Blizzard Auctioning World of Warcraft Server Hardware

Milk the idiots for more money.

The net proceeds from the auction will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

'' know it's not just a piece of discarded junk with an additional commemorative plaque signed by the World of Warcraft team''

I'd rather donate the money to the "occupy" for their encampments...

wow, that was a post fail wtf...should have read...

occupy"insert city"

yeah,
net proceeds= gross proceeds - auction operating expense
So, technically ironmb is right.

This might be a chance to get some cheap rack servers, if the auctions

What are they supposed to do with them? Besides those racks can still be useful for someone, the attached WoW logo is just for marketing purposes. Otherwise I'm sure they are functional server hardware they are selling which someone can use.

Besides, they do it for charity. Blizzard doesn't need lots of publicity really, I doubt they get much from the charity except a tax break maybe.

The real question are these things still functional. I don't play WoW but i am always looking to pick up servers/server parts on the cheap(though i doubt they will be). Plus i would be supporting a good cause as well ^_^;

It's still milking their fanbase for more money. They'll pay extra just to get the WoW logo and the server's "super history"...

Also how do you have net proceeds on something that's second hand? They cost lets say 10x when Blizzard bought them new, they sell them for 5x....oh $0 in net proceeds!

blast the unsold remains into outer space as a science experiment.

**ALERT**

Starting Nov 5th, Blizzard will be auctioning off replica pens of the real pens used by Blizzard employees to make notes, draw pictures on napkins, and write obscene things on the bathroom stalls. These pens were used by the real blizzard employees, including janitors, window washers, and mail room operates, and some worthless crab.

Proceeds will first be offset by costs of collecting said pens from said employees and then will be distributed to several organizations that will introduce new players to World of Warcraft and the upcoming Titan.

Tune in next week for used toilet papers by the actual designers!

**End Alert**

By "friendly rivalries" does he mean calling each other noobs and cursing at them?

I'm guessing you didn't see the part about the proceeds going to charity.

i am sure that not all of the funds will go to charity....there is a catch somewhere, there always is

All the money blizzard will be making is going to charity. Of course you have things like ebay fees, paypal fees, listing fees, and the seller fees, which is why they said Net Profit.

What Blizzard is getting is Free PR. They had all these server sitting around gathering dust and instead of throwing them out they decided to auction them from a charity. Why do people try and make a conspiracy theory out of everything?

It's not milking unless Blizzard keeps the money. This is a donation sponsored by Blizzard where they happen to give you a "prize."

"Net proceeds" is a questionable term.

It is if you failed accounting in high school.

Blizzard has made a ridiculous amount of money I dont think they are trying to milk anyone for any more money than they already have. This is free press like thaile4ever stated. But it is a good thing they are doing. Considering how much these nerds who play WoW would pay for a piece of their "history" this could do a lot of good. Id rather a nerd give a boatload of money for a server gathering dust that has intrinsic value to them than it get thrown in an industrial compactor, and that money go to cancer research

Actually they donate the Net proceeds to charity because they can take a bigger Tax Deduction on the parts that way than they ever could get reselling the Used parts -- they can claim a charitable deduction for the donated proceeds instead of the retail value of the Used parts which have probably already been written off so have no book value at present so they turn a tidy profit by donating the proceeds instead of having to pay taxes on the sale of the old equipment.

Wrong, they are not functional. This from WoW's site...

Q: Is the server blade functional?
A: The HP server blade is not functional and contains no World of Warcraft or Blizzard-related data. It's a barebones retired HP server blade, and is intended as a unique collector’s item and not a piece of functioning hardware.

I am far from a conspiracy theorist, but I know Bobby Kotick's history. I also played WoW from launch until this past June. My observing them post merger makes me question their motives.

Something along the lines of "We don't have the time to include the content for Wrath/Cataclysm we talked about" becomes days later "We have this new pet/mount on the Blizzard store". And of course with the latest pet they just announced a few days ago, it won't be like the previous pets where if you buy it and it unlocks on all characters. No, if you buy it, you can use it on a SINGLE character so if you want it on more then one, you have to buy more copies of it.

