On November 18th, 2003, a Washington state newspaper, The Herald, published a story by writer Bill France entitled "Violent Video Games are Training Children to Kill." As a gamer, I find the article to be an offensive pile of crap. As a student of media, I find it to be poorly researched and completely without base; seemingly two different stories thrown together only to try and imply what the author wants.When it was published, this article caught the attention of Gabe and Tycho, the authors of a webcomic called Penny Arcade. Gabe and Tycho are video game players, and their webcomic is one of the most popular and well-known gamer comics on the Internet. Gabe made a post to the news section of their website stating his anger for himself and for all the gamers who read his comic. But he wasn't just venting about his anger, he was willing to prove a point. Gabe and Tycho teamed up with local Seattle Children's Hospital and Amazon.com to create "Child's Play".
The idea behind Child's Play was simple. Follow a link from their page to Amazon.com and a Wish List that the Children's Hospital had created. Purchase one of the systems or games, and they would be sent to Gabe and Tycho, then delivered to the hospital. Gabe and Tycho made no money on the idea, they just wanted to prove that gamers were great people. Their 4.5 million readers responded... enthusiastically.
When the first group of packages were supposed to arrive, they were informed by the mailman that they wouldn't be delivered that day. Why? Because the post office needed to send three trucks exclusively for them. The boys were impressed, but they weren't about to lose their sarcastic edge. As Tycho put it, "We're going to kick the Children's Hospital's Ass... With Toys." They continued to poke fun at themselves in their own comic strip, talking about how they were actually terrible people.
A week after that, they had outgrown their garage space, but a warehouse was donated by a local entertainment company. The news covered their story, and helped set out the call for the transportation they would need to haul all the gifts over to the hospital. When the day finally came to send it all in, they gathered volunteers, loaded a semi-truck, and delivered a lot of toys and a check for the $27, 406 in donations.
Now, this could have been a great feel-good story that happened once and confirmed to everyone that gamers are good. Gabe and Tycho could have moved on. But they didn't. Child's Play is still up and running today. The system works a little better now. Now those who wish to donate can pick one of 38 hospitals in 5 countries, grab something from the Wish List, and it will be sent directly to the hospital of choice. Picked up and supported by the webcomic community, Child's Play has raised over a million dollars for sick children around the world since it began. If you haven't already clicked the picture at the top, check it out.
Oh, and Bill France, the author of the article that started it all? He apologized.
2 comments:
admittedly I'm not that into video games or comics. I like to play video games occasionally but I would not consider myself a gamer in the sense that I see it used on-line.
I have heard of Penny-arcade before and this story about them really grabbed my attention. I dug through all the links you provided and I have to agree that the news story about video games teaching children how to kill was way off base. the author attempted, poorly to make some very lose connections to actual simulated training. Which anyone who has played a video game knows, it is not quite that.
The idea behind gamers being nice people is a funny reason to start a toy drive, but who cares.
I bought a Clifford book and another book, I can't remember the whole title. it was "...goes to the hospital." Relatively inexpensive for both books and well worth the cause they are going to. Oh I chose the Oakland children's hospital b/c it is local to us. Thanks for the information.
This blog was really interesting. I hear time and time again adults blaming video games, movies and basically every and any time of media on the way children behave. With the whole Columbine incident, video games were to blame. Ironically enough, the way that the parents raise these children is never questioned. Many politicans try to censor games or blame them for the way children are behaving. I came across this article by Hilary Clinton in which she goes into a discussion about this issue.
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