The current coronavirus epidemic is causing little imagination and suffering for millions, but in the UK, something is being done to make life easier for the brave and dedicated health workers at the forefront of the problems.
NHS staff in the UK are given gifts to access over 85,000 video games as a way of saying they are grateful for their commitment to safeguarding the health of the nation. Studios like EA, PQube, Rare, Developer, Konami and Sega have signed up for the "Career Games" program, allowing NHS staff to play games in their spare time or to use them to "provide for their families". "
To participate, NHS staff should visit the volunteers Careers Games website and enter their NHS email address. According to The BBC, demand was so high that the site was demolished shortly after it was live, but is behind the writing.
Who is the man leading this wonderful campaign? None other than the well-known gaming reporter and Nintendo Life reporter Chris Scullion, who dismissed the idea on Twitter before gaining support from UK sports body Ukie and the video game platform Keymail.
We spoke to Chris about this opportunity, and he told us:
It started about a month ago when one of my Twitter followers gave me the discount code they had and said I could make it free. Somebody suggested giving it to an NHS employee, which I think is a good idea, but three or four contacts asked for this code, so I had to put down some of them.
I started thinking that it would be nice to get a few codes to give to more NHS workers, so I reached out to contacts in the gaming industry and ended up meeting Ukie and Keymailer. The whole thing has grown arms and legs in a very amazing way and now what I hoped would be a couple of hundred codes has already started 85,000 codes from 65 UK publishers.
Ukie CEO Dr Jo Twist praised how the industry has united to support health workers, saying:
Gaming companies of all sizes and players everywhere recognize their exceptional dedication and I hope the program goes some way to helping them understand how they are respected and appreciated.
