An online game launching tomorrow will attempt to spur players into making headway against some of the world’s biggest problems.

CNN details the game, entitled Evoke, which is billed as an entry in the “alternate reality” genre. Developed by the World Bank Institute and designed by Jane McGonigal, the game will last ten weeks. Over the course of that time period, participants will be presented with new challenges and will attempt to make headway against the challenges in real-life. For example, if a current challenge involves famine, players might try “to provide meals for someone in their neighborhood.” Once they have documented their real-world actions, via a blog post, photo or video, they will receive credit for finishing the mission and can receive additional awards and rewards from fellow players.

Upon the game’s completion on May 12, players who complete all 10 challenges will be named a “Certified World Bank Institute Social Innovator – Class of 2010.” The best players can also receive travel scholarships and “online mentorships with experienced social innovators and business leaders from around the world.”

While anyone in the world can play Urgent Evoke, the game is designed for people in Africa, a place, which it’s noted, has less Internet access than anywhere else in the world. To that end, the game has been designed to work seamlessly on cell phones as well. So far 3,500 people have signed up to play the game, 400 of them from Africa.

CNN also has a short video up in which McGonigal gives an overview of Evoke.

The Singapore-MIT Game Lab has planned a benefit for Haiti earthquake victims that involves epic lengths of game play.

The Complete Game Completion Marathon 2010 will see a group of teams attempt to complete a wide variety of games. The event takes place this weekend, February 26-28 in the Gambit Game Lab on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and will be broadcast live on Ustream.

Donations are being accepted via the Complete Game Completion Marathon 2010 website and will benefit Partners in Health, a group that brings modern medical care to poor communities and which has been active in Haiti for over 20 years.

A full list of teams, with the games they will play and the estimated time of completion, follows:

• The Stickhandlers—NHL 10 full season—25 hours
• Fire Hose for Haiti—Final Fantasy, Mega Man 9 and Mario Kart—35 hours
• Being Bad for Good—Mass Effect 1 and 2—25 hours
• A Song for the World—Hatsune Miku: Project Diva—30 hours
• The Panzerfaustian Bargain—Left 4 Dead—8 hours
• Team Funwolf—Shadow of the Colossus—8 hours
• Team Funwolf: Lonewolf—The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time—15 hours
• Clara Fernandez Vara—The Curse of Monkey Island—15 hours
• Team Medkit—Doom 1 and 2—15 hours
• Team Friendless—Phantom Hourglass—18 hours
• Consoles Are So Last Millennium—every game on Marleigh Norton’s iPhone—13.5 hours

The Singapore-MIT Game Lab is a partnership between MIT and the government of Singapore designed to explore new directions in the development of videogames.

Jason/Jace Hall has had a long and varied career centered in interactive entertainment, but he’s found yet another new career to try out—recording star.

Hall is putting out an EP entitled Video Games Aren’t Bad For Ya, which as you might imagine, will attempt to put games in a positive light. The EP’s first single is called I Play W.O.W., an unapologetic ode to playing the massively multiplayer online game.

Hall's take on game critics:

When you are told that you are being lazy, or wasting your time, or being anti social – when in fact you have just spent 22 hours working VERY hard with a GROUP of people accomplishing extremely difficult tasks – you want to tell the uninformed person accosting you to F** OFF!

While the song has a certain Weird Al quality to it, it’s all in fun, and Hall is a giant of a man, so we’ll reserve any further judgment. Just go listen to/download a clean version of the song here. Clean and explicit versions are available on iTunes for 99 cents each.

Hall was a co-founder and CEO of Monolith Productions before moving on to become Senior Vice President of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Now he is an Executive Producer of the ABC television show V: The Series and star of the Jace Hall Show.

World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment has donated $1.1 million to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The contribution came about as a result of a special WOW-initiative that allowed players to purchase a special in-game pet, the Pandaren Monk (pictured). The donation represents 50.0 percent of the sales of the pet in November and December of last year.

Blizzard made the donation yesterday at its headquarters in Irvine, California and also invited 15 Make-A-Wish kids to attend, who were entertained by the WOW-development team and offered a look behind the scenes of the game.

David Williams, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America president and chief executive officer stated, “Thanks to Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft players around the world, we will be able to grant the heartfelt wishes of even more courageous children with life-threatening medical conditions.”

Xbox Live chatter between a Canadian and a Texan turned serious when the latter gamer disclosed plans to shoot up his high school.

