The current coronavirus pandemic, and the extended lockdowns faced by communities across the globe, have left a lot of people with a lot of time to play a lot of games. Some are using that time to build capitalist empires, some are replicating real-life hangouts to facilitate virtual reunions with their much-missed friends, and others are using the time to spread a little bit of human kindness, in a bid to alleviate some of the stresses of isolation, in any way they can.
One such merry band of joy bringers is the East India Company Gaming, a close-knit group of Elite Dangerous players founded on “principles of tolerance and helping others”. Its members spend their time engaging in a broad array of activities across the galaxy, but their most notable endeavour is the delivery of rare and mineable commodities to help others mitigate the arduous grind of Engineer-based ship improvements.
It’s a trading service the group (whose name makes a certain thematic sense, given its alignment to Elite’s Empire faction) has been providing in exchange for select in-game resources since 2017 – but in the spirit of giving that’s been reflected across many gaming communities during the coronavirus outbreak, it’s currently waiving that fee.
