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Christmas Cheer Entertainment Games

Child's Play Hits $200,000 39

Posted by Zonk from the and-counting dept.
Gamasutra reports that the Child's Play charity drive has already hit $200,000 this year, with the big-ticket auction still to come on the 13th. Donations will be accepted through December 20th. From the article: "The donation so far includes 90 GameCubes, 95 PlayStation 2s, 79 Nintendo DSes, 153 Game Boy Advances of various types, 30 Xboxes, 26 LeapPads, 30 MP3 players, and 49 DVDs, on top of countless software, videos, and other toys. 'Thank you for all the toys!' said Meghan D. Kelly, Director of the Child Life Program at The Children's Hospital in New York. 'Child's Play Charity is like a dream come true!'"
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Child's Play Hits $200,000 More

Child's Play Hits $200,000

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  • What about.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by turtled ( 845180 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @01:58PM (#14211899)
    What about books, crayons and paper, things to be constructive with kids? With all this crap in the news about ratings, why not go the old fashion route?
    • Different charity.

    • Re:What about.. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Yocto Yotta ( 840665 ) *
      You should take a look at [amazon.com] the Amazon wishlists. There are books and many other traditional toys to pick from. What you won't find is violent videogames.

    • Re:What about.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by -kertrats- ( 718219 )
      The Amazon wishlists for the hospitals have far more of the traditional boardgames and toys than video games, actually.

    • Re:What about.. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      "With all this crap in the news about ratings, why not go the old fashion route?"

      Because you'd rather put a smile on a disadvantaged child's face than a WTF look?

    • Re:What about.. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by porcupine8 ( 816071 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @03:00PM (#14212537) Journal
      Sometimes, when you're sick, being constructive isn't an issue - just finding a way to not be mind-numbingly bored is your main concern.

      When you're going through chemo, holding a pencil (or crayon) up to a piece of paper can take too much energy. Holding a book up, or even holding your hands up to a keyboard can be too much to do for very long.

      When I was going through chemo, I found that the one thing that could keep my mind active while not taxing my body at all was sitting there in a comfy chair with a video game controller in my lap - you can keep your hands down and just move your fingers a little, which is much less tiring than any activity that requires holding your hands up. And if I was too tired even for that, my husband could play and I could watch and help him figure out the puzzles.

      I think video games are an excellent idea for these sick kids.

      • Re:What about.. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by porcupine8 ( 816071 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @03:11PM (#14212636) Journal
        Btw, for this reason, I would suggest donating stuff for consoles rather than handhelds... If you hold a DS down in your lap, you're not going to be able to see the screen very well, and holding it up to your face takes a lot of energy. I could not have used handhelds games when I was sick. The donations of handhelds have probably been so high b/c people think hey, they can hold it right there in the hospital bed with them - and some kids can, but there are some that need even less activity than that.
      • Good point. Whatever can keep someone's mind active while not taxing the body too much I think would make a wonderful gift. And I think video game consoles are the perfect match. Hope you're doing better.
      • Bad news for the new Revolution controller then. That thing is going to require massive arm movement. PS3 and XBox 360 will have to fill the lucrative Chemo Kids market.
        • I actually had the same thought when I saw it. Well, it was more like "Man, I'm glad I'm healthy again, because I'll need plenty of red blood cells to play that! And I must play that!"
  • I mean, don't get me wrong. Giving stuff to the less fortunate is a nice thing to do.

    But kids in the hospital long-term usually means their parents have long since given up any hope of ever climbing out of debt. I just can't help thinking that the $200 could be far better spent.
    • But kids in the hospital long-term usually means their parents have long since given up any hope of ever climbing out of debt. I just can't help thinking that the $200 could be far better spent.

      Yes, helping out the perents is a noble cause, as well. However, look at it from the kid's point of view: That kid need'd something to take his mind off the fact that he's in the hospital. Something to make him feel like a regular kid for a while. I think videos, books, games, etc, go a long way to that cause.

    • But kids in the hospital long-term usually means their parents have long since given up any hope of ever climbing out of debt. I just can't help thinking that the $200 could be far better spent.

