ezra-chatterton
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WoW Archivist: Life and death
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? World of Warcraft is without a doubt a massive cultural phenomenon unlike any other online game to date. It has given us countless hours of entertainment, introduced friends and couples to one another, and touched the lives of millions. For some, the game has made a bad situation better, or even -- in at least one case -- possibly saved their lives. For others, it has cost them everything. Fair warning: This column describes some intense and tragic events. Hans and the moose In 2007, twelve-year-old Hans Jørgen Olsen of Norway and his sister (ten) decided to take a shortcut through a garden on their way to school. The choice would prove fateful. A moose had wandered into the area and promptly took a dislike to the children. "It ran straight towards us when it saw us," Hans told Norwegian news station Nettavisen. "I screamed at it to scare the moose, but I soon realized that it was not going to stop. Then I turned and ran and ran until I couldn't run faster." The charging moose caught up to Hans and slammed into him. His backpack cushioned the blow, but the impact knocked Hans to the ground. Unsatisfied, the moose remained. "We held eye contact for a while," Hans said, "and then it suddenly struck me."
The Perfect Ten: MMO tributes to real-life people
When a beloved friend, family member, hero, or role model dies, we feel the pain of that loss and grieve in many different ways. Part of that grieving and healing process is often entails those left behind constructing some sort of tribute to the dearly departed. Sometimes this comes in the form of a shrine of flowers, sometimes it's the establishment of a charity, and sometimes it's creating an in-game memorial that thousands if not millions of people will see over the course of years. So while death and illness are depressing topics to dwell upon, I find the many MMO tributes that studios and even gamers have erected to be inspiring and a celebration of individual players' lives. With the help of my fellow Massively staffers, I researched 10 wonderful in-game tributes that serve to honor the lives of fellow gamers.
The OverAchiever: Pimp thy ride
As you've probably already read, players will be able to purchase 310 percent flying speed from trainers in Cataclysm. While this is good news for people who hate raiding, think arena was shat into existence by the most sociopathic among the development team, or spent School of Hard Knocks trying to drown themselves in the nearest body of water, the bad news is that buying your way to super-fast flying will run you a cool 5,000 gold. Outrageous, says this dyed-in-the-wool cheapskate. For anyone else who'd rather die than part with a centavo of hard-earned gold, the good news is that having even a single 310 percent flyer in your stable is enough to get you the skill free. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to snag yourself one of these coveted mounts before Cataclysm hits, and just as fortunately, each mount is the reward (or subject) of an achievement. Strategy guides for obtaining each of the remaining 310 percent mounts is definitely beyond the scope of this article (although I'll probably devote an edition of OverAchiever to nabbing the Rusted Proto-Drake, above) but we can take a visual tour of the fast flyers that any hard-working player can still get in Wrath of the Lich King.
Number 1: Ezra has the Phoenix mount
May 30th, 2007: The Phoenix mount is indeed in-game... with Ezra! A little while before this post, we'd posted the story of Ezra Chatterton, a boy dealing with cancer who'd been to Blizzard headquarters with the Make-a-Wish foundation, and while there, had gotten outfitted in epics, and had gotten to create his own character, questline, and even provide some voiceover for it. Through the course of that story, our writer Krystalle Voecks got in touch with Micah, Ezra's father, and a little while after that, Micah came to us with a request.While at Blizzard, Ezra had been given one of the coolest items in game thus far: a rumored epic flying Phoenix mount. Kael'thas hadn't been dropped yet at that point, so we had no idea where it would come from, but Ezra had been given the very first one, and he was worried that if he took it out on the realms, people would judge him or be jealous of him for having gotten such a special item from Blizzard, even before the world first guilds and hardcore raiders. So with Micah's permission, we broke the exclusive story, and Krystalle wrote a great post explaining what the Phoenix mount meant to Ezra, and that he was the first to get it in the game. And players responded, of course, with nothing but generosity and kindness.As we reported earlier this year, Ezra sadly passed away. But Micah shared that to the end, the WoW community meant everything to them, and of course we are extremely proud to have our top story ever be the one where we were exclusively able to announce Ezra's gift from Blizzard to the world.It's been a wild three years, and of course, we've covered many, many more stories than these, from Tseric's departure from Blizzard, to the Burning Crusade and Wrath midnight releases, to the BlizzCon ticket chaos and all of the other craziness from the World of Warcraft and the gigantic community surrounding it. We're glad you've been along for the ride for the past three years -- here's to many more!Go back to the beginning of the list.
