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Child's Play Breaks a Million Bucks
Utoxin noted that Child's Play has raised the bar for their annual games for hospitals charity. They say "Not only did we break the million dollar mark, but we decimated it with our new total of $1,135,000! This significant achievement made this holiday season a happier, brighter one in our fifty partner hospitals. To everyone who has contributed to this amazing milestone, thank you!
The hospital wish lists are still online, and some have seen new items added. While we try to get lots of new games and more to the children in time for the holidays, the hospitals have a need for equipment year-round. Likewise, we will continue to accept donations through Amazon, PayPal and the mail until next year's fundraiser kicks off."
It did better than that! It grossed $44 million world wide!
It's like... donations made a quantum leap! What a sea change!
Hooray. I gave 100 bucks earlier this year along with donating during the Desert Bus for Hope run. Congrats guys and good job.
Excuse me while I gather the virgin sacrifice and assemble the pentagram required to solve your problem
Bravo! This kind of grass-roots charity warms my heart.
If this sort of thing sounds good to you, check out Rotary International because they do this sort of thing, on a global basis, year round. There are plenty of other similar organizations; shop around to find one that works for you.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
..because games are "murder simulators".
I wished this kind of stuff made the news instead of the numerous violent video gamer portraits that are painted by TV and Paper news.
I wouldn't call 100,000 or so past their goal "decimating" anything, although it's certainly great that they managed to get that much. The ego-stroking is a bit lame.
I saw this on Penny Arcade the other day, and it is good to see that Tycho and Gabe have used the power of running a top ranked webpage for a greater social benefit.
Kudos the them, and to everybody who enjoys successful and a love for charity.
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Hello??? HARLAN ELLISON! He totally owns everyone in the raging-prick-ego-maniac dept; Gabe had a small victory... but Harlan is still the world's biggest dick.
Does this count the donation that they made in Jack Thomson's name when he welshed on donating a large sum for making a violent video game to his specifications... Or was that last year?
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
A million dollars is going to take a lot of money to replace. Hopefully they'll be more careful next year.
Yeah this is exactly the type of thing pricks like Gabe do; help raise over a million dollars for sick children. What a prick...
Congratulations on putting murder simulators into the hands of our kids. I vow to put a stop to this! I won't rest until the people responsible are made to pay for their crimes.
Regards,
Jack Thompson
P.S. Gabe and Tycho just threatened me.
What's amusing is that when The Master orders the population be decimated, he then further explains that he wants one tenth of the population killed.
Most charity is fundamentally egotistical in nature. In fact, most everything we do is egotistical, even stuff we think of as altruistic. We've just been taught that ego is shameful, and so we dress our actions up in language which hides the self-gratification.
So, frankly, wanking Gabe's ego in exchange for coordinating the flow of $1m of toys and games to kids coping with chemo is a fair trade to me. Does mean I have to like the guy, or hang out with him on Friday night.
If the quote had used destroyed instead of decimated would you complain that nothing was physically destroyed? M-Webster has this as one definition of decimated:
to cause great destruction or harm to
Surely you can rise above pedantry and understand that there is nothing wrong with the metaphor of 'destroying' a goal.
Hurrah, can't believe a 19 year old movie has continued to have such good theater attendance to break the record gross for an 80s horror movie. Congrats!
Just don't let that child play with your expensive toys.
Hehehe.
From one of Isaac Asimov's books of humorous anecdotes.
A long time ago at a science-fiction writer's convention a few authors were standing around talking when another author walked by. One author explained to the group, "That's the next Harlan Ellison." Whereupon another author said, "Should we kill him now?"
Proving, every year, that people who play GTA do more than just kill real people.
-Matthew Riley "TofuMatt" MacPherson
I have a website
"Too bad Gabe is such a prick. Seriously, not since Theo DeRaadt has the world seen such a total asshole."
Tycho, is that you? Harlan? DivX?
so Gabe kicked your ass at Halo 3. get over it.