      Then you should read the testimonials at the Child's Play site. Most parents are thrilled at anything that lets their kids smile and be occupied by something other than being in the hospital with a life-threatening condition. And $200 in video-game entertainment can touch many more kids and make a bigger impact per k
    • If there was a charity devoted to bringing the families of long-term sick children out of debt, then I wouldn't even hear about it. Because it's Child's Play, a gaming charity organised by Penny Arcade, I do know about it, and I can do something that both gives to the needy, and gives me a warm glow for doing something that I can understand on an emotional level.

      There needs to be diversity in charity, if it all went to "the No.1 most important cause", then it would do a lot less than it does by being spread

  • PA? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PHanT0 ( 148738 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @02:09PM (#14212008)
    No mention of Penny Arcade... ? Props where props are due... yay Gabe and Tycho!

  • Now in the UK too (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kazzahdrane ( 882423 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @02:14PM (#14212077)
    In case any Brits didn't know, Child's Play is now involving Alder Hey's Childrens Hospital in Liverpool (yeah that one that was featured in the long-running docu-soap-thing "Children's Hospital"). I'd have loved one up here in Scotland but we're working on that for next year. Nice to have one on this continent to donate to though!
  • For the donations of stuff that really matters to a child, go the geeks and gamers. None of us ever passed childhood.

    No no, on a more serious note... great job. Shows the world that we violent game players can take care of our victims as well. Doh. The victims. of course. not ours. no. we do nothing wrong. never.
  • I tried checking out the charity site and got a blank page in Safari.

    Perhaps the charity is using a redirect from GoDaddy [digg.com]?

    It seems to suffer all the symptoms [apple.com] (loads in FireFox or IE but not Safari or Opera, but if you open it in FF or IE and then try it in Safari or Opera it will load...?). Curious and potentially unfortunate

    Hopefully Gabe and company will become aware of this as Safari users that don't know of this "bug" (or "change" or whatever it is) may be discouraged to find the site doesn't loa
  • There aren't enough xboxes around either it seems.

  • So why no photos? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by einTier ( 33752 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @03:35PM (#14212918)
    Really, Gabe and Tycho, you're slipping here.

    One of the things that made the first Child's Play so great was watching the amazement as the stuff rolled in. Everyone thought it'd be just a little bit of something, then it just started getting ridiculous. I was checking the site every single day for new photos, just to see how much stuff people were sending. And to be honest, I sent more that first year than I have ever since, simply because I wanted, no, I needed, to see my stuff in that stack.

    Since then, it's just been a number. Sure, $250,000 is a lot of money, but I can imagine it. What I can't imagine are stacks and stack and stacks of PS2's and XBoxes and so many GameBoys I can't see over the top of them! I desperately need to see that visual confirmation. I need to see just how amazed the hospital staff is going to be. Letters help, but again, it's when I look at the photos from the first year that I grasp the enormity of what Child's Play does.

    If I feel this way, I have to imagine others feel this way as well. I think adding extra hospitals was a good thing, because people will contribute more if they know they can contribute some place close, but I think even more would contribute if they could just see what other gamers are doing. I know guys who didn't have much to spare but sent a pack of batteries just because they wanted to be a part of that giant stack of stuff. "Did you see what all the other gamers are doing? I had to do something" was a common refrain. I haven't heard that since the first year, and I think photos have something to do with it.

    • The difference was during the first year, because they had all the stuff sent to their own house, so that's why they had photos of large piles of stuff to show. Since then, all the stuff bought for Child's Play is sent directly to the hospital. It works better for everyone, since Gabe and Tycho don't have to deal with storing and transporting thousands of toys, and it works better for hospitals since toys come in a little bit at a time rather than one big load. I'd personally like to see pictures of kids
      • I thought of that, and I also thought that might be part of the problem.

        But really, if we're sending hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of charity, is it too much to ask the hospitals to take a few photos of the trucks and trucks of stuff that roll in over the course of the charity?

        • Has any of the stuff been delivered, though? It might be stacking up to be delivered all at once. It's certainly better for the environment that way, and cheaper.

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