When Blizzard Entertainment asked gamers inside the World of Warcraft to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation, players responded.

By the thousands.

On Tuesday, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime handed a $1.11 million check to the charity that grants wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

“We’re very happy with the amount,” said Mike Morhaime, president of the Irvine game developer.

Was he surprised?

“We stopped making predictions about WoW a long time ago.”

The proceeds came from the sale of a Pandaren Monk, a virtual pet for the game. The creature sold for $10 between Nov. 4 and Dec. 31. Half the price was donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. That means 222,000 players bought the pet.

“I was shocked. That’s a lot of virtual pets,” said Frank Pearce, the game’s executive director.

Morhaime believes players wanted to help out the charity and not just score another virtual pet.

“If you read a lot of the comments in the forums, they indicated that people were really excited about Make-a-Wish and having the proceeds benefit the foundation,” Morhaime said.

In fact, Blizzard released two other virtual pets at the same time that weren’t as big sellers.

“People were definitely drawn to the Pandaren,” Pearce said.

The company has granted eight or nine wishes, including that of Ezra Chatterton, whose tale I documented starting with his May 2007 visit to Blizzard’s headquarters. Chatterton had brain cancer and played WoW with his father as an escape. His story inspired hundreds of readers and WoW players to write in and wish him the best.

The $1.1 million donation is to fund wishes, Morhaime said. It’s also a donation to the Orange County and international chapters of Make-A-Wish. The money will also be doled out proportionally by country, based on where funds originated. U.S. players were the largest contributors.

“When I found out the amount, it was a massive surprise because it had never been done before. It (the virtual pet sale) only lasted about seven weeks. I think Blizzard was hoping for $100,000 to $200,000,” said Mark Pilon, president and CEO of the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Orange County and the Inland Empire.

Watch the video by Register videographer Eugene Garcia:

The donation also makes it the first time one was split between the local and international operations.

“They looked at it as, ‘We’re getting money from all over the world so we need to share it all over the world,’ ” Pilon said. “I’m proud that it’s coming from Orange County.”

	Blizzard’s Sam ‘Samwise’ Didier sketches Jordan Cofinco’s character in WoW.

During Tuesday’s event, about a dozen children in the local Make-a-Wish program were invited to Blizzard’s private campus for the short ceremony and a chance to play the upcoming StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 games. Art director Sam “Samwise” Didier sketched characters while chatting with the kids. Someone even dressed up as a night elf for photo opps.

But it was Jordan Cofinco, 17, who probably got the biggest thrill of the day: Blizzard granted his wish. Cofinco, who had a brain tumor the size of his fist, simply wanted what many players desire: To be “leveled up” to level 80, the highest in the game. He also asked for a lifetime subscription and visit to Blizzard’s campus, he said.

“It’s very cool,” said Cofinco, whose brain cancer has spread to his spine. Being on Blizzard’s campus made him feel “starstruck,” he said.

Cofinco, who lives in Corona, has been playing WoW for about five years. After cancer struck, mother Brenda Starr learned how to play because it brought her son so much joy, she said. She’s now at level 80 herself and helped her son get one of his characters to the same level. But he had others, including a night elf. Blizzard granted him one level 80.

“It’s hard for him to play these days. He has tremors in his hands. Double vision. His reaction is not as quick,” she said. “The only thing that cheered him up in the hospital was WoW.”

For more stories and photos of Blizzard Entertainment, visit the Blizzard archive at ocregister.com/blizzard. Recent stories:

Joe Simmons, a World of Warcraft player and editor here at The Orange County Register, reflects on the massively multi-player game from Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment from a player’s perspective. Simmons previously wrote on the Register’s Blizzard Blog.

“World of Warcraft” turns 5 today. On Nov. 23, 2004, game-maker Blizzard’s servers were turned on and players began romping through the lands of Azeroth. In those five years, we’ve seen the scope of the game expand to include another continent, another world and a host of fan-favorite characters.

But in one sense, the age of “World of Warcraft” is entirely meaningless. Its designers have truly embraced the Internet age’s mantra of constant change; the Warcraft we play today isn’t the same one introduced in 2004.

We could just as easily be talking about the first birthday of the “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion, released about this time last year. There’s more innovation, updates and streamlining in this game’s add-on content than many other franchises see between sequels.

When the game was first released, reviews breathlessly trumpeted the seamless transition from area to area (previous massively multiplayer games, such as “EverQuest,” had lengthy loading screens); the clean, intuitive user interface; the simple, flexible power of the game’s character customization options.

