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[Paul Eres]

i do think games are necessary to every culture, but not *videogames*. there are a lot cheaper games than 60$ games that require 300$ systems. there's chess, monopoly, scrabble, a deck of cards (countless games can be played with a 1$ deck of cards), and so on. so no, i do not feel that videogames are necessary at all, and subsidizing AAA videogame companies through child's play is not something i'd like to do. and that's what child's play buys: it's not buying indie games for hospitals, it's not buying classic videogames, it's buying the most popular and newest games. and those are by and large garbage and not worth playing. i'd say they're even worse than soda (although it's hard to compare since they're different things)

[PompiPompi]

I don't think all AAA titles are bad. Also, the article I read about that linked creativity to playing games said that almost ANY PC\Video game will do this effect.
But anyway, I looked at child's play website, and from the FAQ it SEEMS like the hospitals are the ones asking for which items to buy. So it might be just the ignorance from people who arn't really aware of indie games.
Also, from the FAQ it seems that it is possible to request items that are not exclusivly video games.

Also, I would think buying really old machines and consoles would be more trouble, because the hospital crew might not get along with this "old tech". It would be harder for them to trouble shoot consoles that do not have official support anymore.

[Paul Eres]

well, i'm not exactly recommending that child's play buy hospitals super nintendos instead of playstation 3's. i think the best thing to do would just to give them *computers*, because with a computer connected to the internet, you can play tons of games for free (flash games for instance, or all the freeware games we make), and you can watch youtube and basically explore the world from your bed. if i were sick with cancer i'd far rather have a bad internet connection and a lousy laptop than all the top of the line consoles and console games in the world

[PompiPompi]

well, i'm not exactly recommending that child's play buy hospitals super nintendos instead of playstation 3's. i think the best thing to do would just to give them *computers*, because with a computer connected to the internet, you can play tons of games for free (flash games for instance, or all the freeware games we make), and you can watch youtube and basically explore the world from your bed. if i were sick with cancer i'd far rather have a bad internet connection and a lousy laptop than all the top of the line consoles and console games in the world

That is possibley what they are doing. Do you know they only buy PS3 and Xbox360?
Though, I know from my workplace that a hospital has very strict rules about internet. Not sure if it's security reasons, or privacy of data, or what... but I know that at the hospital we work with we couldn't ask our machine to have internet access.

[Zaphos]

I would prefer charities other than child's play, too.

Not sure how much interest there would be in pwyw for jam games.  But I'm not opposed to trying it out anyway.

but I know that at the hospital we work with we couldn't ask our machine to have internet access.

If those machines handle patient info, it's probably for privacy reasons.  Presumably the patients would not use machines that are connected to sensitive data or equipment.

[Paul Eres]

child's play works exclusively through amazon.com wishlists, so you can see exactly what they're sending to hospitals. it's possible they're sending computers there, but i haven't seen it in my cursory searches. seems to be mostly games, toys, and movies

[Manuel Magalhães]

If all the money for the HIB came to the ACS or the ARC these kids could be alive and then they could be playing all the video-games they want. While anyone can go to an hospital and say "I want to donate my Playstation" you can't donate medical supply/research to it.
That said I don't see what's wrong on playing AAA/whatever video-games when someone is in a terminal state. If someone is reading Hamlet and an another person is playing "Far Cry" it's their choice, and I think if you are going to die you should do whatever you like the most before it.

[PompiPompi]

If all the money for the HIB came to the ACS or the ARC these kids could be alive and then they could be playing all the video-games they want. While anyone can go to an hospital and say "I want to donate my Playstation" you can't donate medical supply/research to it.
That said I don't see what's wrong on playing AAA/whatever video-games when someone is in a terminal state. If someone is reading Hamlet and an another person is playing "Far Cry" it's their choice, and I think if you are going to die you should do whatever you like the most before it.

