65 replies to this topic

[Egomane]

I believe most of the current supporters of the idea could do without any item. I know I couldn't care less if there is one involved or not. I, for example, am already supporting an anti-cancer organisation without any direct return.

This is included for those who need an incentive to do some good. It'll give them something to show or to justify it before themself. Not everyone is altruistic by heart, but they can be swayed by something little like a medallion, color or even premium time. It doesn't have to be something that is specifically designed, but those objects will probably draw a bigger crowd.

[no one]

Durant Carlyle, on 13 March 2014 - 08:02 AM, said:

I am saying that having a charity associated with MW:O does not require having an in-game item at all.

Absolutely true, but that doesn't really create much draw. I mean, if Egomane giving everyone the thumbs-up to donate was just as good, we'd already have all the monies for charity.

Durant Carlyle, on 13 March 2014 - 08:02 AM, said:

In fact, it would be better if there was absolutely no reward for the donation. That way, there is no cost (in man-hours, to create the in-game item or items) to PGI associated with it.

You're familiar with the concept of sunk costs, right? PGI is already developing and releasing new 'Mechs and content for the express purpose of raising funds for the game. If they're going to have new content released for MC anyway, and if they can generate funds for another good cause and garner interest in the game and/therefore revenue for themselves, then where's the downside?

Edit : Also a LOT of people are soured on organizations that do calls and such in the name of, sometimes even legitimate, charities and then skim huge chunks off donated funds. PGI managing something like this actually encourages people to donate just because PGI has a face. PGI is someone they already "do business" with, and trust not pocket all the money.

Edited by no one, 13 March 2014 - 12:31 PM.

[Durant Carlyle]

no one, on 13 March 2014 - 12:19 PM, said:

You're familiar with the concept of sunk costs, right? PGI is already developing and releasing new 'Mechs and content for the express purpose of raising funds for the game. If they're going to have new content released for MC anyway, and if they can generate funds for another good cause and garner interest in the game and/therefore revenue for themselves, then where's the downside?

I'm fairly certain they said there were some international laws in the way of them splitting the money between themselves and a charity, which is why the Sarah's Jenner purchase was outside the game and you couldn't purchase it with MC, and 100% of the proceeds went to the charity.

So it WOULD have to be a specially-designed item, only available for purchase outside the game, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the charity and PGI making no money from it.

Unless they found a different way to do things since then...

[Merd]

i think, that this is a great idea! of course you can donate directly to an organiation, but a lot of people don`t do this, because it is "to much work". But if they are here and they are playing it is easier to spent the money.

[no one]

Durant Carlyle, on 13 March 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

So it WOULD have to be a specially-designed item, only available for purchase outside the game, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the charity and PGI making no money from it.

In the sense that the Sarah's Jenner was a specially designed item, yes. It has to be a different item in the sense that it has to be purchased separately. That doesn't mean they can't use existing art assets for it, and PGI themselves don't need to make any money directly off the promotion for it to help them generate revenue incidentally, as I demonstrated with the special-champion crab concept.

[Flitzomat]

It seems that this discussion is mostly passing by North America, looking at the time the likes get klicked. I invite you to join the discussion or leave your like

[Spleenslitta]

Flitzomat, on 13 March 2014 - 01:49 PM, said:

It seems that this discussion is mostly passing by North America, looking at the time the likes get klicked. I invite you to join the discussion or leave your like

I gave you a thumbs up and i'm from Norway for what it's worth.
I concur with No One that this is a good way to put MWO in the spotlight while at the same time making certain that money goes to a good cause.

[paxmortis]

Thanks for that

A charity event will give money for a good cause and this is all times good.

I not know if 100% of the donated money need to be forwared to the organisation.

But what i think it will give PGI promotion and i think a better standing in the community, too.

Edited by paxmortis, 14 March 2014 - 04:08 AM.

[Mordoz]

+1

[Flitzomat]

Egomane, on 13 March 2014 - 08:15 AM, said:

need an incentive to do some good.

Thank you, you nailed it.

On the point that we should care about it ourselves:

Outreach of PGI > outreach of this thread
Experiences of PGI with a fundraising event > community
Experienmces with laws, rules and regulation fur such an event > community

I am all in for a strong involvment of the community but the patron should be PGI.

[Durant Carlyle]

Flitzomat, on 14 March 2014 - 06:14 AM, said:

...but the patron should be PGI.