BigRedKitty: For Ezra and Make a Wish
Ezra Chatterton has gone on to a better place, and we are all better for having known of him, his struggles, and the honor and dignity that he and his family displayed throughout their ordeal. Our most sincere and heartfelt love and wishes for a happier future go out to them all. May they find the peace and comfort they so richly deserve.We have received emails from his guild, telling us that he read BigRedKitty.net. He was a hunter, and we are proud to have had him among our ranks. Now we are not the best hunter in Warcraft, nor the one with the most PvP kills, nor the best gear, nor anything else that elevates us to any high standard. But we do have two things that we can use to honor the memory of one who has fallen before his time:A great big mouth and an extremely large and disturbed cult following.It is with great pride and humility that we announce an event in which you can participate. Where you can join us as we humbly, and with tremendous joy, stand and proclaim our kinship with Ezra, and the Make-a-Wish foundation which gave him so much joy.We're going to burn Stormwind to ashes.
15 Minutes of Fame: Badger Badger Badger
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.... mushroom, mushroom. So why have we just bombed you with this tired yet perversely persistent earworm? Because like the proverbial mushroom, WoW Insider reader Badger has kinda grown on us, unanimously capturing the enthusiastic accolades of the WI staff when we decided to feature a WI reader/commenter on 15 Minutes of Fame. We discovered that fellow WI bloggers keep their eyes peeled for Badger comments on their posts because he's warm, funny, thoughtful ... All the traits that make other readers (and us!) want to pause to engage in a little World of Warchat.So Badger, this is your 15 Minutes of Fame – but not before we carve out a few seconds for the other readers our staff felt deserve a WoW Insider shout-out: Angus Manatank Tchernobyl J Parris Heilig Thanks, guys, and thanks to all our readers who help make WoW Insider a responsive, congenial community rather than a mere gaming information dump. We're glad you're reading -- and we're glad you're joining the conversation, too.
The best of WoW Insider: October 21-28, 2008
The World of Warcraft was hit this week with something no one expected: zombies! In the lead-up event to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion release next month, someone (probably the Lich King himself, what a jerk) injected a plague into the populace of Azeroth, pitting Alliance and Horde against each other and themselves, as player-controlled zombies ravaged all the old familiar places. It was a sight to see, but not everyone had fun, so yesterday, things stopped abruptly. What next? News WotLK world event going underwayThis is where it all started -- some suspicious crates with plague-laden grain in Booty Bay. Phase 4 of the zombie invasion beginsThis is where it all got nuts, with plague incubation time down to two minutes, and a brand new boss appearing in game, with a whole army of Scourge attacking the world. Zombie invasion reaches phase 5.5The Forsaken works up a cure to the plague, and very soon... The plague is cured, zombies dropping like fliesWe were able to find a worldwide cure for the plague, even as Blizzard claims it's not over. Ezra Chatterton passes awayOutside of the game, some very sad news about a young figure in the World of Warcraft community. Features Tenris Mirkblood strategy guideKarazhan has a new boss, and here's how to take him down. The bosses of the Scourge InvasionDisappointed that you can't participate in the high level shenanigans? There are lowbie bosses all over the world for you to tangle with. Argent Dawn rewards during the Zombie InvasionNew epic loots from an old faction! Hallow's End 2008 guideAnd oh yeah, even while all of this Lich King event stuff is going on, there's still another Halloween holiday happening at the same time. Arcanite Ripper users in World of Warcraft: Guitar HeroRipping on some riffs with an axe, literally.
