Massively Uplifting: MMO gratitude, goodness, and giving, from Elder Scrolls Online to Guild Wars 2

By
MJ Guthrie
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Today is a big day for your belly! If you celebrate Thanksgiving, chances are you’ll have/have had a table overflowing with delectable dishes today to delve into. The phrase, “stuff yourself like a turkey” exists for a reason! While you’re helping yourself to some turkey, stuffing, candied yams, and all those other holiday goodies you like (or recovering from already doing so), Massively Uplifting wants to offer you a serving of something to fill your heart.

So here’s a heaping helping of thanks, giving, and goodness to satiate your soul. There are slices of generosity from Bungie, The Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2, and the World of Tanks and World of Warships communities. Top that with a couple dollops of warm-heartedness from Diablo IV and AdventureQuest 3D, and you’ve got a heaping helping of happiness to enjoy.

Bungie Day Giving Festival ended with a bang

In our previous Massively Uplifting, we noted what was then the upcoming fourth edition of the Bungie Day Giving Festival. This over two-week event was slated to have many streamers (over 98 participated) host livestreams to raise funds, with incentives for streamers and community donations unlocking prizes for players. There were even even some special prizes from a partnership with Numskull Designs set to be given away each day, including collectibles, plushies, statues, and collector’s editions. And the results of the Giving Festival were a resounding success! It raised over $600K in the first six days; the first day alone set a record with $300,000. Then the final tally ended with over $1M, completely shattering the $777,777 goal.

Bungie said that the event underscored “the unwavering commitment of the Bungie community to support the Foundation’s charitable objectives.” The funds will enable the Bungie Foundation to continue its work across three key charitable pillars: Children’s Well-being; Humanitarian Aid; and Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity.

Wargaming offers a world of support, twice

At the end of September, Wargaming announced a two-pronged support for the Maui Strong Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, which came into action to support communities impacted by the devastating fires that engulfed the heart of Maui this past August. To start off, the studio made a direct donation of $100,00 to the charity. The next step was hosting fundraising livestreams involving the US teams of World of Warships, World of Tanks, and World of Tanks: Modern Armor on their respective Twitch channels. The initial $5,000 goal was surpassed, with the community coming together to add over $6,000 more to the studio’s initial donation.

Then, in November, World of Tanks announced the results of its latest WargamingUnited Campaign. Through funds collected from the purchase of 90,000 special bundles by players across 115 countries, the WargamingUnited Campaign donated more than $1M (yes, that’s one million) to buy needed ambulances for Ukraine.

ESO’s Give a Sweetroll campaign continues toward its goal

In October, Elder Scrolls Online launched a 2024 version of its Give a Sweetroll campaign to help end childhood hunger. Streamers can join in and community members can donate to No  Kid Hungry – Hunger Heroes: Class of 2024 via Tiltify. No Kid Hungry focuses on ending childhood hunger in America by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. Hunger Heroes: Class of 2024 is a creator community and stream partners that have raised millions of dollars via livestreams for this cause. To date, ESO’s community has raised over $7.5K of its $10K goal. That has contributed to Hunger Heroes: Class of 2024’s ultimate goal of $250K.

Accessibility aids Diablo IV player to secure a first

Disabled players have some disadvantages when it comes to playing games, varying from slight to significant. This is where having accessibility options comes into play because without them, sometimes players can’t enjoy what many of us take for granted. Thanks to accessibility tools Blizzard has implemented, one Diablo IV player was able to complete the game independently and became the first blind player to do so.

Known as Tyleniphe in game, Ty now holds the record for being the first blind person to complete Diablo IV fully on his own. In previous games, Ty had to rely on assistance from others to play. Now, he has even helped others who are blind navigate Lilith’s Lament in game independently. You can read an interview about Ty’s journey on IGN.

The glory of game breaking in AQ3D

When you think of players breaking a game, negative things come to mind, from exploits to frustrated players and devs. But interestingly, one occasion of recent game breaking resulted in honors! Instead of punishment, the players involved players became a permanent part of their game’s legacy.

In AdventureQuest 3D, the guild Gifted Gamerz were so dedicated to conquering the recently implemented guild leaderboards that their breaking of the records also broke their accounts! The Gifted Gamerz guild “played so ridiculously hard and gathered Guild XP so fast that they obliterated those leaderboards, overflowing the data parameters and subsequently breaking the game.” A temporary patch had to be implemented just so those players could access the game again. And for their accomplishment, AQ3D made a special title just for those players, “Gifted Gamebreakers.” In the words of the AQ3D team,

“May their legend live on, and may they continue to inspire us all to aim higher, game harder, and break a billion binary boundaries along the way.”

Guild Wars 2

Most recently (this week, to be exact!), Guild Wars 2 announced that its Extra Life fundraising efforts have hit a major milestone: the ArenaNet Super Team has raised over $1,000,000 for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals since it started in 2017! This year’s campaign has already raised over $105K, greatly surpassing the $80,000 goal. And this campaign is still ongoing, meaning folks can continue to contribute.

A few more uplifting stories from the past few months!

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!
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