[!] Gabe flies to Australia on fans' dime

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Forerunner
THIS IS JUST TOO GOOD !!
A modder's fund drive to call Gabe Newell's joke bluff, and fly the Valve boss plus a producer to Australia to preview his Left 4 Dead campaign, has surpassed $3,000 in less than a week. Pack your bags, Mr. Newell.
The backstory: Joe W-A of Brisbane is a serious modder, working on this custom Left 4 Dead campaign, "Shotgun Sunrise." He's also pals with Newell. So Joe jokingly feigned disappointment that Newell didn't fly him up to Valve HQ to preview Left 4 Dead 2, which Valve did earlier for the leaders of the L4D2 boycott movement. Newell's joking reply was a "boycott" of Joe's campaign, and then the demand that Joe fly him and producer Erik Johnson to Australia if he wanted them to preview it.

Somehow, this premise netted more than $3,000 in donations through Saturday, when Joe announced the drive had breached its target. While he's offered to return donations should any of this be called off, the sum now is so serious that "I'm assuming you don't want refunds, and the money will go to either Gabe and Erik's flights or [the charity] Child's Play."

When he got about $500 in on the first day, Joe emailed Newell to ask for a price quote. Newell replied with a $1,211 figure on Qantas, connecting through L.A. "So Erik and I aren't too much in danger," Newell said. Not so fast, my friend.

So the ball is in Valve's court here. Whatever happens, we've all had a great laugh - some of Valve's employees even donated to the cause. And whether it ends with pictures of Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson in a 19-year-old modder's home across the Pacific Ocean, playing Left 4 Dead, or a handsome donation to a worthy cause, we can stamp "win" all over this.
Click to expand...

Newell has written back saying that both he and fellow Valve teammate Erik Johnson will be heading to Australia as agreed (an exact date has not been announced).

Which just goes to show you that fans will donate money to pretty much anything . . . even flying a guy who could likely pay for the trip himself with change from his pocket to Australia :rofl:
 
What i am thinking is how they dicipher the genuine mails from the total bullshit they get in the millions of mails every DAY !

Read steam forums for reference.
 
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