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Role Playing (Games)

UO Players Donate Virtual Gold for Tsunami Victims 58

Posted by Zonk from the if-you-don't-give,-will-the-dragon-next-door? dept.
J. R. Cook writes "A man by the name of Crazy Joe recently set up a site to start taking donations of virtual gold to convert them to real life gold on ebay. All proceeds made from the auctions are being sent to the Red Cross for help with the Tsumani fund in Asia. Crazy Joe has houses set up on every server in Ultima Online to accept the donations. You can take your character to the houses to donate your gold in-game. He's raised hundreds of millions of gold which in turn can be converted to thousands of dollars."
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UO Players Donate Virtual Gold for Tsunami Victims More

UO Players Donate Virtual Gold for Tsunami Victims

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  • Can't you write off donations to the Red Cross on your taxes?

    And if the people have credit cards to pay for their game subscription, why don't they just donate their real life money?

    • Re:Taxes? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by sporty ( 27564 )
      Your argument has one flaw. You are assuming that if they donate, they won't play anymore. This is clearly not necessarily true. If someone will play regardless, they can produce extra contributions by turning their in-game items into more cash, possibly more than their subscription cost.
      • I didn't assume that, actually. But feel free to put words into my mouth.

        What I meant was "If these people have credit cards to pay their subscriptions, why not also use the credit cards to donate money to the Red Cross directly?"
        • maybe they do. Who knows.

          But any money that come in (no matter how) is good money for they peoples over there in tsunami land. I would say, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." -- err i guess that doesn't quite fit. HOw about, "Don't insist on seeing the pasture that a gift horse was raised in." How is that?
          • "But any money that come in (no matter how) is good money for they peoples over there in tsunami land."

            Unless that money goes to the Red Cross [apfn.org], yeah.
        • A couple answers:

          a) You assume that they haven't already given through traditional means already.

          b) It is quite possible that they don't have any spare money. Some people playing UO do that as their only or almost only form of recreation. I know (or knew) people without cable or cell phones who play UO.

          c) It is a fun gimmick that is raising money for a charity that can really use it. Why are you upset about it?

          --
          Evan

        • Re:Taxes? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Cecil ( 37810 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @01:33PM (#11255764) Homepage
          Do you have a credit card? I'm just curious, because you seem to have some fundamental misconception on how they work. They're not magical-money-cards (even though some people treat them like they are). Just because you have a credit card does not mean you can spend money on it willy-nilly. You are still subject to the normal budgetary constraints in your life. Just because these people are paying $15/month for a game, doesn't mean they can afford even another $1 as a donation. Maybe they can cancel their subscription, but that's pretty idealistic if you expect anyone to actually do that.

          Perhaps I misunderstood you, and you're referring to the people who are buying the 'gold' who could make the donation directly. If that's what you're suggesting, then you've missed the point: the people who are buying the gold aren't doing it as a disaster relief effort. They're simply BUYING the gold. They're paying real money, and they want gold for their character. It's a simple business deal. The people doing the donation are the people who are giving their in-game gold, for free, no strings attached, so this guy can sell it and get real money to donate. The people buying the gold probably couldn't care less where the money is going, besides out of their pocket.
          • Aye, I do have one.. And if they can afford spending money on a computer, a high speed internet connection, the game at the store and the monthly game charge, I think they can afford donating more than $1.
            • Ah, I see. You're living in idealism world. It's a lovely place. Unfortunately, for various reasons both just and unjust, the real world does not work that way. If you expect that all people must help those in more need than themselves (which on its face certainly seems like a very enlightened view), the result is communism. Wonderful in theory, but it simply doesn't work in practice. People are still very much base animals in some ways, and require direct positive feedback regarding their choices and actio

    • Re:Taxes? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There are many people with limited income and some without credit card (buying gametime codes) who play UO. Students, retired, disabled, stay at home mums etc, etc.
      Till now we were able to generate additional donation of 3000 dollars. It's not a fortune, but it's something.
      Also I know for a fact that many people who donate their virtual possessions are also donating RL money, but not everyone is able to do so, unfortunately.
      Plus, apart from everything else, this action is giving us, the players, an incredib
    • Perhaps because the in-game money means less to them, but can be given greater value by the people who buy it on eBay? They lose less, but donate the same.
    • Maybe they don't have credit cards maybe it's their parents paying the subscibtion and there's a lot of kids donating their "gold"?
      Don't knock it. It's a good thing. Odd, I'll grant you that, but good.

