The holidays are almost here! Seriously, they’re rushing forward at a rate of two seconds per second, or something. Which means that it’s time to start buying gifts for the Blizzard fan in your life, and also buy gifts for your parents in all likelihood. Depending on your family, that may involve a single trip. Heck, depending on your parents, they might be trying to buy presents for you and you’re a huge Blizzard fan. This gift guide does not discriminate.
So what is this gift guide? A quick rundown of some cool things to get the Blizzard fan in your life. There are games, there are books, and there’s even a shiny helping of awkward pauses in the middle of a Q&A session. In spirit. Use it, send it to friends who want to know what to get you, or hey, pick up a little extra for yourself because you never knew some of this stuff existed. This gift guide also does not judge.
World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook |
  Trying to cook in the manner of World of Warcraft means lighting a fire in the middle of wherever you happen to be standing, then mashing spices and raw meat together until you wind up with a meal. Please do not actually attempt to cook this way; you will burn yourself and not actually produce any edible food. It will be very sad.
Fortunately, the official cookbook here is not just going to tell you how to cook like that. Instead, it’ll teach you how to cook a variety of recipes inspired by the game (since you would be hard-pressed to actually cook real crocolisks). If you share my love of cooking and my love of trying new things, cookbooks are invaluable, and if you’re a big WoW fan it’s the perfect time to literally add “eating” to things that you do with an Azerothian flavor. |
Illidan: World of Warcraft |
  Illidan Stormrage is an enormous whiny jerk and I don’t like him. However, he’s also an important whiny jerk, especially with this expansion’s focus on the Illidari. If you find yourself with a hankering for more of a peek into the Illidari and Illidan himself when the fate of the world isn’t on the line, this novel should give you plenty of entertainment.
Plus, you know, at least he’s not Thrall. If you’ve already played Warcraft III and seen Illidan roaming around in the past, you might think you have a pretty good handle on the character, but a little extra never hurt. Plus, since we’ve only actually seen the bare minimum on the Illidari, there’s plenty of space for the sort of organizational worldbuilding that fascinates me. |
World of Warcraft: An Adult Coloring Book |
  The whole adult coloring book thing is simultaneously kind of weird and also completely awesome. I loved coloring books as a kid, and while I feel no need to actually color stuff in at this point in my life, I love seeing good lineart in books like this. So it’s a combination art book and activity book right there. Like art books? It’s good for that. Like to actually color stuff? It’s good for that. Still want to be that jerk who uses markers to color so the colors all bleed through the paper? Don’t do that. Get some crayons. Seriously, dude, they’re not expensive. |
Reaper of Souls |
  “Wait, what if I’m buying a gift for someone who doesn’t have Diablo III?” you ask. And to that, I say – don’t be silly. Everyone has Diablo III. I just checked in my shoe closet and found five copies there, and I don’t remember ever buying them. Plus, you know, you could always buy that person both.
Regardless, Diablo III might be getting a bit long in the tooth, but it’s still kind of the gold standard for the click-click-click smash-monsters-get-loot roguelike style. Reaper of Souls adds on to everything from the base game, and is pretty much required if you want to get in on all of the cool stuff moving forward like next year’s Necromaner. If you’ve got someone who’s still stuck with just the base game, it’s a great time to get loaded in and just lose yourself to some dungeon crawling for a few days. Especially over college break when you’re supposed to be writing papers or reading books. |
Overwatch |
  Overwatch is, I think, a great game for a gift. It’s the sort of game that a lot of people will have fun jumping into for a while and getting a few skins, then quite possibly leaving behind, or it’ll turn into a long-term obsession. As a gift, it’s the sort of thing you don’t feel as if you lost out if it’s not exactly what you’re hoping for, but you get your enjoyment out of it. And, as mentioned, it might be your new thing.
It’s also an excellent game to buy someone who saw those commercials about Blizzard’s latest e-sports initiative and really believes that just getting super good is going to result in international adulation based on your stupid screen name. And hey, who knows, your buddy just might fulfill that dream. (Odds are low, though.) |
World of Warcraft: Legion |
  Look, I know, people. I know you were burned by Warlords of Draenor. That expansion was hot garbage and is currently fighting with Cataclysm over who gets the title of Worst WoW Expansion. I don’t blame anyone for looking at Legion and sitting it out for a while. Heck, I don’t blame anyone for sitting it out for several reasons.
But trust me when I say that this is a good expansion. I can’t promise there won’t be content gaps or stupid decisions; heck, there have already been some. But there have also been steps taken to address those stupid decisions, and above all else this is a fun expansion to actually play. It has good writing, a fun story, a neat new class, fun content, cool systems… lots of great stuff. It is good. So go ahead and grab this for the lapsed WoW fan in your life, and try not to let them throw something at you until they’ve tried the actual game. They’re right to be suspicious, but it holds up. |
Mrglglglgl! |
  You love your freaking murlocs, huh? Murlocs have become one of those oddly ubiquitous things from WoW that started as a minor aside but then just kept growing into being a huge meta-meme. I’ve cooled a bit on murlocs as their popularity has grown, but you know, they’re still everyone’s favorite fish-men. And now you can own one.
Me, I’m holding out for an Yrel plush, but until that happens, who wouldn’t like to cuddle up with this guy? Heck, he’s even perfectly shaped to give your other plushies a hug. You can have him cuddle up to a moogle, that would be perfect. Nothing says “I want to give you a nice gift” like a plush toy representing the swarmiest enemy since the Zerg, after all. |
