Posts with tag charity

Sometimes it's not the biggest events that demonstrate how a love of World of Warcraft can inspire real-world achievements. Sometimes it's the tallest. When McChoppy of Cenarion Circle (US) heard about a Make-A-Wish event that would send him down the side of a 32-story Austin, Texas, high-rise to raise money for children with life-threatening medical conditions, the first thing that leapt to his mind was WoW's Going Down? achievement. It was fate both online and off -- he knew this was one achievement combo he just had to nab.

By drumming up a fat pledge total for Make-A-Wish's Austin Over the Edge, McChoppy earned a spot along with more than 170 other supporters to rappel off the edge of the city high-rise. The project raised more than $175,000 for Make-A-Wish, enough to cover 260 wishes for kids in central and south Texas this year.

So was his real-life slide slightly scarier than the somewhat silly splatter McChoppy scores in the more seemly spaces of Stormwind? With no spirit healer in sight as he perched on the edge 32 stories up -- resoundingly so!

The World of Warcraft community is a special group of people. We've got numbers, diversity, and a ridiculous amount of charity from good people whose tenuous connection to each other is because of a virtual world. Personally, I wouldn't want it any other way. The WoW community does good things.

Many of you recently heard about my cat Rocky, who was not doing so well because of a deep infection in both of his ears. Because of the generosity of our community, Rocky's bills were taken care of and we could get him the immediate help he needed. My little buddy is alive because of this community. It's such a trivial thing to worry about in the grand scheme of things, but it personally affected me in such a profound way.

Sure, we have our low moments. We have our high moments, too, and it's all worth it. From Blizzard's own charity drives to Child's Play and the community reaching out to help sick children, I'd say we've got a pretty good track record. What has the WoW community done that has affected you personally?

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Blizzard's charity auctions of retired server blades seemed to go pretty well, with each blade going for several hundred dollars on eBay (and all of that money going to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital). Most of them ended before the holidays, which is unfortunate for those of us who missed grabbing the physical representation of a server community near and dear to our heart. But if you play on a European server, you might just be in luck -- Blizzard is offering a series of last-chance auctions for EU server blades starting today! Each server blade comes mounted in a nice case with an engraved plate ensuring authenticity and signed by members of the WoW dev team.

The full list of servers and end dates is available on the official Blizzard site. Good luck and happy bidding, EU folks!

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From Olympic medalists and Hollywood actors to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? Where World of Warcraft and cool ideas and people meet, you'll find players who deserve 15 Minutes of Fame.

Noble knights in shining armor are a dime (a silver?) a dozen Alliance-side in World of Warcraft. Where you find one or more Alliance roleplayers, you'll find a veritable solar flare of the Light. In most cases, however, the buck (or the Light, as it may) stops right here at the boundary between Azeroth and Earth. But in one longstanding Moon Guard (US) guild, the Light spills forth into all corners of members' lives. The Bearers of Light's noble guild foundation rests on charity, both in game and out. Moving beyond regular newbie zone assistance events, the guild recently embarked upon a real-world community challenge that's racking up life-changing results.

Since its inception in the classic WoW era, this guild force for good seems to be filling an apparently unique niche among Azerothian guilds. Back in 2009, WoW Insider's David Bowers (then author of our roleplaying column) wrote about discovering the guild with his own character: "The guild I eventually chose is called The Bearers of Light on the Moon Guard server, and I chose it because its members pledge to be kind to others. It was the first and only guild I've ever seen in World of Warcraft that is explicitly founded around the spirit of benevolence and charity. I felt that it was a perfect match for me personally -- if you've seen movies like Pay It Forward or read about ideas such as random kindness and senseless acts of beauty, then you will have seen the kind of impact this theme can have on a group of people. Once kindness itself is a goal, it makes life so much more livable."

Looking for inspiration to start your new year off on the right foot? Look no further than The Bearers of Light.

Blizzard is currently auctioning off old server blades from days gone by in WoW's history for the best cause you could possibly support -- saving children's lives. Starting today, the last two waves of the server blade auctions are beginning, with all proceeds from the charity auction going to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the immensely important research it does. Even some WoW Insider readers have stories of their own from St. Jude's.

