Earlier today, I was told I had no soul. By a nun. A dying nun.
Thinking that to be true (after all, that's a pretty damning source), I was all ready to forfeit my earthly corpus to Baal in exchange for demonic powers, up until I came across this story in the Orange County Register. After reading it, my heart grew three sizes and burst from its antiquated metal x-ray scanner, and I immediately phoned my local priest. Next week, I start my new life as a street prophet!
Why this Saul-ian change of character? Blizzard Entertainment has proven themselves to not only wield the epitome of addictive, clever game design, but with their latest action, they've proven that they have hearts bigger than all of Orgrimmar.
Ezra Chatterton is a 10-year-old boy with the unfortunate luck to have contracted metastatic cancer. The prognosis for the lad isn't very good, and in all reality, he doesn't have much time left. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, in association with everything good and right in the world, contacted Blizzard on behalf of young Mr. Chatterton, and the boys of Blizzard jumped on the chance to help a fan.
Ezra and his father were taken to Blizz HQ in a black limo, where he toured the facility, before spending time with WoW's head of design, Jeff Kaplan. Jeff used his magical uber-GM powers to make any wish of Ezra's virtually come true in the land of Azeroth, including widespread genocide, the creation of one-of-a-kind items and recording custom audio of Ezra's voice for creatures designed by the boy.
I know a lot of you don't see the appeal in World of Warcraft, but you certainly have to admit, the people behind it are a damn fine bunch of human beings.
Contest:
11:03 PM on 05.22.2007
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On a side note I wonder if he asked to see StarCraft 2?
not to bad at all
Going to public event shortly after reading said article ruined it again.
although the widespread genocide sounds quite evil.
blizzard and insomniac are the epitome of the good side of game developers.
EA eats babies....you cant spell "eats babies" without EA...think about it.
So awesome for Blizzard to do such a thing
This poor boy doesn`t have much time left and he`s spending it with playing WoW???
It's cool to see them brighten some poor kids day.
That was gold...i actually emailed your comment to a friend b/c i thought it was that funny.
I didn´t mean to judge this poor kid, I just found it strange. Reading that`s he`s playing together with his father and obviously having a blast is great.
btw, Make a Wish Foundation is a wonderful organization, kind of amazing how they pull these things off.
Nex- Whaaaaat? Smilebit rocks! you've now slipped to being tied with God Len as my favorite editor on the Dtoid family of blogs. I mean really, how can you not love them?
Good on Blizzard, even though they've got a ton on their plate, they took the time to do right by a fan. You really can't ask for more humanity. They also sound like they really did let him take the reins. I doubt many companies would say "Genocide? A-OK!" or let him actually make lasting impressions on the game world. This story rocks and greatly illustrates why I love gaming and the community. Despite all the shit we throw, we stand by our own.
BOOO! for Nex Cavalli and his way to write stuff. You are not clever, let alone funny. What happened to objective journalism? I dont think people give a rat ass about is you have a soul or a dick stuck in your ass. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........
Well done to Blizzard, and I sincerely hope that Ezra and his family are getting all the help and support they need.
Top stuff.