Doc Roc
2011-04-11, 01:42 PM
So, it's come to my attention that there is a new threat, looming from unexpected corners. This threat is earthquakes. This thread is a declaration of WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH on earthquakes.
How do you fight an earthquake? You fund continuing seismological research, relief efforts, and you make sure that the afflicted areas know that your support isn't short term. Inspired by the actors of Tokusatsu, and heartbroken by the vast damages left in the wake of one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, I began to look around to see what I could do. The answer was almost nothing. I donated. I had no skills to offer. I could not even draw. I write poorly. I code very well, but my day job sucks up all my juice for that.
I make games too. But...
Other gameshops had already started doing short-term charity drives. It cuts out some of the dichotomy that my old friend Randy recently highlighted in XKCD, but it's not not what I'm interested in. I'm very impressed with Ookoodook, and with Rich, but their efforts are fundamentally oriented towards immediate relief. Immediate relief is extremely valuable, but does nothing to assuage almost limitless infrastructural damage. It's a uplifting show of support, which helps, but it's also an impermanent one. This is their life blood. We cannot ask them to bleed dry. I, however, am only a hobbyist, I have another idea, a slightly different idea. I'm pledging my share of all of Rule of Cool's games for the next five years to help long-term disaster relief, and to help try and keep this from happening again. Our job, the point of our WAAAAAAAAGH, is to make doing good easy, to think in the long-term about this, and to avoid above all else any sense of righteousness. We are doing what should be done, which is often of no glory.
I hope you'll join me in this, each of you, in your own ways.
How do you fight an earthquake? You fund continuing seismological research, relief efforts, and you make sure that the afflicted areas know that your support isn't short term. Inspired by the actors of Tokusatsu, and heartbroken by the vast damages left in the wake of one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, I began to look around to see what I could do. The answer was almost nothing. I donated. I had no skills to offer. I could not even draw. I write poorly. I code very well, but my day job sucks up all my juice for that.
I make games too. But...
Other gameshops had already started doing short-term charity drives. It cuts out some of the dichotomy that my old friend Randy recently highlighted in XKCD, but it's not not what I'm interested in. I'm very impressed with Ookoodook, and with Rich, but their efforts are fundamentally oriented towards immediate relief. Immediate relief is extremely valuable, but does nothing to assuage almost limitless infrastructural damage. It's a uplifting show of support, which helps, but it's also an impermanent one. This is their life blood. We cannot ask them to bleed dry. I, however, am only a hobbyist, I have another idea, a slightly different idea. I'm pledging my share of all of Rule of Cool's games for the next five years to help long-term disaster relief, and to help try and keep this from happening again. Our job, the point of our WAAAAAAAAGH, is to make doing good easy, to think in the long-term about this, and to avoid above all else any sense of righteousness. We are doing what should be done, which is often of no glory.
I hope you'll join me in this, each of you, in your own ways.