Child's Play 2005 Launch 147
It's that time of year again! Child's Play 2005 is underway. Child's Play is a charity run every year by Penny Arcade, the well-known online gaming comic created by Gabe and Tycho. Child's Play is your chance to give to the proto-geeks of the world who not only might not have the chance to play games otherwise, but find themselves sick in a hospital during the Holiday season. Child's Play gives money, games, and toys to children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. Gabe's kickoff post was put up yesterday on the site. The Child's Play site itself is chok full of information, including a F.A.Q., letters from former patients who have been touched by games in hospice, and an order form for tickets to the second annual Child's Play charity dinner. This last is a swanky shindig with a silent auction, at which you can bid on one-of-a-kind opportunities like a tour of Bungie's studios or the chance to be in a Penny Arcade comic. Most important, though, are the links on the front page of the site to the various Amazon.com wishlists. There, you can purchase a book, game, or toy to have sent to a deserving kid at one of the participating hospitals. These folks are our folks, and if you have anything to give this is the place to do it. Thanks.
Let's go! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:US, UK, Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
Open your hearts and wallets (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gifts of Substance not Fluff (Score:5, Insightful)
But you raise a good point--don't just stop at money. Donate blood. Volunteer. Get out there and do a storybook hour if you can. Make a difference.
Your level 60 Forsaken Warrior can wait a day or two.
Re:US, UK, Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
Children in India, Africa and South America need medical care and food above a PlayStation 2. That said, I understand that since the organization is Penny Arcade, they are doing this charity as a twofold purpose:
1) To give to children
2) To promote the idea that games are healthy for kids and offer education, not violence
The second reason is because there is a lot of criticism over the gaming industry and this is one way that PA can approach the subject with actions, not just words, and help needy children.
Kids in the US, UK, Canada, etc. who Child's Play is geared toward are getting the medical care they need -- the problem is, many of the parents of those sick children might be seeing all of their income go towards medical bills and basic expenses such as food and utilities.
They might not have enough money leftover for a good Christmas. PA steps in and helps a little bit. Yes, toys and games are material and can't be as valuable as clean water and food for children in India and Africa. But it's about evaluating what these countries need. Kids in India and Africa need medical care more than they need toys. Kids in the US and UK in these hospitals are already getting that medical care. What they need is a little happiness during their illness.
Re:US, UK, Canada (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because someone else may have a greater need doesn't mean people shouldn't help out those that have a lesser need. If you follow this logic, people would only donate to, say, earthquake relief in Pakistan, or hurricane relief in Lousiana. Just because there are people out there who have a greater need doesn't negate the fact that there are others with a need as well.
The tiny P-A team is doing far, far more than most people ever do, and the theme they picked reflects their interests - ie, showing the world that gamers aren't the rabid church tower snipers people like Jack Thompson make them out to be. If that's not right for you, don't donate to them.. but don't criticise them because you think there are people who are more deserving.
Re:Gifts of Substance not Fluff (Score:4, Insightful)
I do agree that we should not forget those other organizations! St Jude's is one charity that I support every single year. However, I still give to Child's Play as well. There is something special (to me) about picking out a couple of games for the kids to enjoy. It seems a little more personal than the check I write to help with treatment.
Re:This is not charity.. (Score:2, Insightful)
The truth is that there are millions of things that Penny-Arcade could do that would attract a greater readership; creating a highly efficient charity that helps sick children is probably the most selfless one with the lowest personal gain. I recognize that charitable acts make for good PR, but do you think the people who need the help (or benefit from said chaitable act) really care that it improved the image of the person/company that did it?
The fact that they're a very popular website, and that they take part in this so called 'self-back-patting' is what actually makes this charity possible; the attention that they generate actually causes thousands of people who don't normally donate money to do so because they like Penny-Arcade and they like the cause.
Re:US, UK, Canada (Score:3, Insightful)
This was a spur of the moment thing they started before Christmas a few years ago. I remember reading the newspost - they were pissed that gamers were always shown as a bunch of demented teenagers running around with trench coats and black-tape pentagrams on their social studies book covers. They wanted to show these condescending media pricks what the gaming demographic actually is like.
And then they made $110,000 in, what, 2 months? Just for donations for the Seattle Children's Hospital (I'm not sure if that's the name, but it's the children's hospital in the seattle area, I believe). Games - not just video games, but board games and coloring books and crayons and whatever-it-is that kids play with. The response was staggering.
