GamePro, rounding up a look at game philanthropy, spoke to Kotaku editor-in-chief Brian Crecente about this site's November event in Denver (pictured), which pulled in contributions more than 50 percent over what was raised in 2008. Crecente indicated that, when hard times hit, people are more cognizant of those in need. But gaming also seems to be something of a growth area in philanthropy as a whole.

To those people who embrace [video game] culture there are very few ways to give back to the community in a meaningful way that is also linked to gaming. Fundraisers and charities like Child's Play offer both an excellent outlet for charitable good will, but also a means to do good as a gamer, something still rare.

Fundraising totals were up nearly across the board for other major efforts, especially Desert Bus for Hope, which doubled its 2008 total with almost $140,000 raised this year.

Realizing we're starting with young causes and with figures comparatively small next to well organized, long-lived philanthropies; but I'm sure any development officer for any foundation in America would take increases of 50 or 100 percent. The three projects cited by GamePro are far from the only works, and they represent a huge opportunity for gamers to give back.

Gamers Get Less, Give More in 2009 [GamePro]

The event features Rock Band on the big stage and tons of swag giveaways. It's open to all ages and the party goes from 7PM tonight 'til 2AM tomorrow.

Hope to see you! Will post pics!

The figure is especially encouraging in light of the crap economy in the U.S. Child's Play's Kristin Lindsay said the organization has been "amazed at the huge response.

"The game community is really digging deep and we're on track for a record-breaking year," she told GamesIndustry.biz.

Since its inception Child's Play has raised more than $5 million to help brighten the day for hospitalized kids. Notably, the recent Desert Bus for Hope fund drive pulled in more than $100,000 for the cause.

Child's Play Receives $1 Million in Donations [IndustryGamers]

Help out a sick Santa by maneuvering your yeti through town, avoiding police and delivering as many gifts as you can within the time limit. An advent calendar tells the back story of the game on a daily basis, while leaderboards help you keep track of what a good yeti you've been.

"Gift of the Yeti is BioWare's digital holiday card to its fans. We use social networking as a powerful tool to connect meaningfully with our tremendous fan community," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare and the Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group at EA. "Gift of the Yeti is a fun, engaging holiday present from BioWare to our fans, the first in a series of compelling social experiences from BioWare Labs."

The game is cute, but it's goal is what's more important; each play of The Gift of the Yeti raises 1 penny for gamer children's charity Child's Play, to a maximum of $10,000 dollars. I've already played three times, so that means you folks have only got 999,997 plays to go before they reach their goal.

"Child's Play draws the bulk of our support from video gamers and the games industry, and we are honored to be part of BioWare's Gift of the Yeti campaign," said Kristin Lindsay, Program Coordinator, Child's Play. "Now gamers can help support pediatric hospitals in the US, Canada and worldwide simply by playing the game and having fun! When gamers give back, it makes a big difference."

As an added bonus, folks visiting the Gift of the Yeti game are entitled to 10% off the purchase of Dragon Age: Origins from the EA Store.

Charity, discounts, and yetis. What else could a gamer want for Christmas?

On a night earlier this month, the people packing into the club didn't come to listen to the famous sing. They came instead to stand on a stage, face the crowds and play popular video game and karaoke replacement Rock Band.

The real draw, though, wasn't the chance at a moment in a spotlight once used by jazz men and musicians from the 20s to today, it was the chance to play video games and raise money for children.

Call it gaming for good or child's play for charity: At least once a year video game enthusiasts around the world find interesting and eclectic ways to raise cash for those in need.

Likely the largest gaming group raising money for charity is Washington State-based Child's Play which has, with the help of more than 100,000 gamers worldwide, managed to raise more than $5 million in donations of toys, games, books and cash for children's hospitals around the world.

"Child's Play is the grass-roots gamers' charity: created by gamers, for gamers," said Kristin Lindsay, Child's Play Project Manager. "I believe that we receive the support of the gaming community because we represent the charitable voice that gamers want to have. We are sharing our love of gaming with kids in need, and giving back through play. It really does make a big difference in our partner hospitals."