The Texas gamer began by detailing his troubles in school to a Port Alberni, British Columbia Xbox Live opponent, which was normal enough, but eventually the Texas gamer spilled details on plans for attacking his school, including rattling off the names of fellow students he was going to target.

The talk alarmed the B.C. gamer enough that he contacted local Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel, who started a cyber investigation. The RCMP contacted Microsoft and were eventually directed to a teenage suspect in San Antonio, Texas, who was arrested and is facing untold charges.
 
Port Alberni RCMP Staff Sgt. Lee Omilusik commented on the case:

This incident demonstrates the power of the electronic world and how different enforcement agencies can quickly work together to protect the citizens they serve, regardless of obstacles such as international barriers

The arrested boy was 16-years old and a student at John Marshall High School. The school issued a short message (PDF) to parents indicating that the boy would be removed from school “indefinitely.”

Local ABC station KSAT indicated that the gamers were playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Thanks Andrew and whoever posted about it in the Shoutbox!

A new project co-founded by a Carnegie Mellon University graduate student is creating educational games for extremely affordable computers that are gaining popularity in developing nations.

PlayPower grew from an idea Derek Lomas had while attending a conference in India, where he noticed that families were snatching up $12 computer systems right and left. The 8-bit computers are not very powerful, but the processor that powers the PC (the MOS 6502, which powered the Apple II and Nintendo NES) is in the public domain, meaning that development is relatively easy and inexpensive.

Lomas told the Post Gazette, “It doesn't require a $50 million development budget to make a great game.”

The PlayPower team is currently at work on three games, two of which feature the Hindu deity Hanuman. One Hanuman-starring title will teach users how to type, with the hopes that such a skill could translate into better job opportunities, while the second is a multiple-choice quiz-type game. The third title in development will try to raise awareness of malaria.

Lomas added, “I think that many of the more powerful educational effects of the system can be in the way it changes a kid's interest and ambitions.”

Lomas anticipates that all three games can be finished this year. He also hopes to build a relationship with those selling the computers so that PlayPower’s software can be bundled in.

Over 1,000 volunteers from around the world are already on-board to assist in game development. PlayPower also hopes to harness the growing 8-bit retro community for assistance in future releases.

Conor O’Kane (pictured) is the developer of Ban This Game, which mocks the ongoing censorship in Australia, and in a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald he expressed some of his personal views on the state of gaming in Australia.

O’Kane is originally from Ireland, but has resided in Australia for eight years. In addition to creating his own games he teaches game development at RMIT University in Melbourne. O’Kane said he created Ban This Game to spread awareness of censorship in Australia and hoped that the humorous aspect of the game would make its players “more receptive to a serious message.”

O’Kane on the release of the Discussion Paper meant to stimulate conversation over the possibility of adding an R18+ videogame rating category in Australia:

…I'm not optimistic that it will lead to significant change. In order to introduce a change to the censorship legislation all Attorneys-General must be in agreement, and at present the South Australian Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, is opposed to the change.
 

No amount of evidence or reason is going to change his mind, and so I believe the only solution to this problem is to remove him from office…

O’Kane was asked whether he thought Australian publishers and distributors were doing enough to campaign for change in the Classification system:

Until now I think campaigning has been largely pointless, as campaigning or media coverage is not going to change the mind of Mr Atkinson. However now that we have the Gamers4Croydon party running against Mr Atkinson, I think the Australian game developers and publishers should get behind this party and announce their support for them publicly.

O’Kane’s next game will be squarely aimed at a newly implemented law in homeland of Ireland, which states that anyone who “utters blasphemous matter” can be fined up to 100,000 Euros. He said, “If I can get fined for blasphemy for making the game then I think it will have been a success.”

O’Kane is not a stranger to activism; an older game of his called Harpooned, took on Japanese whaling “research.”

Thanks Ryan!

Australia’s largest videogame retailer has joined the movement to add an R18+ rating category for interactive entertainment Down Under.

EBGames is promoting its pro R18+ stance in all 350 of its Australian storefronts, where it will display signage (picture at Kotaku) and offer shoppers the ability to sign a petition. The retailer is also promoting the cause on its website and linking to a virtual petition for those in favor of adding the adult rating category to sign online.

Kotaku reports that EBGames did its due diligence in advance of publically supporting the issue; the company polled its customers on the issue and found that 84% were in favor of the addition of an R18+ rating category.

EB Managing Director Steve Wilson offered:

With the release of the Government’s discussion paper, we knew as a company that we needed to act on this issue as it continues to cripple our industry and cost local jobs. We did however want to be sure that our customers were as passionate about the matter as we are.

