Opinion: The technology of giving

Posted on 27 Jan 2010 at 14:17

 

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The video games industry isn't as well known for its charitable work as, for instance, the music industry. However, we've seen some fantastic combinations of gaming and charitable promotions that have lead to successful events like the Game For Good weekend in December, which allowed British gamers to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to raise money money for WarChild.

OneBigGame "seeks to raise money to solve problems afflicting children everywhere, by creating videogames through a collaborative industry-wide effort". This is an ambitious goal - creating any game consumes significant time and resources and developers usually expect to get paid.

OneBigGame donates all profits to Save The Children and the Starlight Children's Foundation, "only deducting the costs of running the organization and hosting the games portal". Founded in 2006, OneBigGame's charitable philosophy is about to come to fruition with the release of Zoe Mode's musical action-puzzler Chime, due out on Xbox Live Arcade on the 3rd of February, costing just 400 Microsoft points.

Child's Play runs an annual toy drive that allows members of the public to donate consoles, games and other items to the children's wards of hospitals around the world. Started in 2003 by gaming blog/webcomic Penny Arcade, Child's Play has effectively mobilised individual gamers to help children get through a difficult time.

GamesAid distributes funds to a range of charities, predominately "to support children's charities in the UK, with limited application for overseas causes; for education, health, housing and social welfare. Funds may also be deployed for career guidance and sport. Where possible, there will be some form of technology/interactive play element, but that is not a funding stipulation." GamesAid gets money from direct donations from games publishers and studios, charity auctions, sponsored sporting events and contributions from the general public.

The world wide web has made it easy to donate money to good causes, from simplifying payments to allowing charities to publicise their campaigns through viral marketing and social media. As shown above, sometimes contributing to charity can be as simple as buying or playing a game. If you'd rather donate to another cause, you can use a search engine or check JustGiving for an easy way to either donate or raise funds yourself.

Author: Kat Orphanides