If you'd like to own a real awesome piece of World of Warcraft history and donate to an important cause, check out all the details on the server blade auction information page and on Blizzard's own community blog.

The full blue post announcing the last two waves, after the break.

We posted about this a week ago, but a reminder can't hurt now that the auctions have actually gone live. If you're attending BlizzCon this year and have the chance to visit Hall A, you'll see one of the original World of Warcraft HP server blades that Blizzard is auctioning this year to benefit St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. But even if you're not going to BlizzCon, you still have a shot at bidding: All of the available server blades (from both North American and Europeanrealms) are listed on EBay, and you've still got time to bid on them all. Most of them are older realms that Blizzard has upgraded recently as part of server maintenance, and -- judging from the bids on some of them -- my guess is that a lot of players are interested in owning their old servers. Better yet, each auctioned server will have a plaque with the server's name, dates of operation, and Blizzard developers' autographs inscribed on it. If you want to see an example of what it'll look like, scroll down on Blizzard's charity auction page.

If you're interested in owning a piece of World of Warcraft history in addition to benefiting a great cause, you can find general information and Blizzard's two EBay listings for the server blades here:

• General information on auction dates and servers available
• North American realms
• European realms

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Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Get ready to kick off the weekend with the WoW Insider Reader Meetup, cohosted by Wowhead and Gamebreaker.tv, and look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!

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Want to own a real piece of Warcraft history? Ever wanted to own your entire server? Starting Oct. 17, Blizzard will be auctioning off the actual server blades of yesteryear to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. WoW has gone through a lot of technical changes over the years, and the old server blades are just that -- old. What better way than to celebrate the early years of the game than to give the proceeds to such an important cause?

The auctions will last from Oct. 17 through Nov. 14, with each realm's original server blade going on sale. What's a server blade, you ask? Each server, with its own processing power and all that jazz, lives in a rack with other servers at the big server enclosure. Each auctioned server will have a little plaque attached with the server's name, its dates of operation, and signatures from the team. This is really, really cool. If I had the cash to pony up for Frostwolf, my original server, I would. That thing broke so many times in the early days that I'd want to pop it open and see all the horrible, nightmarish things lurking inside.

Check out the auction information page for which servers will be auctioned off on which days.

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WoWathon, an event raising money for the Child's Play charity, is kicking off its third annual fundraising broadcast on June 30, 2011. So far, both WoWathons have raised a combined total over $13,900 for Child's Play. The event hopes to bring in even more this year.

WoWathon puts a team of rotating players through the paces of leveling from 1 to 85 without stopping for almost 2 weeks, broadcast for the world to see and to share their trials and tribulations. Here are some quick details:

• When It starts June 30, 2011, at 8 a.m. It ends when the gang hits 85 (an estimated two weeks).
• Where Lightbringer (US)
• Who There are about seven participants. The characters are named Chylds and Playy.

We've covered WoWathon in the past and encourage the community to come out in support of our brothers and sisters in arms to raise money for a good cause.

I asked Alex Guerrera, one of the members of the WoWathon team, about this year's event, and he was most excited to answer.

If you missed your chance to purchase a ticket to BlizzCon 2011 last month, there's still a way to get yourself in the door if you're feeling charitable.

Looking For Group: BlizzCon, a networking site for organizing groups and meetups at BlizzCon 2011, is giving away one ticket to a random member of its website who makes a charitable donation to Child's Play. Child's Play, if you don't recall, is a charity created by the authors of Penny Arcade to give toys and games to kids in children's hospitals.

To enter, all you have to do is join LFG: BlizzCon (it's free) and make a donation to Child's Play by June 30, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. CST. The donation can be for any amount, small or large. To read the complete rules on how to donate for the contest, check out the official contest page.

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Missed your shot at getting tickets to the BlizzCon 2011 benefit dinner for the Children's Hospital of Orange County? You're in luck! Blizzard has just announced that another batch of benefit tickets will be going on sale June 8 at 7 p.m. Pacific, 10 p.m. Eastern.

