Sure, i guess. But to be fair, they’ve had a lot more bad pr lately than good that has reached that far.
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True and I will not dispute that in any capacity. If anything the fact during Blizzcon when they announced a WoW Expansion, a new Diablo game, a new Overwatch game, and a few other things and their stock basically stagnated when it usually goes up at that time tremendously should be telling of just how much of a negative opinion people have regarding them. Their only two decent things affecting stock in a positive direction largely this year have been Classic and the new CoD game which well, Activision but merged company. That Hong Kong thing did not do them any favors, nor did their half apology at Blizzcon.
Regardless though, it’s incredibly hard for me to not see the motive behind their actions as anything other than purely self serving, which is why I argue on the technicality that this isn’t charitable. It’s a decent thing don’t get me wrong, but with self serving motives it ceases to be charitable.
Especially since we just had this same drama earlier this year regarding the toy sales supposedly going to prop up their esports, then when the sum was bigger than they were willing to add to the prize pool they just added part of it and pocketed the rest hiding behind legalese.
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Why does it even matter? They could have simply sold the pet without the charity and the kids would get nothing. And did.you all miss the part where Blizz didn’t even pay taxes because of some loophole?
Every person can do the same thing and write it off. Are they now disgusting and shady for doing that after giving money to a charity?
Who cares who does what afterwards? Make a Wish and WE are getting $1.5mil each. There is nothing bad or immoral going on here. 
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I know, right?
To some, Blizz has a big ole scarlet (blue?) letter tattooed across their chest. They could be out literally feeding the homeless by scooping food onto a plate and people would find some reason to complain.
Edit: Oh, yeah, I forgot. One who tries to explain normal business practices and the process by which charitable donations actually make it to charity, gets branded a “shill”, a “bootlicker,” etc. Not in this thread, no … not yet. Soon.
Good times.
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Oh I think that’s already been done in this thread, too. lol
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I love how you act like Blizzard is just wholly incapable of donating themselves. Instead they are acting as a middleman and giving you a pet for giving your money to them so they can give to other people.
Like honestly think about it. They designed a pet. That’s their input here. Past that, it’s taking money from people, compiling it, then allowing them show off by signing a big check. They aren’t matching dollars here, they are literally giving nothing to it. The whole amount they are going to donate, is entirely from the playerbase who buys this pet.
If they were matching dollars then nobody would complain, they’re giving something of their own additive to the sum.
Like I said, all they’re basically doing is serving as a bank, collecting money. Then signing a check and taking credit for the donations because it comes to them in the name of Blizzard Entertainment, not the WoW community who is actually footing the bill.
You know what would have been a good way to do it, which would have upset no one and made a lot of worthwhile kids happy? If they’d done this:
"Special Charity Sale:
For a very limited time this very cute battle pet will be available for purchase from our store - 75% of the total monies raised will be split evently between X and Y charity. At the end of the charity event the pet will no longer be available, so get in now, get your limited edition pet and support two worthwhile charities."
That way, it wouldn’t have mattered how much was raised, we would know that 75% of what we gave them would go to charity and we’d get a one-off collectible battle pet.
That would seem like a win-win scenario to me…
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Yeah, you’re right. 1175 posts so far in this one. Definitely the word “shill” in there somewhere LOL.
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They’ve never had a charity pet reach $3 million before. I don’t know why they have a cap at all, but they’ve set that cap at a level that it’s virtually guaranteed to never reach.
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People would flip out that it wasn’t all of the funds.
Every single charity pet has always been available afterwards. That’s a moot point and doesn’t seem to be the issue.
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Or they could have just said “For every dollar raised, we will contribute X additionally.” Nobody would be griping, at the very least they’d be contributing rather than collecting the sum then taking credit for basically designing a pet, which is really just a downscaled model that took no time to create, collecting money then signing a check.
I think if anything they should have just encouraged people to donate of themselves with their large audience. At least then it looks authentic.
And no, I don’t care that they’re basically just collecting money to then give to charities and say “This is our donation!” I really don’t. I’m just calling it for what it is at the core.
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It’s not sketchy behavior at all, as I started to describe in my post I quoted from another of these “shady charitable activities” threads.
Companies do this because only a portion of charitable donations result in a tax write-off, and the maximum write-off is what they are after. I’d bet that, in this instance, the write-off cap is right around $3 million.
I was gonna link info, but sheesh, the info is clearly and plainly available from a basic Google search.
Well, I should have known someone would downvote it. Anyways, I shouldn’t get inolved, this is a flammable situation. I still think it would have been a nice way to please people and make them feel that 25% of their money was well spent, and help kids at the same time.
Mea Culpa, how foolish of me.
Back to playing the game I go.
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Therinity was calling people bootlickers earlier. They were also trying to argue that Blizzard was pocketing all of the charity money despite the charities saying they had received money from Blizzard.
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LMAO, well, I guess I was spot on, then.
/smh
…and
/smh
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I understand what you’re saying, but this is the community we’re talking about. They found this to rage about. They’ll find anything wrong with a charity event to rage about.
Blizzard’s efforts have now been called shady, disgusting, sketchy, greedy, gross, scummy, etc. Yet two charities are each getting $1.5 million dollars. There is no winning for Blizzard in the eyes of these people.
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why are you being salty that Blizz gets a tax break in the process? I do not see any of these charities being salty about it. The important thing is money is being donated to these children.
Also the tax breaks are specifically designed by the government itself to encourage private companies and citizens to donate more to these charities. It’s a win win arrangement.
No one is forcing these charities to work with these private companies and individuals. They make these arrangement because they know it is a good arrangement which it really is. If you disagree with it then it is fine and it is your right. But do not smear campaigns like this just so you can feel like you have the moral high ground. Just go and donate directly and thank blizzard for making you aware of these charities.
So you are also salty that it is not your name in there and cannot brag about your donation? Again why does it mattter? as long as money is being given to children then it is good.
You just mentioned in several post that true altruism is just about selflessly donating so why are you so concerned that players like you do not get credit for these donations? This campaign is being funneled through blizzard so it is only natural that it is their name that is in there?
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looks around
Yeesh, this thread has only gone further downhill.
Also OP, the comment you are quoting was not actually directed at you but at
Teufelgott.
In reference to the fact that I’ve made my point of view clear on the topics in this thread before and that him quoting me was only really likely to result in me repeating myself in different words more loudly. Thus perpetuating a frustrating and ultimately exhausting cycle of trying and failing to agree to disagree. Something I suspect he knew…hence, “this feels like bait”.
If anything I WAS on your side, I say was, because if you’re so quick to deny something is bait that you co-opt a reply directed at someone else entirely…then I begin to wonder if you don’t have something of a guilty conscience. 
I think perhaps we are both a little guilty of parsing the use of the term…though you did acknowledge that when you said there was “significant overlap”. I could have more accurately stated that the motives of many of the outraged posters in these threads were analogous to the behavior of 'SJW’s. Otherwise, I either agree with, or can’t reasonably argue against, most everything else you said.
I still stand by my statement that charitable organizations still need corporate donations such as Blizzard’s to survive. What they’ve done here is to make it convenient to give, when otherwise the public would likely have not given at all…and the contribution cap of 3 million is effectually inconsequential, given that historical evidence shows that limitation will likely not be met at all.
Yes, Blizzard will be able to write off the money we’ve given them as a tax deduction. However, they are the ones organizing this drive, developing the in-game prize, and supplying the real-life plushy. I consider it a fair trade that they benefit from this effort, when it means Make-a-Wish and WE will receive a large donation critical to their continued operation.
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