He continued:

This is not a call for violent video games, but rather a call for a better classification system that brings Australia in line with the rest of the world and other Australian entertainment industries, such as films.

Thanks Andrew!

A grant from the Entertainment Software Association Foundation has enabled North Carolina’s Cumberland County to enable a free tip line for students to anonymously report on pending crimes in their schools.

The Speak Up Cumberland County lets students, or parents, text or call 1-866-SPEAKUP in order to bring suspicious activities or those plotting crimes to light. While the ESA Foundation’s grant was locked in a while ago, the recent occurrence of a seven-year old bringing a gun to school in the region accented the need for such a plan.

State Representative Rick Glazier talked to the FayObserver about the importance of the program:

The biggest threat to schools isn't from someone coming from outside in. It's from someone boiling over inside.

The ESA Foundation’s contribution to the program was pegged at $200,000 over two years by the article. The funds will be used by the Speak Up’s creator, PAX, to promote the program in local media and to print materials and education kits. The ESA Foundation also supported the Speak Up program in 2006 and 2007.

An academic artist, who previously used America’s Army to make a political statement about the Iraqi war and recreated Gandhi’s Salt March in Second Life, has another online installation underway which features the Indian peace advocate.

Joseph DeLappe has imprisoned his MGandhi avatar in Second Life as a recreation of Gandhi’s post-Salt March prison term.

In real life, Gandhi was imprisoned by the British from May 5, 1930 through January 26, 1931. In the Second Life reenactment, MGandhi has been in a cell on Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Island (link for Second Life denizens) and will be “released” on January 26.

While imprisoned, MGandhi has not been idle; DeLappe’s avatar has been interacting with visitors and performing daily readings from the Bush-era Torture Memos. The readings are being fed to DeLappe’s Facebook account and his Twitter handle.

To celebrate MGandhi’s freedom, DeLappe is organizing a release party, entitled the gg hootenanny, which will feature the ability to sing-along, via voice chat, to protest songs from avatars such as The Beatles, Amy Winehouse, Pope Benedict XVI, Hello Kitty, Jim Morrison, Prince Charles and Spongebob Squarepants. The event will take place at 10AM, 6PM and 11PM SLT (Second Life Time) on January 26.

For gamers not into virtual worlds, fret not. DeLappe is also encouraging non-Second Lifers to pick up a guitar and sing inside their online game of choice on January 26, as he demonstrates in the embedded YouTube video, where he sings Bob Dylan’s Masters of War inside an FPS (America’s Army?)—a performance in and of itself.

Videogames can provide new and effective ways to raise awareness and engage users, prompting an article that asks whether they might be the future of social change.

A piece on Change.org builds its case around a successful promotion put on by Zynga’s social game FarmVille, which allowed the game’s players to buy special seeds to benefit Haitian charities. The Sweet Seeds for Haiti drive ended up raising over $1.0 million dollars.

The article compares Zynga’s successful implementation to one that is more old-school:

…a consortium of foundations and online giving platforms were sponsoring America's Giving Challenge, which put up almost $250,000 in bounty for nonprofits to engage their supporters. In a month, almost 8,000 competing nonprofits raised a total of just over $2 million. One of the biggest pushes in our field basically had the same level of return as releasing a virtual freaking seed.

If that doesn't raise some eyebrows, it should.

While contributing to social change is good and all, the author worries a bit about “videogame-embedded philanthropy” taking the place of real-world positive actions, though he views it as an opportunity for non-profits:

I worry a bit that for those whose first taste of good is this sort of video game embedded philanthropy, they will feel like their experience of having contributed is good enough. That the input of buying a charitable good equals an output of feeling and having done good, and that is that. Of course where the real opportunity lies is in the conversion of those passive supporters to active users. That may be a great place for creative nonprofits to focus next.

Zynga’s Mark Pincus thinks that the future charitable virtual goods market could be worth a billion dollars.

California-based charity Get-Well Gamers has reached a milestone with the addition of the 100th healthcare facility to its network.

The organization stocks children’s hospitals and treatment centers with new and used videogames and systems to provide entertainment for ailing youngsters. Facilities outfitted by Get-Well Gamers now span all 50 U.S. states.

President Ryan Sharpe stated, “We could not have reached this amazing milestone without all those who have helped us throughout the years. The doctors, the child life staff, the parents, the games industry, but most importantly, regular, everyday gamers deserve our deepest thanks.”

The organization also noted that White Wolf Publishing, a division of CCP, recently donated $10,000.

