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Christmas Cheer Entertainment Games

Annual Child's Play Charity Drive Begins 119

Posted by Zonk from the from-one-geek-to-another dept.
Many, many thanks to the gentlemen at Penny Arcade for the kickoff of their now annual Child's Play Charity Drive. The drive is intended to hook up willing people in our community with children's hospitals across the country, to spread some geeky christmas love to young folks that need it. This year the drive extends across the country, and you can donate toys to hospitals in Seattle, Oakland, San Diego, Houston, and D.C.. Tycho has a little startup post on Penny Arcade, as well.
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Annual Child's Play Charity Drive Begins More

Annual Child's Play Charity Drive Begins

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  • Uh... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fahrvergnugen ( 228539 ) <fahrv@hotmail.cDALIom minus painter> on Monday October 18, 2004 @12:36PM (#10557585) Homepage
    Did I miss something, or does the hospital in Oakland want 20 Donkey Konga bongos, but no actual copies of the game?

  • The Missing Link (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by nanojath ( 265940 )
    Anyone else comment on the fact that one day the Penny Arcade link (along with several others) just done dissapeared off the front page of /.?

    What was that, just quietly reclaiming some real estate? I actually had no idea what the URL was (I figured it out).

  • I hope (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anubis350 ( 772791 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @12:43PM (#10557652)
    I hope these guys get lots of press this year. They are absolutely right in being indignant about the world's ills being laid at the feet of violent games, movies, etc. and a drive like this will give a good face lift to the public perception of gaming.

    "You guys have proven yourselves to be a powerful force when stirred into action. Here is your opportunity to use that power to do some real good."

    amen, go and dig through your pockets ppl, wait a little to buy doom3 and donate here instead.

    • Re:I hope (Score:5, Informative)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday October 18, 2004 @01:10PM (#10557835) Homepage Journal

      I just hope they get accurate press. Last time around the press made a number of incorrect statements when commenting on them. They have a press page [penny-arcade.com] this year but it hardly provides enough information to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen again. A complete press kit would have a bio on each of the principals, as complete a schedule as possible, contacts for more information (that much has been provided anyway) and basically anything else that you want the public to know. Their press page is extremely ungainly, for example at the top it says that "The mini interview below was answered by Tycho" but below where it asks who's involved the page says "Child's Play was started by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of the online comic strip Penny Arcade" which leaves you wondering (if you don't already know) who the hell Tycho is. If this is an example of the quality of work from BeSeen Communications [beseennow.com] then they deserve to fold up immediately. Integrated Solutions my ass.

      With all that said, these guys clearly have their hearts and their heads in the right place, and putting out your own effort to help people is what charity is all about. Giving money (or material items) is just an extension of that, since money represents effort. I wish them all the luck in spite of their lack of media finesse :)

  • Im proud of those guys. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by juuri ( 7678 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @12:47PM (#10557686) Homepage
    In the same way I am proud of Stewart for going after the Crossfire idiots. No one has a moral responsibility to do good in the world. Life really is about survival of yourself and those you love and care for. However it is nice to see people who, when given a large mindshare of public trust, do something good with it.

    I know some people in the past year have bagged on Child's Play because they didn't see it being altruistic enough or as self serving, but c'mon that they choose to do anything at all is great! By something as simple as coordinating the desires of gamers to occasionally do something nice for someone else a lot of kids are going to have much better holidays and the whole group of gamers end up looking better in the eyes of the public who are constantly flooded with negative images about gamers (OMG DOOM MADE ME KILL MY BROTHER WITH A CHAINSAW AND GRAB RANDOM GIRL TITTIES!@!!!!!!!!).

    • "...the whole group of gamers end up looking better in the eyes of the public who are constantly flooded with negative images about gamers."

      From Childsplay.org:
      "Last year we set up a charity called Child's Play. We set it up because we were angry the media decided to blame all the world's problems on games and gamers."

      "Child's Play was conceived as a way to combat negative portrayals of gamers in the media"

      "STUDENTS! We figure a good way to fix the negative press about gamers is positive press abo

      • I'm not really sure how this really improves the image of gamers. To me, it says that gamers want people to think they are good people, and willing to invest some cash to prove it. I don't think there's anything horribly wrong with that, but the number of times they repeat their PR goals reveals just how focused they are on that part of it. There's nothing wrong with spending money to make yourself look better, but that's not particularly noteworthy, nor is it really charity when its designed around return

        • ...all you can see is gamers spending money to make themselves look better..

          Their website says very clearly that the purpose of the charity is to combat negative stereotypes of gamers. Its the first thing you see on the About page, and its repeated in various forms throughout the site. Its hard to claim that I'm misinterpreting their mission.

          What have you done lately...?

