Cloud gaming service OnLive has teamed up with the Extra-Life charity to offer gamers a whole day to play its catalog of games for free.  On October 25th, gamers everywhere (including yours truly) will play video games for 24 hours to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

UK-based charity Changing Faces is calling on the makers of Moshi Monsters to change the names of characters in its game that have offensive names. Changing Faces is a charity that provides support and information to people with disfigurements to the "face, hands or body, and their families."

While it is not necessarily something we'd normally cover here on GamePolitics, it is almost Christmas and doing one small gesture will help a good cause, so it's worth giving it a little virtual ink today.

Ron Nakada, a Senior Software Engineer at Blizzard Entertainment was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer six months ago. Doctors told him at the time that the cancer had metastasized to his liver, lungs and lymph nodes. While Ron is fighting for his life with all the determination and strength he can muster, his medical bills and expenses are ramping up and he needs our help.

Did you think Humble Bundle had closed up shop?  We're not sure why you would think that but the Pay-What-You-Want bundle dealer is back with a new bundle featuring four games: Ticket to Ride (plus the USA 1910 DLC), Greed Corp, Incredipede and Anodyne.  Also included are the soundtracks for Ticket to Ride, Greed Corp, and Anodyne (plus a remix album).

Mechwarrior Online is honoring a five-year-old player who died of brain cancer in May by selling a special mech, with the proceeds going completely to charity. Earlier this year, five-year-old Sarah Marie Alida Parries of Vancouver (who was a big fan of MechWarrior and played the game with her dad Jon) died from complications with inoperable brain cancer.

Two League of Legends competitive teams have teamed up with eBay to create a charity tournament called the eBay Charity Invitational. The idea for the tournament came from members of League of Legends teams Evil Geniuses and Team Curse. Members of both teams will compete in one-on-one matches, with each player fighting for a charity of their choice. The tournament will take place on July 24 at 8 p.m. ET and will be live streamed on Twitch by One Nation of Gamers.

It looks like Texas teen (and League of Legends player) Justin Carter has made bail. Carter had been in jail for several months after someone reported to the police that he had made a "terrorist threat" on Facebook about shooting up a local school, killing children and eating their "still beating hearts."

Though Carter marked the Facebook message with indicators that it was a joke, Texas law enforcement didn't think it was very funny and charged him with making terrorist threats. A judge set his bail at $500,000 cash or $50,000 bond.

Video game industry pioneers and USC alumni Kevin Bachus and Chanel Summers have made a donation to the USC School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) to help establish The Bachus-Summers Fund for Innovation in Interactive Entertainment. The donation was revealed today by School of Cinematic Arts’ (SCA) Dean Elizabeth M. Daley and will be used to create a fund for student support to be awarded to those who show initiative in the fields of interactive and immersive media.

And just like that, Humble Indie Bundle 7 comes to a close with 395,917 bundles sold for a grand total of $2,650,204.55.

The pot will be divvied up among Humble Bundle, the games' developers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Child's Play charity according to the whims of the individual buyers.

The bundles sold at an average purchase price of $6.69 and break down by platform as follows:

Electronic Arts employee Wendell Harlow has been honored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation with a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal marks the 60th anniversary of England's Queen Elizabeth II’s "accession to the Throne" and honors the achievements and contributions of Canadians. Wendell received the distinct honor for over a decade of supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Canada.

Crowd funding site Crowdtilt began offering tax-deductible donations for nonprofits today. Crowdtilt co-founder James Beshara says that Kickstarter prohibits charity and cause fundraising, Indiegogo nonprofit donations are not tax deductible, and even Movember takes a 17.7 percent fee. The goal is to offer fundraisers the ability to raise cash for charity without having the platform they are using take a large chunk of it...

The AbleGamers Foundation has released its annual holiday gift guide for those shoppers with loved ones and family members that are gamers who have a disability. This year's guide, located here, offers nearly a dozen items ranging from technology and peripherals to accessible video games with low prices for those on a tight budget.

Humble Bundle has added five games to its current promotion bringing the total to a spanking 11.

The new additions are Avadon: The Black Fortress (tablets only), Canabalt, Cogs, Swords & Soldiers HD, and Zen Bound 2.  With the exception of Avadon, each game comes with its soundtrack.

It's that time again!

Yes, a new Humble Bundle is here, making indie games available in the pay-what-you-want way we all know and love.

The Humble Bundle for Android 4 features six games: Splice, Eufloria, Waking Mars, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, and Machinarium.  The first five are yours for whatever price you feel like paying but if you want Machinarium, you're going to have to pony up more than the average price which as of this writing, is $5.90.

