Virtual Worlds Offer Real Storm Help

Posted on September 7, 2005

The BBC reports that virtual worlds like Second Life and There are building virtual memorials and raising donations to help those that were in the path of Hurricane Katrina. A memorial from the Second Life game is pictured on the right.

In Second Life and There, players or residents build the neighbourhoods and virtual structures within. They work in a similar way to the Sims games.
Both games are more like physical worlds which focus on social interaction over gameplay.
One Second Life resident called ReallyRick Metropolitan constructed the computer generated memorial for those who perished.
Within hours, virtual candles were constructed and placed around it, as well as other virtual tributes.
A clickable sign in the game takes residents to a Yahoo page where they can donate directly to the Red Cross.
A contribution system to turn Linden Dollars, Second Life's virtual currency which players use to trade in virtual goods, into to dollars is also being developed.

Here are a few example of how virtual game worlds are lending a hand.

Second Life: Second Life's blog, New World Notes, has been describing some of the virtual memorial and money raising activity on their blog. One blog post explains how Second Life citizens are donating Linden dollars to help raise money. Linden dollars is the currency in the Second Life world.

Everquest II: Everquest II has added a /donate command which takes users to a Red Cross donation area. They are also suspending billing for people with accounts in the affected areas:

Additionally, for our 13,000+ players actually in the affected areas, we will be suspending billing until such time as they are able to play again. In addition, any items or structures in any of our games, which decay over time, will be preserved until the user's next login.

The virtual game community at There.com is also raising money to help.

In support of these Community efforts and in response to this disaster, Makena Technologies, Inc., together with The Maya Foundation (CEO Michael Wilson's foundation), will match the Community's contribution up to $50,000.00 US. We will make the donation on behalf of the There Community, Makena Technologies, Inc., and The Maya Foundation to the American Red Cross.

Bungie: Bungie, the developers of the popular and award-winning game, Halo 2 for the Xbox, is selling a t-shirt to help raise money for the Red Cross.

Gamers Relief: Advanced Media Network has organized the Gamers Relief fund to help raise money for the Red Cross.