One of the things that I love about games like EverQuest is the sense of community. It was there in IRC and FidoNet and it’s there in some MMORPG’s like EQ. You have to work at it, it doesn’t just happen, and you have to want it otherwise it may as well be just another video game. But there can be a sense of community, a feeling of knowing people you’ve never met.

Perhaps a lot of it is illusion – perhaps people you think you know are in fact totally different. But I suspect it’s similar to making pen-pals before the age of global communication via computer, and that often your impression of people you deal with on-line a lot is pretty accurate.

When I play EQ, it’s to socialise as well as play a game, some people will scoff about socialising with people you can’t see or actually hear, but I don’t mind, feel free, we enjoy it.

And so when one member of the community has PC problems, and can’t get them sorted for whatever reason, it’s usually frustrating for their friends, wanting them to get back on-line. Hillbillie’s computer is b0rked and there’s no sign of it being fixed quickly. However, I wanted to help, and I wanted to offer you the chance to help (not you the random reader who just wandered by, but you, a friend of Hillbillie, I don’t expect random Joe public to help!).

There’s a button on the right side of the page, Make a Donation, which uses Pay Pal to send Hillbillie some cash, so that hopefully he can get his computer fixed and get his ass back in the game.