Another email landed in my inbox:

"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4208038.stm

This story talks about the hurricane Katrina and how Everquest 2's makers are being nice to the people affected. Players can now donate and the company is letting their goods be preserved. This still doesn't take away the disturbing /pizza command that they threw in by adding in a /donate command(I'm still disturbed out how they threw in /pizza) but it's still interesting to witness. Any opinions regarding this article? As an Ex-MMORPG player(who played FFXI responsibly but quit before it could affect me) I really don't know what to make of it. Now if they could only heal some marriages their reputation could be solid."

My personal opinion? I'm glad to see it - and you won't hear from me any statement regarding MMORPG companies being the evilest companies in the world. They may not always have the interest of people in mind, but when it comes down to it, I doubt that game companies' primary goal is to destroy people - it just happens to be a side effect. Other than that, the article fails to convince me that this is a company that's working towards improving the life of American communities. Their decision to enable this command isn't really cutting into their profits - and it would be more than stupid to try to make money off of gamers who couldn't log in. Besides, I don't see the monetary donations coming from SOE. And shouldn't gamers who wish to contribute / donate to the help efforts be able to tear themselves away long enough from the game to open a browser and type in the Red Cross, or?