Charity Begins at the Start Menu

When you think of the characteristics of a gamer a few visions may come to your mind. The overweight guy with a Dorito's orange hue all over his hands and face, or maybe the exceptionally pale loser living in his mom's basement. My personal favorite is the geek who only talks in tech speak. Well, let me throw another interesting characteristic into the mix, that maybe you would not think. Charitable. The last few generations have seem a little myopic in its view of the world around them. More people seem to be more "Me-Centered." Since gamers are young, we are usually thrown into that segment of society.

The true fact of the matter is that gamers have a heart. Many charities have come to a close for the 2010 year with a bang. The most well know gaming charity is Child's Play. As of Christmas Eve, it had raised almost 2 million dollars to go toward the purchase of games and toys for hospitals that treat children. We all know how video games can pass the time away quickly and make us feel better. How much more do kids who are suffering and cooped up in a hospital need a time killer to take their mind off of their situation. How does Child's Play do it? The easiest way is to go the their website and click on the nearest hospital. This will take you to Amazon.com where you can purchase particular items off the wish list of the hospital. Other ways have been through fund raisers throughout the year. A popular fund raiser is the 24 game-a-thon. A gamer will take donations per hour played during the marathon. Each year in their home town of Seattle, there is a major dinner and auction. RockBand stage shows have been used as fundraisers like Umloud in San Francisco. Umloud was able to raise over $11,000 by letting bands "perform" on stage at the DNA Lounge.

The Humble Indie Bundle has been a great charitable success for the 2 bundles it has offered. The idea is to take indie PC games, offer them as a bundle, and let you set the price. All of the proceeds going to your choice of selected charities. The total for this years was just over $1.8 million. There were over 232,000 download at an average of $7.83. The bundle is over for this offering but you can sign up to be notified for the next project.

Extra Life is a charity started by the guys at the Sarcastic Gamer in 2008 and with the help of multiple websites it has gone on to raise $302,000 dollars in charity money for Children's Miracle Network hospitals. The CAG website is having an auction for Child's Play that will end on New Year's Eve. For a donation of $5 you will be entered to win a gaming prize worth over $2000. Also, if you listen to the CAG podcast, one of the hosts is donating money for every new follower he gets on twitter.

This is just a sampling of the generosity of gamers. We get the rep of only thinking of ourselves and only focusing on technology. But we do see other people and their needs as well. Congratulations gamers on a job well done, but we must continue to do more in the upcoming year.