Blizzcon’s coming at the end of the month and should bring all sorts of goodies for World of Warcraft and Diablo III fans. The official schedule of events went up last week, and it’s worth taking a look at.

From what I can tell, there isn’t much about the next Starcraft II expansion. Players have been aching for a new campaign to follow the Wings of Liberty release, and though there’s still a chance we might get something, it’s not looking likely.

Then there’s Diablo III. I’m really having trouble deciding whether or not I’m excited about the game. As much fun as I had with the first two titles in the franchise, I’m still having trouble imagining how the playstyle could translate to a fun game in 2011. The classes sound interesting so far, but at its core, the Diablo series turned into little more than a grindfest, to the point it was easily programmable for bots. I’m hoping the gameplay videos give me enough reason to believe the game can be good.

Of course, there’s also WoW news, which will be all Cataclysm, all conference long. We’ll finally get the new content on December 7th, which means Blizzcon will be showing off all the stuff players will soon be having.

So you couldn’t make it to BlizzCon this past year and you missed out on that Starcraft II beta key. Not to worry! You can still be the envy of all your friends and relatives if you have $300 laying around. Yes, that’s the going rate for a Starcraft II beta key on eBay right now.

The keys run a wide range, from the $280 But It Now I’ve linked above to the $400+ versions that remain mint and unscratched. One guy is even offering the full contents of his 2008 BlizzCon goodie bag. Personally, I can’t imagine spending this kind of money on a closed beta. If I cared that much, I probably would have just gone to BlizzCon. I realize, though, that there are people out there with the money on hand who also happen to be complete StarCraft freaks and will likely jump all over this.

Check out the full list you can pick up on eBay.

Listen up crazy people – stop playing video games. You’re making it very difficult for us to keep the “video games cause violence” thing out of the media. Case in point: a Swedish Starcraft player recently stabbed a young girl repeatedly after his internet connection died.

Apparently this budding Casanova has a fairly serious mental condition, of the type that will encourage you to inflict harm on a girl walking down the street when you can’t get your zerg fix. He’s now under psychiatric care after the prosecutor failed to get charges up to attempted murder.

I don’t read Swedish, but according to SK Gaming, a major news outlet reported the story as though Starcraft somehow led the boy to pick up the kitchen knife and run outdoors. So please, crazy folks, stop encouraging this kind of shoddy journalism. It’s just too tempting for a newspaper to pass up.

According to a recent WSJ article, analysts are expecting Starcraft II to catch some delays. The article is based on speculation from Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who thinks the latest from Blizzard will see the same fate as Activision’s Singularity. The time-manipulating FPS has been pushed into Q1 2010.

Originally set to release this October, Bhatia doesn’t think the SC:II delay would hurt Activision in any way. It’s hard to think that a serious Starcraft release could ever hurt that company (and no, I don’t consider the original Starcraft:Ghost concept to be serious).

If SC:II does get pushed into next year I hope Blizzard has some incredible news for us at BlizzCon. New IP maybe? Just maybe? Don’t forget, BlizzCon’s happening the third week of August. If you haven’t picked up your tickets yet, I hate to say it, but you’re too late.