That was quite an interesting night! After coming in from yesterdays hard slog and grabbing a pizza I sat down to browse some forums and check on all the cool stuff I’d missed out on. Nothing much piqued my curiosity but as usual I stayed up way to late arguing with people on the internet 
After finally becoming too tired to prop my head up with my arm resting on the table I reluctantly went to bed and sat there doing pretty much the same on my phone. At around the point I was ready to submit to sleepiness I had one last refresh of my twitter stream….oops!
What I saw saddened and angered me at the same time. An artist (Alison Theus) who works on the Escapist show ‘Extra Credits’ is in need of surgery which without would effectively end her career. Rejected by insurers on the ‘pre-existing condition’ loophole one of her co-workers posted a message about this.
Since the operation was to cost a sizeable amount they asked fans of their show if they could help in anyway and set up a donation page at RocketHub. I pledged my support when I next got to my PC and followed this story shortly before I went to sleep. At this point the estimated cost was in the $20k region and any money would help.
I slept quite soundly and awoke to a beautiful morning and of course the first thing I did was grab my phone and check out the social networking sites! Sucker! Instantly my jaw was on the floor reading the updates I’d got overnight. People had been donating whilst I slept and it seems telling all their friends too….
In just 5 short hours over $20,000 dollars had been donated and more was pouring in! The founders of the group (and brains behind Extra Credits) were understandably overwhelmed by the support offered by their fans and assume still are.
What once seemed like an uncertain future is now crystal clear all thanks to a community of gamers I’m proud to be part of. More importantly I think I can safely say that my faith in humanity has been restored!
Here are some handy links:
