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Games Entertainment

The Speed Gamers Raise Over $26,000 For Charity 65

Posted by Soulskill from the and-counting dept.
Levonn Lawrence writes "Moving into day four of seven, The Speed Gamers (TSG) continue to play a Final Fantasy marathon for an unusual reason: charity. The guys at TSG are playing through every main Final Fantasy game, from one to twelve, over a period of seven days in hopes or raising $50,000 for ACT Today (Autism Care and Treatment). The marathon is streamed live for people to watch. ACT is a charity helping to financially support families effected by Autism. The marathon started 6pm CST, Friday, July 17th, 2009 and is going until Friday, July 24th 2009. So far they've raised over $26,000 (not a typo) and they're only 89 hours in."
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The Speed Gamers Raise Over $26,000 For Charity More

The Speed Gamers Raise Over $26,000 For Charity

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  • Slashdotting (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sopssa ( 1498795 ) * <sopssa@email.com> on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @01:16PM (#28771925) Journal

    Its a video stream site and states even before this slashdot story "Please help us save our server from overloading and click the TSG Button instead of refreshing the entire page when the video starts to lag."

    And now slashdotting it? Let the fun begin!

  • Time to start the Super Mario Bros Marathon, since I'm sure that will appease to a larger crowd. What should I raise money for?

  • Fundraising (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kevinNCSU ( 1531307 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @01:22PM (#28772003)

    I've never understood our culture's need to have people do something entirely trivial and unhelpful before we're willing to donate to a worthy and important cause.

    Imagine if we had volunteering for habitat humanity marathons to get people to donate for autism research instead or something like that. But I bet people wouldn't be willing to. you mean your going to build houses for homeless people and then you want me to pay you money for autism research? No, I think I'd feel more comfortable if you walked 3 miles in a circle for my donation.

    • Re:Fundraising (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @01:31PM (#28772113)
      Because our society is based on the founding principles of equivalency. Therefore rather than giving people money for no real reason, we prefer them to "earn" it by doing something else. Generally your going to have a lot more people wanting to run a marathon than you would people building houses. The reason being is that there are a lot more people who A) feel like they accomplished something by running a marathon B) have running a marathon as one of their "life goals" and C) there are a lot more people who can run marathons than are competent in carpentry. While I myself, (like many geeks) am not good at running a marathon nor am I really that skilled with wood, a Final Fantasy marathon would be something enjoyable that I would do.

      • Re:Fundraising (Score:4, Informative)

        by codemaster2b ( 901536 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @02:23PM (#28772823)

        C) there are a lot more people who can run marathons than are competent in carpentry.

        I am not competent at carpentry, in the sense that I am completely inexperienced and untrained, yet I was able to do work for habitat for humanity.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by josath ( 460165 )
          seriously, at the most basic level you listen to the guy for 15 minutes, and then spend a few hours hammering nails where they tell you to. you don't need a degree in civil engineering to help habitat for humanity
      • Yes, but if you would usually be playing video games, you really aren't doing anything extraordinary if you are playing video games for charity. I think I would be much more likely to give to a charity of the people were actually going out and doing something they wouldn't normally do anyway. I think it would be great if somebody who was overweight came to me and said, sponsor me for each pound I lose, the proceed will go to the heart and stroke foundation. That's somebody getting up a and doing something

        • I think it would be great if somebody who was overweight came to me and said, sponsor me for each pound I lose, the proceed will go to the heart and stroke foundation. That's somebody getting up a and doing something. Having a bunch of geeks sit around and play computers isn't really that interesting.

          ...Because watching someone lose weight is much more exciting?

          • It is on "The Biggest Loser". (Articles I've read have said that the ratings for that show are going up as it has more seasons, not down like most reality shows.)

            As for the post you're replying to, the various people might be playing videogames in general anyway, they wouldn't be playing all of the FF series sequentially in one sitting. I personally don't find the idea that fascinating, but hopefully the video will be saved for the 'speed run' pages.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by CRiMSON ( 3495 )

      Make the donater feel more important? Like the money there giving is letting another person do something insane, therefore we're awesome? Our society rules?

      POssible theory.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by daeley ( 126313 )

      It's just a good way to garner publicity, and in this case a gamer group is trying to get the attention of fellow gamers and geeks to donate for a cause. With the end result being more money for the charity, this is not a bad thing.

      As long as it's not "Beat babies with a stick for the indigent!" it's okay.

    • Just asking. I note you don't say. Should I presume that the amount has similar negative qualities?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by kevinNCSU ( 1531307 )

        I note you haven't either, however I haven't questioned any individual's donation to charity whether it be by financial, expertise, or time based and yet you have both done so to me and gone so far as to assume negatively about me.

        I didn't realize pondering on oddities of society as a whole required full financial and charitable service disclosure. I guess I could tell you how I donate or spend weeks of my summers in the Appalachian Mountains rebuilding or repairing homes for people who need it but I don't

    • Re:Fundraising (Score:4, Insightful)

      by brkello ( 642429 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @03:08PM (#28773359)

      If we all donated to worthy causes we would all be out of money. So after awhile, charity is just background noise...another person trying to take our money and mismanage it. These causes bring attention to the charities in a fun way. Then you think "oh, that's cool, I should support that cause". It is basically an attention grabber. People asking you for money all the time just turns them off.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Toonol ( 1057698 )
      Because, to an extent, the volunteers are succeeding by turning it from a donation to an optional payment for entertainment. "Watch us, be entertained, and please (if possible) donate money" is often a more palatable and attractive offer than simply "We need money to do good things". It turns it from a donation into an exchange. Perhaps it's shallow, perhaps it's crass, but it also works... much like capitalism in general.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by PossumDTD ( 1603589 )
      I've never understood Slashdotters' need to complain and criticize every single thing people do for a good cause.

      These guys are taking something popular that they are good at and enjoy doing, and turning it into a profitable fundraiser for a good cause. It doesn't matter if they're building a house, playing Final Fantasy, or growing a ridiculous mustache and getting donations per millimeter of growth - the point is that they've already raised approximately $35,000 for Autism Awareness, touched hundreds
  • Well of course it's not a typo. What are the odds of you mistyping, say, "$2,600" as "$26,000" with perfect comma positioning and the right numbers of zeroes to properly represent twenty six thousand dollars twice?
    • You're not very good at parsing the intent of language, no joke.
    • Grammar Nazi party over there ^.

      I agree. I was confused about why you'd bother to clarify that it's not a typo. I realize there are a lot of typos in the summaries but I don't think we all just assume that everything is a typo now.
      • Well, perhaps we should, it would save alot of time pointing out when things aren't typos.

      • You mean you didn't understand that use of English? Really? you've never heard a kid tell an unbelievable true story and then back it up with a "seriously!" or a "I'm not even kidding", or a "No joke". Its a point of emphasis. Its not that everything the kid says is a lie, but what he's saying borders on being credible so he feels a need to emphasis that he isn't lying.

        Sort of mystifying , given your sig and all...

    • On slashdot? Pretty high.
  • I assume they increased their target goal - wasn't it initially a goal of $20k, which they achieved in 3 days? Regardless, good on them. Nice to see them do something worthy for the benefit of others. And, who knows, maybe a healthy dose of slashdot love will result in substantially more than their current target...

  • Desert Bus (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jim Hall ( 2985 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @01:30PM (#28772107) Homepage

    Don't forget Desert Bus for Hope [desertbus.org] where they raised $70,423.79 in a little over 5 days. As long as you keep paying them (during the pledge drive) they play.

    I'm actually much more impressed with this, since it requires constant attention [wikipedia.org] or you veer off the road, and get towed back to your starting point in real time.

    Let Pen Jillette explain it! [youtube.com]

  • Every main series game from 1 to 12? (Score:5, Funny)

    by RogueyWon ( 735973 ) * on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @01:32PM (#28772135) Journal

    Oh dear, I do hope they aren't including Final Fantasy XI in that. Much as I used to love the game (and still get the odd pang of nostalgia for it), it would be a hilariously awful idea to include it on this. I guess you could interpret "beating it" as being "finishing the plot missions for all of the current expansions", but still...

    "Here we are, going into day 217 of the challenge, and player 4 has just dinged 63. This, of course, marks the half-way point in his experience grind. Now over to Bob, who's going to tell us about that exciting episode earlier, where half of the players spent 7 hours trying to find a tank, who then left them after 20 minutes."

    • They just mentioned they're going to play FFXI for the last 12 hours of the marathon as a "side stream". So I'm guessing while they're playing FFX or whatever is left someone will be playing that.

    • More like I hope they aren't including Final Fantasy VIII [printfection.com] in that. God, what a terrible game. I Think people will start taking money back if they have to read the Emo-fied dialogue that comes out of Squall for that entire game.

      • Doesn't sound like they're planning to play it. I personally loved it though, but I'd want to watch that speed run as much as I want to watch any other RPG speed run.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pluvius ( 734915 )

        Makes sense that that sentiment is coming from a guy named Spoony, who is obviously a fan of one of the most pablumlike RPGs in gaming history.

        Rob

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pluvius ( 734915 )

          After looking at his website, I retract my statement. It's pretty obvious that he's actually a big fan of FF8. The best satire comes from those who like what they satire.

          Rob

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Jedi Alec ( 258881 )

        More like I hope they aren't including Final Fantasy VIII [printfection.com] in that. God, what a terrible game. I Think people will start taking money back if they have to read the Emo-fied dialogue that comes out of Squall for that entire game. ...whatever.

    • After a while, the players are going to need a cure for autism.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xarius ( 691264 )

      I think they intend to party for twelve hours in FFXI, just for the look of the thing. :)

  • Final Finatasy 3/6j 4 step plan (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    1. Vanish
    2. X-Zone/Doom
    3. ???
    4. Profit!

    • Actually, getting characters to learn those spells takes too much time. There's a way of screwing with Setzer's slot ablility to always get the instant kill effect, which I believe is what the speed runs use.

  • Good luck getting all the way through FF eleven during this time.

  • Interesting choice (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dexmachina ( 1341273 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @03:18PM (#28773449)
    So they're raising money for a disorder most associated with social impairment by sequestering themselves from outside human contact for a week and playing video games. How...appropriate?
  • "families affected by Autism", not "effected". In this context, "affected" means the families were impacted by Autism; "effected" means Autism implemented the families.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by daybot ( 911557 ) *

      "families affected by Autism", not "effected". In this context, "affected" means the families were impacted by Autism; "effected" means Autism implemented the families.

      Did autism effect your grammar nazism?

  • I had some friends, Mario Marathon [mariomarathon.com], just recently raise $29,000 [mariomarathon.com] in 96 hours playing 7 Mario Brothers games. They raised money for Child's Play [childsplaycharity.com]. Last year [mariomarathon.com] they raised $12,000.

    The single smartest thing I think they did was to off-load the broadcast of the event to ustream.tv [ustream.tv].

    Some amazing [desertbus.org] amounts of money ($70,000 in 5 days) has been raised by such marathons.

    Very cool.

  • I kind of envy these guys. I used to be able to do stuff like this. Now I have kids... and a job. Rats...

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