Hey, welcome to a bonus episode of Rethinking. Are you ready to talk about some Fallout 3?
Me too. Let's get it started.
Fallout is no stranger to the everyday
struggles that afflict humans every day in the real world--in fact, one of the most cornerstone
problems has been the focus of two titles: water.
In Fallout 1 you are tasked with finding a water chip for the water purifier for Vault
13. In Fallout 3, you're charged with the lofty goal of providing clean drinking water
to all inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland. Something that seems basic and, perhaps, bland
to everyone living in the-- United States nowadays, where you can just hop down to the
nearest building to find a drinking fountain.
The reality is, in our REAL world, right now, 800 Million people are living without access
to clean water. That's 8 followed by eight zeros, or the population of the United States
and the entire European Union combined. No sink. No filters. Just a dirty lake or river,
inhabited by all sorts of real, terrible things, from parasites, to animal and human waste,
bacteria, diseases, and actual giant monsters.
Not having easy access to a basic need prevents, like, every form of development you can think
of. Want to be educated? Oh, sorry, you can't, because you have to walk several miles to
get gallons of dirty water for your family. Okay, now you have it, so maybe you can go
to school today--ah, damn it, sorry, the water gave you dysentery. This isn't Oregon trail--this
is the everyday reality of Millions of people. What can we do about it? Not nothing. Charity:
Water is a Non-Profit cause that works to bring access to clean water to communities
that don't have it. And we want to help.
We make YouTube videos about video games. It's awesome. We love doing it. But we thought
it was time we try to do something that actually helps someone else. I mean, why have this
amazing platform reading hundreds of thousands of people if you're not going to use your
powers for good? The best part is that you, me, your friend, and all of us, collectively,
can do more TOGETHER than any one of us can by ourselves. That's what makes humans such
an amazingly successful species--our fantastic ability to network to solve problems.
We've set a goal of $10,000, which is the minimum amount of money it takes to FULLY
FUND a well in a community for a WHOLE YEAR. What does that mean in actual numbers? For
a whole year, 333 people won't have to walk to an obscure and dangerous water source for
clean drinking water. Each dollar invested into clean drinking water in an area returns
AT least $4 in the local economy, because instead of being sick, or travelling miles
for water, residents are free to get an education, or work a job. So that means that a mere $10,000
can actually translate into over $40,000. Isn't that amazing? There are investment bankers
across the world dying for that kind of return on their money.
And here’s the best parts: next weekend, on the 30th and 31st of January, I’m going
to be streaming ALL weekend--well almost. Ten hours on Saturday and Ten on Sunday, and
I’m going to be going through the ENTIRE main quest of Fallout 4. It’ll be here on
our Youtube channel starting at 9 AM Central Time. Brian Delaney AND Courtenay Taylor both
agreed to join me, too. And I’ve reached out to some other YouTubers who will be dropping
in. I’ll be getting drunk, probably, and there will be drinking games, AND, if we reach
our $10,000 goal, I will be getting a tattoo to commemorate the success. I’ll take a
video to share with you guys. And you’ll get to hear me scream like a baby.
The page is open for donations now, so if you’re feeling generous there’s a link
in the description, or you can type in the URL I have on the screen. We’re calling
it the Project Purity campaign. Clever, right? I thought so.
We want to improve the world. We want to prove that gamers are capable of much more than
the stereotypes suggest--we can change lives. We're a force of Awesome here to fight World
Suck. Let's gain some good Karma together.
I'll see you guys next weekend for the stream.