And it's not just video games and recreation equipment that Child's Play funds. Recently the group started a grant program through which they offer one-tome support to smaller facilities including pediatric hospices, crisis centers, school and group homes.

While many people donate directly to Child's Play, other groups create their own community fund-raisers to help raise money for the organization. The largest by far, Lindsay said, is the Desert Bus for Hope drive, which brought in more than $70,000 in donations last year.

Two years ago British Columbia sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun decided to start raising money for Child's Play. One of their members came up with the Desert Bus concept.

While the fund-raiser is actually a sort of an Internet telethon, it gets it's name from a mini-game found on unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors.

The object of the game is to drive from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time in a bus that constantly pulls to the side of the road and won't go faster than 45 mph. Completely the mini-game takes 8 continuous hours of play. Desert Bus can't be paused and if you crash or drive off the road you get towed back to Tucson and have to start over.

While the LoadingReadyRun accepts challenges to do silly things for donations during their telethon, the mainstay of the fund-raiser is the group playing the game non-stop. This year the group played the game in shifts for five days and 16 hours non-stop, raising more than $132,000.

"We all love to play video games, and we love the idea that we play a game (even a bad one like Desert Bus) and make a child's quality of life so much better," said LoadingReadyRun member Kathleen De Vere. "Child's Play is a very inspiring charity that does absolutely amazing things all over the world, and we are honored to help them with
their work."

And fund-raising isn't limited to the United States.

David Abrams, editor and owner of Tokyo-based Cheapassgamer.com, has raised more than $75,000 for Child's Play over the past five years.

"I decided to start to help collect funds for Child's Play simply because I was very impressed with the initiative Penny Arcade's founders had taken in creating the charity," Abrams said. "Child's Play was started partly as a response to the negative portrayal in the media of gaming and gamers and I wanted to help be a part of that response. Of course helping children is reason enough on it's own."

While some events, like Desert Bus for Hope and Abrams' online drive, bring in staggering donations, more than half of the cash comes to Child's Play through individual donations or smaller community fund-raisers like the one held in Denver earlier this month.

The Kotaku.com-sponsored fund-raiser brought in about 400 people from as far away as Florida and raised more than $6,500, a bulk of which came from people showing up at the worn doors of the club, cash in hand.

Once inside, gamers and developers crowded onto the decades-old dance floor, donating cash and dancing under an over-sized disco ball.

As the event's hesitant emcee, I split my time overseeing the door prizes we handed and threw out to the crowds between songs and talking to the many folks on hand about why they were there.

Plenty came to party, to have fun, to game on stage, but many more came for the cause.

As the event wrapped up, a young man approached me to shake my hand.

"I wish they had something like this when I was a kid," he said.

"Why?"

"I'm a cancer survivor," he said, "You have no idea what difference a few games would have made to me when I was in the hospital."

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

Just come on down to Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver at 6 p.m., donate a bit to get in and party like a rock star up on stage or in the console arcade.

But before you come, here are some things you should know:

We'll be having a silent auction this time around, the items are listed here, if you want to bid make sure to bring a credit card or cash. Each of the items will have a sign-up sheet. To bid you'll just need to put down your name and number and the amount you want to bid. The top (still present) bidder will win.

You'll have to be present to win (the auction will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and able to pay on the spot.

We'll have both Rock Band and DJ Hero up on stage this year and a couple of folks from Harmonix will be joining us to ensure that we both rock and rock hard.

If you're more into console gaming, Colorado Cutthroat Connection will also have a whole area set up on the second floor for that. To make sure everyone has a good time there will be a few rules in place for the arcade. You can check them out here.

Door prizes will include neat LEGO creations, an Uncharted 2: Fortune Hunter's Edition, a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 and things way way too numerous to mention.