"It is difficult for anyone to be hospitalized but especially so for children,” added Rita Goshert, MS, CCLS, Manager Child’s Life Department, Miller Children’s Hospital at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. “Play is the work of children. By donating a video game system to hospitalized children, you are helping to support their normal growth and development during a very traumatic time.“

Retailer Game, Activision and Xbox Live have teamed up for a UK-based charity drive based around Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Activision will donate £1 to the War Child charity for every UK gamer playing MW2 on Xbox Live on December 5th and 6th. Additionally, Xbox Live Gold Memberships will be free that weekend in an effort to boost participation in Games for Good.

War Child benefits children affected by war.

For the third year in a row, a comedy troupe is playing a marathon session of the world’s worst videogame to benefit charity.

LoadingReadyRun is playing Desert Bus, an all too realistic bus driving simulator from an old Penn & Teller unreleased videogame compilation, for 120 hours straight to benefit Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity. So far, the event, which is being streamed live, has raised over $84,000, already eclipsing 2008’s $70,423 figure.

Desert Bus has players pilot a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas in real time at a maximum speed of 45 MPH. The trip takes a full eight hours and the game cannot be paused. Additionally, any incidents or accidents result in the bus being towed back to Tucson and the trip starting over from the beginning. Penn & Teller commissioned the game as a response to the mid-1990s political furor over violent games.

This year’s charity event partners include Rock Band creators Harmonix, Antec, Braid developer Hothead Games and The Escapist, which is hosting a portal for the charity drive on its website.

The event is revenue driven, and in theory endless. As long as donations are increased 7% each hour, the drive will continue.

To help celebrate Veterans Day, social game developer Playdom has initiated a program that will donate a portion of the sale of its virtual goods to the United Service Organization (USO).

Through November 13, USO-inspired limited edition items will be available for purchase to Playdom’s 28 million monthly users. In the first day of availability, over 6,000 people bought a special item. The promotion is expected to raise “tens of thousands” of dollars for the USO.

Playdom VP of Marketing Rachel Thomas stated, “We’re excited to offer a fun and meaningful way for our growing user base to do good. This is the perfect opportunity for our players to support the armed forces in celebration of Veterans Day.”

Playdom’s lineup of games includes Mobsters, Bloodlines, Rockstars and Sorority Life.

FarmVille users on Facebook have taken advantage of a program launched by the games developer to donate almost half a million dollars to a pair of nonprofit agencies in Haiti.

Zynga launched Sweet Seeds for Haiti about three weeks ago reports VentureBeat, offering its 56.0 million users a chance to make a difference by having a portion of the price of virtual sweet potato seeds sold in the game go to the nonprofits FONKOZE and FATEM.

FATEM President Jacky Poteau said that over 500 children have been affected positively by the donations, allowing them a chance to escapes poverty and gain a better education.

FONKOZE is an alternative bank for the poor, while FATEM dedicates itself to improving the basic needs of the community, with a focus on education and alleviating hunger.

So the next time someone tells you to stop wasting time on Facebook, tell them you’re simply making the world a better place.

Using his Edge-Online blog, Alex Walker has penned an open letter to South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson about the lack of an R18+ rating classification in that country.

Walker notes that “the Classification Board has refused classification to twice as many games as the British Board of Film Classification has in the 23 years since it first rated a video game.” He calls out Atkinson on some of his recent statements and uses comments from David Cook, Director of the British Board of Film Classification to aid his case.

Walker finishes with a challenge:

I’m not sure how, given the weight of evidence, you can stand by the inconsistencies in the Australian approach to classifying film and video games. I call on you to stand aside, and allow for a debate on the classification system, a debate which you have so far stifled.

Walker adds that he did email a copy of the letter to Atkinson, but he does not expect a response.

With 84 bids down and seven days of auctioning left as I write this, a limited edition Xbox 360 which celebrates the release of The Beatles Rock Band is selling for $7,400 on Ebay.

The sale of the beautifully customized console will benefit Doctors Without Borders. From the auction listing:

Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison personally selected the charity as the beneficiary of these proceeds.

Kotaku reports that the charitable auction is the first in a series.

If the console auction is too rich for your blood, purchasing the DLC bonus track All You Need is Love on Xbox Live (about $2) will help out Doctors Without Borders as well. All proceeds go to the charity an purchasers will be entered into a context to win one of the limited edition consoles as well as a
Rickenbacker 325 replica guitar controller.
 

Social activism in virtual venues may indeed transfer to the real world.

