Blizzard Makes-A-Wish come true in the World of Warcraft

23 May 2007

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Posted by:Ferry

The OCregister has the heartwarming tale of the Make-A-Wish foundation and game developer Blizzard coming together to help a grade schooler become the first outsider to create a new character in the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.

The backstory: The Riverside 10-year-old Ezra Chatterton 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.

Why? His father’s house burned down in the past, taking away all his son’s toys. He used some insurance money for a computer and Internet access. The father-and-son team entered the World of Warcraft. By Friday, they had made it to level 63.


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.”

In a fun-filled day Blizzard bumped ePhoenix up to level 70, the highest level, and stocked the character with gold, weapons and new armor. The boy created weapons and characters for the game. Later he would head to the recording studio to do a voice for the new character and meet with an artist to get the character’s look just right. Throughout the day, he got to design a new weapon; a rare flame-shooting crossbow, add his dog Kyle (the Frenzied) to the game, create a quest of the lost dog, and record his voice for the new character, Ahab Wheathoof, the Old Rancher.

Blizzard will add Ezra’s changes to the game in the next four weeks. — Via Digg