If you're planning on coming, and you really should, here are the details:

Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser
Where: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
When: Thursday, Nov. 19 6 p.m. to midnight
Who: 16 years and up. Need to be 21 and have ID to buy alcohol.
How Much: $10 donation
What: Rock Band, DJ Hero and tons of console games up on stage and in a console arcade.
Why: To raise money for Child's Play... and have fun doing it.

Special thanks to:
Adam Barenblat
Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
Colorado Cutthroat Connection
David Thomas
Death of the Arcade
NetDevil and studios too numerous to mention.
Team Kotaku and its many, many wonderful readers

The full post.

While my guest room is already overflowing with sweet, sweet swag to giveaway at tomorrow night's event, our own Stephen Totilo sent along four more boxes of goodies to add to the mix.

His contributions include a limited edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360, shirts, doodads, inflatables, costumes and masks. Oh and a Thanksgiving Turkey hat. Can't forget that.

There will also be a silent auction and tons more door prizes.

If you're planning on coming, and you really should, here are the details:

Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser
Where: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
When: Thursday, Nov. 19 6 p.m. to midnight
Who: 16 years and up. Need to be 21 and have ID to buy alcohol.
How Much: $10 donation
What: Rock Band, DJ Hero and tons of console games up on stage and in a console arcade.
Why: To raise money for Child's Play... and have fun doing it.

Special thanks to:
Adam Barenblat
Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
Colorado Cutthroat Connection
David Thomas
Death of the Arcade
NetDevil and studios too numerous to mention.
Team Kotaku

The full post.

NetDevil employee and LEGO master has once more come up with some amazing bits of block art to giveaway at the fundraiser later this week. I think my favorite among the bunch is Ryu.

There will also be a silent auction and tons more door prizes.

If you're planning on coming, and you really should, here are the details:

Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser
Where: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
When: Thursday, Nov. 19 6 p.m. to midnight
Who: 16 years and up. Need to be 21 and have ID to buy alcohol.
How Much: $10 donation
What: Rock Band, DJ Hero and tons of console games up on stage and in a console arcade.
Why: To raise money for Child's Play... and have fun doing it.

Special thanks to:
Adam Barenblat
Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
Colorado Cutthroat Connection
Death of the Arcade
NetDevil and studios too numerous to mention.

The full post.

The silent auction items and door prizes have so packed the room next to my office that I can no longer close the door. And I'm told Totilo has four more boxes of goodies heading to Denver as we speak. Among the things he's included is a Modern Warfare 2 edition Xbox 360, which we will be giving away to a lucky attendee.

If you're planning on coming, and you really should, here are the details:

Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser
Where: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
When: Thursday, Nov. 19 6 p.m. to midnight
Who: 16 years and up. Need to be 21 and have ID to buy alcohol.
How Much: $10 donation
What: Rock Band, DJ Hero and tons of console games up on stage and in a console arcade.
Why: To raise money for Child's Play... and have fun doing it.

Special thanks to:
Adam Barenblat
Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
Colorado Cutthroat Connection
Death of the Arcade
NetDevil and studios to numerous to mention.

The full post.

Here's why. We'll have Rock Band and DJ Hero up on stage for all to play, a free console arcade set up on the second floor, a GIANT disco ball under which people could dance if they so choose, silent auction items to bid on, a mountain of swag to win and..

AND one of the door prizes will be a copy of the limited edition, impossible-to-buy Uncharted 2: Fortune Hunter's Edition for the Playstation 3.

It's just a minimum $10 donation to get in the doors and you need to 16 or older, though you'll need to be 21 to buy drinks. The party runs from 6 p.m. to midnight on Nov. 19 at the grand old Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in downtown Denver.

People will be there and most, if not all of them, will not be square.

Do you want to be square? I don't think so.

You know what to do!

Let's walk through what here:

Three copies of the rare Marvel Vs Capcom 2 vinyl mix tape.
A Brutal Legend statue.
A copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter's Edition
A limited edition, hand-signed and numbered print by Scott Belcastro with letter from the founder and curator of i am 8-bit.
A collector's Edition of Tekken 6 for the Xbox 360.
A rare 3L colored and etched bottle of 8BitVintners wine.
A Tatsunoko vs. Capcom hoodie signed by producer Ryota Niitsuma.

