An interesting new crowdfunding campaign has hit the IndieGogo site. The project concerns Valve's often rumoured but never officially revealed Half Life 3 game. A total of $150,000 is sought to help push Valve over the brink and "get Valve to finish the game we've dreamed about for all these years". However the funding isn't for any constructive help to Valve, it is to pay for a media blitz targeting the company and its employees shouting "WE WANT HALF-LIFE 3".
The crowdfunding plan is the brainchild of a pair of US ad-agency interns, Chris Salem and Kyle Mazzei, reports VentureBeat. While the duo are seeking $150,000 for their media and Valve employees blitz (and an "epic concert" in Seattle with "some of the biggest names in video game music"), they have only raised a paltry $123 at the time of writing.
The theory behind the campaign is that "we think that the fans aren't doing enough, we think that we've never truly been united in getting our voice heard". So it seems Valve is unaware of gamer interest in a third Half Life game…
This unconventional IndieGogo campaign does however have a familiar tiered goal system as follows:
- $3,000: All 300 employees of Valve will be targeted by a Google Adwords campaign with the message "WE WANT HALF-LIFE 3".
- $9,000: A mobile billboard truck will "besiege Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington" to urge Valve to out HL3.
- $45,000: Another Valve HQ siege will take place, this time with "a bunch of Gabe Newells" (lookalikes) trying to sneak into Valve HQ and push of the HL3 development/release.
- $150,000: the "Most Epic Concert EVER" will be organised where Half Life fans will listen to "some of the biggest names in video game music".
Some of the campaign goals sound rather like harassment and it is highly questionable that it would get any positive result, even if funding reached the desired $150,000 'epic concert' level.
Will any readers be backing this IndieGogo project?
UPDATE: since I started writing this story the funding pledges have reached $124.