It was after this year that the letters started rolling in. Parents of children in these children's hospitals. Now-grown-up children who visited these hospitals. I highly, highly recommend you read the letters yourself. If you're not choked up at the end of it, then I posit the notion that you're a cylon. Or a heartless monkey. Your call.
Letters concerning childsplay [penny-arcade.com]
My favorite [penny-arcade.com].
For God's sake... read the content (Score:5, Insightful)
While I find it touching that you want to give games to kiddies, I think it would be far more beneficial to make donations to pay for actual treatment.
Gabe's comment:
These hospitals obviously receive plenty of donations year round but what we learned is that the money they get for the most part is spent on things much more important than toys. Things like medicine and equipment are a bigger priority than say Crash Bandicoot.
These Kids need toys though. They need games to play and crafts to make in order to take their minds off their situations. Something as simple as a Game Boy can make the stay in one of these Hospitals much more bearable for a kid. That my friends, is where we come in.
The fact of the matter is that most people that read PA aren't going to donate money to a charity simply because Gabe or Tycho mentions it. This, however, is a gift that many of the readers can connect with. You give someone $50 and you have no idea where your donation was spent. You give someone a Gameboy and you know that somewhere, in some hospital, a kid is playing a video game because you cared enough to get involved.
My Dad has a picture of some dirty guys with chainsaws and shovels that he feels sums up his civic organization. An elderly lady in the community had a stream that backed up several times a year and flooded her backyard and basement. Instead of reaching for their paychecks, so she could hire someone, they got their tools, showed up the next Saturday, and cleared out the area. Problem solved.
Anyone can write a check and pat themselves on the back, but no amount of money is going to solve every problem. It takes a special person to see a specific problem, create a solution, and take the initiative to implement it. That's exactly what the PA guys are doing and they're doing it extremely well.
Re:US, UK, Canada (Score:3, Insightful)
1) Because they live in the USA, near Canada, both former colonies of the UK.
2) But you don't think they have it hard enough to deserve chartiy.
3) Yes, they have greater needs: Food, clean water, peace. When they have reliable electricity, they'll want videogames.
Re:This is not charity.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Come on, I'm waiting....
Re:There are poor kids here too (Score:1, Insightful)
Then you must understand the concept of triage.
You can't save everyone. So you start with those who really need it, doing what you can that's likely to actually save lives.
Video games are VERY low on the "charity triage" list.
Yes, it does mean some kids don't get helped. Because they don't NEED the help as much as others.
If you're really a realist, you'll understand that Child's Play is actually harmful since it's diverting resources that could have been used effectively into frivility.
Would these kids get better without video games? Yep. So what's the point? You really going to feel better at night knowing that for the cost of saving lives in poverty-stricken countries, you brought Mario to an American child?
Re:This is not charity.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, can YOU donate $350,000 alone? I don't think they can either.
Re:There are poor kids here too (Score:1, Insightful)
You are operating under the faulty assumption that those resources would have been put to another charitable use in the absence of Child's Play.
Would these kids get better without video games?
Although I'd think it would be statistically insignificant, health can be affected by attitude. Regardless, making children in tough situations feel a little better is a worthy goal entirely separate from providing the medical attention they need. The sort of cold, calculating mind that thinks of charity in terms of triage is probably incapable of actual giving, anyway. After all, one can never find a worthy enough cause with that attitude. I imagine it makes a handy excuse for not donating anything at all.
You really going to feel better at night knowing that for the cost of saving lives in poverty-stricken countries, you brought Mario to an American child?
You have a knack for these faulty assumptions. Donating to Child's Play does not take anything away from some starving kids in some third world country. I know you believe that the money going to Child's Play would be better spent elsewhere, and I know that you think it's bad to help people who are less needy than others, but there is no reason to assume that all the money going to charities you consider unworthy, if not harmful, would go to charities that meet your approval if those other charities just didn't exist. Do you understand that? Your criticism of Child's Play is based on an incorrect assumption.
I'd wager that won't change your mind, though, and that's okay. Keep on being angry that other people don't agree with you and that their selfish acts of kindness to strangers are killing thousands of poor people in third world countries. Meanwhile, you'd better believe I'm going to feel good about donating to Child's Play. I'm going to feel even better to know that my donation pisses you off. In fact, I'm going to donate an extra hundred dollars on top of what I originally planned in the hopes of giving you an aneurysm. How does it feel to know your suffering will bring joy to even more undeserving kids?