WoW Players Raise $800k for Make-A-Wish

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard announced that its players had raised more than $800,000 to help sick kids make their wishes come true.

There are many worthwhile charities in the world, but one that always seems especially heartwarming is the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a group that exists to help children with life-threatening illnesses do the things that they’ve always wanted to do in life. Unsurprisingly, many of the children want to do something with videogames, like creating their own game with the help of casual giant PopCap.

For World Wish Day on April 26th, WoW maker Blizzard invited ten Make-a-Wish kids and their families behind the gates of its studio in Irvine, California for a “day of fun and games.” Two of those children were there specifically for their wishes, and were given a special behind-the-scenes look at how the immensely popular MMORPG is created. One wonders what the other eight were there for if not that, but really, that’s just quibbling at this point.

Blizzard also handed out a check to the Make-A-Wish Foundation worth $800,000, collected from the sales of the Moonkin Hatchling in-game pet. Every sale was worth $5 for the foundation, which means that over 1.6 million 160,000 WoW players shelled out money for their very own mini owl-bear-laserchicken. If there’s one thing that WoW players know well, it’s that lots of little contributions eventually add up.

This sort of thing warms my heart, and I always love seeing developers like PopCap and Blizzard help sick children have a good time and live out their wishes. There’s no word on whether any of the children were able to design their own WoW quest a la Ezra Chatterton, but having been to the Blizzard campus several times now I’m tempted to say that it doesn’t matter. Seriously, that place is geek heaven, and I’m sure those kids had the time of their lives.

Bravo on you, guys – and you too, PopCap. Let’s hope that more studios follow their example in helping Make-A-Wish kids live out their dreams.

Edit: Math fail, whoops.