          Its tempting to reply to this question, but as I said before, I believe that virtue is its own reward and you shouldn't trumpet your

          • Their website says very clearly that the purpose of the charity is to combat negative stereotypes of gamers. Its the first thing you see on the About page, and its repeated in various forms throughout the site. Its hard to claim that I'm misinterpreting their mission.

            It also says several times around the site that the goal of the charity is to help sick kids stuck in the hospital, and some lines about using the numbers of the gamer community to do good in the world.

            I guess the point is moot, anyhow, as y
          • The reason they are making more noise this time seems to be that last time when they were not loud about it, local news media made up stories about how some christian school charity was behind it. They even couldnt get the totals for donated $$ and toys right in the news last time.

  • Penny Arcade? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18, 2004 @12:49PM (#10557706)
    "Penny Arcade"? Funny name for a catholic school [penny-arcade.com]?

    • Re:Penny Arcade? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      actually, this was not offtopic.

      CTFL (click the fucking link) before moderating.

    • Re:Penny Arcade? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18, 2004 @01:56PM (#10558210)
      "Offtopic"? Apparently irony is too subtle for some moderators. The link referred to the last "Child's Play" drive, in which the media underreported the money that they raised, and incorrectly attributed the charity to a local Catholic school, instead of to Penny Arcade. Gabe and Tycho were pissed.
    • how is this offtopic apart from it being posted by an ac
      (just register mods just search for AC's)

  • Last year they raised 1/4 million USD in cash/toys (Score:5, Insightful)

    by doormat ( 63648 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @12:54PM (#10557727) Homepage Journal
    I surely hope they surpass that number this year. Its a great thing they are doing, someone is turning their large audience into a positive force for children.
    • If they don't exceed it, I hope the media report exceeds what it was last year. All the way here in Michigan, the local news covered it, touting that they'd raised, "Nearly $5000 in various donations." The same site that had the article that peeved them into starting the charity lauded their success in raising $10,000. The only article I read that actually said how much they raised called them a Catholic school.

  • Been following Penny Arcade for years.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ID000001 ( 753578 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @01:01PM (#10557773)
    And watch them grows, right from the material they post about, and the skill to their drawing, all the way to their artical and follower. They truely did came a long way, but at no time have I been able to predict a community can grows into such respectable manner. A Video game community! And to top it off, this is only the second time they try this. Maybe it will turn into someone big.. Hell, it already is something big, in just two years. Considering how much Penny Arcade have grow in the past.. I can not imagine what Child's play can turn into. It could become something huge, something national.. We shall see.

  • Whoa. (Score:4, Funny)

    by NaugaHunter ( 639364 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @01:05PM (#10557799)
    At first, I thought maybe the new Child's Play [imdb.com] movie already needed financial help.

    • Re:Whoa. (Score:2, Funny)

      by fireboy1919 ( 257783 )
      No, they're raising money to create Chuckie dolls. It's a way to generate revenue: Chuckie dolls cause injuries, and hospitals fix 'em.

      It's kind of like how programmers sometimes support Microsoft...

  • Hey Crackhead (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 )
    Yes, you. You sick fucker. On Wednesday morning I emerged from my girlfriend's building by U.N. Plaza to find that you had sawed the tops off both the sparkplugs on my motorcycle. At the time, I had no idea why anyone would do that. Other than the sparkplugs, the bike was untouched. Some kind of bizarre vandalism? A fraternity prank gone awry? I had no idea. All I knew is that I looked like a huge douchebag riding the Muni to work in a padded motorcycle jacket and helmet.

    Because the bike was immobilized I

    • Re:Hey Crackhead (Score:3, Insightful)

      by shadowcabbit ( 466253 )
      We're both going to get moderated into the seventh level of hell for this, but it's just too damn poetic for me to mod down. Way to vent your rage, motorcycle man. I salute you.

      But next time, please use a blog for this.

    • Re:Hey Crackhead (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Besides being off topic, I read this on CraigsList like a month ago...

    • First things first, as offtopic and troll as that post may be, it certainly was funny, and well-written too. Matt: I can only imagine your pain.

      I think the most amusing part is not simply that poor Matt thought that /. was the best means to reach Mr. Crackhead but that this Penny Arcade Child's Play thread was the best place to post it.

      Truly, you have made my day a little brighter.

    • But it's not an issue of metric spark plugs. It's an issue of nonstandard spark plugs. 99% of spark plugs everywhere, including those installed on just about every Japanese conveyance made since the 1960s, have had SAE wrench flats on them. For instance my 1989 Nissan 240SX has NGK plugs made in Japan (the car was made in Japan too) but the plugs have the same thread and flats that the plugs for my 1960 Dodge Dart had - in fact they've got the same size threaded area, they both use an aluminum washer to se

    • having ordered a 73-piece toolset from SEARS.com last week

      Cheapskate. You shouldn't settle for anything less than 100 pieces.

