Proceeds to go toward doctors and not Randy Pitchford.
Continue reading “Borderlands 3: Donate Five Bucks, Get A Digital Social Distancing Mask”
Tag: Donation
Warner Bros. Says It Won’t Profit Off Shadow of War DLC
Warner Bros. has spent the last week on the receiving end of some flack after the announcement that upcoming title Shadow of War would include a memorial to a deceased Monolith employee in the form of paid DLC. Some have accused the company of profiting off of the death of one of its employees.
Forthog Orc-Slayer appears in Shadow of War as part of a $4.99 paid DLC pack, he was created as a memorial to executive producer Michael Forgey who had passed away from a brain tumor last year. An NPC in the game, Forthog can show up when the player needs him most to lend a helping hand. The announcement also came with the statement that $3.50 from each sale would go directly to Forgey’s family through December 31, 2019.
Players quickly took umbrage with a caveat noted at the bottom of the video, that not only would the donation only include purchases made within the United States, and thus exclude other countries, but certain states would be excluded. While one can surmise that the exclusion of countries and states is due to various laws/regulations and not some malicious act, the response from Warner Bros. hasn’t done much to clear up the confusion.
"Neither Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment nor Monolith Productions will profit from any sales of the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC regardless of the territory in which that DLC is sold."
Reading between the lines on this statement suggests that Warner Bros. has a card up its sleeve to ensure that the money goes where it needs to, and in the likely event that this is related to local laws and regulations, it would not behoove WB to state publicly that they plan to circumvent said laws.
(Editor’s Thoughts: In all likelihood, we will never be told exactly how Warner Bros is going to make not donating and not profiting work, but if MMO Fallout had to throw in its two cents, I recommend looking at how Pachinko parlors in Japan. You can bypass just about any payout law by adding more steps and calling it something different.)
Donations directly to the family can be made through Youcaring.com.
Twitch Troll Loses Fifty Grand
You’ve got to pay the troll toll.
Twitch has opened up new lifelines for online personalities over the past couple of years, with many making a fair amount of their income with those at the top living pretty lavishly off of subscriptions and donations. In fact, the service has become such a platform that one rich individual decided to pull off a hilarious prank only to watch it backfire spectacularly.
The goal of the prank was simple, to donate money to various Twitch streamers in the sum of thousands of dollars only to go back a month later and reverse those charges. You can watch the video below to see the reaction of the people who received donations. Unfortunately when the wealthy individual went to recuperate his donations, Paypal denied all of his claims.
It’s a tough lesson, to be sure.
Carbine Studios Donates To Child's Play
This year at PAX East, Carbine Studios has announced a special donation to Child’s Play. In addition to a comically sized check for ten thousand dollars, Carbine Studios has partnered with LEGO artist Mariann Asanuma to recreate the Wildstar rocket house in all of its blocky glory. The structure stands three feet high and four feet long and is the result of fifty thousand LEGO blocks.
The rocket ship will be auctioned off later this year at the annual Child’s Play Dinner and Auction. Mona Hamilton, Vice President of Brands at Carbine Studios, weighed in on the contribution.
Child’s Play is a wonderful charity doing really great things with the gaming industry and we’re looking forward to seeing the result of the auction later this year. It was also important for us to say thanks by giving back to the Boston community; they’ve been great to us over the years at PAX East.
Child’s Play’s goal is to improve the lives of children in hospitals and welfare facilities through the positive impact of video games.
(Source: Carbine Studios Press Release)
Star Vault Accepting Donations In Return For Perks
It’s been a while since Star Vault released Mortal Online’s latest expansion, Awakening. While current development focus is aimed directly at squashing the numerous problematic bugs that have caused problems, John VanderZwet has posted an update on the Mortal Online website to detail some upcoming changes, including a donation system set up on the request of the community:
After a community forum thread got us thinking about a donation system, we’ve decided to run with it. Very soon we’ll be opening up a new section on our website allowing you to contribute to Mortal Online’s development outside standard subscriptions. It’ll work something like Kickstarter does, only we’ll be handling it on our own. You’ll receive cool perks for donating. The more you wish to donate the more you’ll receive. We’ll unveil just what these things are shortly, but we will NEVER introduce anything that will give you an advantage in the game. We’re talking cosmetic and just simply cool things here.
Additionally, Mortal Online will be updated to include a new system to accomplish two tasks: Aid new players, and introduce more casual options that do not detract from the overall game experience.
(Source: Mortal Online)
WoW: $1.9 Million To Japan Relief
Lods of emone! When Blizzard releases a new pet on the cash shop, you can bet that the GDP of a small island nation will find its way into the World of Warcraft coffers by the end of the month. Even better so, when 100% of the cost is for charity, at least you’ll have a good cause to attach to your new pet.
Blizzard announced that over $1.9 million has been donated to the Red Cross to assist in the Japan relief aid, in the form of a Cenarion Hatchling pet. This figure is a big notch in the increasing amount of charity donations over the past few years by developers and players, and as the MMO Fallout mantra has remained: If you’re going to compete, why not compete over who can donate more?
Hello Kitty Online: No, THIS Is How You Charity
Hello Kitty Online has a proposition: How would you like to donate money to charity by playing video games, and by video games I mean Hello Kitty Online? If you answered yes, then do I have the deal for you!
In Hello Kitty Online, a special drive is going up next week in the form of a guild game, called Food for Friends 2. Players needs to go to HKO’s version of London, and speak to an NPC named Cinnamaroll, who is collecting consumable items for charity. Players have to be in a guild for this event, and the more they donate, the more points their guild generates. The points are converted to donations that will be paid for by the sponsors of the event, and the players who donate consumables will also be able to receive points for the item mall.
You can find the announcement here, and this donation drive is perfect for people who have a couple extra hours next week, but don’t necessarily have extra cash to donate. Is helping disaster relief worth playing Hello Kitty Online? Do I really have to ask that?
MMO Fallout 