Well, I blew it. Monday Night Combat and Uber Entertainment dropped a story with perfect Easter ties in everyone's lap on Friday, and I missed the point. Chickey Cantor, the crazy clucker you can rodeo-ride for big buxx in the game's new title update, is not in fact named for Monday Night Combat P.A. Mickey Cantor. He's named for a chicken named for Monday Night Combat P.A. Mickey Cantor.
Chickey's a real chicken, the one pictured above, and he lives on a farm in New Hampshire. Back in the winter, Griffin Thomas, a high school senior who lives on the farm with Chickey, lamented the fact that two friends of his had been in a car accident and, while unharmed, all their cash would be going to repairs, not a purchase of Monday Night Combat as the group had planned.
Griffin wondered to his mom, Wendy (who blogs about her farm here) whether publisher Uber Entertainment could be convinced to give a couple codes for free to his hard luck pals. Mom thought that was a kind enough request, but, with Uber being a business, asked Griffin to think why they'd be inclined to give out the codes (other than just good P.R.) Eventually he hatched the idea of naming a chick after MNC's announcer, and offering Uber some free publicity on the farm blog.
That's some barter, but Uber was happy to take the trade. The Thomases and their favorite developers then met at PAX East in Boston, exchanging gifts there. And then things progressed to naming the giant chicken in this update after the Thomases' yardbird.
In new audio for the Monday Night Combat update, Mickey refers to a chicken farm in New Hampshire, and Chickey Cantor's creator is "Griffin Robotics," an homage to their new friend.
So, this weekend we've learned that not all developers are heartless technocrats who just want to separate you from your money. Some are touched by the opportunity to participate in important life moments like proposing marriage. Others have a soft spot for organic free-range poultry. While I hope studios aren't bombarded by well-meaning copycat requests in the coming weeks, Uber and Gearbox have shown that simple gestures like these reap enormous goodwill from their communities.