Streamers and streamer fans unite for the weekend

The first-ever TwitchCon hit this weekend in San Francisco, and ZAM was on the floor to deliver the news about the content giant's first convention. To say it was a success would be an understatement. Streamers, media professionals (gee), content fans, exhiibitors, and Twitch junkies alike hit the Moscone West Center in San Francisco this weekend. Twitch employees presented the new changes that Twitch will be implementing soon, including full HTML5 support, a fully-loaded PS4 app, and new chat features.

The mega-platform's convention offered up a bevvy of options for every attendee, featuring panels of streaming experts, hardware vendors, Twitch partners, software developers, and game company CEOs. What resembled a modern-day Woodstock with colored hair, huge hispter glasses and tattoos galore, the game fanatics turned the first convention for the purple company into one gigantic success. Convention attendees were greeted at the front door with arguably one of the greatest bands ever, Super Soul Brothers.

Reload Studios made an appearance with their VRbased shooter World War Toons (if you remember). The multiplayer bash combines the Oculus Rift headset with Xbox 360 controls to provide an extremely fun experience. Watching people turn their heads to rotate the cartoonish environment to aim and shoot shook players' foundations of basic game control. The analog joystick may soon be an obsolete relic due to interesting titles like this, and we're looking forward to it.

Wargaming celebrated the launch for World of Warships, their third foray into a wargame in which the developers have implemented extreme measues to keep the in-game war machines as visually accurate as possible while maintaining a proper game balance. The company's freemium business model has been extremely successful, and it defeinitely shows. The game was featured at the Intel Gaming Lab at the con, and it features several different ships with different fighting styles, some that resemble a first-person shooter style, others that deploy several ships to fight RTS-style battles.

Blizzard had the latest beta build for Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void. Players lined up in a massive line to test out the greatest real-time strategy game ever made, and this expansion is looking to mix up the dice for the three fabled races. Legacy of the Void focuses on the protoss for this expansion, but every race is getting their own upgrades and new units to fight the eternal war.

Perhaps the most unique hardware demoed for the convention was Skreens, a mutli-source switch that allows several hardware devices to display on a screen at once. Anyone can add their console, PC, wireless video streamer, or any other HDMI device to combine all on one screen. The company recently launched their Kickstarter, so head on over to their page if you want to support their device.

Amongst the booths, companies, exhibitors, panels, and similar ilk, there was one magical, unique element to this event. All across the floor, Twitch streamers were uniting and sharing experiences. Everyday people that have suddenly shot to celebrity status because of Twitch were meeting aspiring streamers and fans all across the floor. Instead of game players meeting developers and CEOs, it was Twitch watchers shaking hands and sharing hugs with Twitch partners. The result was a strong camaraderie that hasn't been seen at other cons, which would make this arguably the greatest convention for gaming ever produced.

TwitchCon is heavily rumored for a repeat in 2016. We're already prepared.

Follow Jeffery Wright on Twitter and Twitch