Every year, around Christmas, we tend to get a little sentimental.  We try to help people we don’t know and make their lives a little better.  At the place I work there’s a christmas tree in the lobby, with gift wishes from kids and underprivileged adults.  People take the cards, buy gifts for people they don’t know, and hope someone smiles on Christmas.  Gamers are known, according to media, as those kids who shoot up their schoolmates or those hermits living in their parents’ basement.  We know better - that gamers are productive and positive members of society - and some have taken that tree in the lobby to a new level.

I’ve written about them before.  Penny Arcade, the guys behind an irreverent comic, a war with Jack Thompson, and a server-wide war in World of Warcraft.  They’re also the guys behind Child’s Play, an annual charity that donates games, gaming systems, and toys to children’s hospitals.  Their charity is intended to brighten the lives of kids who spend months or years in hospitals and to rebuff the kinds of accusations the media and politicians like to throw at gaming culture.

Today I had the opportunity to talk with Robert Khoo, the business genius behind the creative geniuses, about Child’s Play: what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how you can contribute to it.  This is not a fancy podcast with music and polish.  I hope you’ll forgive me, but I wanted to put this out as soon as I had it done, rather than to wait and add pretty things and miss the chance to help.

Click here to listen (MP3, 8.05MB, 17:36)

Resources
Childsplaycharity.org
Penny Arcade

- jinx

wake me up when september ends