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The Speed Gamers Raise Over $26,000 For Charity

Posted by Soulskill on from the and-counting dept.

Levonn Lawrence writes "Moving into day four of seven, The Speed Gamers (TSG) continue to play a Final Fantasy marathon for an unusual reason: charity. The guys at TSG are playing through every main Final Fantasy game, from one to twelve, over a period of seven days in hopes or raising $50,000 for ACT Today (Autism Care and Treatment). The marathon is streamed live for people to watch. ACT is a charity helping to financially support families effected by Autism. The marathon started 6pm CST, Friday, July 17th, 2009 and is going until Friday, July 24th 2009. So far they've raised over $26,000 (not a typo) and they're only 89 hours in."

9 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotting by sopssa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its a video stream site and states even before this slashdot story "Please help us save our server from overloading and click the TSG Button instead of refreshing the entire page when the video starts to lag."

    And now slashdotting it? Let the fun begin!

  2. Fundraising by kevinNCSU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've never understood our culture's need to have people do something entirely trivial and unhelpful before we're willing to donate to a worthy and important cause.

    Imagine if we had volunteering for habitat humanity marathons to get people to donate for autism research instead or something like that. But I bet people wouldn't be willing to. you mean your going to build houses for homeless people and then you want me to pay you money for autism research? No, I think I'd feel more comfortable if you walked 3 miles in a circle for my donation.

    1. Re:Fundraising by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because our society is based on the founding principles of equivalency. Therefore rather than giving people money for no real reason, we prefer them to "earn" it by doing something else. Generally your going to have a lot more people wanting to run a marathon than you would people building houses. The reason being is that there are a lot more people who A) feel like they accomplished something by running a marathon B) have running a marathon as one of their "life goals" and C) there are a lot more people who can run marathons than are competent in carpentry. While I myself, (like many geeks) am not good at running a marathon nor am I really that skilled with wood, a Final Fantasy marathon would be something enjoyable that I would do.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    2. Re:Fundraising by daeley · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's just a good way to garner publicity, and in this case a gamer group is trying to get the attention of fellow gamers and geeks to donate for a cause. With the end result being more money for the charity, this is not a bad thing.

      As long as it's not "Beat babies with a stick for the indigent!" it's okay.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    3. Re:Fundraising by brkello · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If we all donated to worthy causes we would all be out of money. So after awhile, charity is just background noise...another person trying to take our money and mismanage it. These causes bring attention to the charities in a fun way. Then you think "oh, that's cool, I should support that cause". It is basically an attention grabber. People asking you for money all the time just turns them off.

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    4. Re:Fundraising by Toonol · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because, to an extent, the volunteers are succeeding by turning it from a donation to an optional payment for entertainment. "Watch us, be entertained, and please (if possible) donate money" is often a more palatable and attractive offer than simply "We need money to do good things". It turns it from a donation into an exchange. Perhaps it's shallow, perhaps it's crass, but it also works... much like capitalism in general.

    5. Re:Fundraising by PossumDTD · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've never understood Slashdotters' need to complain and criticize every single thing people do for a good cause.

      These guys are taking something popular that they are good at and enjoy doing, and turning it into a profitable fundraiser for a good cause. It doesn't matter if they're building a house, playing Final Fantasy, or growing a ridiculous mustache and getting donations per millimeter of growth - the point is that they've already raised approximately $35,000 for Autism Awareness, touched hundreds - potentially thousands - of lives, and didn't ask for a thing in return. What did you do this week?

      Imagine this: you woke up today, signed on to /., and read this post. Instead of instantly thinking how much better you could do a fundraiser, you clicked on their link, donated $1, and told two friends. Then, instead of looking like a self-righteous ass, you'd have actually done something selfless instead of something 'entirely trivial and unhelpful,' like tossing up a worthless comment that sparked some more slashdot-typical pseudo-intellectual conversation.

  3. Re:So, how much did you donate last year? by kevinNCSU · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I note you haven't either, however I haven't questioned any individual's donation to charity whether it be by financial, expertise, or time based and yet you have both done so to me and gone so far as to assume negatively about me.

    I didn't realize pondering on oddities of society as a whole required full financial and charitable service disclosure. I guess I could tell you how I donate or spend weeks of my summers in the Appalachian Mountains rebuilding or repairing homes for people who need it but I don't see what that would prove here or how it would affect my original point. My guess is your attempting to set up a straw man of because I don't donate enough then my point must not be valid?

  4. Interesting choice by dexmachina · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So they're raising money for a disorder most associated with social impairment by sequestering themselves from outside human contact for a week and playing video games. How...appropriate?