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Child's Play Hits $200,000
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!'"
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?
"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
Can I donate a yo-yo?
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.
No mention of Penny Arcade... ? Props where props are due... yay Gabe and Tycho!
I don't understand this charity, why do they give video games to kids?
You never see kids playing outside anymore, they're always inside playing their dang videogames. No wonder they are all fat.
I'd rather give to a charity that gives these hospitalized kids bicycles, or footballs, or something, maybe then they'd get off their butts and stop feeling sorry for themselves.
[/Sarcasm]
This is a great charity, and maybe one of these years I'll get around to donating, which, come to think of it, is what I said last year. People, please make the effort to donate NOW! Don't put it off, or it won't happen.
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?
It seems to suffer all the symptoms (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 load.
There aren't enough xboxes around either it seems.
Doesn't it make MORE sense to give violent games to the sick kids? If you were being stalked by a serial killer, wouldn't you want them to be all weak and cancery?
Have you looked at the wish lists? I'm sure Super Mario Sunshine is training the next leukemia-riddles serial killer as we speak.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
It's nice to see a place donating to people that need it instead of just putting up a wish list for people to buy them shit like FARK does. It's not like Drew Curtis doesn't already make enough money but he has to put up his own damn want list for people to buy him crap if they feel the need.
stupid rotary sarcasm meter..this one is either maxed out or empty, and I'm frightened to find out which.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
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.
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There are plenty of consoles but no games, oops.
I'm pretty sure someone is checking the lists to make sure games like GTA:SA or Doom 3 aren't being donated.
You're not even a good troll. Back into the pit until you're done!