The good people over at Penny Arcade have started up the 2009 Child's Play drive, and since this is something I can really get behind, I thought I'd take a couple moments to talk about it. I don't have any personal stake in it; it's just a cause I really believe in. We spend a lot of time here at GameSpot arguing, but I think that this is something that we as gamers can all get behind.

To be brief, Child's Play is a charity drive that is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. The ultimate point of the charity is essentially to provide entertainment for children in hospitals that would not otherwise be able to afford it. This might sound like a rather trivial cause to donate to, but it's not, really - many of these children spend days, weeks, months in the hospital, going through extremely draining treatments and procedures that suck the life out of them. There are many charities out there whose purpose is to save lives, and that's as admirable a cause as any, but I think equally important is quality of life, too, and that's exactly what Child's Play aims to help with. Gabe and Tycho get tons of letters testifying about just how much the charity impacts the kids at these hospitals. Other charities save lives; this charity gives kids life to be saved.

One of my favorite things about Child's Play is its format - whenever a hospital signs on to participate in the charity drive, they create a wish list on Amazon of things that they want for their patients. Anyone who wants to donate can load up one of those wish lists, add the items they'd like to donate to their cart, and then pay as they would normally on Amazon. What I really love about this setup is that it makes your donations fundamentally real. Whereas most charities simply ask for a nebulous sum of money, whose ultimate destination one will likely never know, here you know exactly what you're giving. It makes things very modular, as well - if all you can spare is $5 for a box of crayons, then you can do exactly that. Or, if you want to go all out and splurge on the kids, then you can do that too.

There are participating hospitals in 42 US states plus DC and in 7 Canadian provinces, as well as in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Egypt (although hospitals in these last three can only accept PayPal donations). So, chances are you just might find a location near you filled with kids who need your help to brighten their holidays - holidays that they may well be forced to spend away from home. You can find the map with locations here; to donate, just click on one of the controller icons (you can see what hospital it corresponds to by hovering your cursor over the icon) and add the items you'd like to give to your cart. Even if there isn't a place close to home, there are no rules saying you have to donate locally - no matter what location you pick, the children will be as happy as anywhere else to receive your help.

Or, if you'd like to directly donate money to the general cause, there's a PayPal link for that as well.

Like I said, the format makes it very easy to give as little or as much as you want - so even if you can spare just a little bit, you can still help make someone's life that much better. Or if you can't spare money, spread the word instead - reaching someone who might donate who otherwise wouldn't have heard of the charity is just as valuable a contribution.

A funny fact about Child's Play is that it was originally created almost as a challenge to gamers in response to a negative article about video games - and the response was so overwhelmingly positive that the writer of the original article apologized and celebrated the effort. Every year, Child's Play both helps kids and reminds the world that gamers aren't antisocial recluses, but caring individuals just like everyone else. None of this would be possible were it not for the efforts of gamers just like us - so let's all do our part for the kids.

Then we can get back to our arguments.