The BlizzCon benefit dinner is an annual event and fundraiser for the Children's Hospital of Orange County where you, the Blizzard fan, get to have a great meal, chat up Blizzard luminaries, developers, artists, executives, and more, all to benefit a good cause. The event happens the Thursday night before BlizzCon.

Benefit dinner tickets cost $500 USD per ticket and include access to the benefit dinner, a ticket to BlizzCon, and more. Check out the BlizzCon ticket sales page for updates and the BlizzCon benefit dinner FAQ. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- the people I know who have attended this benefit dinner say it's a once-in-a-lifetime awesome thing to be at and be a part of. Blizzard knows how to rock a benefit dinner.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

On Monday, Blizzard announced that it would begin selling a new companion pet in the pet store and that for a limited time (until July 31), 100% of the cost of the pet would go to the American Red Cross to aid victims of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan. Blizzard used its art and time assets for a great cause, using a previously successful tactic to raise money for people in dire need. While Blizzard is not donating the money directly, it is facilitating donation collection and incentive by putting the pet up for sale.

What interests me is the level of fervor and the community outcry for this type of relief effort by Blizzard. Why are people so eager to push a corporation like Blizzard, which has a costly back end to monitor and maintain, into what amounts to a large-scale companion pet release for charity that people would have donated to anyway based on the generally accepted understanding that people are charitable? First, we need to learn a tiny bit about corporate donations and charity and explore why people like Blizzard in the first place. Second, we can ask why we want Blizzard to do the right thing.

This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Editor's note: Elizabeth Harac, creator of this amigurumi murloc, makes these adorable critters for a charity she established, Hands of Hope, which designed to help inspire and empower children in third-world countries. Read more about Hands of Hope, and join us after the break as Elizabeth shares the pattern along with a step-by-step photo guide on how to make your own amigurumi baby murloc.

I have been doing various needlework since I was a child and Mother was trying to keep me still for more than five minutes. Last October, I had the idea that since needlework taught me a lot of things -- like self-confidence, purpose, planning, and relaxation -- it might be helpful as a skill or hobby to other people. I had seen a TV segment about a sewing program in the projects somewhere and how the confidence the girls had gained was flowing into schoolwork and other areas. My original idea was just to find ways to teach needlework to girls in third-world countries where they could use the skills to also raise money for themselves. I needed to make money to make embroidery teaching kits, so I started making amigurumi and selling them.

Then I met Betty Makoni. She was a CNN Hero 2009. She runs the Girl Child Network Worldwide. She rescues girls in Africa who have been raped, abused, sold into slavery, forced to be child brides and worse. She loved the idea of the embroidery. In May 2010, we sent 52 kits to Zimbawbwe, and we have requests now for hundreds more. The girl are teaching each other; they are making clubs and using the time to talk about dreams, planning how to reach them, and working through the trauma of abuse. As a victim of rape and abuse myself, my heart went out to these girls.

Blizzard is previewing the two pets that will be offered this month in the Blizzard Store: Lil' Ragnaros and the Moonkin Hatchling. Lil' Ragnaros, pictured above, will not be associated with a charity. As reported before, however, a portion of the proceeds from the Moonkin Hatchling will be going to a charity that has yet to be named. Blizzard has not announced when these pets will be available to purchase or for how much. If they keep the same pricing as last year, however, the pets will be $10.00 (EUR 10,00) each.

The full announcement by Blizzard and action shots of the hatchling are after the break.

Yes, that's right. During the ATVI earnings report conference call today, Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment, announced that the Moonkin Hatchling will be available for purchase later this month, as he had already stated at BlizzCon. In addition, 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale will go to charity. The last time Blizzard did something similar, it raised $1.1 million for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Can the hatchling possibly dethrone the Pandaren Monk as the most adorable charity money generator?

Gregg's speculation on whether or not we'd see more charity pets seems confirmed. Were you already planning on picking one up, and if not, does this news make it any more likely?