New World Notes reports on such a transition by Second Lifer KallfuNahuel Matador, who in 2006 helped protect an SL African genocide awareness site from griefers.

Turn the clock ahead three years, however, and the flesh-and-blood man behind the Matador avatar is in the real Africa, doing backbreaking volunteer work (see pic). He told NWN's Wagner James Au:

The friends I made in the [SL] Virtual Camp Darfur are heavily involved in humanitarian activities in their first lives. Better World and Camp Darfur were extensions of their work and attempts to spread the word of the causes they stood for...

We discussed telling [their African hosts] we'd met in SL, but the idea of a virtual world where we interact but not in our own bodies? Difficult to convey...

 

[SL users should] really get to know the people you're working with in SL, research their [real-life] projects. Get to know them, talk to them, see if there's a 'fit' for you in their cause... Or, And if you aren't lucky enough to be able to travel far and wide, then find a way to help the cause locally.

Yesterday we happened upon AbleGamers, a website devoted to assisting and building community among gamers with disabilities.

Among other services, AbleGamers provides reviews of games and peripherals with an eye toward how effectively they can be utilized by physically challenged gamers. The site was founded by Mark Barlet, who explained his motivation to writer Scott Thompson:

My dearest friend in the world and I use[d] to use games as a way to bridge the distance between us as we grew up and started our own families. The game of the day was Everquest, and the hunt was on Friday nights. Well, one day she and her hubby did not log on. I waited. After about 15 minutes, I gave her a call.

She was crying "Mark, I can't feel my hand, it is not working" and she handed the phone to her husband. 4 months prior to that night, she was told she has Multiple Sclerosis... So I said to myself that there had to be a site about disabled people and gaming... there was none. So I started one. I am disabled myself, and while my disability does not really interfere with my gaming, I could relate.

Barlet points out that things like remappable key bindings, adjustable controller sensitivity and closed captioning for voiceovers can make an otherwise inaccessible game playable to disabled individuals. Why, he wonders, are such features not standard on games?

For a good example of what AbleGames is all about, check out the site's coverage of Microsoft's Project Natal and how it will impact disabled gamers.

Yesterday in the Big Apple, socially-aware teens held the first-ever NYC Youth Media & Technology Festival. The event spotlighted the work of teenagers who create video games and other digital media projects in order to advance social causes.

Organizers expected about 100 attendees for the Festival. The gathering was intended to produce a citywide dialogue about the role of new media and technology in teens' lives and how it can be utilized to promotes issues kids care about.

A group of young designers affiliated with the New York Public Library were scheduled to showcase their designs and conceptualizations for serious video games about subjects like celebrity drug use, media consolidation and genocide.

Meanwhile, teens from the Global Kids Virtual Video Project premiered an animated short film about child sex trafficking in the United States.  Members of MOUSE discussed their efforts to advance technology in New York City public schools by developing open source labs, advocating for the One Laptop Per Child campaign and other efforts.

The invitation-only event was held at the Parsons The New School for Design.

-Doug Buffone, Entertainment Consumers Association intern

If you've got games that you're not using anymore, don't leave them to collect dust on a shelf. Donate them instead.

Pixel Equity, a new not-for-profit matches donated games and systems up with economically disadvantaged kids. From the organization's website:

Video gaming is a fun and enriching activity, but it remains out of reach for many. Games cost upwards of $50 and consoles cost hundreds, so it’s no surprise that large groups of young people who are interested in playing never get the chance.

No games to send? Pixel Equity will also accept cash donations, no matter how small. That part is kind of sweet because you can actually see how your donation will help reach the amount needed to buy a specific game requested by a child (see pic at left).

There's also a bit of game-oriented fun built into the donation system:

Since this is an organization about video games, we thought that we would make a game out of giving. Every contribution you make will help you gain levels. Each level corresponds to an image of a game archetype, including warriors, clerics, mages, and more, that you will be able to post on your facebook profile by using our facebook app (app coming soon!). Show your friends that you’re making a difference!

Via: Kotaku

In April the United States was stunned by the news of a shooting rampage at the offices of the American Civic Association in Binghampton, New York. During the horrific incident 41-year-old Vietnamese immigrant Jiverly Wong killed 13 people and wounded several more before turning his weapon on himself.

Central New York station News 10 reports that children at a local middle school held a Rock Band tournament last Friday to benefit two children who lost both parents in the ACA shooting. The children of victims Marc and Marie Bernard will attend the Maine-Endwell Middle School in the fall. Tom Burkhardt, who organized the fundraiser told News 10:

We learned about these two children that lost both their parents and knew that they were gonna be coming to our school next year. And basically, the teachers and the staff wanted to do something, we were wondering what we could do, and we thought of this.