No, it shouldn't. It wouldn't be realistic, nor fair, to expect them to "volunteer" their time for a constant charity. Even a once-a-year thing would have them burning out from doing their normal work AND the charity.

It shouldn't be limited to a thread. It should have its own web site, with some links from the MW:O site and other related sites like NGNG and MechSpecs and Smurfy and others. Gotta be some web designers playing MW:O. Don't need PGI for that.
Fundraising? Gotta be some MW:O players with fundraising experience. Don't need PGI for that.
Laws, rules, regulations? Gotta be some lawyers (or paralegals, or law students) that play MW:O. Could probably resort to using Google or (*gasp*) a library to look such things up. Don't need PGI for that.

PGI/IGP and (mostly) the community can advertise it, getting it all over Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, various gaming and news sites, etc.

You're all for a charity foundation or whatever, but don't want to take responsibility for it yourselves? Anybody can get excited over something that somebody else does all of the work for. You want to prove to the world how passionate and powerful the BattleTech/MechWarrior/MW:O community really is? Organize it. Get a committee going. Stop with the "+1s" and have meetings on one of the Comstar TS servers. Do some research. Take the idea and move forward with it.

[Katsuie Shibata]

+1

[Iacov]

+1

[Iqfish]

I donated 20€ to the german cancer help a few days ago.

You can donate money without buying a mech. Instead of writing "+1" here, go and donate as much as you can afford. It's a great feeling to know that you have helped a little bit and it's much more direct than this.

Edited by IqfishLP, 16 March 2014 - 11:10 AM.

[Hammerhai]

If I may be so bold: Those that leave us behind and go on forward are, sadly, gone, so anything that helps survivors of trauma and loss go on living and remembering would get my special vote for inclusion. Medical care ceases, wounds heal, but the memories remain and sometimes need to be dealt with.

Full disclosure: I am a veteran with symptoms of PTSD, so that is why I ring this bell. Note that emotional trauma can happen for any number of reasons, and to civilians as well, so this is not as narrow a category as it seems. But yes, I have a bias when it comes to this. Sadly, I do not know of any organisations which would qualify, except maybe medecins sans frontiers. Locally we have a counselling service called lifeline which does something like this.


2 Questions to the community:
Anyone know any deserving organisations providing emotional aftercare especially?
Do you feel this is a idea worth pursuing?

EDIT: I assumed a Mech by PGI, donation by us model. But a simple donation is fine by me too, just did not occur to me.




I would just like to point out one otherthing: While a contribution by PGI would be welcome let us please not forget that legal costs, research and administrative and organizational skills also have a worth to this event. (I assume this would fall on PGI basically by default). Also note this will be governed by Canadian law, which seems "difficult" wrt charity.

So I for my part feel this kind of backup is more needed by us the community and just as valuable. The simple idea of allowing us to buy more than one mech if we want to contribute more is already a simple and good one to generate more funds. So I would leave that one open to PGI's discretion. If they want to add value for us, they could release 3 variants of a mech as tiers for donation perhaps. I would love the opp'ty to get the Wyvern and Griffin with a bit of a boost, since I did not collect those particular Phoenix Mechs. But I am all for another event for charity in any case.

Edited by Hammerhai, 16 March 2014 - 07:08 PM.

[Hammerhai]

I would also caution against going total community driven charity. No need to reinvent the wheel when the expertise from the first time around is there. Alternatively the selection of the steering committee needs to be people basically making this their full time job. Expect such a project to need no less.

[Kenyon Burguess]

charity is a great thing, but what you are doing is peer pressuring a business and other gamers to take your view. please use kickstarter and don't put PGI in the position of having to work on a separate project instead of so many already unfinished projects in MWO.

[Hammerhai]

Good idea: Except.

Geist Null, on 16 March 2014 - 07:08 PM, said:

charity is a great thing, but what you are doing is peer pressuring a business and other gamers to take your view. please use kickstarter and don't put PGI in the position of having to work on a separate project instead of so many already unfinished projects in MWO.

It does disregard the emotional impact of giving as the MWO community and would water everything down. This is the hidden given in this discussion which you seem to have missed. Does Kickstarter avoid the legal hurdles likely to arise?

[Cpt Zippo]

+1
good idea, please do it

[Flitzomat]

We are not pressuring anyone.
You don´t have to participate in anything, nobody knows who bought Sarah's Mech...
It is also stated numerous times that Devs could "donate" their time if they are appealed by this idea.

Donating personally can always been done. Organizing small events within the community will come with private matches. And for the rest I think you are just missing the point.