Posts Tagged "world of warcraft"

God’s speed ePheonix! – a Celebrating Life series

Posted by Dad on Nov 8, 2008 in Celebrating Life | 0 comments

Ezra Chatterton died on October 20, 2008 from cancer.  He was 12. He was an amazing human being and the world is a little less bright since he left us.

Ezar’s dad, Micah, has written a eulogy for his son that captures the depths of a father’s pain, his undying love and reminds all of us of how lucky we really are. Most of us don’t really appreciate how lucky and blessed we are to have our kids until something like this happens.

Only then do we really understand that we shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.  That we can make plans for 100 years but be prepared to die at any time. That life passes too quickly.

During his short life, Ezra and his dad found joy in spending time together online playing World of Warcraft.  Blizzard, the maker of WoW, even granted Ezra a wish through the Make-a-Wish Foundation.  As his story got out to others, Ezra, or ePheonix, as he was known in-game, became a celebrity to other players.  His death sent shock waves through the online community who have now shown an outpouring of support.

Today, at 6 pm Eastern, on the Argent Dawn server, a Tauren bull run is being organized to remember Ezra who’s online character was a Tauren.  They are forming a huge army that will storm the other faction’s main city to honor Ezra. While this doesn’t mean much to those that don’t play World of Warcraft, it does show the power of love between human beings who don’t even know each other. People from all corners of this earth will join together via the medium of the Internet to honor a fallen boy.

Micah finishes his boy’s eulogy as follows:

Our world is so much smaller without Ezra in it, but he would have us look ever more closely, at our own lives and his. He would have us learn what we can with what we’re given.

Please help me to honor Ezra by carrying him with you, remembering his joy, his strength, his curiosity, how much he cherished life.

Please remember that no father was ever prouder of his son than I am, and that he loved us all as much as we loved him.

I can’t even imagine the pain that Micah is going through. My thoughts and prayers are with him and Ezra’s entire family. I can only say that his son, and he, have taught many, many people how to live better and cherish those we love.

Thanks, Ezra and Micah.

All the best

World of Warcraft – life skills for you and your kids

Posted by Dad on Mar 20, 2008 in Family, The Blog | 1 comment

I came across a story I find hilarious and thought I should share it.

Many of you will be familiar with World of Warcraft, the hugely popular MMORPG. Honestly, it’s a heck of a lot of fun and somewhat additing. Your kids, if they’re pre-teens and older, do or have played it at some point.

You, on the other hand, probably told them to stop wasting so much time on the computer and get outside and play.  “For goodness sake, these kids can’t live their lives stuck to a computer screen. That’s not healthy! What are you going to learn from that?”  Sound familiar?  Well, they are learning.  Here’s a case in point that saved the life of a 12 year old and his younger sister.

Hans Jørgen Olsen of Norway was playing outside with his sister (obviously following his parent’s well-meaning advice) when they came upon a “renegade” moose!  Who knew!

The quick thinking Hans, cursing he didn’t have his virtual epic bow to arcane shot the mob, gave a bellowing scream to taunt the moose off of his sister.  Once he had gained the mob’s aggro, he used the skill he learned from hours of playing World of Warcraft as a hunter, specifically “fiegn death“.  He immediately dropped to the ground and played dead.  It worked. The moose lost aggro and continued his rampage elsewhere.

The moral of the story? Video games are teaching our children to think on their feet, problem solve and be courageous.

Well done, young Hans. You gain 20,250 experience points…

All the best.