While I do not have any idea the issue at hand here, I'm not a big fan of the ends justify the means.... children getting X amount of toys doesn't just make something okay.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
//shameless plug:
//end shameless plug
I guess it isn't *this* childsplay:
http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/
Because I would be really envious - I am currently a main dev for TuxMath and TuxTyping:
http://www.tux4kids.com/
and I can assure you know one has given me a million!
(however, a lot of folks who have heard of tuxmath and tuxtype may not know that they are being actively developed again).
David Bruce
I'm interested in knowing what possible damage the alleged shameless self-promotion has done to anyone that offsets the benefits Child's Play has brought.
If Gabe were using it to get good PR after beating his wife to death or something, you might have had a point.
Was speaking in general, know nothing about the alleged issue in this case.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Actually, I'm pretty sure Child's play was started after Jack Thompson started his raving about how games only create deviants, and the Penny-arcade people wanted to show him up in a way that was more constructive than responding directly to his infantile arguments.
So far, Child's play has raised a huge amount of money, and helped make being hospitalized less sucky for lots of children, and given Gabe/Tycho a way to thumb their nose at Jack, which I'm all for. Not that it'll matter to Jack, mind you, since he's a raving lunatic, and incapable of dealing with rational arguments anyway.
ash
Nah, it's actually Gabe himself, posting as Misfit.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
As for the OP in this little thread... accusing somebody of being a raging egomaniac in comparison to Harlan Ellison is almost mind bogglingly ironic. If it's true this must have been a real case of unstoppable force meeting immovable object.
Well, if you consider the goal at $1M, they accomplished that goal and added $1 extra for every $10 of the goal. That's kinda like killing every tenth dollar in line. I admit, it's a stretch, but seems like an somewhat appropriate (though unintentional) usage to me. :-)
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
The reason "decimated" is the wrong word in this article is because there is a perfectly good, perfectly correct word to use. This word is "obliterated," and it means completely destroyed.
You know who raised lots of money for sick children?
Hitler. Are you gonna tell me that he wasn't a prick?
Toys like ... murder simulators?
Actually, I'd kind of like to donate a bunch of "Operation!" games to kids in hospitals. Then ask the doctors to go play with the kids. Hilarity ensues.
if the hospitals really gave a shit, they would have done it themselves... think of the poor children?
fuck that, think of all those -poor- hospitals!
ever take a look at any of your insurance bills? any of your hospital bills?
think about it, $100,000 is nothing to a hospital these days... if they really gave a shit, they would enny up themselves.
/quote>Most charity is fundamentally egotistical in nature. In fact, most everything we do is egotistical, even stuff we think of as altruistic. We've just been taught that ego is shameful, and so we dress our actions up in language which hides the self-gratification.
That's just your sucky glass-half-empty attitude that tells you that.
Egotistical people are gratified by helping themselves, non-egotistical people are gratified by helping others.
People choose what they are gratified by--that's what makes them either selfish or selfless, not the fact that they end up gratified.
I believe Child's Play was created in response to this article - http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20031118/LIVING/311180742 At the bottom of the about page on Child's Play's site, the original PA news post, as well as the author's response is posted. The link to the original column doesn't work anymore, but I'm pretty sure that's the one. Apologies if this was posted elsewhere, I looked but didn't see it. And I'm on board with the opinion of if Gabe is aiming for some shameless self-promotion, that's perfectly fine with me. They've raised three million, maybe three and a half by now, for kids in children's hospitals in just five years, I think? Yeah, shameless self-promotion is alright with me.
I don't think this is actually an argument with what he's claiming. I think you're just agreeing with him from a different angle.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
And for a second I thought Chucky was back.
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
chose to donate money towards childs play...looks like they werent the only ones....
I have a game that donates to charity, more precisely to Heifer International (www.heifer.org). In fact, as I have tired of programming the thing, the donation aspect is one of the main motivators for actually working on it.
It is a clone of risk called Grand Strategy (www.denizengames.com).
Our motto is: Good can come from global domination.