But there were rough spots, too – it was clear that design philosophy had shifted during the creation process of Dustwallow Marsh and Ashenvale, leaving the two areas feeling aimless and incomplete. The initial talent system, which allows players to tailor their characters, made it hard for some types of characters fill a useful role in groups.

However, those kinds of errors aren’t necessarily a problem. They’re the natural result of trying to implement new ideas. What’s made “World of Warcraft” so enduring is that not only does Blizzard constantly test out new ideas, but it revises ones that don’t work. Talents are, overall, much clearer and more useful now. Ashenvale and Dustwallow received massive updates, upgrading the areas from forgotten also-rans to fleshed-out destinations.

The next step for “World of Warcraft” is its release of “Cataclysm,” the game’s third expansion pack. In it, the original setting will get an update, bringing the series full-circle: Much of that initial, breakthrough content now feels outdated and upstaged by the game’s latest innovations. What better way to keep the title forward-looking than by updating and expanding what set the game apart in the first place?

Read more in the WoW birthday series:

View WoW slide shows
Exclusive: Employees celebrate 5 years of WoW
WoW through the years

This is part of a series of stories about the World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer game built by Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment. The game celebrates its five-year anniversary on Nov. 23, 2009. Catch the earlier stories at ocregister.com/blizzard.

The Designer

As Blizzard’s executive vice president of game design, Rob Pardo oversees 800 or so developers with cofounder Frank Pearce. He sees everything coming and going. But what touches him most is watching how people interact with the game.

Like his 10-year-old daughter. She started playing at age 4 when the beta test period began.

“When she started, she didn’t want to be in zones where you get attacked by monsters. She really liked to attack critters, like rabbits. What she really liked was jumping off the building. It baffled me why she liked doing that over and over and over,” he said.

“As she got older, she still didn’t like player-to-player combat. Then one day, I noticed that she was waking up on her own and playing on the battleground. She’s now 10,” he said.

The Co-founder

Pearce might always be known as the guy who almost killed World of Warcraft.

As one of the cofounders of Blizzard Entertainment, Pearce was the skeptic to fellow cofounder Morhaime’s believer.

“I had a hard time wrapping my head around a game that never ended,” Pearce said.

Pearce quickly got over that thought, gave the game his blessing and now he’s the game’s executive director as well as the company’s executive vice president of product development.

But even though he found the game compelling and immersive, Pearce admits that he and everyone else at Blizzard didn’t expect WoW to attract more than 400,000 players.

“I think we reached that in the first month,” he said.

The game has 11.5 million players who have logged in within the past 90 days. Now his team, which has a core of 135 developers, is working on WoW’s third major upgrade, called “WoW: Cataclysm.”

“Cataclysm is a big revamp of all the stories and most of the content we put in five years ago is getting an update. We want to target a launch for that next year. I don’t think that’s a big secret,” he said. “I definitely think there are more expansions in store for everyone. We’re not short on ideas.”

Stories in the series will be/are linked below.

>> Visit the Blizzard Blog for the complete list of stories and photos, at ocregister.com/blizzard.

This is part of a series of stories about the World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer game built by Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment. The game celebrates its five-year anniversary on Nov. 23, 2009. Catch the earlier stories at ocregister.com/blizzard.

The Producer

Shane Dabiri, lead producer who joined Blizzard 15 years ago next month, remembers the eve before WoW went on sale.

Members of the development team were going to Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley to sign copies at midnight. Even with the success of past Blizzard games, Dabiri had his doubts.

“We were so worried that no one was going to be there and it was just going to be us 16 developers,” he said

As it turned out, fans began lining up just after noon. By midnight, the line looped around the building and parking lot twice before spilling out into the street.

View WoW slide shows
Exclusive: Employees celebrate 5 years of WoW
WoW through the years

The Blizzard team had to call headquarters to drive more copies of the game to Fry’s. They sold all 3,500 copies before sunrise.

“It was amazing. Thousands showed up. They showed up in campers and vans. Some of them had brought their family cross country,” Dabiri said. “When I first got into games, I didn’t realize how much impact I could have.”

WoW’s impact on the gaming industry? “It used to be that if you mentioned games to a girl, she’d say, ‘Oh, my husband plays that game.’ Now they say, ‘Oh, I play WoW.’ … Women want to have fun as much as guys do. It’s the social aspects of the game. You create something.”

Dabiri’s celebrity spotting story? Back during the Burning Crusade launch in China, he snuck away to buy a jade statue at a store in some obscure alley way. “An old man started saying something and the translator said, ‘He recognizes you. He saw you on TV for a game.’”