EA Sports has put some cold hard cash behind "Movember" - the month long fight to raise money for prostate cancer. The EA Sports division is putting up $500,000 in advertising throughout the month inside its most popular franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL, and NHL. The goal of Movember is to raise awareness about prostate cancer and male mental health by asking "Mo Bros" to grow moustaches in the month of November. "Mo Sistas" are also encouraged to help raise funds and awareness.

Activision is gearing up to sell Call of Duty dog tags at select retailers throughout North America, with the proceeds going to its non-profit charitable organization, the Call of Duty Endowment. The Call of Duty dog tags will carry a suggested retail price of $4.99 and will be for sale beginning today at retailers GameStop, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Best Buy and Target.

The 15th annual Nite to Unite - For Kids gala raised $822,000 for the ESA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Entertainment Software Association, the event's organizers announced today. The black-tie event took place last week in San Francisco, where various game industry luminaries and the media got together for a good cause. Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell was also honored at Nite to Unite as the 2012 ESA Champion Honoree. Previous honorees include Blizzard president and CEO Mike Morhaime and Star Wars franchise creator George Lucas.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched an educational Facebook app contest today with 30 prizes worth a grand total of $2.5 million. The 'College Knowledge Challenge' kicks off this week with an "edtech hackathon" at Facebook’s headquarters at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park.

On October 20th, Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward will participate in Extra Life’s 24-hour gaming marathon to help raise money for the Children's Miracle Network Hospital where kids are treated regardless of their family’s ability to cover medical costs.

UK-based games industry-driven charity GamesAid has opened up the nomination process to allow for voting on which charities it will support in its next round of funding. To be eligible, charities must be registered in the UK and focus on helping children and young adults in some way. Of course these charities will need be be game-related in some way as well. Organizations also have to have a turnover of £5m (roughly $7.85 million) or less and running costs of no more than 30 percent. Nominations opened up today and will end on August 13.

Zynga is loaning several of its developers to create a social charity game on Facebook. Development on a "social action" game based on the book Half the Sky by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn is well underway according to GamesBeat.

The book is about "turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide." The game will be released on Facebook on November 13.

Beginning Friday, June 22, a group of dedicated gamers in Lafayette, Indiana will host the fifth annual Mario Marathon fundraiser to benefit the Child’s Play Charity. The group has been doing this since 2008, and has managed to raise over $242,000 for Child's Play to-date.

Gamer and game industry-powered children's charity Child's Play has managed to raise an impressive $1.5 million in 2011 so far, with over $10 million donations made to date since it was launched by Penny Arcade's founders in 2003. This year's target number is $2 million, which is still a reachable goal before January 1, 2012.

The Humble Introversion Bundle closed earlier this week, selling 190,261 bundles for a grand total of $778,643.57.  The dough will be divided up between Humble Bundle itself, the developers of the games included in the bundle, and two charities: the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play.

As always seems to be the case, Linux users paid the most, averaging $8.78 with Mac users following at $5.90 and Windows users bringing up the rear at $3.40.

After a two-week run, the Humble Voxatron Debut is now closed.  So, how’d it do?

Humble Bundle sold 172,261 bundles for a total of $902,448.11 making it one of the lower earning bundles but certainly not a comparative failure.  Here’s how the previous bundles shook out:

The second annual IGDA Foundation Charity Dinner takes place October 27, this year putting David Jaffe in the hot seat. The event costs $200 to attend, with the proceeds going to various charitable endeavors including multiple scholarship funds. It will take place on the evening of Thursday, October 27th at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, LAX, in Los Angeles, in conjunction with this year’s IGDA Leadership Forum. This year John Romero will be continuing his “legend on legend” interview of seminal game designers with an interview of David Jaffe.

Blizzard Entertainment will host a series of special charity auctions featuring server-blade hardware that was originally used during the early days of World of Warcraft. The money generated from the auctions will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, one of the world's premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases. The auction consists of the original HP Blade System servers that once housed hundreds of different realms across North America and Europe.

Today at 2 pm EST, Benefit Evil will begin its annual marathon Resident Evil gameplay event to benefit Child's Play. The three-day marathon of Resident Evil playing - all to benefit the wonderful Child's Play charity - will run from today until October 9 at 10 pm.

You can be a part of the action by watching them play through some of the best and worst Resident Evil games, chatting with them via the live chat and following their antics on Twitter. Of course, the whole point is to get you to donate money.

It’s time to raid the couch cushions again, because the Humble Bundle is back with a bundle of games you can pay what you like for (unless you’d like to pay $0 or less.  In which case you can sod off).