I don't like this suffering arithmetics you are doing. People die from all sort of reasons, crime for instance. If all the people in the world spent all their free time to help others instead of enjoying themselves or playing games, maybe we could save more people.
I also find it funny that Paul tells me Child's play is ineffective and the money could have been used to save peoples' lives when he himselves advocates living in urban areas with high population density which lead to violent crime.
If he was really about to save every life possible the most effecient way, he would have given up his lifestyle and advocate a type of dwellings that have less crime.

The bottom line, charity is far from the solution to the worlds' problems and one charity is not more justified than the other. Even if one saves more lives than the other. If your goal is to save lives no matter what, then you must do a lot more than charities, because charaties are only an attempt to fix a problem that should(theorethically) be prevented in the first place.

[Cow]

I also find it funny that Paul tells me Child's play is ineffective and the money could have been used to save peoples' lives when he himselves advocates living in urban areas with high population density which lead to violent crime.

wat

If he was really about to save every life possible the most effecient way, he would have given up his lifestyle and advocate a type of dwellings that have less crime.

wat

The bottom line, charity is far from the solution to the worlds' problems and one charity is not more justified than the other. Even if one saves more lives than the other. If your goal is to save lives no matter what, then you must do a lot more than charities, because charaties are only an attempt to fix a problem that should(theorethically) be prevented in the first place.

wat

[PaleFox]

I also find it funny that Paul tells me Child's play is ineffective and the money could have been used to save peoples' lives when he himselves advocates living in urban areas with high population density which lead to violent crime.
If he was really about to save every life possible the most effecient way, he would have given up his lifestyle and advocate a type of dwellings that have less crime.

what is privilege
what is not having enough money to move

I DONT UNDERSTAND ECONOMICS HELP

[Superb Joe]

If all the money for the HIB came to the ACS or the ARC these kids could be alive and then they could be playing all the video-games they want. While anyone can go to an hospital and say "I want to donate my Playstation" you can't donate medical supply/research to it.
That said I don't see what's wrong on playing AAA/whatever video-games when someone is in a terminal state. If someone is reading Hamlet and an another person is playing "Far Cry" it's their choice, and I think if you are going to die you should do whatever you like the most before it.

I don't like this suffering arithmetics you are doing. People die from all sort of reasons, crime for instance. If all the people in the world spent all their free time to help others instead of enjoying themselves or playing games, maybe we could save more people.
I also find it funny that Paul tells me Child's play is ineffective and the money could have been used to save peoples' lives when he himselves advocates living in urban areas with high population density which lead to violent crime.
If he was really about to save every life possible the most effecient way, he would have given up his lifestyle and advocate a type of dwellings that have less crime.

The bottom line, charity is far from the solution to the worlds' problems and one charity is not more justified than the other. Even if one saves more lives than the other. If your goal is to save lives no matter what, then you must do a lot more than charities, because charaties are only an attempt to fix a problem that should(theorethically) be prevented in the first place.

[PaleFox]

i remember one class, long ago, wherein during a discussion of economic issues in africa one person suggested every african just move to america since "there are no jobs in africa"

he suggested all africans are just "stubborn"

i think you will agree, pompi, that that would solve all their problems

[PompiPompi]

Oh, the jerk circle and their leader, Superb Joe, have found this thread.
I will explain it to you as if you were children.

Don't complain about charities not being the most efficient in saving lives, if you yourselves prefer a life style that is not the most efficient in(contributing to) saving lives.

I hope this is clear enough? You can start your mouth foaming righticious rambling bellow this line...

-------------------------------------

[Paul Eres]

i remember one class, long ago, wherein during a discussion of economic issues in africa one person suggested every african just move to america since "there are no jobs in africa"

he suggested all africans are just "stubborn"

i think you will agree, pompi, that that would solve all their problems

i remember something similar; in school someone in my class suggested that the way to end world starvation is to teach everyone how to fish

[PompiPompi]

If those simplified examples are aimed to make my statement look as stupid as some ignorant child from school, then this is just a straw man argument.
I will let you find the difference between my statement and those examples as a home assigment...