If WoW players know anything, it’s that lots of small, incremental contributions will eventually add up: They’ve collectively donated almost $35,000 to the fight against blood cancer since the end of December.
When Blizzard employee Katherine Allen offered three one-year WoW time cards and one lifetime subscription to the game as potential prizes to gamers who helped her raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, she had a fundraising goal of $5,000. Today, when she drew the names of the four lucky Azerothians, the final contribution total was at $34,634.00 – almost seven times what Allen had hoped for.
In order to be eligible for the prize, contributors had to make a donation of at least $25 and put a message indicating their allegiance – Horde or Alliance – in the donation form. You can read the messages on the fundraising site, and while most of them form a veritable wall of “For the Horde!” or “For the Alliance!” there are some genuinely heartfelt statements in there as well. Most of the contributions were for the $25 minimum, though some donated more, even going into the hundreds of dollars – pretty generous, especially since it wouldn’t increase anyone’s shot at winning her random draw.
I’m sure most of our readers who play WoW can probably think of hearing about something similar with guildmates helping each other out even with real-life problems – I certainly can – but we all know that this isn’t just a Warcraft thing. The overwhelming success of initiatives like Ms. Allen’s fundraiser or the Child’s Play charity just further proves that even in a slumping economy, many gamers are still willing to put their money where their hearts are.
Also, For the Alliance.
(Via WoWInsider)
Published: Jan 8, 2009 03:04 pm