I'll be posting the silent auction details next week, but all of this along with a ton of schwag, free play on stage for DJ Hero and Rock Band and an arcade console will be available to everyone who comes to the 16 and older Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser on Nov. 19 in Denver.

Check out the details, location and time here.

Last year our annual fundraiser drew in a crowd of about 300 people before hitting capacity, this year we have room for more than 500.

The event is open to anyone 16 or older and kicks off at 6 p.m., running until midnight. If you are 21 or older, don't forget your ID so you can get a wristband to purchase drinks.

We're asking for a minimum donation of $10 to get in and get a door prize ticket. We will be giving away a huge amount of swag including more than 70 T-Shirts, a custom straight jacket, a Guitar Hero drum seat, a popcorn machine and Divinity Dragon knives.

There will also be a silent auction for a number of items including a copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter's Edition, which comes with a CD of the game's soundtrack and a copy of the Brady Games guide; a 3L etched bottle of 8BitVintners wine, rare Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 mixtape vinyls, a collector's edition Chun-Li statue, a Capcom hoodie signed by Niitsuma and limited edition Brutal Legend Statue.

Once again Gabe of Death of the Arcade will be running the free Rock Band and DJ Hero gameplay up on Cervantes' mammoth stage. Since we have two set-ups, we'll be able to cycle through people much faster.

On the second floor, Greg of Colorado Cutthroat will be running a free console arcade which will include a chance to play Tekken 6, Street Fighter IV, BlazBlu, Smash Bros. Brawl, Soul Calibur 4, Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 2 on a number of set-ups.

It sounds like this year is going to be quite a blast, so mark your calendars now! Did I mention that Cervantes has a gi-normous disco ball? Because it totally does!!

In a nutshell: The event will be at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in downtown Denver on Nov. 19. Doors open at 6 p.m. and close at midnight. Sixteen and older to get in and a minimum $10 donation. Be there and have fun... for a good cause.

If you can't make it you can always donate directly to Child's Play.

Assuming word doesn't come down from on high that I should break this bad boy open and get down to business, I'll be tossing Neft N-Strike Elite to the Ümloud! onto the pile of swag I'm amassing for the December 9 event.

I do recall playing this game at PAX 2009 while I waited in line for an APB demo. The consoles for it happened to be set up close enough to the line for the PR rep to lean over and let us take turns shooting virtual Nerf darts at targets and robots. I was sort of "meh" about the whole thing (but totally grateful for something to do in line), until the guy told me that the Wii peripheral gun you plug your Wiimote into is actually a real Nerf gun you can use outdoors. On your brother. Like I would have done right then and there if he'd been around.

If you want the game for yourself and you're not going to Ümloud!, it's out now.

The evening will be filled with Rock Band and DJ Hero up on stage, a mountain of swag that we'll be giving away and a few high-end silent auction items.

We're still gathering up what we will be auctioning off. But I can show you two things that will be available to bid on for those who come:

A box showed up on my doorstep yesterday with a copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter's Edition. No note, or mention of why I received it, so I'm going to auction it off. Thanks to whoever sent it my way. The edition includes those download keycodes as well as a CD of the game's soundtrack and a copy of the Brady Games guide.

Michael James, founder of 8BitVintners, is donating a 3L etched bottle of his wine for the event. These limited run bottles aren't for sale anywhere. Check out this video to see the wine being bottled.

We also have the limited edition Brutal Legend statue to auction off.

I'll be posting more details about our Nov. 19 event as we get closer to the day. Hope you can make it!

Here's another reason you should take the time to come to Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom: A mountain of swag.

I just went through my current stash of goodies sent me from publishers and there are a ton of neat things we're giving away including more than 70 T-Shirts, a custom straight jacket, a limited edition Brutal Legend statue, a Guitar Hero drum seat, a popcorn machine and a Divinity Dragon knife.

Most of that stuff will be given away as a door prize, though we will be pulling some aside for our silent auction.

