Child's Play breaks annual record with over $2 million raised

@JoeH42 "I'm not trying to be some sort of killjoy"

Yes you are. But it's okay. I've got enough pride in that figure for both of us. While it would be nice for charities to be about giving every dollar you can spare instead of wasting it on frivolities like "movies" and "vidjya games," realistically speaking they're not and I don't think it's fair to judge their success by that standard.

@ScottishViking

"awakening a huge percentage of the population"

Are you trying to be funny? They apparently awoke a tiny fraction of that population. I'm all for them trying and succeeding at their objective but let's call a spade a spade, by and large we're donating a very small amount of our money compared to how much we spend on our entertainment. You know how much money Call of Duty: Black Ops made in it's first week of sales? Couple hundred million last I heard and that was just in it's first week and is just a single video game. So while Child's Play may have "awakened" a few people, all the video game companies have lulled the rest into a nice complacent sleep in a far more effective manner.
But that is great that you donated what you could. As for myself, this is the first I've ever heard of this charity or any of it's affiliates until I happened to notice this article on massively. Mind you, I was the first one to comment on it vs. the 80+ comments on the article about massively's player choice awards so we once again see where everyone's priorities lie. But maybe if the video game companies had worked as hard at encouraging their players to go contribute towards this charity as they worked to encourage players to vote for them to win various awards, then people might actual know about this sort of thing and pitch in a few dollars before going down to the store to buy some more cigarettes and junk food.

@JoeH42

Good grief, are you for real? OK, I'll take the troll-bait. (I've written my will on my jeans, and I'm ready to take the plunge.)

Millions of dollars a year are raised for charity by ONE organization -- yes, that's ONE organization -- and all of a sudden the world is filled with miserable creeps and selfish wankers? What a cauldron of despair you must inhabit.

As you say, "let's call a spade a spade." You, like me, probably live in a Western country, in a capitalist society. The system is propped up by people spending. Most of the time -- 99% of the time -- people spend more on themselves then they do on others. Fact. It isn't perfect and a lot of the time it isn't pretty. And sure, charity isn't a solution to these problems.

But it's better than the alternative, which is doing nothing. Which, in a way, is what you are suggesting.

No, wait, you're suggesting that people give most of their money to charity. Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Point me to a western democracy where that happens and I'll happily follow suit.

So are you a utopian or a whiner? Sometimes I can't tell the two apart. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that this is an "ongoing philosophical issue" with you -- living in the kind of society we do.

So why then take it out on the happy news that Child's Play has raised millions of dollars? What have YOU done that is so much ethically superior? That is an honest question. If you have done something, unheralded by the world, that has contributed more than Mike and Jerry at Penny Arcade, we all need to know about it.

PS: The fact you haven't heard of Child's Play before makes it hard to take your comments very seriously. Where have you BEEN for the past few years? It's only been the biggest news in video game-related charity in, well, forever. I would guess you don't follow "charitable news" that avidly.

@ScottishViking I've been playing several MMOs solidly for the last 6 years and have never heard of Child's Play. It's not the fault of Child's Play that I haven't heard of them it's just a little depressing they don't get better advertising or coverage or whatever you want to call it.
As for myself, I do lots of stuff for and with charity. My finances prevent me from giving as much money as I'd like to be able to, but I use a good portion of my time to help others around me. But I don't do it so I can be hailed as some wonderful person nor do I care to boast about it.

In any case, I just noticed the article about Cataclysm selling 4.7 million copies in one month and it made me remember this article. So I'll just return to my original point, while this is wonderful news that Child's Play managed to raise over 2 million this year, to me it only serves to highlight how much people could be doing vs. how much they do. We wouldn't go around bragging about a police detective that solves one homicide a year and leaves another fifty unsolved. It's all just a matter of degree.