The Humble Indie Bundle--a collection of indie PC games that allow the user to pick any price and donate any portion to charity--has been sweeping the internet today. With that in mind, we asked our Twitter community to produce additional charity-based sales initiatives.
After a successful debut back in the Spring, the Humble Indie Bundle has made a return for the holiday season, this time including the likes of Braid and Machinarium. With the HIB spreading goodwill amongst the gaming community, we asked our near-23,000 Twitter followers to suggest additional ways games could collect charitable donations. Here's the question we posed:
Inspired by this (http://bit.ly/hvcsBL), the best reply gets a new Razer headset: What other games-charity combos would you like to see?less than a minute ago via TweetDeck
GamePro
GamePro
Roughly half of the replies consisted of additional bundle ideas. We're always fans of seeing games sold in neat packages, so we've got no problem putting these bundle ideas forth:
@GamePro Adventure games bundle? Kings Quests, Monkey Islands, Mysts, Zork for no reason, Grim Fandango, and Day of the Tentacle, oh 80/90sless than a minute ago via TweetDeck
Skram
Skrammas
@GamePro RPG crazy bundle including Dragon Age complete, Mass Effect 1& 2, and finally Baldurs Gate Complete.less than a minute ago via web
ropes
ropes
@GamePro I'd like to see a bundle of XBL Indie/Arcade games where Microsoft matches the total raised. A great cause and great PR for MS.less than a minute ago via web
Josh Isom
Isom405
The rest of the respondents had game-related fundraising ideas, which ran the gamut from natural to off-the-wall. Since all of them had charity in mind, we're publishing them here:
@GamePro A GT5/American Cancer Society Video Game Relay for Life. Teams do 24 hours on a track just like a real Relay event.less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone
Aaron Tarpine
amtarpine
@GamePro How about a massive multiplayer walkathon using Kinect?less than a minute ago via web
cClinkenbeard
sicky_south
@GamePro For LBP/LBP2, it would be cool if money was donated to a charity every time a community level reaches a specific number of plays.less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone
Argel319 M.D
Argel319
For today's top tweet, we decided to award the Razer headset to sicky_south, since his suggestion simultaneously set off visions of walk-athons and "Hands Across America" in our heads. Congrats, s_s--please send a direct message to GamePro on Twitter by the end of the week to claim your prize.
While plenty of other fund-raising initiatives exist in the gaming industry--like Child's Play and Umloud--the Humble Indie Bundle has provided a unique dual-pronged effort to encourage both charitable donations and paying game creators properly for their efforts. Given the success of the original Bundle, we're betting this one will benefit everyone again.
What do you think of the suggestions above? Are there any suggestions that you would add? Please continue the conversation by responding in the comment section below or by replying to GamePro on Twitter.
Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2010