We're asking for a minimum $10 donation at the door.

Once inside we will have Rock Band and DJ Hero up on stage for rotation play all night long. We're also going to have a silent auction and, we hope, a few more surprises that we'll be unveiling as we slink closer to the big night.

Special thanks to Gabe of Death of the Arcade for running the stage this year and Greg of Colorado Cutthroat for other secrety, not-yet-announced stuffs. And to AJ for sending out a big box of freebies for the event.

So mark your calendars now: The event will be at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in downtown Denver on Nov. 19. Doors open at 6 p.m. and close at midnight. Be there and have fun... for a good cause.

Now to distract you from all of my outrageous typos, the mountain of swag laid out for picture taking:

Ümloud! is round two of Child's Play's annual charity benefiting sick kids in hospitals across the country. It's going down at the DNA Lounge at 375 Eleventh Street in downtown. There will be Rock Band 2, a ton of prizes and a suggested $10 donation gets you in on it. (Note: I think it's 21 and up, given the full bar.)

ETA: Ümloud! says it's an all ages event.

Regrettably, the DNA Lounge is a bit of a walk from Civic Center BART, but the Muni should get you there and back in one piece if you're coming in from the South or East Bay. And on the bright side, I already sent three cubic feet of swag (which weighed 25 lbs. at the post office) to Brian Crecente for the Denver party. So at least I won't have to lug that through SOMA on public transit.

See you there!

This year we will be taking over Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in downtown Denver for hours of giveaways, Rock Band and fun, all for a good cause: Child's Play.

The event will be on Nov. 19, probably starting around 7 p.m., but I'm open to suggestions. I'll be meeting with the owner on Thursday to pay for the space, but I'm told they're already reserving it for us.

More details to come, but I will be, once more, giving away a mountain of swag as door prizes. I also plan to do a silent auction this year.

Last year's venue, The Mercury Cafe, had a capacity of 300, which we quickly filled, raising $4,000. This year's venue has two floors, balconies and a capacity of about 500. Let's see if we can pack them in again this year.

So if you want to show up to play Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band (maybe even DJ Hero) for a good cause mark November 19 in your calendar.

Keep your eye out for pictures of some of the stuff we will be giving away and auctioning off.

[Pic]

On September 4, 2008, they found out he had a tumor in his brain. He was in the intensive care unit, often screaming in pain, until September 13, when he was transferred up to Unit 35. That stay lasted until September 18. He had the PICC line, a catheter he carries inside of him, inserted then. Every time he comes back here, they plug it into something. Sometimes it's an IV on a wheeled stand, dripping saline. Other times, it's feeding him chemicals - poison, fundamentally.

His dad, wearing jeans and a weather-beaten NBA Live 2003 t-shirt, pushes this rack, hand on his 7-year-old son's shoulder. They are here, in Portland, Oregon, at The Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel, to begin another battery of chemotherapy. This time will be the "B" treatment in the cycle; it makes the hair fall out. And worse. The pair enter a cheerfully painted room and sit down at a long counter.

They pick up Xbox controllers.

Lego Star Wars fills the room with its cartoon explosions, jingling studs, babbling minifigs. It's 2:20 p.m., August 4, 2009, and Joe Evans is, in this moment and for however long it lasts, having a normal childhood.

"We just hear the happiness," Joe's mom, Susan, 47, says as Joe and his 10-year-old brother, Will, tear through Lego Star Wars and Mario Kart on the GameCube. "It's a chance to have peace of mind, and for the little guy, it takes away, maybe, that knowledge of the poison going through him."

More Than A Gift Of Games

Joe, his family, and the hospital are themselves one amongst the community served by Child's Play which, in its three year existence, has emerged as something of the gamers' charity. Despite living a lifestyle often associated, by non-gamers, with basement-cloistered self-absorption, gamers have pitched in to the more than $1.4 $3 million donated since Child's Play's establishment in 2003. More than $18,000 worth of video games, consoles and peripherals have come to Emanuel Children's Hospital since 2006.

