Dottie, this year's charity pet, is now available! Blizzard announced
her release earlier this week, along with an adorable video.
Between December 3 and December 31, 2019, 100% of the battle pet adoption proceeds will be donated evenly to two charities - the Make-A-Wish Foundation and WE.org.
But on top of an in-game battle pet, Blizzard released a
Dottie toy too. Plushie sales will also be donated to the two charities. Note that this is a completely separate purchase from the battle pet; the toy does not come with the battle pet and vice versa.
I'm so taken with Dottie and her cute little bounces, I can't get over how adorable she is. Using Magic Pet Mirror on her and then emoting sit results in the sitting animation pictured above.
Combine this with Pepe... and I'll admit I squeed hehe. Dottie being a charity pet, with sales going toward worthy causes, makes adopting her even sweeter.
What's not as sweet to some, however, is the fine print for this pet and plushie.
Through Dec 31, 2019, Blizzard® Entertainment will donate 100% of the purchase price to be shared equally with Make-A-Wish and WE.org, less any chargebacks, refunds and Value Added Taxes (VAT) or other similar taxes paid with a maximum donation amount of USD $3 million from all sales of the Dottie in-game pet and plushie for charity.
This disclaimer can be found on both Dottie's digital goods page, as well as the toy page. I honestly can't remember if this note was added onto previous charity pet sales, but it kind of caught me off guard. At first it left me feeling a little put off. A cap? On donations to charity?
Really?
Others seemed to have a similar reaction. Some in the community have stated they felt it was greedy and distasteful. Not a good look for Blizzard, especially these days with the loss of good faith from a portion of their playerbase.
But after thinking about it for a bit, I realized I didn't have any authority to call Blizzard out on this one.
I don't fully know or understand all of the legal baggage that comes with non-profit/charitable donations and organizations, but a donation cap might be the result of a legal issue not installed by Blizzard but by state or federal law.
Why now then? Why was there no fine print regarding a donation cap before? There are a number of reasons why this might be the first time we've seen this additional note.
One possible reason is that this cap was always in place, but this is the first time Blizzard officially announced it. Donations as a result of charity pet (and plushie) sales have never exceeded $3million (that we know of). The highest was $2.5million in 2016 from Mischief (pet AND plushie) adoptions, and the second highest was the Cinder Kitten with $2.3million in donations. It's possible that Blizzard already estimated a certain number of sales, and they knew they would never go over X amount. If it's an unspoken yet known thing, maybe the announced $3million cap is just their legal team pushing for some official disclaimers to keep their hands clean.
(Side Note: I've
kept track of charity pet sales and how much each has raised over the years. Unfortunately, the data stops at 2017, as Blizzard never released information on how much Whomper raised for charity in 2018. Was really hoping they'd announce that prior to or along with Dottie's release, but oh well.)
Or perhaps this specific year has been an especially productive one for the charities, and they've received a large injection of donations. If they can only accept a certain amount annually (due to laws), a "good year" would mean future donations need to be gauged and measured accordingly. Perhaps they had to give Blizzard the bad news that they could only accept up to a specific amount so as to not go over their own cap.
There are probably other (legal) reasons why we're seeing this cap notice now or for the first time. I'm not well versed in law so I couldn't tell you how many or what they are.
Does it look bad on Blizzard? Considering the context and precedence (of no announced-cap previously), yup. But do I think it's malicious? Not really. I mean, it very well *could* be, but for the sake of good will and charity, I want to believe that it's not.
To be clear, I'm not defending Blizzard on this one. I just don't know enough about the situation to have an objective view. Is this cap because of legal reasons? Was a cap always there? Is it Blizzard's choice or are their hands tied? Malicious/greedy intent? No clue. So even if I wanted to defend Blizzard, I couldn't. Not without all of the facts.
Take what you will from Blizzard's disclaimer. Everything is just opinion and speculation unless we gain access to all the information/facts. You're still free to feel however you feel about the situation though. Like it, hate it, unconcerned/unbothered, etc. It's all valid.
I will say that it does kind of put a damper on Dottie's release though. It's not exactly a very 'feel good' moment to learn that charitable donations will be capped at a certain amount. I feel like the community's kind of lost some steam for this charity pet as a result.
Regardless, I adore Dottie. I'm also glad that SOME proceeds will go to good causes, at the very least. I'll give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt for now, because I simply do not know all the reasons behind the disclaimer. IF in the end the cap was put into place by Blizzard out of greed, welp, what can I say. 'I'm not surprised, capitalism's a bitch'?
