No 2015 Gamers Secret Santa

Since 2009 I’ve been running a Gamers Secret Santa, where I would take names of gamers and match them with other gamers and then everyone would unite and purchase or craft a little something for one another, and spread a little joy and cheer around. Unfortunately this year I won’t be hosting the event. If someone else would like to take over that’s great, but honestly I just can’t dedicate the time involved this year, especially since I’m doing NaNoWriMo for the month of November. I loved running the event previously, but it’s a lot of work. I also spent quite a bit out of pocket to ensure that everyone actually received a gift, I wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to was able to participate no matter their financial situation, and I wanted to make sure that things that were unintentionally lost in the mail didn’t deter people the next year from participating.

With that being said, I want to remind everyone that we don’t need a special day or event to connect with other gamers. Sure, we don’t all like the same types of games, but we’re still joined in this not-so-secret club and that means we should treat each other with the utmost of respect (ideally of course you’re treating everyone with respect, but I see so much gamer on gamer hate that spreads back and forth over the year that I want to make a special note). Remember, it doesn’t take much effort to make someone smile. It can be as simple as leaving a comment on a blog post of theirs you admire. Responding to a particular tweet in an uplifting way, noticing something about them and checking in to make sure that they’re alright. Maybe taking a peek at their steam wishlist and randomly buying them a small gift. Treating fellow gamers well in-game and helping out new players. Lets not forget these small acts of kindness over the days and weeks that go by. We’re all so very wrapped up in our own situations that it can be difficult sometimes to take a step back and see how others around us are doing – it’s well worth the effort to try.

Once again my apologies for not running the event this year. I hope that everyone understands and that I’m not letting too many people down. I hope this post inspires some random acts of kindness throughout the gamer community that I have come to know and love.