moonkin-hatchling
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Moonkin hatchling 50% off this week only
This week only, one of WoW's most adorable pets is on sale. The Moonkin Hatchling is on sale for $5, €5 or £4.50, depending on your local currency. This adorable little creature is effectively a buy one moonkin hatchling get one moonkin hatchling free deal, as you get both versions pictured above for your money, one for the Alliance and one for the Horde. As you'd expect, they are account-wide, and also battle pets. The Moonkin Hatchling is a humanoid battle pet, with abilities such as Solar Beam, Cyclone and Moonfire reflecting his druidic status. He also has some utterly adorable animations, growing little flowers on the ground to brighten your day, as well as periodically hovering a few inches from the ground with his tiny wings. And what's more, he can fly, and will accompany you on your flying mounts, defying the laws of physics. The sale ends on July 1 at 11.59pm PDT in the US, CET in the EU.
The Lawbringer: A good cause
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? On Monday, Blizzard announced that it would begin selling a new companion pet in the pet store and that for a limited time (until July 31), 100% of the cost of the pet would go to the American Red Cross to aid victims of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan. Blizzard used its art and time assets for a great cause, using a previously successful tactic to raise money for people in dire need. While Blizzard is not donating the money directly, it is facilitating donation collection and incentive by putting the pet up for sale. What interests me is the level of fervor and the community outcry for this type of relief effort by Blizzard. Why are people so eager to push a corporation like Blizzard, which has a costly back end to monitor and maintain, into what amounts to a large-scale companion pet release for charity that people would have donated to anyway based on the generally accepted understanding that people are charitable? First, we need to learn a tiny bit about corporate donations and charity and explore why people like Blizzard in the first place. Second, we can ask why we want Blizzard to do the right thing.
Make-A-Wish receives $800K from WoW DLC proceeds
The Make-A-Wish Foundation has received an $800,000 donation from Blizzard Entertainment. Well, technically, it's from Blizzard's customers, who dropped $10 on the World of Warcraft "Moonkin Hatchling" in-game pet. According to the foundation, the donation was based on "50 percent of the total sales during November and December 2010" of the little bear-bird. Blizzard also welcomed two Make-A-Wish kids to the studio on April 29, "World Wish Day," to tour the digs and meet the development team. A similar promotion a year ago, featuring a Pandaren Monk, raised $1.1 million for the organization.
Blizzard donates $800,000 from virtual pet sales to Make-A-Wish
Who says Blizzard plus microtransactions equals pure, unadulterated evil? Well, a lot of gamers, for one, but that hasn't stopped the makers of World of Warcraft from gifting a sizable chunk of RMT-related change to charity. Gamasutra has all the details on Blizzard's most recent involvement with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Proceeds from the $10 Moonkin Hatchling pet that was sold during the last two months of 2010 have been donated to the long-running charity, with some $800,000 ultimately going to a worthy cause. Blizzard has also added another in-game pet to its cash shop, and 100 percent of the proceeds from the new Cenarion Hatchling will go to the Red Cross's Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami relief fund. There is currently no word as to whether the company will offer similar assistance to the survivors of the severe storms that killed over 300 people and caused millions of dollars in property damage in the southeastern United States last week.
Breakfast Topic: Will you be buying either of the new vanity pets?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Blizzard has been selling us in-game items for a while now; however, it has kept this to noncombat pets and mounts -- things that, outside of counting for totals for achievements, have little to no real effect on gameplay. Some of the items Blizzard does for self-profit, and sometimes it sells in-game pets for charity. People who buy the items get different reactions from the community; the sparkle pony especially got a lot of hate. Personally, I have not bought any of the real-money pets, partially because I am not a collector and partially because I felt that paying for downloadable content should add something major to the game experience. However, I am considering buying the Ragnaros pet for one main reason: because Rags is my major epic memory of vanilla WoW, I always felt he was an awesome model and so imposing, and many of us went around saying "too soon" on Vent. Have you bought any of the vanity pets? Do you buy them all as a completionist/collector? Do you pick and choose the ones you think look cool? Do you only buy the charity pets? Or do you avoid real money transactions in games altogether?
Lil' Ragnaros and Moonkin Hatchlings now available at the pet store
Blizzard had previously promised new pets Lil' Ragnaros and the Moonkin Hatchling before the end of November and it has delivered, just barely. Right now, you can purchase both pets in the pet store. Lil' Ragnaros will ignite nearby critters, do his famous submerge, and even counts as a cooking fire! The Moonkin Hatchling comes in Horde and Alliance versions, depending on your faction, and will plant flowers around your feet and even /dance with your friends. Check out the pet store here.
This week on The MMO Report
This week on The MMO Report, Casey Schreiner starts things off with a bang by highlighting Undead Labs' zombie MMO-in-the-making and a spectacularly polarizing quote by developer Richard Foge that first broke right here on Massively. Moving right along, Casey takes a look at Star Wars: The Old Republic's recently announced PvP Warzones, scenario-based battles that will see players fighting for control over various objectives. He also spends a segment on the drama surrounding All Points Bulletin -- or more accurately -- its firesale. The new sci-fi MMOFPS Genesis A.D. also gets a mention, and its shiny trailer grabs the spotlight for a few precious seconds. Finally, the episode pays a bit of lip service to Blizzard's charitable endeavors via the Moonkin hatchling promotion and finishes things off with a death-defying dive into the nether regions of Uncle Casey's mailbag. Check out the full episode after the cut, and if you're looking for past episodes of The MMO Report, head over to G4TV.
Lil' Ragnaros and Moonkin Hatchling pets preview
Blizzard is previewing the two pets that will be offered this month in the Blizzard Store: Lil' Ragnaros and the Moonkin Hatchling. Lil' Ragnaros, pictured above, will not be associated with a charity. As reported before, however, a portion of the proceeds from the Moonkin Hatchling will be going to a charity that has yet to be named. Blizzard has not announced when these pets will be available to purchase or for how much. If they keep the same pricing as last year, however, the pets will be $10.00 (EUR 10,00) each. The full announcement by Blizzard and action shots of the hatchling are after the break.
Morhaime says moonkin hatchling available this month
Yes, that's right. During the ATVI earnings report conference call today, Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment, announced that the Moonkin Hatchling will be available for purchase later this month, as he had already stated at BlizzCon. In addition, 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale will go to charity. The last time Blizzard did something similar, it raised $1.1 million for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Can the hatchling possibly dethrone the Pandaren Monk as the most adorable charity money generator? Gregg's speculation on whether or not we'd see more charity pets seems confirmed. Were you already planning on picking one up, and if not, does this news make it any more likely?
BlizzCon 2010: Moonkin Hatchling mini-pet going on sale in November
There has been some data-mining in the past couple weeks which found mention of a Moonkin Hatchling in the beta game files. During the BlizzCon opening ceremonies, Mike Morhaime (Blizzard CEO) announced that this new vanity pet will be available for sale from the Blizzard store coming in November. We still don't have any idea how adorable this pet will look, but if it's anything like the other hatchling pets the cuteness will be epic. They also announced that their Pandaren Monk pet when it donated all proceeds to charity when it was first available made $1.1 million for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. We're curious if this is a sign of more charity vanity pets to come in the future as that will make a serious impact for almost any cause. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
