Fandom Lounge's Journal - Day

3:36PM - Charitable Schadenfreude

So, many of you have probably heard of this or saw last year's, but I thought I'd share it all the same.

Desert Bus for Hope is a charity event for Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. It goes like this: They play the most monotonous video game ever, the legendary Desert Bus for a certain number of hours, with the number of hours based on the donations they get. The donations continue while they play, adding more time. Each hour costs more. They have live streams of the bus, the drivers, and a chat where you can talk to them. Every thousand dollars there's a bit of macrospam on the site in celebration.

As of when I'm posting this, they've been playing for almost 22 hours, out of 101 currently paid for with over $13,000 in donations, and have one point, working on 2. Last year they got $22,800 and six points, the world record. They're looking to break both.

It's good fun for us, torturous for them, and hey, if you're going to contribute to the suffering of others, might as well do it charitably.

ETA: Well, they broke the important record. They just broke $25,000 and counting, committed to 110 hours, of which they've played about 64. They haven't gotten more than 6 points though. They keep crashing.

ETA2: So Gabe and Tycho decided to match the next $10,000 that came in after about $25,500. Current count since the announcement? $5000 has already been donated, bringing them up to 30K and something like 113 hours. There will be at least $5000 coming from PA, probably more as more donations come in. The boys almost cried when Tycho called and told them about it.

ETA3: PA's Operation: Infinite Bus has come and gone. The current total is over $51,000 and they're less than $200 away from 121 hours. Their suffering tastes like candy. Delicious, charitable candy.