Then there was the original intention of making Real ID grouping only available for premium fee. This would have made World of Warcraft the first pay-to-pay-to-play game. The plan was only cancelled after player uproar.

So unless you have examples of Blizzard's altruism post merger where Vivendi made Kotick CEO of Activision Blizzard, don't try to make those who question Blizzard's motives seem like wacky conspiracy theorists. The above cited things are only a few of the many things that can be brought up.

Who cares? Give die-hard fans of World of Warcraft something to collect, and help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at the same time. Sure Blizzard gets more PR because of it, and they may even be able to write off some taxes (doubt it, but maybe).

But still, win-win-win situation for all parties involved.

What part of The net proceeds from the auction will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital didn't some of you dumbasses read? If the auction is listed as charity auction the money is automatically sent to the charity specified minus ebay, S/H and probably PayPal fees.

December 2: Vivendi announced that their subdivision Vivendi Games would be merging Activision to form Activision Blizzard. Vivendi will be the major shareholder in this merger holding a 52% to 48% (pending results of the tender offer) stake of the newly formed company.

Vivendi owns Blizzard, they merged with Actvision and own 52%. Activision and Blizzard cannot tell each other what to do; only Vivendi can tell them what to do. Now stop talking out of your ass. Blizzard and Activision have no relationship besides the merger. Now that we have all that cleared up.

Charities are awesome. Who cares how much Blizzard keeps. It's going to a good cause with whatever amount that is left over. Stop being retarded. If you don't want to participate and want to donate, cut a check to St. Jude's and mail it personally.

Any money they give to charity is a tax write of for them. It's just an expense for the person buying it. Do yourself a favor and donate to the charity directly and watch your tax liability decrease.

Forgot to add the year 2007 to the end of December 2nd. And also the hierarchy of CEO/President.

Vivendi CEO: Jean-Bernard
Activision CEO: Robert Kotick
Blizard Entertainment CEO (President): Micahel Morhaime

So, Jean-Bernard tells Mr. Kotick and Mr. Morhaime what to do. Acitivion and Blizzard don't tell each other what to do. Not a hard concept.

And that's true too bak0n. Unless a server blade is important to you, participate and cut a check personally for a tax write off at the end of the year. At least you're contributing. I have no doubt St. Jude's will receive a gigantic check from the sale though. Blizzard is pretty generous.

Except you don't have it quite correct. While Blizzard and Activision remaion seperate entities, Vivendi also merged them into Activision Blizzard to replace the Vivendi Games division. Activision and Blizzard are underneath the Activision Blizzard division. Vivendi then made Kotick the CEO of this new division. Thus is he OVER both Activision and Blizzard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard

You will see quite clearly Bobby Kotick is the CEO of Activision Blizzard, not merely Activision, of which Activision and Blizzard are both listed as subsidiaries of. While you are correct that Activision can not tell Blizzard what to do, Bobby Kotick, the man who ruined Activision, can as he is indeed in charge.

To follow up on this little tiff on ActiBlizz, Here is some more links and notes on Kotick

From http://investor.activision.com/rel [...] eID=487601
Eric Hirshberg Named CEO of Activision Publishing

So no, Bobby Kotick is NOT CEO of Activision. He has not been for at least 2 years. Hirshberg is actually the SECOND CEO of Activision since Kotick became CEO of Activision Blizzard since Hirshberg replaced Mike Grifith.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
Bobby Kotick, once head of Activision, was announced to become President and CEO of Activision Blizzard.

You will see the word "once", as in formerly, as in past tense.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision
The new company is called Activision Blizzard and is headed by Activision's former CEO, Robert Kotick.

Do you see the word "FORMER" in that sentence?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kotick
Kotick engineered the Activision Blizzard merge, and stockholders of Activision Blizzard approved Kotick as CEO of the combined company on July 9, 2008

While I am glad St.Jude will be getting some good money (possibly) from this, do not in any way think that a company headed up by Bobby Kotick is doing anything just for charity without some benefit coming to them. this man has ruined Activision's name and is quickly doing the same to Blizzard. He is the person who has referred to their customers as "resources" and that he views his true customers to be their partners, like Facebook.