      At least this time I had a spare sparkplug and the tools to fix it - or so I thought - having ordered a 73-piece toolset from SEARS.com last week

      As an engineer you should be well aware that, whenever ordering tools, make sure that they fit the application. You failed.

      My toolkit only has 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets

      That's why.

      They had an 18mm socket that would fit over my spark

  • Best Quote (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jcsehak ( 559709 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @02:20PM (#10558461) Homepage
    from the site:

    "Michael Thomas, the PA reader who helped us add up all the toys purchased as of late last night also had this very nice quote at the end of his message to us:

    'Now I understand what all of the anti-videogame people ment when they said children raised on games would grow up abnormal. They were right, we'd all grow up with really big hearts.'"

  • Play-Doh rocks. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by imac.usr ( 58845 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @02:43PM (#10558679) Homepage
    Absolutely no child, healthy or sick, should be deprived of the sheer joy that is Play-Doh. It's colorful, malleable, non-toxic, and even smells funny. Best of all, it comes with no instructions, flashing lights, or piezoelectronic voices - you have to make all those things up as you go along.

    Is that the perfect toy or what?

    • And it tastes good too.
    • Absolutely no child, healthy or sick, should be deprived of the sheer joy that is Play-Doh. It's colorful, malleable, non-toxic, and even smells funny. Best of all, it comes with no instructions, flashing lights, or piezoelectronic voices - you have to make all those things up as you go along.

      Is that the perfect toy or what?

      Coupled with the fact that you can make a reasonable rip-off with flour, water and food colouring for next to nothing. Bonus points for using cornflour and water to demonstrate dilata [reference.com]

  • I think it is one of the first times I have seen the little christmas tree logo as the story's topic. Sweet!

  • Trust Amazon? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by quitcherbitchen ( 587409 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @04:06PM (#10559376)

    I'm curious what role Amazon plays in all this. Many of the games I looked at were priced at retail which makes me wonder how big their slice of the pie is. I'd like to know exactly how much they take off the top for their overhead and if they pass the profits along to the charity.

    This should really be a question in their FAQ.

    • You can either buy toys through Amazon like you would for anyone that you wanted to get a gift. They take the normal sale price and ship it to the hospital. They make out just like normal. As for cash they explained it on one of the pages: Q: How does Child's Play work? A: We have partnered with Amazon.com, which hosts a series of "Wish Lists" stocked with toys the hospitals have requested, as well as age appropriate videogames and game systems selected by Child's Play. Simply choose the hospital neare

      • I like the idea of being able to control how my donations are being used by donating something from the wishlist. However, if Amazon isn't compromising at all, then the cash option sounds the best. I do think this is a great cause and I like the theme behind it.

        I had seen the details you posted on the Child's Play site, but I still want to know the details behind the Amazon deal. For an opportunity to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars of business, I would think they are offering more service than a

  • I'm a broke student (as in 3 months late on my rent) and I still conned a few friends into helping me get an xbox for childs play last year. This year I'm asking that people give stuff (items or $$) to them instead of a lot of the smaller stuff that I get.

    This is the perfect charity for me and I love the feeling every time that I turn on my xbox that there is some kid/family/whatever not too far from where I live who can enjoy a fun game for a while and forget about whatever pain they are in.

    http://ww [childsplaycharity.org]

  • Charity (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I donated an xbox, a gamecube, and various books and other things last year. Not in as good a place financially this year, but I'm going to find a way to do something. My nephew died of leukemia shortly after I married, and until you've been around a child dealing with the kind of pain that comes from chemo and the other medications (not to mention the actual condition itself) you'll never understand how important this charity really is. The hospital my daughter spent time in a couple of years ago had a gre

  • Also check out local giving trees!! (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) * on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @02:43AM (#10562866)
    Even if you donate something to Childs Play, in the spirit of this effort also consider finding those "giving trees" that pop up in malls and shopping centers around christmas, and buying some fun things for the kids there.

    The trees have tags on them for want the kid wants - usually a primary thing like "gameboy" and then an alternate thing they expect to get like "socks". I am proud to say that for a few years now, some kids that dared to dream of something bigger got what they really wanted, which is a great feeling. There was even this one kid who just wanted Yu-Gi-Oh cards. My girlfriend and I bought as many packs as I could find and by chance, they had a sale on a nice Yu-Gi-Oh sweatshirt that was pretty cool.

    I have to say even this idea originated from Penny Arcade, it was Gabe I think that had a post a year or two before they started up Childs Play about looking for gamers on the giving tree and suggesting that everyone try to help these kids out.

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