much-wanted Blizzcon goodie-bag. What makes the bag so special? It includes a polar bear mount, an extremely rare character which players can use to ride upon, like a horse or a camel, in World of Warcraft. The mount is valuable, both in the game and in real life. It is already being sold for anything up to $300 on eBay.

On one stage, hundreds gather to watch professional Warcraft and Starcraft matches. Big screens show the action while commentators describe the battle excitedly. Players are locked away from the crowd in sound-proof booths. The action is furious. The contestants tap on their keyboards and click on their mouse about eight times a second. To the outsider, it all makes very little sense.

Meanwhile, there are thousands more watching the proceedings at home, having paid about $40 to view it on pay-per-view television. Critics describe World of Warcraft as the greatest video game creation, a masterpiece in art and engineering. But its genius is that it has evolved to become a deeply social and communal experience.

“Two years ago on Father’s Day, my son gave me World of Warcraft,” says Jim York, 61, from Los Angeles, who was at Blizzcon with his 30-something adult son, who lives around about 350 miles away from him in San Francisco. “Now about twice a month, we go online and go on quests together. It’s become a father-son experience.”

Blizzcon is home for this growing online community. Almost everyone here says they have come out of a sense of belonging. People who have become friends by playing together online meet for the first time at the convention.

This includes James Taplin, 29, from Dorset, England, who met his online friend Nathan, from Birmingham, just before flying to Blizzcon last week. “It’s all about the togetherness,” said Mr Taplin. “We talk to each other for a while about our day, then we put that to one side and go kill some monsters.”

World of Warcraft fans unite for pilgrimage to Blizzcon – Times Online