IT WAS a weekend paid in blood for players of a hit online game here called Granado Espada, and it was all for a 'heroic' cause.
Players made up slightly over 70 per cent of the 107 blood donors at The Red Affair blood-donation drive that ended on Sunday at the red dot design museum. About 10 per cent of the donors were IAHGames staff.
The drive was co-organised by game distributor IAHGames and the Singapore Red Cross. This is the first time the Red Cross is reaching out to the gamer community.
Although the two-day event did not meet its target of 200 packets of donated blood, IAHGames said in a media statement yesterday that it was "pleased with the overwhelming response of the gamers".
IAHGames has been encouraging Granado Espada players to be real-life heroes in community projects for two years.
The firm noted that the "wholehearted response" this time was also seen in past projects. Besides giving out game items, IAHGames also recognised gamers' efforts by awarding a special mention on the Granado Espada website to the group that donated the most blood.
Regular Granado Espada gamer Jonathan Jiang, 23, said it felt "really good" to donate blood for the first time with his friends from the Granado Espada community as they were helping to save lives.
"I will certainly be doing this again, and hope more people will start to give blood as I learnt today that our bloodbank reserves are rather low," said Mr Jiang.