But the story doesn't stop with the numbers, even though so often it does, typically during a routine mention of a fund drive, often during the holidays. The games serve a therapeutic need that professional staff describe as increasingly critical. The charity is a pipeline of donations that keep games free from the critical-needs scrum of a hospital foundation's funding process. The experience is more than entertainment or diversion for the patient - it provides a family activity, a way for children to support and be with siblings in circumstances frightening to them as well.

And though Joe Evans is just one gamer, and Emanuel Children's is just one hospital, in many respects their story is representative of the more than 60 hospitals in the Child's Play network, and of the thousands of patients who have received donations of video games and consoles over the past decade whatever their source. The contribution may be a single $50 title, but the gift is actually something else.

"It gives them a time to just be a kid, which is really hard to do, sometimes," said Jen Usinger, a child life specialist in Emanuel's Child Life Program. "An awful lot of their time here, they're being poked and prodded, they go through surgery, or they're sick and feeling horrible, and to get a moment and play video games, and just be a kid, is huge."

Game Crazy Wednesdays And A Special Wii

In a sadly ironic way, perhaps nothing certifies video games as a childhood more than the Star Lounge of Emanuel Children's Hospital, where the lives children lead during their stays are far from normal. Here they enjoy "Game Crazy" every Wednesday night, playing Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the big screen TV. That said, their gaming experience here is, likewise, not anything they'd typically find at home. In a room looking high over the Columbia River and downtown Portland, kids can come here if they want, whenever they want, as late as 10 pm. The relaxed decoration and furniture arrangements, chill-out color schemes and a mini-theater with rolling easy-chair seating, do their best to wash that realization away. Because outside, the reminders of what they can't do are plentiful.

"The boredom of being in here, and tied to that IV, with the PICC line in, is something not a lot of people can understand," said Joe's father, Pat, 47. The family is from nearby in Portland. "Especially in the summer. There's no swimming, there's no camping, none of the things the family usually does. You can't have a lot of people around because of the fact his white-blood cell count [which affects his immune system] is low."

With the purchase of a Wii for Christmas 2008 ("I just couldn't say no," Pat said) video games are now a significant part of the family's life away from the hospital, moreso when Joe's in it. The Evanses have eight children (two adult) and four systems - Wii, Xbox, PlayStation and GameCube - and Christmas 2007 delivered three more Nintendo DSes, one of which Joe brings to the hospital. And during that first stay in September 2008, games became a talisman of life before the diagnosis.

"In the ICU, they had this roll-around cart with systems, and you could pick games to play from it," Pat Evans said. "Even though there could only be two people in his room at once with him, I'd leave and bring one of the boys in, and they'd play.

"When we came into the regular ward, here, it was just him and his brothers, and first thing, they wheeled him down here (to the games lounge), with his IV in," Pat says of his son, a typically shy youngster around others, but boisterous in the company of his family. "Maybe it only lasted half an hour, but it was a big deal."

Video games represent such normalcy for kids that, Usinger says, when they don't want to play them while at the hospital, parents get concerned. But more typically, Usinger said, a parent's instinct is to believe that a sick or injured child should be bedridden and spending all of that time recuperating, not playing.

Helping Kids Cope

"Sometimes kids need to be kids, so that their body can heal and function as normal," Usinger said. "If we didn't have video games here, we'd be at a huge loss, especially with kids who are older or of middle school age. It's important that we meet them where they are in life."

Usinger, who has been with Emanuel's Child Life program for all of her career going back to 2001, and is both a psychologist and trained specialist in her field, puts her job in the big picture. "I help kids cope with being in the hospital," she says, "and it's a pretty big umbrella."

Never in her studies at Eastern Oregon University did video games come up. Mostly it was the psychology of a child being examined, injected or treated for the long term, and how to help him or her cope with it - a difficult enough preparation for an adult patient, let alone someone younger than 10. But Usinger recognizes the usefulness of familiarity, whatever it is.

