Say what you will about item shops for MMOs, buying vanity items and spending your hard-earned money on virtual goods – Blizzard did a good thing here. The Cenarion Hatchling vanity pet went up on the Blizzard Store in May, and Blizzard dedicated 100% of profits from the sale of the $10 pet through the end of July to the Japan disaster relief effort.
First off, that is a lot of pets sold – $1.9 million worth at $10 each (that’s 190,000 pets sold, for those keeping track). Secondly, this is completely awesome and showcases a great way to use item stores in MMOs. Granted, Blizzard isn’t the only MMO developer to do something like this, but they are the biggest, and with that comes a greater number of willing participants handing them $10 bills. That all adds up to a great use of hard earned money, even if it did mean you had to go without Starbucks for a day or two.
Chad Awkerman
Chad joined the DualShockers staff in mid 2009 and since then has put much of his time into covering RPGs, with a focus on the Japanese side of the genre, from the obscure to the mainstream. He's a huge fan of iconic games like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI and Persona 4 yet enjoys the smaller niche titles, as well. In his spare time he enjoys experiencing new beer, new foods and keeping up with just about every sci-fi show on television. He's married to an intelligent, beautiful Southern Belle who keeps his life interesting with witty banter and spicy Cajun cooking.
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