Local businesses donated prizes for the tournament.

The Entertainment Software Association will incorporate a variety of charitable efforts into next month's E3 Expo in Los Angeles.

According to an ESA press release, in addition to all of its usual gaming goodness, E3 2009 will feature:

• Pro vs. G.I. Joe gaming competitions in support of U.S. military personnel
• A t-shirt design contest with some proceeds going to support an L.A.-based homeless mission
• a Red Cross blood drive

For more info, check out the official E3 site. Those wishing to donate blood should sign up online, entering E3 as the sponsor code.

Current TV's Ben Hoffman has some fun with gamers who lined up to donate blood and steal a pre-release peek at Resident Evil 5.

The Capcom-sponsored event took place in Los Angeles last week.

Via: Joystiq

A message (see pic at left) posted on popular game download site Newgrounds has led to the arrest of a 16-year-old British youth.

According to a CBC report, 21-year-old J.P. Neufeld, a college student in Montreal, noticed the teen's message which indicated that he planned to burn down his school:

"I saw this thread started by this guy. It didn't seem serious at first. It said that today at 11:30 a.m. GMT I will commit violence and other forms of arson against my school [in Norfolk]. He had posted a picture of a gas can"...

 

Police were able to track down information about the suspect and school—leading them to an arrest. A 16-year-old male in possession of a knife, matches and canister of flammable liquid was taken into custody outside the school.

Via: Gizmodo

A start-up charitable foundation is seeking your used games.

Donate Games is focusing its efforts on orphan diseases - debilitating, often fatal, but frequently overlooked because they affect only a small slice (less than .05%) of the global population.

How can used games help? A press release explains that Donate Games will re-sell the games it takes in:

Are you tired of trading in your used games at retail stores for pennies on the dollar? Are you looking for a new site to purchase used games at low prices? Do you want to help change the lives of people around the world?...

 

Donate Games is a new charity dedicated to funding research for orphan diseases and supporting those affected by them through the donation and resale of used video games. In addition to raising funds for research on these rare disorders, Donate Games will promote awareness and provide advisory services to the general public.

Donate Games was created by Jim Carol, described as a veteran of the IT industry, and his wife Cynthia. In 2006 their son was diagnosed with Philadelphia Chromosome, a rare form of leukemia. Although their son's disease is now in remission, the Carols were moved by the suffering they saw:

We were lucky. “Treatments and community support really made a difference for [our son]. But, we met others at the treatment centers that had little hope, suffering from even rarer life-threatening conditions, without research funding, effective treatments or support networks. By launching Donate Games and connecting with the vibrant gaming community so near and dear to my own professional background, now we can help them, too.”

The organization is currently accepting game donations but has not yet begun to re-sell. Penny Arcade's Child's Play and publisher Electronic Arts are listed as partner organizations.

As we saw in 2008 with Breakthrough's immigration rights-themed I.C.E.D!, non-profits are increasingly turning to game tech to reach a wider - and younger - audience.

Along that line Ars Technica reports that Games for Change has released a toolkit designed to help non-profits tap learn how to tap into issue-oriented games of their own.

The Games for Change Toolkit is primarily a Flash-based presentation containing video, reference material, and links to demonstration games that cover various aspects of game design, from the initial concept to production and distribution. While an actual [software development kit] may not be involved, the toolkit introduces nonprofit organizations to both the broad potential and finer details of bringing an issue-conscious game into reality...

The Toolkit covers seven primary topics and introduces each with a video snippet of their relative presenter's speech: Urge, Concept, Design, Production, Distribution, Evaluation, and Case Study...

Joystiq reports that Penny Arcade's Child's Play Charity raised an amazing $1.4 million for sick children during its recent fund drive:

The annual Child's Play charity fund is known for accumulating outlandish quantities of money from the gaming community -- this year was no exception. Button-mashing altruists not only met the charity's lofty $750,000 goal, they nearly doubled it, bringing in a total of $1,434,377...

...generous gamers surpassed last year's impressive $1.3 million haul (and in the middle of a recession, no less)...

This week's Child's Play Charity Auction Dinner raised more than $200,000 for worthy causes, reports Gabe of Penny Arcade.

Among the items auctioned off was the rather impressive statue at left depicting an Orc from World of Warcraft on his mount.

Simply awesome - both the event and the statue...