It started off as a simple joke. A modder from Brisbane sent an email to Gabe Newell defaming the Valve boss for not inviting the modder to play L4D2, something Newell had done for the organizers behind the L4D2 boycott. Newell and the modder, named Joe, are friends, and through a series of responses got to the point that Joe started flygabenewell.blogspot.com, a site where you could donate for Joe to purchase a ticket for Newell to Brisbane to see Joe’s latest mod.
Confused yet? Well, there were a lot of commas in there. My apologies. As it turns out, though, Joe has actually accrued enough cash to fly Newell and L4D producer Erik Johnson down to Brisbane. All we’re waiting for is Newell’s acceptance.
No matter the outcome, it’s absolutely hilarious that Joe could raise enough money to do this. If Newell declines, Joe has decided to give the money to Child’s Play, a local charity, so everybody wins in the end. For Joe’s sake, I hope Gabe goes.
It looks like the world is finally catching on that Madden doesn’t change much from year to year, and they’ve stopped buying. Sales are so bad, in fact, that even EA is calling the numbers “discouraging.”
