Gamers Charity

RedCross of Guild DLS Interview

RedCross posted this on Stratics as their Guild Site is Private. It is the first interview I did through one of his guildmates, very early into this whole shibang.

OK with what Crazy Joe was doing, gave me an Idea about an interview with him. So i tasked one of my guild reporters to do an interview with him and what he is doing for the "Red Cross Gold Donation". So here it is......

Players within the realm of UO may have noticed a number of newly placed vendors labelled 'Red Cross Donations'. These vendors could be found in several locations on various game shards. Their stock consisted of high priced items of little game value, but of the greatest of value to those who suffered through the horrendous tragedy of the recent tsunamis that hit southeast asia.

As the labels indicated, all gold collected on these vendors was to be sold on e-bay and the money donated to the American Red Cross to be used as aide for the tsunami victims. Thus far, $3,000.00 has been donated in the name of the generous Ultima community!

The man behind this wonderful act of kindness is the current UO Stratics Administrator and Stratics Adminstrative Coordinator, known to many of us via his in-game character, Crazy Joe. He has played UO since its inception. When asked why his character wears no clothing, he answered "I lack originality, creativity...or whatever you call it." However this act of thoughtfulness certainly makes one wonder about that statment!

Joe said "I was at work crunching numbers on New Year's Eve while reading the tsunami thread that was started on our forums. It dawned on me many of these folks were wealthy in-game and did not realize the available potential. I thought about it for a total of 16 minutes, I think, and then started it! I started small with what I had for myself on the Origin and Siege Perilous shards."

Joe stated that he feels he is "cursed...bad stuff only happens to me in real life, like brand new pants getting a stain from pasta sauce while the pants are on the countertop 3 yards(edited from Years) away from where I'm eating because I took them off knowing I would get pasta sauce on them. I knew I would be handling real life money and if something went wrong with this, I wanted to take the blame, not Stratics." This is why Joe set out to do this on his own rather than involve Stratics. However, it seems that Joe's luck has certainly changed for the better. Word spread rapidly and it wasn't long before he was being offerred vendor spots all over the Brittanian shards. Several in-game groups also pledged donations.

Joe is keeping record of all transactions and you can follow this with him on his website http://www.crazyjoe.us

It is an honour to have such a wonderful person associated with Ultima Online/Stratics. Makes me proud to be a part of this awesome community who has opened their hearts and their in-game wallets to the needs of others.