The 24 hour gaming marathon for charity

[hauntedautumn]

Turbine is participating in a charity doing a 24 hour gaming marathon. Here is their facebook posting for those who don't use that site:

Help us Help kids!

On October 20th, Team Turbine will be participating in Extra Life, a 24 hour gaming marathon to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

The LOTRO Community Team, Sapience, Celestrata, and Clover along with other Turbine employees have signed up to support their local Children's Hospitals.

It's our sincere hope that you'll find it in your heart to support us with a donation that will go directly to that team member's chosen hospital. Just follow the link, choose the Team Turbine member you'd like to support and accept our sincere thanks.

If you're participating in Extra-life yourself, why not join Team Turbine and help us reach our goal.

Together we can accomplish so much more!

(end of the facebook posting)

The link to Team Turbine is here: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?...am&teamID=9175

Though this is great in the sense that they're earning money for a charity, and a gaming marathon seems just right for a gaming company, let me propose a few other (possibly more healthy for MMO addicts and young impressionable gamers) alternatives to raising charity money.

Other ways Turbine could have raised money are:

1. Having people donate their monthly subscriptions to the charity instead of using it to play the game, it’s a free to play game anyway so the players would still have access to limited parts of the game. Or, even better, they could give the players the VIP time they gave money for (if they gave $60 then give them 6 months VIP, if they gave $15 give them one month, etc.). Of course there would be a max limit here for the VIP status, maybe 6 months, so the company didn’t lose too much revenue.

2. Take half of the revenue earned by Mithril Edition and donate that to charity.

3. They could have LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online), DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online), and Asheron’s Call badges for backpacks/purses/hats or sell steeds on the game for customers to buy and donate proceeds to the charity.

4. Have their Dev team do a walk-a-thon dressed up as Lord of the Rings characters with their customers and earn donations that way and maybe even sell their costumes and give additional proceeds to the charity (hey, that horse Dev costume would make millions :P).

All in all I wish Turbine and whomever participates good luck! I will not participate in this gaming marathon because I would feel pressured to keep gaming for hours due to the charity hanging over my head, and I have another charity marathon to do. Remember, get up every hour, eat and go to the bathroom when you need to (don't wait cause time will escape you) and get sleep! Oh, and remember it's just a game, so have fun!

[Fantoma]

Red hot chili peppers rule!!!

[Nymphonic]

Not to mention, the kids they will be helping will probably be from the United States. I'd much rather donate to something in Canada.

Kids are kids, no matter which country they are in.

[Unique]

WOW.........

I agree, some posters really show their true colors, and it's not pretty


And to those taking this opportunity to bash WB, It's the employees who have banded together and joined an independent fundraiser to help kids - no matter where they live, not WB raising money.

If you and your fellow employees decide to go on a walk for breast cancer, does that make your employer evil because they didn't just give the society all the money you would have raised in the first place?

This is about caring human beings who happen to work at the same place doing something to help others, twisting this around in your mind into another conspiracy theory turns my stomach.

[Fortinobrand]

Yeah, let's not try to make a few employees doing something kind for others into another WB conspiracy. There are enough evil things without grasping for more.

If you want to get involved then cool, if it's not your thing that's cool too.

[maxjenius]

Another thing is... isn't this almost like when you see the celebrities campaigning on telethons to raise money for charities? They campaign to people who will earn a fraction of a celebrities yearly income during their whole life.

It has always annoyed me.

Just like a million dollar gaming company asking their subscribers to pony up.

I agree. It's just a marketing ploy. If they were really serious about charity, they'd just donate a million dollars (or whatever) and be done with it.

And +1 rep for telling it like it is!

[Damojo]

Good luck to them I say, if they raise $50 and give it to one kid, things are still better than they were. I imagine they will do substantially better than that, though.

I have no idea why anyone would use this well-intentioned event to grind axes or impress everyone with their uber-cynical troll-for-effect routine. Just goes to show the gene pool badly needs lifeguards.

[monteeburns]

Another thing is... isn't this almost like when you see the celebrities campaigning on telethons to raise money for charities? They campaign to people who will earn a fraction of a celebrities yearly income during their whole life.

It has always annoyed me.

Likewise, reminds me of Bono banging on about getting people to cough up while he spends over 1000 GBP for a first class seat for his hat. If he was as concerned about the charity as he pretended to be, he would have stuck his hat in cargo like every other person manages to do, and donated the rest. I'm sure the money saved would have fed numerous starving African children for several weeks.

