Child's Play-Spawning Game Critic Praises, Apologizes

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a HeraldNet editorial praising online comic Penny Arcade for their 'Child's Play' charity effort, in which the author apologizes for having written the original anti-gaming article which helped the Penny Arcade authors to their decision that "the media seems intent on perpetuating the myth that gamers are ticking time bombs just waiting to go off." The controversy eventually spawned the Child's Play charity fundraiser, which ended up raising almost $150,000 worth of toy/game-related donations for the Seattle Children's Hospital, and the HeraldNet columnist praises the "speed and power with which this network of gamers mobilized their effort on behalf of children and Children's Hospital." He also apologizes for his previous views, commenting: "Certainly many gamers read my column as a statement that I believe that they are bad people. For that impression I am sorry. I did not and do not believe that."

Comments

Unidentified?

[arb]

From the article:

An unidentified writer wrote, "If you are like me, [...]

Unidentified? Gabe's name is right there - smack bang on top of the bit of text this guy quotes. Can't he even acknowledge the people behind the Child's Play effort by using their names? Even the smallest amount of research would have revealed the "unidentified writer". After all the Penny-Arcade guys have done, only 3 news reports on their efforts, and one of them attributes the effort to an "unidentified writer." Sheesh! Adding insult to injury or what?

Re:Unidentified?

[arb]

I hate to tell you, but his name's not really Gabe.

No shit Sherlock? Next you'll be telling me that my real name isn't arb. Fer fuck's sake - do I have to point out that Gabe is just his nickname, and the name he chooses to use on the site, but if you look closely at the comics, you'll see the name Mike Krahuik.

Oh and Tycho - you know, the other guy who writes that stuff? His name is prolly Jerry Holkins, but everyone still refers to him as Tycho.

Re:Anyone find it funny...

[TwistedGreen]

Or maybe this one:

"I did punch a baby once... in anger. In my defence, the baby was being kind of a dick." :)

No, Gabe did.

[Jammer@CMH]

From Penny Arcade 2003-11-24 (hint: scroll down the page):

Child's Play

Mon, November 24 2003 - 11:50 PM
by: Gabe

If you are like me, every time you see an article like this one, where the author claims that video games are training our nations youth to kill you get angry. The media seems intent on perpetuating the myth that gamers are ticking time bombs just waiting to go off. I know for a fact that gamers are good people. I have had the opportunity on multiple occasions to meet hundreds of you at conventions all over the country. We are just regular people who happen to love video games.

With that in mind we have put together a little something we like to call "Child's Play". Penny Arcade is working with the Seattle Children's Hospital and Amazon.com to make this Christmas really special for a lot of very sick kids. With the help of the Children's Hospital we have created an Amazon Wish List for the kids. It's full of video games, movies and toys. Some of these kids are in pretty bad shape and just having a Game Boy would really raise their spirits.

Please take some time to browse the Wish List. Maybe all you can afford is a package of batteries or maybe you want to go in with your entire office and get the kids a GameCube. Every single contribution will help out the Children's Hospital and the 190,000 kids they treat each year.

All the toys and games will be delivered to us and we will in turn deliver them to the Children's Hospital. As soon as the toys start arriving I'll set up a web site and post as many pictures as I can. We will be making a trip over to one of the hospitals next week and we'll bring you back stories from some of the kids along with more pictures.

Penny Arcade has a readership of something like 150,000 gamers across the world. We are arguably the largest community of gamers on the internet. The important word there being community. This isn't IGN, this isn't Gamespy, we are not a faceless corporation, you are not just a number tracked by a database and then relayed to hungry advertisers. 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.

Let's give these kids the Christmas that they deserve and let's give the news papers a different kind of story to write about gamers.

-Gabe out

More than $150k

[totalnubee]

The controversy eventually spawned the Child's Play charity fundraiser, which ended up raising almost $150,000 worth of toy/game-related donations for the Seattle Children's Hospital

Almost $150,000? Try over $200,00. Significantly over. I guess nobody here actually reads the Penny Arcade comments:

'The first time the news dumbshits came out to talk about Child's Play, though they were clearly told who was responsible for it they excised one of the people behind it. I consider this a fairly minor issue, but they're still retarded. When they came to the Children's Hospital itself for the toy delivery, there was no reporter even down there with us. A cameraman got some footage and then (I believe) ran away. I thought I heard him say "Ghosts!", but that's neither here nor there. When this footage was aired, I learned something new: that the toys had been donated by a local catholic school, and were valued at nearly a thousand dollars. Understand this. A single bin of GBA SPs was worth four thousand dollars, and we had four such bins. That's above and beyond the seventy GameCubes the other twenty carts of toys, which at our best estimates come to around $175,000. Then there was a check for twenty-seven thousand. Here's where the depression sets in.'