At least several of this site's regular readers, I'll have you know, are fans of Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik's witty, nerdish comic Penny Arcade. It's not exactly my kind of humor, though every now and then Holkins and Krahulik have put out some priceless work. But reading taste aside, both artists have my sincere admiration for their side project, if it can even be called that:
One of the comic's biggest targets is the mainstream media and their treatment of game players and the industry. Frankly, they're sick of features on local and national news programs portraying players as morally corrupt, psychotic killers just waiting to go postal on their high school....This Christmas they decided to do something about it - something that might give the news media something positive to write about gamers for once. The two geek humorists live near Seattle, so they hooked up with the Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center to arrange a sort of donation charity thing. The idea was simple: They would set up an Amazon.com Wish List, put a few dozen items on it, and let their readers buy and donate them. Once the presents were delivered, Holkins and Krahulik would cart them all down to the Children's Hospital and give them to the kids. With a little luck, they might deliver one or two hundred toys and games to some sick kids who need to have a little fun.
So, the guys set it up, threw together a simple Web page, called it Child's Play, and put a link to it in the rant that accompanies their thrice-weekly comic. Then something truly incredible happened.
Gamers went nuts buying toys and games. One or two hundred items quickly ballooned out of control.
...We're not just talking about little trinkets here. Sure, there are lots of inexpensive items on the list, but readers have bought dozens of Game Boy Advance systems, Playstation 2s, Xboxes, and GameCubes - as well as child-friendly games to go with them. Some organizations have gotten together to make large purchases or donations. To date, thousands of gamers have donated a total of more than $100,000 worth of toys, games, and cash to help the kids of the Seattle Children's Hospital.
Looks like Chief Wiggles is in a charitable run for his money. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is competition of the best kind.