Having said that it can only be a good thing that the Turbine employees are doing something to raise money, however it might be nice of Turbine to do what many companies where I come from do and agree to match the money donated by customers.

[Eartholloth]

Enough people! If you dont wanna donate then dont but do we really need some of these comments?

[Laerien]

Events like this is for incentivating people to do charity. People are free to donate.

In my country we have a Teleton that have helped thousands of disabled children. No matter what, we also have the same type of persons who think it's all a conspiracy and rich people should donate all their money and blablabla.

The same obsolete discourse, I know where it comes from. But these political discussions are forbidden and is better that way.

[The_Bruce]

Good luck to them I say, if they raise $50 and give it to one kid, things are still better than they were. I imagine they will do substantially better than that, though.

I have no idea why anyone would use this well-intentioned event to grind axes or impress everyone with their uber-cynical troll-for-effect routine. Just goes to show the gene pool badly needs lifeguards.

+rep If someone wishes to do anything, anywhere that will help someone else in this world of ours then kudos to them.

[reivilo]

For those who may not read all the news regarding WB, and only wanting to do some bashing..

lets not forget that WB , with its division DC Comics is also doing fund raising for another charity
http://www.wecanbeheroes.org/

As Laerien said, we, in france, have the 'telethon' (worked on it some years ago) and we also have something like 50 charity associations doing fund raising all year long.

I dont know how the charity business is working outside of france, but in france, you can have all the financial informations about the association you want to help, and see where your money is going (the one i work for uses 85% of your fund to help alphabetize children all over the world.. the other 15% are what is needed for functioning and such.. )

[Fantoma]

Hey, don't bash ME because 90% of charities out there are corrupt, giving less than HALF of what is donated to the people who need it.

Not saying that WB or anyone associated with Turine would be corrupt, but unless they are physically going and giving money to these kids, you just never know how much of your donation will actually reach someone in need.

If you really want to help people, I am very much sure there is a shelter/ list of people in need in your home town.

That's all I'm saying. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

I just hate seeing Julia Roberts or whoever on a telethon, and seeing footage of her frolicking in a third world country, knowing full well that she had the flight and all accommodations PAID FOR by the charitable organization.

Geez. Just because someone says "donate to the kids awwwwwww", it means that we can't expose these charities for what they are?

[Fantoma]

Hey..... Half of my original message was missing...


No wonder it looks so bad

[maxjenius]

If you really want to help people, I am very much sure there is a shelter/ list of people in need in your home town.

Yeah, the old "Think global, act local."

[Celestrata]

So, after looking through the thread, I've noticed there are some things that people may have missed in this whole Extra Life thing that I want to quickly address.

First of all, we're participating in Extra Life because we want to. Myself, Sapience, and Clover all made the decision to participate on the Turbine team after it was formed. Same with the other members of the staff. We're doing this as a part of a team effort, sure, but that team effort is determined by the individuals on the team. We felt that you guys would be interested in either joining the team with us and participating in Extra Life or by donating. Heck, even if you guys can just help us spread the word, that's great too! All of it goes towards helping kids in need, and we appreciate anything you guys can do, even if it's just cheer us on as we're fighting sleep deprivation!

Speaking of charity, Extra Life's funds go towards Children's Miracle Network. If you want to learn more about what they do, you can visit their site at http://childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org/. I got to see a very tangible part of their work back when I was going to college in Pittsburgh and our Children's Hospital was still on the University of Pittsburgh campus. These hospitals help out a huge number of kids with some really, really serious life threatening illnesses. I would walk to class and always see some of the nurses or doctors with some of these kids. Every time I did I was always touched by both their kindness and their dedication. It's actually the reason I first participated in Extra Life 2010, and why I'm happy to be participating again this year.

Beyond us, Warner Bros. is constantly involved in charitable outreach programs as both an organization and as individuals. As Reivilo has already brought up, our friends at DC Entertainment are deeply involved in We Can Be Heroes, and DC Entertainment will match 100% of whatever you donate. Those funds are going to charities that are helping out those who are suffering from hunger in the Horn of Africa. WB also links all of the employees to charities, and more info on that can be found here.

But if all of this isn't up your alley, what Fantoma said is right: Be active in your own community. Support a local shelter or consider volunteering some of your extra time (if you have any, of course) to a soup kitchen. Personally, I'm also involved in the Second Life Relay for Life every year, as well as some personal fundraising for a smaller outreach program that's local to Pittsburgh.

