Colgate-Palmolive to Donate 25 Zillion Detergent Pubs, $20 Zillion in Items to COVID-19 Struggle

Corporate Relief Efforts and What Gaming Communities Learned from the Pandemic

The title of this page refers to a past news item from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Colgate-Palmolive announced donations of soap bars and hygiene products to support relief work. That moment has long passed, but it belongs to a wider pattern from that period: large consumer brands redirected products, money and logistics toward hospitals, food banks and frontline workers, while everyday hygiene such as handwashing became a central public health message.

For online communities like ours, the pandemic was also a turning point. With lockdowns keeping people at home, multiplayer games, private servers and forums became one of the main ways friends stayed in touch. Many communities saw a surge of new members who had more free time to learn modding, set up test servers or finally try MMO development. Several habits from that time are still worth keeping:

• Look after your setup. Long sessions are easier on your hands and eyes with regular breaks, a clean keyboard and mouse, and decent lighting. Shared controllers and headsets are worth wiping down, especially at LAN events.
• Support charity through play. Charity streams and in-game fundraisers became common during the pandemic. If you organize one, use well-known, registered charities and be transparent about where donations go.
• Keep communities welcoming. Newcomers who arrive during difficult times often stay when their first questions get patient answers. Our forum rules are built around that idea.

If you joined the hobby during those years and want to go further, the tutorials section covers server setup, client editing and basic scripting, and the forums are the place to share progress, ask for help and find collaborators for your next project.