Gamertell

I have met some amazing people on the internet and throughout my years as a reporter for a military-themed newspaper. But to find one individual that refused to give up his dream and strive to make a difference is a heart-warming story that needed to be told.

In December 2006, Zach Wigal, a 17-year-old Junior attending Saline High School in Saline, Mi, along with his friends worked hard for nine months using their own money to make their dream of hosting a Halo 2 tournament scheduled for March 24, 2007 come true. Only to have the dream crushed three days before the tournament when his school’s superintendent yanked his rental permit. All because the game was rated M for mature by the ESRB.

Wigal and his friends not only lost all the money that they’ve been saving for the event, but watched a dream he’s had since his freshmen year in high school go up in smoke.

“We had been planning the event for months and was even granted approval to use the building by our town’s rec center far in advance,“ Wigal said explaining what happened. “Over 300 people registered for the event my friends and I really put a lot of work into. Long story short, 3 days before the tournament was supposed to take place our superintendent got a call from our townships public safety director, (who apparently belongs to the Parents TV council) and convinced her that Halo 2 was “corrupting the minds of America’s youth” and in a nutshell told her my friends and I were degrading the Saline school facilities by hosting a Halo 2 tournament in the building.“

Wigal and his friends were disappointed, but were not ready to give up on the tournament just yet. They tried to negotiate with the superintendent and even offered to send out parental consent and liability forms to all the gamers who already registered for the event. But when he realized that she was pretty adamant about stopping the event and was not going to change her mind ... the tournament was officially canceled. When news of the tournament’s cancellation spread across the internet through blogs, bulletin boards and chat rooms - gamers worldwide voiced their outrage and soon after the Gamers Outreach Foundation was born.

“Our tournament was canceled based on the notion that games like Halo are somehow corrupting the minds of America’s youth. I strongly disagree with that perspective as I hold more to the philosophy that videogames are competitive, fun, interactive and a great way for people to socialize with one another,“ Wigal explained and said he and his friends have come up with a new way to host their tournaments - a Gamers for Giving Charity tournament. “We’re currently negotiating some possible dates at the venue we’re looking into. The event is going to be a Halo 3 Tournament / 3 day straight PC LAN event. The PC LAN will most likely start on a Friday afternoon and will go until Sunday morning. All profits made from this event will be donated directly to charity.“
But the event had to be more than just a regular charity function, Wigal said his goal is to show that gamers are not a plague of society and plans to eventually help break down the negative stereotypes gamers have been receiving lately.

“GOF is a non-profit organization to encourage gamers to donate to us (hoping the tax break would offer some benefits to people). Our plan is to run the event using donations made by gamers,“ he said then added that once the tournament is over, GOF would eventually work hard to break down the negative stereotypes gamers and games have been receiving lately. “We’d be able to use our favorite past time to help people. A bunch of us have been interested in getting involved with some charity work, what better way than to use videogames? We’re just a bunch of guys, who are sick of the stereotypes associated with gaming, (especially when Jack Thompson comes out and claims people are “training themselves” on Counterstrike 1.6) and to break those down we want to start getting ourselves involved with community and charity related projects using video games.“

Wigal said he has many plans for future projects, but tries to stay realistic in their goals.

“We’re fairly new, so I think one of our biggest challenges at the moment is just getting the word out about our organization. While we certainly don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, there are a ton of gamers who I think would be really interested in what we’re doing (and obviously we need the support of our fellow gamers in order for our organization to run events),“ Wigal said. “Hopefully as we begin to build on our organizations philosophy of integrity and trust, (we hope) more gamers will start to get involved with our future outreach programs and events we plan to run. Our hope is that by actively getting involved in charity and community work, we can take a more pro-active approach towards building a positive reputation for gaming.“

Currently Wigal is working with CyGamZ, a LAN center in Michigan for a benefit extravaganza this year on November 10. The event will be a Halo 3, Counterstrike 1.6 and Guitar Hero tournament. Prizes for the event is sponsored by MYTHLOGIC, a custom performance computer company who volunteered to raffle one of their computers at the tournament.

“We’ve got some concepts in the works that aren’t quite ready to be discussed yet,“ Wigal said. “But much of our future will be determined by how well our first few events do.“

Read [The Saline Reporter] Also Read [Halo Bungie News] Listen to Podcast [Gamer Girls Radio]Site [Gamers Outreach Foundation]

• Exclusive Interview: Zach Wigal of Gamers Outreach Foundation, Microsoft MVP award winner
• Halo Trilogy 5-disc soundtrack set to be released tomorrow
• Get yer favorite gamer some nifty skivvies for Christmas