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.
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52 comments + 134338 views
Great gesture by Blizzard and thanks for letting us know about this. Good to see some positive news amongst all the Thompsonian crap we endure from the media everyday.
On a side note I wonder if he asked to see StarCraft 2?
Not to bad Blizzard,
not to bad at all
Kudos to Blizzard! But still....WoW sucks!
That's awesome. 'Nuff said.
If you have no soul, then I assume the nun fully expected that subsequent drop-kick to the face.
This article had restored my faith in humanity.
Going to public event shortly after reading said article ruined it again.
thats quite cool.
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.
*claps*
So awesome for Blizzard to do such a thing
The mainstream media will never cover the videogame community doing good things. Suck this jack thompson! I just hope that poor kid never sees that hockey episode of South Park. If that kid asked about StarCraft2, I wonder if they said, "if I show you, i'd have to kill you."?
loud lol @ monosylabik!
As bad a rap as the WoW-forum people try to dish out, Blizzard has always done good things for gamers, and for people in general. It's probably one of the only large game companies left that's run by human beings.
Been sharing the article with everyone ever since i read it earlier this morning :) Cant wait to see the stuff he designed~
In before the "THEY'RE JUST DOING IT FOR PUBLICITY" tards.
The world just got a bit brighter. Go Blizzard.
blizzard has more power than console companies pretty much
@ zaqu:
Well, if it's any indication, they're the only company that gets me as a fanboy.
Yeah! Take THAT SmileBit!
Truly amazing.
lawlz impossiblez! we're all murderers!
WoW sucks, but it's awesome that Blizzard did this for a fan.
Poor EA. On the achievement junkie podcast (no where near as good as podtoid but they are at least consistent) they mentioned an EA event they went to in SoCal (also mentioned dtoid was there) and I guess told achievement junkie that they are aware of the negative way people view EA currently and were going to take steps to improve their image.
and anyone who does claim "publicity stunt" needs to remember that Starcraft 2 was announced less than a week ago.
Good to see busy Blizzard found some time to give this kid a special time there.
That was nice of them. EA would've stolen his wheelchair and melted it down for talismans for them all.
This is a really nice move by Blizzard but there`s just one thing I`m wondering about.
This poor boy doesn`t have much time left and he`s spending it with playing WoW???
I'm happy that news like this still makes it out to the public...or at least a group of us anyway
Wodkaredbubu, sure, I wouldnt choose WoW if I didn't have much time left, but I think we can let the kid do what he wants with the (little) time he has left.
First Insomniac, now Blizzard.....
It's cool to see them brighten some poor kids day.
Sterling that was fucking funny.
@monosylabik,
That was gold...i actually emailed your comment to a friend b/c i thought it was that funny.
Awesomes.
@Alexkorova
I didnīt 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.
Hey. Godwin's Law.
In reference to the title of the article and a couple of the responses - EA does this on occasion too. At Tiburon we recently had a kid who was a huge fan of the NASCAR games come spend the day with the developers, sit in on a design discussion, tour the studio, etc.
::tear:: I love you Blizzard.
I gotta commend the nice gesture of Blizzard Entertainment- but as an ex-WoW addict, I think that company is EVIL. I think this is an indication of just how completely out of control WoW has become. I mean, this is going to sound awful, but, the dying wish from a terminally ill kid was more WoW? I guess we've come a long way from Michael Jordan and Disney World.
btw, Make a Wish Foundation is a wonderful organization, kind of amazing how they pull these things off.
Wodkaredbubu- I wouldn't spend my last days playing games, probably. But his condition is physically degenerating him, so sitting down and hand motions is probably about all he can handle.
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.
make a wish + blizzard = pwnage
Awesome for Blizzard. Yeah corporations can have a <3 too. After all they are just a bunch of nerds (rich nerds) talking about elves and ogres all day long.
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........
As a father of two munchkins myself it's really a fine thing to know that there are people out there who will do things like this if the worst should happen.
Well done to Blizzard, and I sincerely hope that Ezra and his family are getting all the help and support they need.
Top stuff.
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