Naughty Dog: 8 Bit Salute -Gaming For The Troops

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There are currently about 100000 American soldiers in what can be considered “Dangerous Warzones”, and so, the guys at 8 Bit Salute created the “Gaming For The Troops“, a program that intends to share Gaming devices and games with those same soldiers. The program has been going for 4 years now, and Naughty Dog has announced that they’re also joining this charity.

8 Bit Salute works by people donating money in exchange for prizes that developers promise, very much like the system of KickStarter.

In case you’re wondering why Naughty Dog opted to provide video games instead of actual resources like food or medicines, then let me explain.

Jeff Bullock, an American war veteran, sent at the beginning of this year to Naughty Dog, a card that explains why their games helped him, and probably some of his comrades aswell, at surviving in Irak. I definitely recommend you to read this amazingly inspiring letter.

From: Jeff Bullock
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 2:29 PM
To: ndi-dog
Subject: Uncharted and how it helped me in Iraq

To the wonderful people who made the Uncharted games,

My name is Jeff Bullock.  I am a veteran of the war in Iraq and I just wanted to take a few minutes to let you know what your games have meant to me over the years.  The newest Uncharted game is on its way, so I started replaying 1-3 today.  This inspired me to write this email.

I was in Iraq from December of 2010 to October of 2011 at FOB Warrior in Kirkuk, Iraq.  I brought my PS3 over there with me and set up a projector so I could play my games in my CHU (compartmentalized housing unit), basically a glorified trailer, on a big screen.

While not conducting missions outside the base, I spent most of my time in my CHU trying to relax and forget for a moment that I was in Iraq.  We constantly had indirect fire, specifically rockets, lobbed our way.  It was a multiple times a day sort of thing.  To this day, I still have problems when I hear sounds similar to the incoming alarm or to the sound the rockets themselves made.  It was usually the first thing we talked about in the mornings.  “Hey, did you hear those rockets last night?  Sounded like it landed pretty close.”  That sort of thing.

So, there are two things I would like to let you know your games did for me.  The first is the most obvious.  They allowed me an escape into another world, even if that world also had explosions, they were not real and also controllable.  Nothing at all like getting caught out in the open when the incoming alarm went off and just laying down to take cover and hoping that today wasn’t your day to die.  It was an escape, one I desperately needed every day.

The second benefit to your games is a little less straight forward.  There were many of those morning conversations about rockets the previous night that I was happy to have nothing to contribute.  I would play Uncharted on my big projector screen and turn the volume up.  As it happens, many times this blocked out the sound of real rockets.  So instead of hearing the alarm or the explosions, I would continue playing, blissfully unaware of the potential dangers around me.  I should mention that even if I had heard the alarm or explosions, there really isn’t anything that I could do but sit and wait and hope.  Much better to be happy and distracted.

Your games helped to eliminate some measure of the stress of everyday life in a war zone. I just felt this was something I should share, and I hope that it brings all of you some measure of happiness to know what your games meant to me, and I’m sure to many others in similar situations.

Thank you, and I wish you and your families the best life can offer.  Keep doing what you’re doing, you never know how much it can mean to someone.

With great sincerity,

Jeff Bullock

Original Author: Artur Araújo