As a fan of the Elite series (although I don't dare start playing Elite: Dangerous) I was drawn to this story, but wasn't expecting to be moved quite as much as I was. Well worth a read.
Since January 13, a group of Elite: Dangerous players has been journeying across the galaxy to reach Dove Enigma station, named for a member of the expedition, Brandon "DoveEnigma13" Keith. Keith is fighting terminal cancer.
The trip, a relatively leisurely sightseeing tour and charity drive assembled for the benefit of both Keith and his five-year-old daughter, seemed to be going smoothly enough until this week, when griefers struck. Still a ways out from Dove Enigma, members of the expedition discovered that the station had been taken offline by some enigmatic arseholes. ... At the time, players weren't entirely sure what happened, but they suspected that griefers employed an exploit that makes it possible to shut down stations by overloading them with items called Unknown Artefacts. The net effect is akin to what would happen if a Thargoid alien attacked that station. ... The developer added, however, that there's no need for major changes now, because players have already rallied to reverse the station shutdown. Hearing of the Enigma expedition's plight, another group of players banded together to collect and deliver mass amounts of Meta Alloys, an item that can counteract the effects of Unknown Artefacts on stations.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Friday July 05 2019, @07:31AM (1 child)
Feb 2018
Elite: Dangerous Players Band Together To Save Cancer Patient's Expedition From Griefers [kotaku.com.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by pkrasimirov on Friday July 05 2019, @03:08PM
Thank you, GreatAuntAnesthesia and c0lo for sharing these stories.