Dabiri also has a long list of stuff he’d like to squeeze in to the game. The great thing is that since there are constant updates and expansions, what didn’t make it this time will always have another chance.

“What didn’t get into the first game that I really wanted? Flying mounts to fly all over the game. It came out in the next expansion,” he said. “Another thing, boats. The booze cruise. There’s all that ocean in there but not enough to do. … It’s all a matter of priorities.”

Stories in the series will be/are linked below.

>> Visit the Blizzard Blog for the complete list of stories and photos, at ocregister.com/blizzard.

View WoW slide shows
Exclusive: Employees celebrate 5 years of WoW
WoW through the years

This is part of a series of stories about the World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer game built by Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment. The game celebrates its five-year anniversary on Nov. 23, 2009. Catch the earlier stories at ocregister.com/blizzard.

Even if you’ve never played the game, you’ve probably heard about WoW or the original Warcraft series, which itself celebrates 15 years this year.

There are hundreds of fan sites that track every little Blizzard burp. There are professional game competitions for Warcraft. There are college courses and art shows inspired by WoW. A Hollywood movie is in the works.

But it’s the people who built the game that we don’t hear about much.

Like Sam “Samwise” Didier, one of the more recognized names.

The Artist

Didier saw an ad in The Orange County Register and joined the startup six months after it launched in 1991. His previous job? An usher at a local movie theater.

Back then, gaming was an activity relegated mostly to teenage boys. When Didier told people he worked for a game company, they’d respond with something like, “Oh, did you make Street Fighter?” he said.

“Now they’ll ask, ‘Did you work on WoW?’ You say no, otherwise you’ll be there for three hours talking about the game,” Didier said, whose fan-sighting story is getting recognized in an El Pollo Loco drive-thru.

Didier also would love to get a new race inside the game, the Pandarens. The Pandaren race, one of the most elusive, showed up as an April Fools joke.  But all the fans loved it; some thought it was real.

“If you’ve ever seen ‘Kung Fu Panda,’ we did that three years ago,” said Didier, the mastermind behind the Panda bear race. “The Pandarens have always been a semi-joke race. We came up with it as an April Fools joke and everyone was like, ‘Oh cool. Is it part of the Horde or Alliance?’”

Will the Pandarens ever make it into the game?

“I would love to have more classes and races,” he said.

Stories in the series will be/are linked below.

>> Visit the Blizzard Blog for the complete list of stories and photos, at ocregister.com/blizzard.

This is part of a series of stories about the World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer game built by Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment. The game celebrates its five-year anniversary on Nov. 23, 2009. See ocregister.com/blizzard for the complete series.

View slide shows
Exclusive: Employees celebrate 5 years of WoW
WoW through the years

If you were on the second floor of the Anaheim Convention Center staring down at thousands of fans of a computer game you worked on, what would you do?

“I yelled, ‘For the Horde!’” recalls Sam “Samwise” Didier, senior art director with Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment, makers of the World of Warcraft. Yes, that game.

That game, nicknamed WoW, celebrates its fifth anniversary Monday.

In five years, this multiplayer online fantasy game has attracted millions of players around the world, added two major upgrades with a third in the works, and touched millions of lives — uniting couples, separating others and even distracting a kid named Ezra Chatterton, who played the game with his dad before brain cancer took his young life.

Accomplishment was what Didier felt on that October 2005 day, when Blizzard said thanks to fans with its first BlizzCon convention.

“They shouted back, ‘For the Horde!’ And if you know the game, the other faction is the Alliance; so in the background you heard people saying ‘For the Alliance,’” Didier said in a squeaky little voice. “And all you could hear was ‘Boos.’ And then ‘For the Horde,” and ‘For the Alliance,” and more boos. … That’s when I knew we had made it kind of big.”

On Thursday, the company held a beer and BBQ fest on its Irvine campus to commemorate the occasion. Plenty of WoW birthday cake to go around. The company employs more than 1,200 employees in the U.S. and 3,000 worldwide. In the year before WoW, Blizzard employed 220.

“One of our goals was to stay small. That’s one of the goals we failed at,” said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard’s president and co-founder. “All these games we made in the last 15 years wouldn’t be what they are without the people who created them.”

More to come so keep checking back today and this week. Stories in the series will be/are linked below.

>> Visit the Blizzard Blog for the complete list of stories and photos, at ocregister.com/blizzard.

