Gaming for Societal Good - a manifesto and a pledge

Giant Bomb, a vibrant and great user-driven site I've been a devoted (but quiet) fan of for years, seems as good a place to lay this idea out as any.

Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare, tweeted near the start of E3: "Remember to keep perspective as we debate merits of $400/$500 games consoles; billions of people lack clean water, food, education, housing." That got me thinking.

I really do appreciate how fortunate I am. Fortunate, to live in the era of the birth of videogames, from the Atari 2600 my family had in my childhood all the way through to the ridiculously powerful consoles and PCs yet to come. How great is it to have the luxury of arguing about the gaming potential of the Xbox One, the PS4, the iPad, my PC, and myriad of other crazy technologies? And boy, I recognize that I'm really lucky that I can pretty much try out any of these things if I decide to do so.

Personally, I don't feel like my hobby, or my ability to pay for it, contributes to the world's problems. But how cool would it be if it can help solve them, at least in some small way? That's what Ray's tweet started me thinking about.

I've decided, very simply, my own personal plan for linking my gaming to a greater good. For every dollar that I spend on anything videogame related in the coming year, I intend to also donate a dollar to a good cause. I've always wanted to make myself donate more, and this gives me a framework that I'm hoping makes things a lot more interesting (especially given the release schedule for this year!)

That's where this blog comes in. My donations will come as close to the same time as the videogame purchase as possible, and where I can, I'll try to relate the philanthropy and the game... but at least I'll talk about both.

For example, I've been... well, at least trying to decide for this past week whether I'm a fan of Animal Crossing: New Leaf ... I haven't played the series before and don't have much by way of friends on the 3DS to connect to, so it's feeling like a very unstructured sandbox that I'm having trouble seeing the full point of, though I can't deny its charm. I'm still happy to give it a few minutes a day... the jury's not out and Tom Nook obviously wants more of my bells.

I'm matching it with a $35 donation to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. While there are many other big problems across the world to face (and I've got a whole year to donate to those causes too), I've always respected the ASPCA as one of the fine activism-in-actions kinds of organizations - you don't hear about them protesting or making symbolic gestures to get "public attention" to causes, you hear about them trying to find surrogate homes for abandoned pets, running spay/neuter campaigns, and otherwise getting out there making things happen. Hopefully I'll be as effective as mayor of my little town!

One final note, and this is important: this is something I'm doing because it makes me feel good to pair my self-indulgent hobby with something that feels more generous. If you don't believe in doing so, or can't afford to, I find no fault, cast no blame, make no judgment. You should do what's best for you and what you believe in. I'm simply doing what I believe in.

That said, if you are interested in participating, I'd love to hear about it. If you know of others doing the same thing, or have ideas or comments or anything, please feel free to let me know. It's ridiculously awkward trying to do this as a public act, but if it sparks any conversation or interest then maybe it can have an impact greater than my gaming/giving budget.

If you got this far, then you have my sincerest thanks for so much attention!

Here's a suggestion.

Buy your games as normal and when you're done, sell them. All used game money gets donated to charity.

Used games being used as a force for good. #OnlyOnPS4.

This idea might be not so good since you could get lazy and just not bother selling them. (since you gain nothing from doing so)

With OP's method he can sell games and keep the money as usual. Then use the money for more games + charity. OP's is a superior method.

@egg: Honestly, it's probably moot, since my dearest hope is that as many of the games I buy in the coming year will be digital, and I don't think I've ever sold back a game. But I like the way you think.

I guess @fourwude would be right if my goal in this were to do marketing for Sony, but right now it looks like they're doing fine without any help from me.

I help people in third world countries by buying costly video game things manufactured there.

Also, I'm a terrible person.

Good for you though!

@positivelygreg: I think that is a pretty boss and noble idea, though if i could make a suggestion? It might be better off donating to a local no kill shelter or to NSAL. I only say it because your money will actually go towards animals (and not a CEO). Merely a suggestion, and still think thats a pretty outstanding thing to do.

no thanks

thats actually not a bad idea i think.

lol at the hashtag

@positivelygreg: you could also look into this. http://www.getwellgamers.org/

Thanks for the suggestion! There are so many great gaming-philanthropy crossovers out there, and it's great to hear about more of 'em.

That's a good point. If I'm doing this right, I think I may learn a few things about philanthropy along the way, which sounds pretty awesome.

So from what I can find in a quick bit of Google research, one of the big downsides of the ASPCA is that it's really a New York based organization and funds contributed to it do not go to local SPCA shelters (which would probably be a surprise to a lot of people who donate to them). CEO pay is definitely a source of some criticism, and while they do important (and not very well recognized) efforts generating best practices and guidelines for local shelters, maybe they aren't quite as rosy as I portrayed them.

Thanks a ton for the suggestion. I don't regret the donation, but it does give me reason to follow up with something more locally meaningful in the future.

Here's my pledge: for every dollar I spend on video games, I will spend $2 on mountain dew and doritos. DO THE DEW