EverQuest II Adds /donate Command to Promote Hurricane Katrina Relief

Press release here. [Edit: link to donation site is here: American Red Cross.] In addition, Sony Online Entertainment has identified some 13,000 account-holders as being residents of the areas affected by Katrina and will secure  their accounts against any time-based decay effects, until they log in again. That's not going to have a major effect on their well-being, but it certainly is a decent thing to do.

Now, if only someone could ban, or toad, the PKers, griefers, and loot-whores running around Poydras Street...

Adding /donate is a counter-point to the much-ridiculed /pizza command, and a development from the virtual/real world interaction generated by California wildfires two years ago.

Comments

[Bill McKinley]

1.

I think this is a wonderful idea.

I would **really** be impressed, though, if /donate enabled me to donate in-game items, which would then be turned automatically into real money through Station Exchange and then passed to the Red Cross.

Cheers
Bill

[Raph]

2.

Neat idea, Bill, but we wanted to do something as quickly as we could, and this was something we could deploy fairly rapidly.

Also, to be clear--we are suspending billing for those affected as well, not just item and structure decay.

Although only EQ2 has the /donate command, we're also asking members of our communities in other games to contribute at this link:

American Red Cross

and we'd appreciate it if that link could be added to the main story. The more donations the better.

Shout out to Mythic, whom I know are also taking some measures to keep players in affected areas from losing items in DAoC.

[Bill McKinley]

3.

I think you have done absolutely the right thing (and even plan to use it) and you are, of course, right: it's more important to have a mechanism that works straight away than go for neat but probably unworkable ideas.

Cheers
Bill

[Scott]

4.

http://www.camelotherald.com/more/2160.shtml

Again, about the only thing we could press into service quickly enough.

[Darniaq]

5.

Nice move SOE. I know some would scoff at there being any relevance to the maintenance of virtual accounts and items. However, that's a derision made in ignorance. This stuff matters to people, and while some of the affected may not be aware of this move for some time given the current breakdown in many forms of communciation, I guarantee they'll appreciate it once they get their lives back in order enough to consider returning to Norrath.

[Dmitri Williams]

6.

Nicely done.

I wonder if people will return to Norath as a mental refuge, or if they'll think of it as foolish escapism after this hard bit of reality. Or maybe they'll think of gaming as a return to normalcy.

[Brent Parker]

7.

I would **really** be impressed, though, if /donate enabled me to donate in-game items, which would then be turned automatically into real money through Station Exchange and then passed to the Red Cross.

With the diminishing number of EQ players and EQ II not performing not pulling in the crowds, SOE really could use the boost from the publicity. That would be a great PR move for them and I don't think it would be too difficult to code.

[Raph]

8.

Thanks for the donation link, Ted.

[Thabor]

9.

Gaming really is a wonderful community sometimes.

[Jerry P]

10.

At last year's State of Play (couldn't make it, but god bless video archives) Julian Dibbell mentioned a thought experiment by Nick Yee whereby tasks that players perform to advance in a VW would be real world jobs or things of value like screening cancer diagnostics (morphed in appearance, of course, to blend into the flow of the world). Julian wondered if tricks like this could turn play into a kind of steam for the 21st century. Great idea, great line, I must say I've become totally fascinated with. I'm looking at this as an early step towards those kinds of experiments. Very much looking forward to seeing what kind of 'giving power' these worlds can unleash at this stage. I hope we get updates.

And look no further than four entries down on Terra Nova to see the American Cancer Society getting comfortable accepting donations in virtual currency. This is not insignificant stuff.

> much-ridiculed /pizza command

Ridiculed? Jeez. /pizza rules. A large pepperoni pie looks like a magic circle to me! =)

[monkeysan]

11.

Julian Dibbell mentioned a thought experiment by Nick Yee whereby tasks that players perform to advance in a VW would be real world jobs or things of value like screening cancer diagnostics (morphed in appearance, of course, to blend into the flow of the world). Julian wondered if tricks like this could turn play into a kind of steam for the 21st century.

It's a thought experiment that was done much earlier by folks like Dick and Card, and it's a notion that it is as absolutely terrifying as it is hopeful.

I don't mean to pull this thread off-track, but I do think that there are social consequences to some of these 'gee-whiz' ideas that their proponents often are reluctant to explore.

Also, I'm not trying to shit on what's a really nice way for folks in digital worlds to express their compassion and concern for folks they only know outside Earth's realm, but I do get worried about our increasingly 'donate and forget' culture in general, at least here in the U.S.

Aaron

[Jerry P]

12.

monkeysan > It's a thought experiment that was done much earlier by folks like Dick and Card

Cool. Can someone post a link to the Dick and Card stuff? I did a Google search but as you'll imagine it was turning up some...um...off topic material, ha.

> and it's a notion that it is as absolutely terrifying as it is hopeful.

> I do think that there are social consequences to some of these 'gee-whiz' ideas that their proponents often are reluctant to explore.

> I do get worried about our increasingly 'donate and forget' culture in general, at least here in the U.S.

Totally randomly a recent report from the Global Business Network called "Looking Out for the Future: An Orientation for Twenty-First Century Philanthropists" just slid across my desk. Pretty excellent stuff. This passage from the project website caught my eye as relates here:

"Every philanthropic effort to promote social benefit takes place in a new ecology—a context deeply different from that in which many of today’s institutions, assumptions, and habits were formed. The pressures of this new ecology, and the need to respond to it, will shape both how philanthropy is practiced for the next generation and what philanthropy is called upon to do."

Sounds like that's totally at play here and a nice little adventure to boot. Bring it on! :-)

[jj]

13.

Aaron makes an interesting point about "donate and forget." While we're being told to donate to the Red Cross and stay out of the way, it doesn't take too much investigation to discover that in fact there is a huge need for hands-on items in the affected areas.

I spent the day on the phone from half the country away, tracking down ways to get socks and underwear to firefighters and police who are in desperate need of these simple neccessities in St. Tammany Parish. I was only able to discover this by an old-fashioned chain of human voices in communication. I'd heard from a friend of mine in Baton Rouge that evacuees without shoes and socks. With some help, I got some local church numbers, got calls through, and started using the magic word "socks." By word of mouth, person to person, I ended up talking to an extremely grateful lady who said they needed all the socks, underwear and T-shirts that I could get there for the firefighters and police who are working rescue in St. Tammany, that FEMA and the Red Cross were scarce in that hard-hit area and supplies were gone from stores in the whole region. Now my job is to get them there, and that will get done ASAP.

The point is that this took action and reaction in the =Real World=. I'm not in Louisiana, not anywhere close. But I was able to make some connections and do something Real. It didn't happen in a game, or by clicking a link.

I love gaming and now, after a long day spent working on this, I'll gladly go play Guild Wars and have some fun and lose myself. It's sure better than weeping.

[EQ2 addict]

14.

If it werent PR action they wouldnt announce it on their site. As this thread (comments) show, most people make donation not just because they care about victims but because of their "ego" so that they can trumpet about it. I'm just glad that this is part of modern culture and some people forced to donate in order to conform to this culture.