This is the first in a series of short profiles of the people behind World of Warcraft, which celebrates its five-year anniversary on Monday, Nov. 23, 2009. More in the series: ocregister.com/blizzard

Few outsiders got the chance to observe Blizzard Entertainment’s special celebration for World of Warcraft, on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009. I guess they like me.

Anyone would have been in awe whether they know what WoW is or not. The company invited the whole Irvine campus — more than 1,000 employees — to the outdoor gathering. A stage was set up in front of the 12-foot orc statue and all the big bosses were there. And as you can see from our exclusive photos (by Register photographer Jebb Harris), there was plenty of free beer, BBQ and cake.

But the best part about the whole birthday extravaganza was the stories. Several old timers got a chance to say a few words, in this order:

• Frank Pearce, co-founder and executive vice president of product development
• J. Allen Brack, game director for World of Warcraft
• Shane Dabiri, lead producer
• Bob Fitch, lead software engineer for StarCraft 2
• Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design
• Chris Metzen, executive vice president of creative development
• Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder

Pearce talked about reuniting with old high-school friends online, plus the company’s earliest days of offering multiplayer gaming. And, of course, he mentioned that he initially thought taking Warcraft to the massively multiplayer game genre was just too niche. More on that later.

Brack remembers playing Warcraft on a null modem and Usenet, which he called “a horrible version of the Internet.” His WoW memory? Signing game boxes at Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley five years ago only to be tapped on the shoulder and told, “Someone is wrecking the game in Europe.” Yes, those cheeky Europeans had already figured out how to hack the game.

Dabiri joined the company just as it released its first game, “Warcraft: Orcs & Humans,” and traveled to Las Vegas to the Consumer Electronics Show to help demonstrate the game. Even though he had barely worked on it as a beta tester, he was really proud of the game. Same was true 10 years later during WoW’s launch when he took the team of developers to sign autographs at Fry’s and worried that no one would show up. Thousands did.

Fitch was one of four programmers for the original “Orcs & Humans” game. He and another programmer hooked up the game to a null modem and played one another online from different buildings on Blizzard’s campus. Fitch said he creamed the other guy. But when he stepped out in the hallway to announce the victory, the other player said the same thing. Turns out, they got disconnected early on.

“The game was designed to keep on going, so both of us won the very first multi-player game,” Fitch said.

Pardo brought up “Star Wars” and how the movie probably influenced a lot of the team. WoW will likely do the same for tomorrow’s game developers.

“If you look at the kids playing Warcraft today, they’re going to be citing WoW in the same way we are ‘Star Wars,’ ” he said.

More to come so keep checking back today and this week. New stories will be linked below.

>> Visit the Blizzard Blog for the complete list of stories and photos, at ocregister.com/blizzard.

Big day today. Fans of Irvine game company Blizzard Entertainment are converging in Anaheim for the annual BlizzCon fan fest. I’ll be covering the two-day event but posting updates over our  Blizzard Blog (ya, did you know we had that?) so there won’t be much on Gadgetress. But check the sidebar for lots of good stuff.

For readers who have heard of Blizzard or perhaps one of its computer games — World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo — there is big news expected today. Joe Simmons, lead Blizzard blogger, is betting on more details of the upcoming Diablo III, future updates to Warcraft and lots of StarCraft II news since the game is coming out next year.

 But a major announcement could be a completely new game: A mysterious new massively multiplayer game was quietly confirmed some months back. That’s all the world  knows.

It should be the biggest BlizzCon to date. Some 20,000 tickets were sold within 10 minutes. And that’s not counting media, professional gamers, staff and everyone else. I’ll be getting more details as the con progresses so stay tuned — and check for updates on the Blizzard Blog.

Anyway, this being a TV blog, I thought I’d better point out that DirecTV is once again broadcasting BlizzCon as a pay-per-view show for $39.95. It’s not competely minute-by-minute action, but the package will include 18 hours of HD coverage, plus an exclusive in-game pet, Grunty the Murloc Marine. Additionally, subscribers will get free access to the Internet stream. The event will be on channels 122 and 121. More details are at directv.com/blizzcon.

For more BlizzCon coverage, visit our Blizzard Blog. Recent headlines:

Ezra Phoenix Chatterton, the young World of Warcraft fan with cancer, died on Monday. I’ve been following his tragic tale since May 2007 when Blizzard Entertainment granted young Ezra’s wish and let him create a character for the game. 

I have posted a tribute from his father, Micah, as well as links to the Ezra archive at the Register’s Blizzard Blog. Please read “A father’s tribute to Ezra, the World of Warcraft fan with brain cancer.“

Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon fan convention sold out a long time ago, but the 2-day event in Anaheim will be aired on TV via pay-per view for DirecTV customers only.

