If you attended PAX East 2014 this year, you might have seen LEGO Artist extraordinaire, Mariann Asanuma, constructing a WildStar Rocket House made entirely from Lego pieces. As promised, Carbine Studios donated the entire 50,000 piece Rocket House, along with a $10,000 check, to Child's Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games.

EverQuest® and EverQuest® II Players Contribute During Month-long Campaign

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) joined forces with players of its popular online video games to support the Child's Play 2009 Winter Charity Drive. The fundraising efforts culminated this week with a donation of more than $20,000 to the Child’s Play charity.

 

The month-long fundraising campaign supported Child's Play; an organization that's purpose is to improve the lives of hospitalized children across the nation. SOE donated $10 each time an EverQuest® or EverQuest® II player bought a specific Child's Play virtual item on the Marketplace with Station Cash, SOE's recently introduced in-game currency. The in-game items purchased by players are theirs to keep within the online virtual worlds.

 

"The ability of our players to make a donation of this magnitude in these tough economic times is beyond anything we could have hoped for," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "As we continue to diversify with programs like Station Cash we will be able to offer unique items that benefit not only our players, but other partnerships and organizations such as Child's Play in this case."

 

Founded in 2003, Child's Play is a game industry charity that is dedicated to providing children with toys and age-appropriate games at more than 40 hospitals worldwide.

 

For more information, visit www.childsplaycharity.org and www.station.com.

Source: SOE Press Release

Sony Online Entertainment has teamed up with Child's Play. Child's Play is a charity dedicated to donating toys, games, books and cash for sick children across North America. This is a whole new angle for Child's Play, and will give them more ink and more attention than they previously garnered.

"We're excited to announce a month-long fundraising campaign in the online worlds of EverQuest and EverQuest 2. Please visit our Events page to see how you can purchase in-game items that show your support of Child’s Play!"

Not only is it a creative way to raise money, but it's a fantastic way to make sure those ailing children can at least be entertained while they are cared for: Kudos to Sony for thinking outside the box and making their lives a bit more comfortable!

Source: Child's Play

We have a ton of links to share with you in this week's recap of our exclusive content and noteworthy news items (which can be found after the jump). With the holiday season upon us, most MMOs are celebrating with numerous events. Some, such as World of Warcraft's Feast of Winter Veil, are listed below. Whichever game you play, take some time to enjoy the festivities. Also, feel free to browse our news archive to check out everything that couldn't fit in this weekly recap.

Allakhazam Features

Dangers of Sanrio Town : Hello Kitty Online features an in-depth social network. While it's a good tool for meeting other players, it could be dangerous for the game's younger fans.

Ten Years of Lineage II : Sam Han, Lineage II Producer for NCsoft West, and Young Park, the original Lineage Production Assistant for NCsoft West, talk with us about the Lineage franchise.

Jumpgate Evolution Media #3 : These exclusive screenshots showcase fighters class ships and factories that are used in crafting.

Swordsman Screenshots : We take an in-depth look at this class from IGG's free-to-play Zu Online.

Station Crap : Allakhazam Editor-in-Chief Andrew "Tamat" Beegle has a less than favorable personal opinion on SOE's new Station Cash microtransaction service. What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments section.

The Allakhazam team has always been supportive of Child's Play, a nonprofit charity created by Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik that provides games and toys to children in hospitals throughout the world.

The fifth annual Child's Play charity dinner auction was held on Dec. 9 and it raised more than $200,000 in contributions, pushing the current running total to $1.07 million! Considering the goal of this year's drive was only $750,000, this number is just amazing.

Here's one of the best highlights of the event: "Jerry Holkins ended the live auction with an impromptu call for bids on him writing 'a song about how awesome you are,' closing at $4,300." You can read the full press release about the dinner action below, and don't forget to visit the Child's Play Web site.

Numerous online communities have teamed up with GamerDNA.com to raise money for Child's Play, a nonprofit charity created by Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik that provides games and toys to children in hospitals throughout the world.

All you have to do is visit GamerDNA's event page and pick one of 12 communities you would like to represent, including the MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Sea. You then take a quiz and get a virtual badge you can post on your Myspace page, blog, forums etc. to draw attention to the event. The community with the most badge views at the end of the month wins and gets to choose the children's hospital that will receive six Nintendo DS systems and games from GamerDNA.

You can also choose to pitch in to Child's Play on behalf of your favorite community. Currently, Pirates of the Burning Sea has 467 badge views and has raised $50 through direct donations. ElitistJerks.com is leading the pack with 660,635 badge views and $1,411 through direct donations. Read the full press release after the jump for more information and a full list of participating communities.

The Child's Play Charity Dinner Auction will be held Dec. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Ticket sales end Friday, so hurry if you'd like to attend. Tickets cost $125 for the semi-formal dinner, which includes a $60 tax-deductible donation to Child's Play. The charity provides games and toys to children in more than 60 hospitals around the world, so it's certainly for a good cause.

According to a press release, a live auction will be held at the event, and one of the notable items up for bid is a bronze-cast World of Warcraft statue of an orc and wolf mount, given exclusively to Blizzard Entertainment employees.

A recent news post on the main page of the Child's Play Web site states total donations hit the $560,000 mark last week, which brings the charity well on its way to the $750,000 goal for this year. Child's Play was created in 2003 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.

The Child's Play 2008 charity drive has officially launched, and the Web site has been updated so you can donate toys and games to children in hospitals worldwide. The charity was organized in 2003 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.

We ended our 2007 drive with over 1.3 million dollars in donations, thanks to gamers all over the globe. We’re welcoming ten new hospitals in Canada and the US to the Child’s Play network, so please have a look at the map to see if your local children’s hospital has come on board. Every hospital has a wish list full of gifts, and is hoping for your support.

We hope you'll visit the Child's Play site and consider purchasing some gifts. All you have to do is click on a hospital on the map and you'll be sent to the hospital's wish list on Amazon.com. It's that simple. For more information, check out Mike's recent post on the Penny Arcade site. The "thank you" letter they received from a hospital in Connecticut says it all. The full post is also below.