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A Call For Communication’s “A Red Letter Day” Is Successful, With Over 13,000 Fans Playing Half-Life 2

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Late last month, A Call for Communication announced “A Red Letter Day”, a group event that would bring tens of thousands of Half-Life fans together in playing Half-Life 2, for half an hour on the 4th of February. That was yesterday, and it turns out… it did!

A Call For Communication’s “A Red Letter Day” Is Successful, With Over 13,000 Fans Playing Half-Life 2

When the time came, at 11AM PST, over 13,000 Half-Life fans began playing Half-Life 2. The typical player count for HL2 is little over a thousand, and in 30 minutes, it skyrocketed, reaching the top #11 spot on Steam’s most-played games. If you ask me, that is really impressive. Sure, we didn’t get 20k or 30k people playing, but it’s still a really remarkable achievement, and I’m proud of everyone who participated.

The post-event announcement brings more tidings:

Our primary goal was to unite Half-Life fans in a unique and interesting way, and that was accomplished. Whether or not Valve will respond has yet to be determined; however, seven years after the release of Half-Life 2, over 13,000 fans have returned to play it again, together. That means something.

[…]

I am personally impressed with what we’ve achieved today. We’re nowhere near done — in fact, we are currently in the process of planning new activities; this was only our first attempt, and, in my eyes, was a success for everyone.

If our group closed today, I would be proud of everything we’ve done and all the Half-Life fans who were able to unite together and work towards a common goal. However, we’ve got no intention of stopping now; this is only the beginning.

I’d like to thank everyone for what we were able to accomplish today. Together, I know we can achieve even more. 🙂

Excellent! I wonder what the upcoming events will be. I wouldn’t mind a bit of this, really. They even got the number right: there were three ladies. Christ, that number’s everywhere. I open Steam to play some games, and it’s right there: “Serious Sam 3; Fallout 3; Doom 3; Wolfenstein 3D“, and so on. Truly vicious viral marketing, folks. Curse you, Valve, get out of my Library!

Speaking of Valve’s shenanigans, Valve employee BurtonJ even joined in the fun. He kept HL2 open for 38 hours during the Red Letter Day. Of course, the joke’s on us – while it was left open, he might have been playing HL3 or something. Or SOB. Or Left 4 Dead 3. Maybe even all… three.

Ooiman, admin of the “We Want Half-Life 2: Episode 3” Steam Group, and one of my good friends, even made a little video about all this. Titled “A Day In My Life As A Half-Life Protester“, it pretty much shows you what life is like for the average Half-Life fan, throughout the excruciatingly long wait for “Eli’s Funeral: Episode Three”. It’s really enjoyable, and I’m not saying that just because I sponsored the video with donuts (no, seriously). Let’s take a look:

I dare say that without my donuts, the creation of this video would not have been possible. Still, in all seriousness – good job to Ooiman for a hilarious video, and, hell, good job to everyone for hanging in there for all these years. Maybe 2012 will bring the wind of change. Maybe the Great Half-Life Wall of Silence will come tumbling down… after David Hasselhoff’s singing actually destabilizes the gluons holding the wall together. Crazy stuff.

7 Comments

  1. I’m surprised about how many other people did this. I didn’t even play for half an hour that day but so many others did. I really hope that Valve recognizes the motive of the Half-Life community. Protesting tends to do nothing but show discomfort by the majority, but who knows. Maybe it will work.

  2. Anybody seen these fan-art pictures yet?
    There ‘omg’ amazing.

    http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/02/half-life-3-art-is-thinking-with-portals/#comment-540907

  3. I watched the video drinking from the very same black mesa cup. Sigh.

  4. 13,000 isn’t impressive considering all the coverage and heavy spam.

  5. nice! Hope it works!! 😛

  6. The video would have been funnier if one of the ideas he came up with before the petition was to send crowbars to Valve 😛

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