It’s not too late to get gouged sign up for the $39.95 PPV package. A DirecTV spokesperson just told me that O.C. residents can still get the satellite TV service installed by Saturday if they sign up today or tomorrow. 

I just blogged all the details over at our renewed gaming blog, The Blizzard Blog, at ocregister.com/blizzard, which is now dedicated to all-things Blizzard. 

For the rest of my readers who could care less about BlizzCon, DirecTV is apparently working on some new release for O.C. Check back later this week when I find out what that is.

Recent Blizzard news:

• When art school and Blizzard converge
• Ezra update: WoW fan with cancer suffers stroke
• Blizzard says BlizzCon snafu might have been avoided
• 3,000 more BlizzCon tickets and a Blizzard apology
• Blizzard keeps name after Activision merger
• Blizzard’s big news: Diablo III announced
• Watch the animated version of Blizzard’s splash page

**UPDATE 9/30/08** Just learned that this is a show featuring Blizzard artists, not students. See more details in bold below. 

The Laguna College of Art & Design in Laguna Beach opens its second-annual art show Wednesday based on the art of  Orange County’s biggest gaming company. Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment, developer of massively popular World of Warcraft and StarCraft games, will be submittinng art from employees, a few who also teach at the school.

[I removed the image here because I was misinformed that it was the official invitation to the show. I will post that as soon as I receive it.]

Last year’s show launched the video-game major.  When I spoke to students and faculty last spring, everyone was jazzed about the Blizzard connection. (Who wouldn’t be? Read “Get taught by Blizzard — a perk if you attend Laguna art school.“) The first students to graduate with a gaming degree are expected this school year. 

The October exhibit, titled “Art/Studies From Blizzard Entertainment,” features art from students and Blizzard employees who worked on popular games like World of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.

**UPDATE, 9/30/08** After visiting the gallery today, I learned that this is a purely Blizzard show. No student art is involved. This is part of a unique partnership between the school and Blizzard, which has loaned the school several original pieces drawn by Blizzard staff. Any fan who can make it to the gallery should plan a visit. Pieces include sketches and illustrations to show the process of creating the final product. I will post a link to my write up about this exhibit soon. 

The show starts Oct. 1, but oddly, the artist reception isn’t until near the end of the show’s 27-day run. The college, however, is giving me a sneak peek on Tuesday. In the meantime, here is a slideshow of art created by students who are majoring in game art.

And Blizzard fans, stay tuned on Wednesday-ish when we relaunch the game blog to focus on all-things Blizzard  (it’s a work in progress but feel free to watch the changes over the next few days).

::details::

What: Art/Studies From Blizzard Entertainment 

When: Reception is Oct. 23, public is invited

Where: Laguna College Art & Design gallery, 2222 Laguna Canyon in Laguna Beach

Exhibit hours: Exhibit runs from Oct. 1 to 27.
Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Related:

• Get taught by Blizzard — a perk if you attend Laguna art school
• Best video game internship: Disney or Blizzard?
• Laguna college adds game major and Warcraft art show
• Ezra update: WoW fan with cancer suffers stroke
• Blizzard says BlizzCon snafu might have been avoided
• 3,000 more BlizzCon tickets and a Blizzard apology
• Blizzard Entertainment moves into new campus
• WoW developer’s dad hooked on Warcraft
• Blizzard keeps name after Activision merger
• Blizzard’s big news: Diablo III announced
• Watch the animated version of Blizzard’s splash page

Daniel Stultz sketches detailed images that look like they could exist in the land of Azeroth, a place inside the popular World of Warcraft game from Blizzard Entertainment. His artistry is inspired by the massively multi player online game and because of his choice in colleges, he’s closer to Azeroth than most gamers.

Stutz, pictured on right, got a chance to work with artists from game company because he attended the Laguna College of Art+Design in Laguna Beach, just 7.6 miles from Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine. The Laguna college has 22 students in its brand-new video game major, which ended its first year last week. (This is the same college that hosted a World of Warcraft art exhibit last year.)

Read my story today about the perks of going to video-game school — here’s the LINK.

Thanks to the very connected Sandy Appleoff, the college’s chair of the Game Art major, students also got to work with artists from Dreamworks Animation, Double Helix Games (formerly Shiny Entertainment and The Collective) and, of course, two guys from Blizzard. Specifically, Blizzard’s Ely Cannon and Dion Rogers are on faculty at LCAD. Blizzard also sent a team to scope out talent at last week’s student showcase, which is where I interviewed Stutz.

