Last week at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, SOE donated $10,000 to the local Habitat for Humanity, with the funds being gathered from in-game events during the recent demolition of unused player housing in Star Wars Galaxies.

At a cocktail reception during the Austin Game Developers Conference, Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) Austin studio presented the local Habitat for Humanity (HfH) with a $10,000 donation to their efforts to end poverty housing in the area. The funds were raised as part of an in-game event for the company's Star Wars Galaxies Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video game, where players were allowed to demolish abandoned or unoccupied player-created houses and buildings. Fighters from the Galactic Demolitions Crew swooped down from the stars and bombed the buildings.

A crowd of more than 150 was on hand at the Speakeasy in Austin to see SOE Austin VP of Development John Blakely present Austin HfH Executive Director Michael Willard with an oversized photo check for the donation.

Read more here.

Hey look it's sony's 2006 annual report!

www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/2006/qfhh7c00000akslc-att/qfhh7c00000aksmr.pdf

they cleared 63 billion dollars in 2006. For frame of reference, lets say some guy makes 63 thousand dollars a year.

$63,000,000,000 = 63 billion

                $10,000 = 10 thousand

$63,000.000,000 = 63 thousand

       $00.010,000 = 1 cent

So in effect sony's shameless act of philantropy was equivalent to you or I chucking a penny to some bum on the street.

That is of course if you ignore the fact that the money wasn't even sony's, but rather schilled from the mindless sheep that still pay to play star wars galaxies.

 My frickin' heroes....

Maybe they are creating a Habitat for Humanity refuge for the 10,000 players that still play SWG, MXO, and Planetside...

By giving the check now HfH can begin to create the shelters for when $OE pulls the plug in early 2008 on those 3 games, to make room for the new fancy upcomming titles to replace them on Station Access. Gods n Heros, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Agency.

 cool

Originally posted by BigBlackWook

Hey look it's sony's 2006 annual report!

www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/2006/qfhh7c00000akslc-att/qfhh7c00000aksmr.pdf

they cleared 63 billion dollars in 2006. For frame of reference, lets say some guy makes 63 thousand dollars a year.

$63,000,000,000 = 63 billion

                $10,000 = 10 thousand

$63,000.000,000 = 63 thousand

       $00.010,000 = 1 cent

So in effect sony's shameless act of philantropy was equivalent to you or I chucking a penny to some bum on the street.

That is of course if you ignore the fact that the money wasn't even sony's, but rather schilled from the mindless sheep that still pay to play star wars galaxies.

 My frickin' heroes....

 

But SOE is just a Sub Division within Sony Pictures.  I imagine there isn't even a listing in Sony Pictures papers for SOE.. because then some share holder would see that "soe" just losses money.

So in relative terms they just donated more money than SOE actually makes a year for Sony Pictures.... -> Sony Corp.

oh and yes I'm being sarcastic (not to you) .. but when you think of it in those terms.. it was a huge donation.

Whoopty doo!

This is Sony we're talking about here. $10,000? Come on. I know, every little bit helps, but again it's Sony. Now if it were something like $100,000 or $10,000,000, that would be much more reasonable to gloat over. $10k is basically pocket change to them... Anyway, I guess good on SOE for giving as much as...they...could.

How thoughtful of Sony to donate 0.001% of what they earn to the local habitat. It's the thought that really counts though, at least they did something with the ton of money they gain.

At a cocktail reception during the Austin Game Developers Conference, Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) Austin studio presented the local Habitat for Humanity (HfH) with a $10,000 donation to their efforts to end poverty housing in the area. The funds were raised as part of an in-game event for the company's Star Wars Galaxies Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video game, where players were allowed to demolish abandoned or unoccupied player-created houses and buildings. Fighters from the Galactic Demolitions Crew swooped down from the stars and bombed the buildings.

A crowd of more than 150 was on hand at the Speakeasy in Austin to see SOE Austin VP of Development John Blakely present Austin HfH Executive Director Michael Willard with an oversized photo check for the donation.

HAHA! Looks like it wasn't SOE's money. This may not be the case, but anyone who has ever dealt with SOE knows to read between the lines and look for the worst. BAH!SOE could give all their money to charity and I would still hope the DIAF!

If the article read "an anonymous MMO company has raised and donated $10k to charity xyz" would people be so ready to criticize?

i mean, taking whatever percentages you want into account, isn't the more important thing that a charity is has $10k more to help the community then they did the previous day? Sure, a company can and should always do more, but the alternative would have been no announcement and no money going to charity.

There are enough other things to beat up SOE over aside from giving money to charity.

Agreed. SOE may be the devil incarnate (specially after you rewatch the Matrix movies and play MxO) but at least that helps people in need, brings attention to those who didn't know about MMORPGs and shows concerned parents one actual positive thing coming out of that "blasted game" their children keep playing at all times.

Originally posted by mklinic

If the article read "an anonymous MMO company has raised and donated $10k to charity xyz" would people be so ready to criticize?

 

What company would do that? You wouldn't even get your name mentioned on a gaming website.   

Anyone here even considering, throwing disparaging comments in regarding SOE donating money to charity should be thouroughly ashamed, charities will be totally apreciative if it be 1c or 1 billion dollars beacause it all adds up.

Good on them publicity stunt or not the charity benefits, but hey i guess most peeps here are wrapped up in their own sad little lives to be able to consider the bigger picture.

Just sit and think how much you all individually contribute to a good cause, without a hand tied behind your backs and if the answer is, yes i do my bit you won't be here criticising...

So that just leaves the people who use any opportunity to slate/flame  SOE SHAME SHAME SHAME

(I just love the dregs that reside in these forums, it's a good form of therapy I use coming here, to make myself realise how bad things can realy get if you don't keep on top of things).

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Originally posted by Szark
Last week at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, SOE's customers donated $10,000 to the local Habitat for Humanity, with the funds being gathered from in-game events during the recent demolition of unused player housing in Star Wars Galaxies.

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fixed...

they collected it...they were not the source of the money so you cannot say SOE donated the money because it was never THEIR money.

Why shouldn't we criticize a company trying to use the generosity of their customers to make the company look better?

Now if SOE had matched the donations of their customers I would applaud them for it...but this is simply an attempt to get good PR by exploiting their playerbase.

I applaud their customers and the staff members donating their time...thank you for trying to help the poor in that area.

Wish they would donate 10k to a pre-cu server for all us homeless swg vets to go to..

Originally posted by kano71

Wish they would donate 10k to a pre-cu server for all us homeless swg vets to go to..

That is exactly what I was thinking. As much as I hate $OE, It is still good to see them doing something nice.

10k.

Wow.

It's huge.

Reminds me of Mitt Romney (worth like $250 million) donating a whole $25k of his own money to some Iraqi vet charities.

Whoop de do.  So generous of the multi-zillionaires to toss some petty cash into the kitty.

I hate SOE as much as the next jaded SWG vet, but if they hadn't donated anything at all would there be a thread of people whining about how SOE never donates to charity? Of course not. At least they gave something.

Wow...just...wow.  The old SWG community sinks to a new low.  it's getting to the point where I'm ashamed to admit that I'm a SWG Vet - I'd rather pretend I'm someone new to the game after 15/11/05.  Not because of the game but because of the baggage, such as the posts above mine, associated with the Vet title.

A donation is a donation.  A donation from the SOE division of Sony, not Sony as a whole.  $10,000 is alot more then many other companies have donated in total.