Charity

Playing games and saving lives

Videogames that provide more than entertainment

Videogames can be played to escape reality, but recently they’ve been used to impact it in tangible ways. Games don’t have to be self-centered, and a few visionaries are making it possible to use gaming for giving.

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With the mere tap of an iPhone screen, users can provide water, food and shelter to Kapir Atiira, a once thriving Ugandan village ransacked by war and struggling with the basic necessities of survival.

“Raise the Village,” a simulation town-building game for the iPhone, allows users to build a virtual African village while simultaneously helping to build the real Ugandan village of Kapir Atiira through in-game donations. The gameplay is reminiscent of “Age of Empires” while the business model is similar to Facebook gaming sensation “FarmVille,” which is free to play but has virtual items for sale.

Joey Sasvari, co-founder of New Charity Era, the Gainesville-based charity organization responsible for “Raise the Village,” said he wanted to offer users a giving experience they couldn’t achieve from blindly mailing off a check once a month.

“That’s fulfilling to people. They could be playing ‘FarmVille’ or these other games and putting the same amount of time and effort into it,” Sasvari said. “Yet, they’re helping out real people in real life and seeing the results of their money.”

Users can spend actual money to purchase in-game currency and then spend it on items for their village like beans, mosquito nets and soap. As items are purchased in the game, their real-world counterparts are purchased in Uganda and delivered once a month to Kapir Atiira.

Pictures are taken when the items are distributed among the villagers and then sent back to the iPhones of the generous gamers who made it possible. With enough taps, users can afford a young child the right to attend school past the village’s average sixth-grade education level.

The concept of charitable gaming doesn’t end with New Charity Era’s “Raise the Village.” In the past few years, a number of videogame-centered organizations and games focused on charity have emerged, giving gamers a chance to become more philanthropic with their hobby.

Japan Tsunami Relief

Tragedy can strike at any moment, and a few companies have risen in the aftermath of the recent Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan to give when it’s needed most.

Child’s Play

While possibly the largest gaming charity organization in America, with over 100,000 donors and over $7 million raised since 2003, Child’s Play still remains personal and effective in local hospitals across the globe.

The Behemoth

The creative minds behind “Castle Crashers” like to use downloadable content to donate to smaller charitable organizations.

DonateGames

This Los Angeles-based organization is waging war on rare diseases by taking in used games.

Extra Life

According to Extra Life, charity fundraising should be fun. The annual 24-hour gaming marathons they host show how serious they are about that sentiment.

If you’re a gamer, there are any number of charities you can begin to get involved with, and they’re all contained within the hobby you love. If you want to help send another 17,600 pounds of beans to Kapir Atiira, help a child with cancer or provide emergency relief to a country, you’d better start playing.