I hope that addresses some of the concerns of the folks here, and I hope that you all consider (or are already doing) some outreach to charity -- whether it be helping us out here with Extra Life, donating to We Can Be Heroes, or simply dropping some food off at your local soup kitchen. Every little bit helps.

[Eartholloth]

You guys are gonna need lots of coffee & toothpicks for your eyes.

[monteeburns]

Events like this is for incentivating people to do charity. People are free to donate.

In my country we have a Teleton that have helped thousands of disabled children. No matter what, we also have the same type of persons who think it's all a conspiracy and rich people should donate all their money and blablabla.

Indeed money for charity is always a good thing. I don't think anyone believes celebrities should give up all their money, however, there should be a degree of practising what you preach to others. I have a lot of respect for Bill Gates, gave up his job to concentrate on his charity, he could be out playing golf everyday instead....
You wouldn't expect someone during a drought to go on TV and say 'hey people it's really important not to waste water', then after the show go and wash their car with a hose because it has a bit of of dirt on the bumper, yet that's precisely what some of those who preach to others about giving actually do. The real charity workers are working in shops on weekends for zero pay, or doctors who have given up their nice lives in suburbia to work for no pay in a dust bowl country, those are the ones who should get the awards - not quite as glamorous as TV and of course they will probably never see an award of any kind for it. Not that they care about an award, but that's precisely the reason they should get one.

But I do agree events like this do incentivise people and shouldn't be lumped in the same bracket as the celebrity-pat-each other-on-the-back-a-thons such as the 'Playing For Good International Philanthropic Summit', hosted in luxury in Majorca and presented by none other than that wonder example of not following through on her promise of going to Rwanda, fresh out of jail, Paris Hilton.

Now pony up some cash you peasants

[Thorgrum]

Another thing is... isn't this almost like when you see the celebrities campaigning on telethons to raise money for charities? They campaign to people who will earn a fraction of a celebrities yearly income during their whole life.

It has always annoyed me.


Just like a million dollar gaming company asking their subscribers to pony up.


Not to mention, the kids they will be helping will probably be from the United States. I'd much rather donate to something in Canada.

This was an inspiring post on many levels. Personally I have no problem with Turbine promoting charitable giving on their forums. I think giving charity to those in need a noble thing, I direct my charitable giving to American Veterans causes. Still I think this is a good thing, power to them I hope they raise a butt load of cash.

[Jeffor]

I think this is a wonderful idea.

[Fantoma]

This was an inspiring post on many levels. Personally I have no problem with Turbine promoting charitable giving on their forums. I think giving charity to those in need a noble thing, I direct my charitable giving to American Veterans causes. Still I think this is a good thing, power to them I hope they raise a butt load of cash.

Heh, I like your sarcasm.... But honestly, I had a whole other section typed out. I blame my iPhone for not working well with these forums.

[Tenuke]

I agree. It's just a marketing ploy. If they were really serious about charity, they'd just donate a million dollars (or whatever) and be done with it.
And +1 rep for telling it like it is!

Sometimes ppl fail to see these things. Which to some others are so damn simple and easy to see.
In my country there just has been a bit of debate on same matter.
Big international company called Fazer had an ad on front page of big newspaper, saying that "buy our products and every of these products bought 5cents will be used to build a school to some children in somewhere in Africa"

...well.. That ad did cost around 50.000euros, and 1 school costs around 70.000euros..
"If Fazer(Turbine) wants to help children and makes no big and costy marketing campaign around it.. did it ever happen?"

p.s. What is sold in Lotro Store for those players who also want to contribute by playing 24hours?

[Thorgrum]

Heh, I like your sarcasm.... But honestly, I had a whole other section typed out. I blame my iPhone for not working well with these forums.

My post was not sarcastic, I found your post inspiring. Had you not posted it, I wouldn’t be voicing my support of turbine in this thread. How you feel is your own affair, however when you chose to illuminate others about your interpretation of charitable giving you inspired several reactive posts.

You actually did the thread a service, drawing attention to charity is always a challenge. However sometimes Fantoma, it is best to say nothing at all.

[the.undying..]

just a thought ...

how a bout raising all that money and use it to develop the actual game?

wish the turbine employees would be as dedicated with this game as they
are with charity ...

[the.undying..]

... I think giving charity to those in need a noble thing, I direct my charitable giving to American Veterans causes.

its a good thing to support those who where ones dump during there live,
but still what you are doing is warmongering ...