Two interns at an ad agency in the US have started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise $150 000 (R1.65m) to encourage Valve to finish and release Half-Life 3, the never-announced sequel to 2004’s Half-Life 2 and one of the most highly-anticipated games of all time.

Although “encourage” may be too gentle a term – what they plan to do with the cash is more akin to harassment.

That’s because Chris Salem and Kyle Mazzei, who work for marketing firm McKee Wallwork & Co., want to use it to launch a Google Ad Word campaign that returns ad results for their We Want Half-Life 3 crusade when Valve employees Google themselves. And that’s the tamest of their intentions.

At the $9 000 level, they say they will hire a huge mobile billboard that says “We want Half-Life 3″ in a stylised fashion and drive it around Valve’s Seattle headquarters for a day.

Should they raise $45 000, they will hire Gabe Newell lookalikes (the guy that owns the company), dress them in We want Half-Life 3” t-shirts and have them “besiege” Valve’s headquarters.

Their biggest and most ambitious goal is to throw a Half-Life themed concert should they raise the full $150 000, headlined by “some of the biggest names in videogame music”, and invite all of Valve’s employees to attend.

This has to be the most over-the-top attempt to get Valve’s attention, and honestly I think it’s hilarious. It’s also a case of two ad agency interns punting themselves in the process (not a coincidence, I’m sure), as well as a little bit of “spoiled and entitled middle-class white guys stamping their feet to get what they want”. At least, that’s how their campaign appears to me.

I still wish them well with it because I too would like to play Half-Life 3 before I die, I am just content to let Valve get on with it and finish it in their own time.

If you’d like to contribute, head over to Salem and Mazzei’s We Want Half-Life 3 IndieGoGo page.

[Source & Image – Indiegogo.com]