Blizzard grants a Make-a-Wish wish

OK, here’s something cool.

This is the kind of thing that continues to make me proud of my former association with Blizzard Entertainment: They just granted the wish of a boy with an almost certainly fatal brain tumor, by letting him put his fingerprints on World of Warcraft: Blizzard makes WoW wish virtual reality

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.

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