“I can’t play Warcraft anymore,” confided Stutz, who has been drawing and playing Dungeons & Dragons since he was four. “The options were I play Warcraft or I finish school.”

He finished school. Now, he’s looking for a job. (All images are from his portfolio, btw…)

“I talked to Blizzard. That was a huge deal,” Stutz told me. Blizzard reps told him he needed a bigger portfolio with more 3D art, which is basically what every game studio wants these days.

He wasn’t the only Warcraft fan at the art school.

Lindsay Groce, a skinny, wide-eyed animation student pictured on right (Photo by Register photographer Lorren Au), also wouldn’t mind a gig at Blizzard.

“Their style is so passionate and free,” said Groce, a gamer herself who prefers first-person shooters and role-playing games.

Groce is currently working with some UC Irvine computer-science students, Blizzard’s Cannon and a few other art-school students to create their own game. I’ll post more details when I get them.

I spoke to Lenny Grossi, Blizzard’s Senior Manager of Global Staffing, about Blizzard’s sudden interest in college life.

The company only this year launched its official internship program, its University Relations unit. Grossi didn’t know how many students applied to play work at Blizzard, but many were invited to visit the campus. Eight have been chosen and are being notified right now.

“Historically for Blizzard, there wasn’t a clearly defined university program. Over the last year, we formalized and developed it. We’re adding headcount to the group and building it out as a small staffing group,” Grossi said.

The program focused on students in Orange County and Los Angeles, so they wouldn’t need to relocate. For those who didn’t make the cut, there’s always next year.

Recent top stories on The Blizzard Blog:

Blizzard Entertainment just announced that it will host its third BlizzCon fan fest at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 10 and 11. Need I say more?

Okay, I will. The Irvine company continues to have fantabulous success with its Warcraft and Star Craft games. This year, the event will occupy three convention halls, instead of two.

I’ll post details as soon as I get them. More information should be posted at Blizzcon.com, but the page still has last year’s information.The $100 tickets, which aren’t on sale yet, do sell out fast so you’ve been warned…

To get in the mood, check out coverage from last year’s show:

• First scenes from BlizzCon 2007
• BlizzCon 2007 slideshow, the early edition
• Blizzard names next new game
• Screenshots from WoW’s Lich King
• WoW’s Lich King details
• Fresh photos from BlizzCon
• Video of new Warcraft Lich King

The Simpsons have Halloween. The tech community has April Fools Day. Here are a few humorous ones worth pointing out:

Blizzard Entertainment, a long-time AF prankster, has introduced a new Hero class for its update to the massively popular World of Warcraft: Guitar Hero! Say’s the stats page, “… only a true hero can vanquish evil with the power of ROCK!” Check out the company’s elaborate visuals, including the punk and metal talents HERE and more pranks linked on its homepage HERE.

Tech-friendly retailer ThinkGeek has quite a few, including the eww-gross Super Pii Pii Bros., a parody of Nintendo’s Wii (video included). Also, Spazztroids, caffeinated cereal; and the USB pregnancy kit, on left.

Google’s “Custom Time” service to send e-mails in the past; Microsoft and Yahoo agree on a price; plus a slew of fake stories from InfoWorld and another round-up from ITPro.

And if you’re bored, get advice from Wired’s “Top 10 April Fools pranks for nerds.“

One expects a World of Warcraft developer to play the game quite a bit. But what about the dad of one of those developers?

Such is the case with J. Allen Brack (in image by Kevin Sullivan, at right), senior producer of World of Warcraft. As we sat down with Brack during the first press tour of the company’s new headquarters, he admitted that his dad is hooked.

When Brack started working at Blizzard two and half years ago his dad asked about the game. On a Saturday, Brack showed his dad the land of Azeroth.

“He’d never played a video game,” Brack said. “He had no clue on how to move or control the camera.”

It started with Brack showing his dad how to walk, control the camera and do other basic tasks. By the end of that first day, his dad’s mage character was at level 2.

“From that humble beginning, he sort of took off,” Brack said.

Now, Brack says his father’s mage has is at Level 70 and the father-son duo play together in the same unnamed guild. In two and a half years, his dad has played over 190 days (24 hours each) as his main mage character — an average of five hours per day.

Brack said WoW is a way for he and his dad to interact throughout the weeks, as Brack left his family in Texas to work for Blizzard Entertainment in Orange County. And working on the massive online game WoW is a big step up from Brack’s first job.