"This is what kids do. This is what teenagers do with their sedentary time," Usinger said. "They watch TV. They play video games." Rare is the patient who does not play video games, she says - and in that case, the games the hospital does provide become a novelty, almost a bonus, in a long-term stay.

"In the beginning, we had about five Game Boys that patients could check out, and we had a couple Nintendo 64s for in-room use," she said. "Over time, from 2001 to now, there's been a huge change in the use of video games, across the board. It's essential to have them now. It's a rarity that I'd have a teen who wants to play a board game."

The Star Lounge itself demonstrates the lengths the hospital goes to indulge its patients' interests and hobbies, on their level. This is where console gaming happens, where DVD parties take place, where group play on the Wii is organized. Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m., the Wii is hooked to the lounge's 60-inch HD television set.

It's, of course, an extremely popular console, so its usage is normally during group occasions. There are only 14 Miis on the console, eight boys and six girls. Putting a Mii on the console is unusual; it's only put in a child's room if they've spent a prolonged amount of time there or otherwise can't play in the Star Lounge. Or sometimes, they may have it for special occasions - such as an end-of-chemo party.

Help For The Hospital

Emanuel Children's Hospital got its Wii in 2006, shortly after its launch, and shortly after the hospital joined the Child's Play network, in time for the holiday surge in donations.

Child's Play, among benefactors, is perhaps uniquely attuned to its beneficiaries' needs. Both Usinger and Lynn Hallbacka, the Development Officer for the Emanuel Children's Hospital Foundation, praise the fund for delivering titles that aren't merely functional and age-appropriate, they're current, and ones their patients want to play. It's not to say that the hospital's foundation wouldn't have the money to make such purchases for itself. But having such things placed in the care of a third party — donors who know what they're doing and give every year — frees the hospital to focus its attention on larger goals.

"Because our fund-raising department is not terribly large, if we did not have this relationship, I don't think we'd be making a specific effort to solicit games," said Hallbacka, who specified the Children's Hospital foundation's two major fundraising pitches as "hard dollars, and stuffed animals."

Furthermore, the influx of Child's Play donations keeps video games and entertainment outside of Emanuel Children's Hospital's budgetary process. Like many hospitals, Emanuel Children's is part of a larger system, and every year, all constituents submit grant proposals, which are prioritized and turned in for approval to an overall controlling board. This year, Legacy Emanuel is in the process of building a new, $250 million children's hospital building, the top priority across the entire system. It's hardly the time to be writing proposals for video games, which, no matter how small the dollar amount, could be trivialized or lost in the shuffle of the grant process.

"Given all of these other priorities, maybe these games would not be at the top of the list," Hallbacka said.

The price tag and priority of normalcy is hard to quantify, much less put up for board review. These games might provide bursts of it, everyday experiences in an otherwise traumatic chapter of life for child, mother and father.

But as grateful as she is for them, in the end Susan Evans hopes Joe's time here becomes as nondescript and memoryless as the times we've all had playing games growing up. Because, really, among us who can remember exactly what we were playing when Mom or Dad told us to put down the controller and called us in for dinner, or to scrub up, set the table, or stop tormenting our brothers or sisters.

Or before the doctor came back into the room. Or the nurse fixed up the tubes. Or the poison flowed and brought on the sickness. In a mind so young, maybe these, too, can someday be taken as just interruptions of life that might have cut short, but weren't the context for, the time spent being a kid.

"Hopefully," Susan Evans says, "this will all be faded memories when he's older."

At the moment, 5% of the proceeds from in-game purchases are going to charity. Some of the money is going to Child's Play (echoing a similar move made by Everquest in January), and some of it's going to "Women in Gaming International", a group championing the "inclusion and advancement of women in the game industry".

Now, Domain Heroes isn't exactly the world's biggest MMO. And 5% isn't exactly a massive percentage of the game's income. But still! It's charity, and any charity is good charity.

Plus, it gets you thinking...imagine if Blizzard donated 5% of their proceeds to charity. We could probably cure cancer. On Mars.

[via Dtoid]