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.
Dubbed WoW, Blizzard's game debuted in 2004 and has inspired hundreds of fan sites, a Warcraft Wiki, global game tournaments and even a "South Park" episode.
Chatterton had his father, Micah, sketch characters and write down questions so he wouldn't forget.
Blizzard pulled the daylong funfest together in days. On Friday, father and son arrived at Blizzard's Irvine headquarters in a black limo to tour one of the world's most successful game companies.
Chatterton was whisked immediately to Kaplan's office to create 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, add his dog Kyle to the game, create a quest and record his voice for the new character, Ahab Wheathoof, the Old Rancher.
"We definitely want a crossbow," Chatterton instructed Kaplan. He offered a detailed description of what he wanted: dangerous flames, curved frame and an ability to wreak havoc.
"I want it to shoot a fiery arrow at 300 damage over 10 seconds," he said.
With a few clicks of his mouse, Kaplan constructed a prototype.
"Wow. Weird. Progress is going quicker than I expected," Chatterton said.
"This crossbow will be the only one in the game and it's very difficult to get," Kaplan explained. "You're going to get a lot of questions (from other players)."
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