Icewalker
2011-11-20, 05:52 AM
I'm surprised there wasn't already a thread! I'm pretty sure there was one last year at least, if not before that too.
Desert Bus for Hope (http://desertbus.org/) is a charity gaming marathon which sketch comedy group Loading Ready Run (http://loadingreadyrun.com/) does every year, donating to the Child's Play (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/) charity organization.
Now, "gaming" marathon may be a stretch, as the game they play in 24 hour shifts (nonstop for a length determined by donations) is the most boring game ever created: you drive a bus, down a straight road, between Tuscon, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. This is an 8 hour drive. In real time. Through an empty desert. The bus also lists slightly to the side, so you have to keep adjusting it or it will go off the side of the road, causing you to crash, and be towed back to the city you started from...also in real time. If you finish the 8 hour drive? You get 1 point. And turn around and start the drive back. Did I mention you can't pause? And if you stop the bus, it overheats and crashes as well?
The entire event has a constant live feed, where the crew of LRR and assorted guests hold auctions towards the charity drive, do challenges set to them for donation promises, and generally hang about and are thoroughly entertaining. They have some pretty notable guests and call-ins, including Penn of Penn and Teller (the two of them were actually behind the creation of the game Desert Bus years back, in response to claims that gaming was unrealistic), Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation, Jonathan Coulton, and so on.
This is the fifth year they've run Desert Bus, and they have reached a grand total of $500,000 in donations between all of the events. It's enormous fun.
As an added note from myself, I publish an online fiction magazine, Tales from the Menagerie (http://www.talesfromthemenagerie.com/) (you may've seen ads for it here on GitP in the past). We've got one issue out right now, for sale as a pdf for $3. While Desert Bus for Hope is running, we're going to be donating ALL profits off the sales of Tales from the Menagerie to Desert Bus. So if you want to donate some money towards the charity, while still getting something in return (about 50 pages of awesome fiction, art, and poetry), that is an option available to you. But you really should all go get on the live feed, and join in the chat, and check out this fantastic event! (http://desertbus.org/)
Desert Bus for Hope (http://desertbus.org/) is a charity gaming marathon which sketch comedy group Loading Ready Run (http://loadingreadyrun.com/) does every year, donating to the Child's Play (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/) charity organization.
Now, "gaming" marathon may be a stretch, as the game they play in 24 hour shifts (nonstop for a length determined by donations) is the most boring game ever created: you drive a bus, down a straight road, between Tuscon, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. This is an 8 hour drive. In real time. Through an empty desert. The bus also lists slightly to the side, so you have to keep adjusting it or it will go off the side of the road, causing you to crash, and be towed back to the city you started from...also in real time. If you finish the 8 hour drive? You get 1 point. And turn around and start the drive back. Did I mention you can't pause? And if you stop the bus, it overheats and crashes as well?
The entire event has a constant live feed, where the crew of LRR and assorted guests hold auctions towards the charity drive, do challenges set to them for donation promises, and generally hang about and are thoroughly entertaining. They have some pretty notable guests and call-ins, including Penn of Penn and Teller (the two of them were actually behind the creation of the game Desert Bus years back, in response to claims that gaming was unrealistic), Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation, Jonathan Coulton, and so on.
This is the fifth year they've run Desert Bus, and they have reached a grand total of $500,000 in donations between all of the events. It's enormous fun.
As an added note from myself, I publish an online fiction magazine, Tales from the Menagerie (http://www.talesfromthemenagerie.com/) (you may've seen ads for it here on GitP in the past). We've got one issue out right now, for sale as a pdf for $3. While Desert Bus for Hope is running, we're going to be donating ALL profits off the sales of Tales from the Menagerie to Desert Bus. So if you want to donate some money towards the charity, while still getting something in return (about 50 pages of awesome fiction, art, and poetry), that is an option available to you. But you really should all go get on the live feed, and join in the chat, and check out this fantastic event! (http://desertbus.org/)