Blizzard announced the Cenarion Hatchling pet that 100% of the proceeds would go to the Japan Red Cross relief fund. At least, until July 31st 2011. This would seem to indicate that any funds raised by Blizzard in regards to this pet after that point would be pure profit for Blizzard (after miniscule development costs for deploying the pet anyway).

Am I the only one that thinks this is wrong? I mean, I certainly appreciate Blizzard's attempt to raise money for Red Cross for Japan, but I can't help but see that Blizzard is going to make money off of this. At what point is it wrong that a corporation makes a profit in regards to this situation?

Until recently I've been pretty sure that anything they make after that would be blood money. Pretty black and white. Now I can't help but look at it in a different way. Maybe there is a grey area in that any money raised from this point on wouldn't have been raised anyway. People that spend the $10 on the pet wouldn't have donated the $10 to the Red Cross instead. As angry as that idea might make me, I can't dispute the fact that it is true. They get something, be it real or virtual, and get to feel good about it too instead of just the good feelings.

God I'm confused. I lost someone dear to me in the earthquake, so any time someone, especially a corporation, might make even a dime ruffles my feathers.

Right now I'm really not sure if I want to vehemently hate or offer mediocre praise to Blizzard.

The bad thing is I made a post about this to Blizzard's forums before posting here. Yes, the fanbois jumped all over me. I shouldn't have expected any different. I hate to say it though, they may have made me rethink my position on corporate sponsored charity.

locked

 

-----signature-----

I think that Blizzard donates plenty. It is customary to make money at some point. Usually corporations say something like, "Partial proceeds will be donated to help...." And you find out that 5-10% is donated per item. Blizzard took a better stance imo and let all proceeds go to the Red Cross until a certain date. That is legit.

You can't have a pet forever going to charity because at some point the charity is not needed. You need a cut-off. The other option would have been to remove the pet completely at that date... but people in game would feel slighted if only people who played during that donation time could get the pet.

just my 2 cents

 

-----signature-----

Quit being so dramatic.. they will donate a boat load of money and make themselves some at the same time.. and you tool boxes will get your pet.. its a win-win-win!!

Something is better than nothing. I like the vanity pets, little ct still cracks me up when he freezes a rodent and laughs evilly.

The people really wanting that pet, aka the collectors, will obviously get it as soon as possible. All the money goes to the red cross.
The additionally, people like me, who find the pet "not so awesome / ugly", but who see it as a good opportunity to help the people from Japan, will buy it too.

The income from that pet after July 31st, >>> 3 MONTHS <<< from now, will be negligible compared to the income the red cross made from it. It's also possible they will simply remove the pet from the shop comes July 31...

 

-----signature-----

Why would Blizz just give money away when they can take it from their customers and get the same publicity?

Thought you guys knew how this worked by now.

 

-----signature-----

In this one, I'm with Blizzard. They donate a lot, I don't think it's greedy to make a little off of it... three months later, after which most people will have already bought it who were going to, anyway.

 

-----signature-----

Now wait a cotton pickin' minute! You mean to tell me that Blizzard is in this for PROFIT?? I thought they all of this was for my benefit.

I know it's in to hate on Blizz on this forum, but seriously you are reaching by implying some sort of duplicity from a for-profit gaming company making a profit from it's customers... they have no reason to donate to charity other than the fact that they want to. People have been buying vanity pets for a long time with no incentive.

*edit* I thought they all of this was for my benefit. Wow, I need some coffee or a proofreader. Possibly both.

 

-----signature-----

At least this time its 100% of the proceeds. This could get people to donate who otherwise would not, so red cross will still take in more in the long run which will help even more.

I certainly don't get any warm fuzzy feeling for blizzard over this, but it is just one more avenue to get donations to the red cross, who really do desperately need as much as people can donate. Between tsunamis, tornadoes, and other disasters, the red cross is getting spread really thin right now.

 

-----signature-----

Somebody pull some crazy numbers out of your ass and speculate how much this could bring into the red cross...its gotta be a boat load of $$