He laughed and said sarcastically that his first job was “stressful” — he sorted processor chips at an unnamed electronics company. Good chips went in one pile, bad chips in another.

When driving home one day, his friend suggested a job at the gaming company, Origin. That became Brack’s first foray into gaming, as “quality assurance” on the game “Wing Commander 3,” playing the game and reporting any problems to the developers.

That job lead Brack through other gaming jobs until today, where he is the producer managing developers who fix problems found in trial versions of WoW. Still, he admits that he’s just in it for the gaming. He plays about 15 hours a week and has about four main characters, with his most common character being a priest.

Related posts:

• Cost of Blizzard staff, development hits Vivendi expenses
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Blizzard is still turning high profits on World of Warcraft for parent company Vivendi, but the latest revenues statement shows Blizzard is paying more right now to keep its current employees and to develop the Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II.

In Vivendi’s 2007 earnings released, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy says that the company’s expenses increased because of Blizzard.

Levy said that Blizzard’s “higher compensation costs related to retention plans and by the current development of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and of StarCraft II” meant higher expenses for the company. No specific figures for Blizzard’s expenses were given.

After leaving Blizzard, some workers went on on to create their own gaming companies — including Carbine Studios and Red 5 Studios, both in Orange County.

**See Latest UPDATES below in links area **

**UPDATE: June 15, 2008: Warcraft fan’s cancer spreads but family remains upbeat **

Eleven-year-old Ezra Chatterton (or to WoW players, ePhoenix) became famous last spring after the Make A Wish Foundation offered to grant his wish to design characters for his favorite game, the World of Warcraft.

The Riverside fifth-grader was diagnosed with a metastatic brain cancer and his father, Micah, wrote to update us on his condition which is improving but still plagued by cancer.

The good news is that Ezra’s most recent MRI results surprised his doctors and Micah with 98 percent shrinkage of the primary brain tumor and similar reduction in the other smaller metastases in his brain and spine. Also, Micah says that Ezra has glasses, his first pair, that offset the damage to his optic nerve. That, Micah says, means that Ezra has been able to “get back to reading and playing WOW (rather than ordering me to go there, kill that, farm those, etc.),” along with watching Lakers games.

Still, Ezra is back in the hospital. Micah says it’s for an infection that he hopes is something mild. Also, Ezra is still undergoing chemotherapy — treatment that every day has a new effect, whether its chronic nosebleeds, nausea, seizure activity in his brain, or just plain exhaustion.

Micah says that, “During the darker days of a chemotherapy round, it’s difficult to see how far his recovery has actually come. The treatment has also left him open to various infections I’d never heard of, like pancreatitis, which are a nightmare.”

The treatment, Micah says, is a long, slow battle and Micah is still a long way away from going back to school. Still, Micah took the time to thank others for support during Ezra’s journey:

“I’d like to take this opportunity again to thank everyone who has responded to Ezra’s story, both in the World of Warcraft community and out of it, as well as those who have kept us in their thoughts and prayers. Your good will has been a miraculous comfort to us. I believe in my heart that all of you have had a hand in Ezra’s recovery, miraculous as it is to this point. Thank you so much for all the love you’ve shown us. It would have been so much more difficult for Ezra to get through this disease without you.”

The Ezra Chatterton archive:
**Update** Ezra Chatterton passed away on Oct. 20, 2008. Read his father’s tribute HERE.

* Aug. 21, 2008: Ezra Update: WoW fan with cancer suffers stroke
* June 15, 2008:  WoW fan’s cancer spreads but family remains upbeat
*Feb. 29, 2008: Ezra update: Still recovering, playing World of Warcraft
* Sept. 28, 2007: Ezra Update: Warcraft fan has ups and downs
* July 18, 2007: Ezra update: Warcraft fan with cancer turns 11
* June 13, 2007: UPDATE: Condition of Warcraft fan with cancer improves
* May 31, 2007, Big screen for Ezra?
* May 25, 2007: Fund for Warcraft fan with cancer set up
* May 23, 2007: Gamers show their support for Ezra
* May 22, 2007: Images of Ezra’s WoW creations, thanks to Blizzard developers
* May 22, 2007: The original story and slideshow:Blizzard makes WoW wish virtual

Many World of Warcraft players would dream of being able to just sit around and play the game for a whole year. A life free of strife from a job with only worries of how to finish quests and level up.

That’s a possibility if a player is good enough at WoW, with a new tournament announced today. The grand prize is $75,000 – which just also happens to be just over the $73,895 average Orange County household income.