Ezra "Ephoenix" Chatterton passes away
The news had been encouraging overall. Ezra "Ephoenix" Chatterton, the Make-A-Wish recipient who had visited the Blizzard offices and been granted a lot of wonderful World of Warcraft gifts, seemed to be doing better until he had a stroke in August. Even still, the family remained hopeful. But this past Monday, in a sad turn of events, Ezra lost his valiant battle with cancer. Gamers the world over have posted messages, sent emails, and taken the time in-game to commemorate his passing, and to remember the courage and determination with which he'd faced his battle. Blizzard has also offered their condolences. As part of his Make-A-Wish trip, the folks at Blizzard had granted Ezra the ability to design and voice his own quest ("Kyle's Gone Missing!" available to all Horde players in Mulgore), worked with him to design his own weapon (Merciless Gladiator's Crossbow of the Phoenix) and he was given the world-first player-owned (Ashes of Al'ar) Phoenix mount. As time passed, a World of Warcraft TCG card was also created for him, showing off Ezra's beloved Tauren Hunter, with the name Ezra Phoenix. Further, Ezra was also credited for giving Blizzard the idea for the broom mounts now familiar to those who have celebrated Hallow's End in WoW. Ezra's father, Micah Chatterton, has been in contact with this blogger on occasion, letting us know about young Ezra's love of video games, his son's desire to become a developer when he grew up, his progress and his undeniable spirit. After Ezra's passing earlier this week, Micah sent along a message to us for the World of Warcraft community as well. In honor of Ezra and his family, we are reprinting it in full behind the cut.Note: Comments are disabled for this post.
Ezra's father thanks the WoW community for their support
The Orange County Register's Blizzard Blog has posted a message from Micah Chatterton, father of Ezra "Epheonix" Chatterton, who, as we reported yesterday, passed away earlier this week. Micah's pain is tangible, but he says that Ezra loved his life, and the greatest tribute that he or anyone else can pay to Ephoenix is by trying to love life as much as he did. He also thanks the WoW community for their outpouring of support. There's no question that we can be a little silly and raucous at times (which is what makes, as Ezra certainly knew, being around this game so much fun), but when it comes down to it, we are a community, and when one member of the community suffers, we all do.Once again, we pay our condolences, along with all of our readers who posted comments yesterday, to Micah and his family in this time of grief. Definitely give his statement a read -- it's extremely sad to hear about the suffering that Ezra went through, but Micah is exactly right: Ezra's life and the smile he had even when facing a tragedy like this should be an example for us all.Micah also forwarded the message along to us, so we've posted it in full after the break.
Ezra Chatterton passes away
You may remember the story of Ezra Chatterton. He and his father played together in Azeroth, using the World of Warcraft to spend quality time with one another. Ezra had a brain tumor. Thanks to help from the Make-A-Wish foundation and Blizzard, Ezra was able to live out some of his dream of being a game developer. You can see his influence in the Merciless Gladiator's Crossbow of the Phoenix, which is finely crafted to ePhoenix's specification. Ezra was the rider for the first phoenix mount in game. But, only a few months ago, we heard the frightening news that Ezra had suffered a stroke. Reader Sedna directed us to Ezra's web site for the saddening news. Ezra passed away on Monday, October 20th, at 10PM pacific time. We at WoW Insider would like to offer our sympathies to Ezra's family. Both they and Ezra are in our thoughts. His story was an inspiring one, and we will not forget ePhoenix. (Edit: We are turning off comments for the evening. We thank everyone for their positive thoughts, and are happy to see so many warm feelings from the community for someone who deserves them.)
Ezra Chatterton suffers a stroke
Some time ago, Blizzard helped Make A Wish fulfill the wish of Ezra Chatteron, young boy with brain cancer, to be a game designer for a day. He was able to design Ahab Wheathoof and his quest, as well as get his character name on an arena crossbow. It's a nice gesture, and good proof that Blizzard does have a heart. Unfortunately, things have not been going so well for Ezra lately, as OC Register reports that he recently suffered a stroke. Micah, Ezra's father, reports that he was doing well up until the stroke, and was enjoying playing around with possible new talent builds for his character in Wrath of the Lich King. He can communicate again, but is plague by pain, vision problems, lethargy, and weakness on his right side. While his outlook is currently grave, both he and his father are hoping that a new round of treatments will work. We here at WoW Insider would like to wish Ezra and his father all the best and a swift recovery, and like Gadgetress, we hope to one day interview him as a developer on a future Blizzard game. If you'd like to send him your own well wishes, you can do so at ephoenix at earthlink dot net.
