Gamers Are Good People, Too

The Ticktockman writes "For years, gamers have been looked down upon by the media. We are said to be crazy lunatics who, given the chance, might decide to shoot up our school because of the games we play. Well, the game-themed webcomic Penny Arcade has had enough. They have now started a little something with the Seattle Children's Hospital called 'Child's Play', where gamers can buy videogame and non-game-related gifts for patients there. So if you feel like showing the world that gamers are compassionate people too, then head on over to the Penny Arcade 'Child's Play' page for more details."

Not just kids!

[Chodak]

This a great idea, and I hope a lot of people give thier support, but remember that there are lots of other ways to help, too. My girlfriend's father was recently in the hospital for several months awaiting a heart transplant. He couldn't do any sort of physical activity, and so I brought him one of my old NES systems and a few games. He told me later that they helped him stay sane since he was stuck in his hospital room all day. He was tired of watching TV, but Mario and Link were great company!

"Good" gamers and "bad" gamers

[KeelSpawn]

Actually, I believe there are two kinds of gamers. One is the good gamer and the other is the "bad" if you want to call it that way. Look at those teeange gamers who brutally shoot innocent citizens - what do they all have in common??

1. They're all (if not most) high school drop-outs.
2. Their parents are no better than their kids. This is in terms of education, respect, and self control.
3. The violent/unsafe neighborhood they grow up in.
4. Their parents possesing guns and not safely storing them so their kids won't find it.

And WHO'S fault are those?? The GAME'S fault?? HELL NO!! I wonder when will kids wake up and realize that they have a future ahead of them and they need to take care of school subjects first. And only have games as a side-entertainment in spare time (or weekends and vacations). And parents need to stop blaming game makers just because they didn't take proper responsibility for their own children.

People out there, wake up. You have a brain so make use of it. Kids - make use of it for self control on education in school. Parents - make use of it to guide your kids to the positive direction.

I'm a 16 year old and am currently a high school Junior. I play games more than anything I do, but yet at the same time I can manage all my school work pretty well. It's all about management. Management and self-control.

These guys are the greatest

[xirtam_work]

I just love Tycho & Gabe's website. I only discovered it because of Slashdot, so it's wonderful that you decided to run this story.

I'd like to see something like this elsewhere than Seattle as well, not that I have anything against Seattle. There are needy and worthy kids all over the world.

Hopefully, the media will see the results of generous geeks helping these kids and show our community in a positive light for a change. It's not as if we're not used to giving to good causes, in fact when we do donate to a cause it's more often than not politiically motivated to help out someone who has been scuppered by a huge corporation, **AA or the government. Remember Kevin, Dimitri & the 12 year old girl who was threatened by the RIAA?

I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Eventually something like this needs to exist with a charitable Trust status, so that it is tax deductable. For instance, here in the UK you can 'gift aid' any donatations to a charity and they can claim the income tax you paid on your donation back from the government, which is nice.

Re:People are the same all over

[Anonymous Coward]

People are inherently xenophobic. In the past 100 years, society has advanced at a rate far faster than the individuals that it is composed of. It is difficult for the less socially aware groups to keep up.

Rather than expanding their horizons - it's much easier for them to limit it. They place themselves in a box with everything else that they *do* understand. And then they fear or ignore everything else that doesn't fit into their limited world view.

This is the cause of virtually every major human conflict in the modern world. Particularly the religious ones.

Re:always...

[pocopoco]

Agreed, but penny-arcade is much less about the money than many other sites. They recently closed Club PA which was paying extra for extra content because they didn't need the money and didn't like excluding people. Also they are choosey about banners and will often explain in their rant why they thought you might be interested in what's being advertised (showing they didn't just jump to the advertiser paying the most).

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:"Good" gamers and "bad" gamers

[anaphora]

I beg to differ. I was a highschool dropout, 10th grade. My parents kept guns all around the house. I live in Texas, I could go on a Doom2 style rampage with the weapons within reach from this computer. A .308, AR-15, Bowie Knife, 9mm Macarov, .44 Desert Eagle. The only point you make I don't match is #3, and surely that doesn't make THAT big of a difference. Don't blame kids shooting up people on ANYTHING except the kids are fucking crazy.

Almost agree

[2nd Post!]

I almost agree with everything you say except paddling ^^

It doesn't damage the kid, you're right. My dad paddled me when I was younger. However, he decided to stop when he noticed that *I* started to punish my younger brother using force when he did something wrong.

Maybe he got lucky in raising kids who respected him and his beliefs without resorting to violence, because in the end that is exactly what he taught me; that violence was an appropriate tool for the upright and just, and he decided that wasn't such a good thing.

Re:Parental role?

[Sunnan]

Hey, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Doesn't violence beget violence? I'd wager more violent criminals have been subject to violence themselves.

I was brought up without paddling or much punishment at all. Okay, so I'm a lazy bum but at least I try to be kind.

I guess that may explain why I don't respect laws that I find meaningless (such as most aspects of copyright law) - that I have no built in fear/respect for the faces of authority.

Re:Hmm, we are?

[Camulus]

The problem is not the treatment of games in common media. This or that is coming out or look at what they are doing in blah blah blah. The problem is that every time a trouble teen does something crazy they blame it on video games like moms in the 70's used to blame it on music like Kiss. It have been a scapegoat and has in fact been looked down upon with disdain in many, many articles. In a ruling to uphold age restrictions on the sale of video games in some state, a judge went out of his way to say that video games are not art and are not capable of conveying anything meaningful. Things are getting better because games are becoming a prevelant part of our society. Either way, this is still a good cause to those that are interested.

Re:Hmm, we are?

[drinkypoo]

No one believes children when they say the boogey man made them do it, or their invisible friend told them to do it, but they blame it on loud music, or video games, or anything parents don't like, and suddenly it's a valid excuse. What it all comes down to is parents who are failures as parents looking for a scapegoat to blame their poor parenting on, and this is why it goes over so well with adults. The blame here is not on the kids who are blaming their actions on video games, kids will blame their actions on anything they think will get them out of it. They're kids, they don't understand the long view yet.