When summer comes, some lucky folks get to take the season off. Even those who continue on their regular labors often head out on real life adventures and vacations. Conventions, family reunions, fairs and amusement parks — these were standard July activities. 2020, however, has certainly put the kibosh on many summer plans all across the world. But do you know what the kibosh wasn’t put on? Awesome people doing awesome things! Generosity and kindness continued, from big acts to smaller every day ones. WoW Trolls ran for charity, while Bungie supported its local Boys and Girls Club and more. Ninantic used its means to shore up an arts festival that has been destabilized by the pandemic. And the Overwatch, EVE, and PlanetSide 2 communities paid respect to and honored members they have lost.
Never ceasing to do good
Do you know any good Trolls? You’ll know them by their actions, and the actions of these are superb. Just before July commenced, players in World of Warcraft come together as true Trolls to benefit The Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. Each year players gather as Trolls to race across Azeroth. This year’s tromp across the terrain raised another $2,000 for the charity before the race started, with a total of $6,140 at the conclusion.
During the month, The Bungie Foundation — the non-profit charity organization of the major game publisher Bungie — held many charitable endeavors. One of these was supporting its local Boys and Girls club to feed children who were no longer going to school due to the pandemic. Since March, the foundation has provided over 30,000 meals in their community. Additionally, it continues to raise money to distribute iPads to children in hospitals; however, this time around it also added putting a device on the hands of a care provider in order to help facilitate interaction with the kids while conserving Personal Protective Equipment, which could be in short supply. See a new need, fill the new need. On top of that, the foundation partnered with Direct Relief and collecting funds and offer direct relief to those hardest hit by the current pandemic, front-line health care workers. This endeavor raised over $788,000. And finally, the Bungie Foundation works with Make-a-Wish to grant technology wishes. Hear the details in the tweeted video below.
The Bungie Foundation is passionate about giving back.
During these difficult times we’ve worked with our local Boys and Girls Club, our iPads for Kids program, as well as raised money for Direct Relief.@BungieLove ❤️ https://t.co/pUCIdEWCsq pic.twitter.com/EjGrXtvE2K
— Bungie (@Bungie) July 9, 2020
Rounding off the month is the efforts of Niantic, the creator of Pokemon Go, to support and stabilize Edinburgh Fringe, the largest arts and culture festival in the world that provides a venue for global artists. With the Edinburgh Fringe and its sister festivals unable to take place this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ninatic stepped in with a $10,000 social impact donation to go towards providing support, advice, and encouragement to all the amazing artists, producers and venues who help create the Fringe each year. Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said:
“Niantic’s support will have a material impact on our ability to deliver key digital projects that benefit the thousands of artists and community members that the Fringe Society exists to serve. From a digital programme of artists events to a dedicated video showcase platform for Fringe shows, Niantic are helping keep the spirit of the Fringe alive in a year where a physical festival has proved impossible.”
Niantic vows to continue to work closely with local communities in various countries and regions, finding new ways to support those impacted by COVID-19.
Honoring lives
Loss is never easy, and it touches the lives of many gamers. Sometimes we are saddened by the loss of a game, but that then pales in comparison to losing a fellow gamer. The MMOverse has suffered many losses, from devs to community members. And it is during this time that even competitive games come together to mourn, remember, and honor those who’ve been lost.
A new in-game memorial in EVE Online was unveiled this month at the pre-existing Molea Cemetery for Fallen Capsuleers. What started as a graveyard for only in-game losses moved to honoring the real world losses. The new structure at Molea is described by Imperium News as “three basalt columns, floating in a triad around a beautiful cyno-visual orb with a pulsing ray of light traveling through a statue of a pod carried by spirits.” The founder of the cemetery, Azia Burgie, spoke about how it all started and the effect of visiting.
Last week we unveiled The Fallen Capsuleer memorial and some players might not know this, but Azia Burgi, the founder of the original Cemetary recently gave an interview to the @Imerium_News
Check out the full interview📰 ▶️ https://t.co/BD2V15PPue#tweetfleet pic.twitter.com/F4bCcu9o9o
— EVE Online (@EveOnline) July 31, 2020
The Overwatch community suffered a loss this past month when Roberto Draghetti passed away. An Italian voice actor, he lent his vocals to Soldier: 76 in Italy to bring the character to life. The game studio remembered him as a man of “extraordinary talent and unmistakable voice delivered depth and passion to one of Overwatch’s most iconic heroes.”
In PlanetSide 2, factions maybe be at war eternally with one another, but they come together as one to honor a fallen comrade and support his grieving brother. Player Ezrason, who played PS2 with is brother, was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident. The community held a cross-faction memorial in-game that was so well attended it took four Sanctuary instances to hold everyone who attended.
More goodness in the world
More demonstrations of goodness continuing in the world happened throughout July. Catch up on them here. We also want to take a moment to thank all of you who so small acts of kindness and service to those around you, both in and out of game. We may not see all of those throughout all the games, but we appreciate you just the same! You are amazing! I myself have been the recipient of multiple kindness lately and I thank you all.
Do you some stories of your own from your neck of the woods/grotto/world/universe? Or maybe someone you want to thank for a small act of kindness (that may have been much bigger to you)? Please share them here or send to warmfuzzies@massivelyop.com so we can include them in our monthly highlights!
The in-game memorial for a fallen PlanetSide 2 player spanned four instances this weekend
Check out this magnificent unicorn man that we never got to see added to PWE’s MOBA Gigantic
Police in Taiwan locate the owner of a lost Switch thanks to Animal Crossing
Players in WoW Classic have defeated Onyxia without wearing anything at all
Star Citizen fans put together a horror-themed machinima using in-game footage
A new crafting and work order feature has come to horse MMO Star Stable
From happy stories to good deeds within our virtual worlds and the real world around us, there’s so much good in the gaming community. That’s why Massively OP’s MJ Guthrie pens Massively Uplifting: to highlight those generous, inspiring, heart-warming, and uplifting tales that exist throughout the MMOverse. Send your suggested stories along to warmfuzzies@massivelyop.com for our next entry!
