I’m the only one in my family not to be in total love with the Bay Area, and I’m not sure why, since they keep having cool things like the NorCal Pirate Festival up there. I’ve been to the Maryland Renaissance Festival a time or 10 in my life, and some others as well, but a pirate festival? Count me in.
For World of Warcraft players hanging out in Shadowmoon Valley last Friday, bizarre events occurred that can only be explained by a small group of people inside the headquarters of Blizzard Entertainment.
At the helm of the strangeness sat 10-year-old Ezra Chatterton, who directed Warcraft’s lead game designer Jeff Kaplan to blast ferocious-looking monsters, or “bosses,” with a single death ray. Chatterton cleared the Black Temple for a European clan to fight the volcano-summoning Supremus.
All that power. Heh, heh.
“I’m impressed with Blizzard,” said Chatterton from his wheelchair. “Bravo!”
The Riverside fifth-grader has a brain tumor. The diagnosis isn’t good; metastatic cancer. Splitting headaches started in March, which led to an emergency room visit in April. Doctors had to sedate him for the pain and he didn’t wake up for a week. Groggy and weak in the hospital, Chatterton only wanted to play the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft.
When the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, an organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening cases, came calling two weeks ago, Chatterton knew exactly what he wanted.
“I wished for a trip to Blizzard because I’d like to see if they could make a character and do some things for us.”
Chatterton didn’t think his wish would come true. He’s starting treatment today. And, at most, he thought it could just be a video conference call. But when he found out Blizzard was nearby, and willing, Chatterton became the envy of the 8.5 million World of Warcraft players worldwide. He not only got the chance to tour the company, but to create something new for the game.
I look forward to completing Ezra’s quest when it goes live in the game. It looks like it takes place in Thunderbluff or Bloodhoof village, judging from the pictures at the OCR site, but that’s what Horde alts are for.
The Chatterton’s character is a Tauren hunter named ePhoenix. It looks like the gear Blizzard set him up with was all Gladiator arena PVP stuff. His PVP kills record is pretty low to be set with all that gear otherwise.
It’s a neat idea for a site: Write exactly 100 word stories each weekday. It’s harder than you might think. I’ve tried it once or twice and it takes real effort to trim it down that much and still have something worth reading at the end. Hemingway would be proud, I’m sure.
I kind of like my piece I put in the comments section today, which is inspired by my dad’s taste in music.
So, people looking on the Amazon baby registry may have noted there’s a lot of DVDs on there for a little kid. That’s my fault. The theory is that, no matter how parents may plan otherwise, eventually the kid gets put in front of the TV for a moment, even if just to enable the parent to go to the bathroom or shower. And once there, the kid is going to imprint on something random. (Both my nieces have imprinted on Elmo in a pretty major way.) While you hope the kid imprints on, say, Stephen Colbert (who, in his own way, is as much of a cartoon as Bugs Bunny), there’s always the danger he’ll bond with Barney or the Teletubbies, those creepy Wiggles guys or those strange fundementalist Christian vegetables. (Seriously, vegetables. There’s a born-again cucumber, tomato, a whole garden full. How is it that no one finds them really odd but me? Does no one else wonder how a tomato could find Jesus?)
My plan, therefore, is to flood the channel with good stuff. Classic Looney Tunes, the Muppets (including Sesame Street, the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock), the Dini/Pimm DC animated stuff, non-exasperating Disney movies and so on. Then, when the kid decides he needs to watch the same DVD over and over (and over and over and over), it will be slightly less painful for the parents.
That’s the theory, anyway.
And I still miss Jim Henson. He was the only celebrity whose death made me cry.
before now.
