Taken From: Child’s Play Charity Dinner
Child’s Play Charity Dinner
Posted by KPaul at 12/18/2006 5:00 PM PDT
Child’s Play is a charity organization run by the Penny Arcade guys. As with every successful venture, it was originally founded to settle a grudge. To date, Child’s Play has raised well over a million dollars in toys and cash. Last night they hosted their charity dinner, for which the main feature is the auction that raises an absurd amount of money.
This year and last, a bunch of Bungie fellas made it out to the event. I caught a couple of them schmoozing around during the silent auction portion of the night. Frank and Pete Parsons were hanging out by the elevators, while I found CJ Cowan browsing the silent auction, placing bids on several items under Frankie’s name.
He’s a hustler, baby, both in dress and in billiards
Fine members of the Halo community also showed up. I was able to catch some of the Cavegirls for a photo.
The people in the background weren’t really moving that fast. L to R: bs angel, TheDonWan and Cayote
The auction goes down in two waves. The first is a silent auction in which you write down your bid and identification number. There were a bunch of really cool items up for bid, including some Halo gear. There was a Halo faceplate signed by the Bungie crew, a copy of Ghosts of Onyx signed by Eric Nylund and a copy of the Halo Graphic Novel signed by Moebius. Aside from that, they had a whole mess of ultra cool gaming memorabilia ranging from collector’s editions of various games to posters signed by entire dev teams to press kits that the typical fan never has a chance to see let alone get their hands on.
One of the many items up for bids in the silent auction
After the silent auction portion of the evening we moved on to the live auction, in which there were a number or insanely awesome items up for grabs. Most of the items were either expensive pieces of hardware, signed pieces of hardware or things that you cannot buy otherwise. For example, Dark Horse auctioned off an appearance in an upcoming Star Wars comic and PA auctioned off an appearance in their upcoming game. This is also where Bungie comes in. Bungie put up two items for auction that pretty much any fan would kill to get a shot at. Unfortunately, bidding wars were settled financially and not with fights to the death as was suggested by certain attendees.
The audience dines while Tycho and Gabe emcee
Here are the two items that Bungie put up for bid, as described in the auction pamphlet:Lot #107 – Halo 3 Launch Party Pack
Halo 3’s launch party is a three-stage affair. The first part of the launch party will include all the fans they can cram into a room for multiplayer action. Later that evening they kick everyone out but the Bungie guys and gals and a few of their closest friends and family to celebrate Halo 3 hitting shelves. Later still, they hit the streets on Bungie Buses, making stops at as many Midnight Madness sales events around the Seattle area as possible, giving loyal fans waiting in line for their own copy of Halo 3 a great surprise! Guess who will be there for it all!?! You and your buddy! Along with the party experience you will also receive and autographed copy of Halo 3 when you arrive at the party, a chance for plenty of photo ops with the Bungie Gang and, most importantly, the chance to kick their butts in some MP action! Transportation to Bungie Studios is not included.
Lot #116 – Halo 3 Voiceover Line and a Tour of Bungie Studios
Be the first kid on your block to appear in the biggest game blockbuster of 2007! Winner will be given at least one line of dialogue from a minor character in Halo 3 to record in Bungie’s in-house recording booth. Wait, an in-house recording booth you say? Yes! In addition to the voiceover line, you and two guests will be treated to a tour of Bungie Studios in Kirkland, Washington. Transportation to Bungie Studios not included.
The first, the launch party with bus tour, went quickly with a lot of bidders firing initially but after it hit $1,000 there were only a couple left and it was only a few hundred more before one bowed out. The second item, the studio tour and line of dialog in Halo 3 was absolutely nuts. It just kept going. They jumped up to around $4,000 really quickly and then from there two groups bid against each other in increments of $100 with the occasional jump to the next $1000 mark. This went on until one group bid $9400 and the other man bowed out. This ended up being the second-highest amount paid for an item at the auction, an appearance in the PA adventure game going for a thousand bucks more. Oh, and the winning group fo the tour and dialogue? Red vs. Blue. I’m told their bid was fuelled in equal parts by generosity and liquid courage.
The Cavegirls showed up in force. L to R: FishEatNoodle, Frankie, TheDonWan, Cayote
When all was said and done, the event raised thousands of dollars and was, “ridiculously successful.” Gabe and Tycho were excellent emcees and everyone there seemed to be having a lot of fun, I know we did. One of the cooler things to have happened went down when they went to auction off the ginormous versions of PA comics that hung on the walls at PAX. Gabe and Tycho actually read them out loud, as their characters. Awkward, but hilarious nonetheless. Another awesome moment was the mystery box. After the box was one, the crowd demanded it be opened. The man then auctioned off the opening of the box, which went for something like $250. Goofy, yeah, but it’s still another $250, enough to get some hospital a Wii.
CJ Cowan repays KP on behalf of Alpha tester everywhere.
At the end of the night, we went to a nearby pool hall in Bellevue to wind down, have some drinks and shoot some pool. Unfortunately, Bob managed to keep his BAC well below legal limits, and the only one made a fool of was me, upon repeated losses to CJ Cowan. Not just a few, but something like ten. I stole a few games, though, and made it out of there with a shred of dignity.
Bob almost makes it out of the Child’s Play write up, unscathed. Almost. Kitty am shames.
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