  • newsflash (Score:5, Funny)

    by BoomTechnology ( 832547 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @10:50AM (#11253855) Homepage
    NEWSFLASH: US GIVES 10,000,000,000 GIL in AID, 300 DEXTERITY POINTS, and 5,000 HEALING POTIONS
  • I dont know of any other MMORPG's that allow Ebay or other private auctions of items or money.

  • What if you don't have the moneys? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This allows you donate something even if you don't have much money or are just a kid on an allowance. Very good idea.

  • Convo with CrazyJoe (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JNighthawk ( 769575 ) <NihirNighthawk AT aol DOT com> on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @11:26AM (#11254254)
    Nihir Nighthawk: Great thing you're doing with the gold donations. If my UO account were still open, I'd give you what I have.
    CarnivorousJoe: thanks for the kind words!
    CarnivorousJoe: http://games.slashdot.org/
    Nihir Nighthawk: Yep, that's where I heard about you.
    CarnivorousJoe: my host may go down soon, so say hi to it now!
    Nihir Nighthawk: It's responding fine to me, but you did make the front page, so we'll see how long it takes to fry :-P
    CarnivorousJoe: haha
    CarnivorousJoe: i warned my host
    Nihir Nighthawk: they respond?
    CarnivorousJoe: not yet. may call
    Nihir Nighthawk: Maybe your host is more resilient than you think, it's still responding fine. By now, the server should be on fire.
    CarnivorousJoe: ya they are awesome
    CarnivorousJoe: but i like to cover the bases
    Nihir Nighthawk: How much have you received so far? I didn't see it listed anywhere
    CarnivorousJoe: http://www.crazyjoe.us
    CarnivorousJoe: and go click on "Status"

    He's gotten over 310 million gold, which amounts to a few thousand $USD. Assuming all of it sells, he'll have donated at least $5,000 to the Red Cross.

    • Re:Convo with CrazyJoe (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This is Crazy Joe

      I lack the time to register.

      I love my host.

      Hey Happy DreamHost Customers!

      Just in case you don't read the newsletter, here's one thing you missed:

      For the month of December, all new shared hosting sign ups are getting
      TRIPLE the normal bandwidth allotment on their plans.. forever!

      That makes it:

      Crazy Domain Insane: 120GB/month!
      Sweet Dreams: 144GB/month!
      Code Monster: 192GB/month! MINE
      Strictly Business: 264GB/month!

      So now is as great a time as ev

  • Ebay won't like it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Fizzog ( 600837 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:48PM (#11255143)
    Ebay only allows charity auctions through 'MissionFish', and will pull any other auction that mentions charity contributions.
  • Often, when the Red Cross recieves funds designated for a specific disaster, the money takes so long to process that arrives too late, and is permanently trapped in a bank account.

    Or at least that is what a red cross volunteer told me.

    • Re:Red Cross (Score:2, Informative)

      by DAldredge ( 2353 )
      No, a portion of the 'left over' money will be used to pay the millions that the Red Cross uses to pay the executives and to fund said execs perks. All the Red Cross expense records are public, so look it up for yourself and I think you will be suprised.

    • the money takes so long to process that arrives too late

      In this case, though, there won't be a "too late". Yes, a lot of money needs to be spent in the short term on food and medical relief but much will be needed long term to rebuild homes and businesses to get the economies back afloat.

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