Gamers have this bad reputation of being whiny losers with no social skills (which I resent). Recently, being outspoken complainers paid off for a couple of guys boycotting Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 when they were flown to Seattle by Gabe Newell and company to preview the game. Of course, those dudes quickly changed their tune about the game.
After that, Australian gamer "Joe W-A" emailed Newell about flying down under to see a mod he'd made for the first L4D game. Newell replied he wouldn't agree to this because he was boycotting the mod, and Joe promptly asked the Internet for help. In less than 48 hours, he received the $3,000 needed to ship the Valve president over from Washington state. Needless to say, Newell is going, and he's quite impressed with how the situation panned out.
"The power of the gaming community and their ability torally around a cause - be it serious or fun in nature - is amazing," said Newell. "In 2003, the community helped the FBI and European law enforcement officials find the people who stole the Half-Life 2 source code. This year, the community is putting me on a plane to the other side of the world to meet Joe W-A and see his MOD. It's going to be a fun trip."
The coolest part is that Gabe and employee Erik Johnson are paying for the flight themselves so the Internet donations can be given to Child's Play charity. The two are meeting next week, and Johnson will be responsible for updating the L4D blog.
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