The Irvine company, Blizzard Entertainment, unveiled today plans for a new type of tournament competition using the in-game Arena System. Tournaments will take place in special realms that allow competitors to instantly create level-70 characters with epic equipment, placing the focus on tactics and execution rather than normal adventuring. “We’re pleased to expand World of Warcraft’s tournament options for players who want to focus mainly on the competitive aspect of the game,”said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.

According to Blizzard:

• The tournaments are scheduled to start in April with two rounds of online qualifiers in Europe, South Korea, North America, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
• Each qualifier round will have a per-competitor entry fee — €15/£12 in Europe; 20,000 won in South Korea; $20 in North America; and NT$450 in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau — and will run for six weeks. During this time, teams will play 3-vs.-3 matches on the tournament realm in their region, with the top four teams from each round advancing to the regional finals to compete for more than $27,000 in cash prizes.
• Winners from each region will then be invited to a global championship event to compete for $120,000 in cash prizes, including a $75,000 grand prize.

The site is not yet set up so you can’t register yet. But, you can watch this Blizzard page for more details as made available.

Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment announced today that its fourth Worldwide Invitational will be held June 28-29 in Paris, the company’s first in Europe.

The two-day event brings together the company and gamers for discussions and includes artist and developer signings, a silent auction, a musical performance and competitions between some of the world’s top gamers on StarCraft and Warcraft III.

To attend, tickets must be bought in advance on the invitational Web site. Tickets are limited and will go on sale in the next few weeks on a first-come, first-serve basis until sold out. There is a five-ticket limit per household. The ticket cost has not yet been disclosed.

“We look forward to bringing the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational to Europe for the first time and sharing our latest news with players there,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to the great tournament gaming that will be taking place at the event, we’re planning an entertaining show for all attendees.”

The invitational will be held in Hall 5 of the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center in Paris. Gamers 16 years or older are eligible to go, but younger gamers can go if accompanied by a parent, guardian or responsible adult.

World of Warcraft added two million subscribers in 2007, helping the game reach the milestone of 10 million subscribers and also contributing to an 8 percent year-over-year revenue growth for parent company Vivendi.

This is interesting for two reasons. First, World of Warcraft was released Nov. 23, 2004, meaning 20 percent of its users joined in the game’s third year (during which the Burning Crusade expansion pack, at left, was released). Second, Blizzard was the only driving force in the revenue increase for Vivendi’s gaming division in 2007.

According to 2007 revenue information released by Vivendi this afternoon, the company’s 2007 revenues totaled $32 billion, with net income of $4.1 billion.

The Vivendi Games division that includes World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment reported $1.5 billion in revenues last year and Blizzard’s share of that gaming revenue was $1.2 billion.

The Vivendi earnings report says Blizzard’s revenues grew 58 percent year over year, while the revenues for the rest of the Vivendi gaming division (Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Online and Vivendi Games Mobile) decreased by 29 percent.

In early December gaming giant Activision announced a merger with Blizzard’s parent company Vivendi to be called Activision-Blizzard. According to Activision, its 2007 earnings will be announced Feb. 7.

Ten million people are now paying to play in the Alliance versus Horde war constructed by Blizzard Entertainment, the Irvine company announced today.

“It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard’s CEO and cofounder.

The game that debuted Nov. 23, 2004, now has more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America and about 5.5 million in Asia. Subscribers only include players who are paying a subscription fee, who have an active prepaid card, who are within the first free month of access to the game or who access the game in Internet gaming rooms.

The Nielsen Company named it the No. 1 PC game title in the U.S. between April and November of 2007. According to the report, WoW players spent an average of just over 17 hours per week — roughly 2.5 hours per night — playing the game. That would mean that WoW gamers spend an average 10% of their time in the mythical land of Azeroth. Some people are obviously spending well over three hours nightly.

World of Warcraft was also the bestselling PC game in 2005 and 2006 worldwide, but finished behind only the game’s “The Burning Crusade” expansion pack for 2007, according to Blizzard and based on industry sales and reports from distribution partners.

StarCraft, a game first released by Irvine’s Blizzard in 1998, has been put on the handheld Nintendo DS by two French developers, according to the DS FanBoy blog.

Dubbed “StarLite,” a demo version can downloaded here to be played by a DS emulator. The FanBoy blog writes that so far “players can select and direct units via touchscreen, build simple structures, and produce additional units. There are even a few enemy troops to attack.”

StarCraft takes place in the distant future with a small group of human exiles who have been “doomed to fight for survival on the edge of the galaxy.” Players work in the game to gather resources, and train and expand tr0ops striving for victory.