Gamers-for-Haiti Efforts Gather Momentum

[reposted from Kotaku]

Today only, 100 percent of the proceeds from purchases in PopCap's store - they make Bejeweled and Peggle - will go toward Haiti quake relief. This post is our official open thread on ways to contribute to the recovery.

To recap:

• On Wednesday and Thursday, Bungie is encouraging Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST players to don a Haitian-relief emblem in game, and will contribute up to $77,000 to the cause depending on the number who participate. A special T-shirt also is for sale in the Bungie store, the proceeds of which will go to recovery efforts through the American Red Cross. See this post for more details.

• Zynga, makers of games for Facebook and social media, has also opened a fund drive to help Haiti through the World Food Programme. It joins the company's pre-quake philanthropic efforts to help the impoverished nation. More details here.

• PopCap's sale will go until 11:59 pm. U.S. Pacific Time tonight, and will benefit Haiti through Partners in Health.

By no means are these the only ways gamers may contribute. The text-message fund raising campaign has generated more than $10 million in aid and contributions now may also be made through iTunes [link will open iTunes]. And certainly there are other worthy means of contributing.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/pt0wkTk8OJI/gamers+for+haiti-efforts-gather-momentum

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Bejeweled Coming to Warcraft. Yes, Really

[Reposted from Wired via Kotaku]

"Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World's Most Addictive Game." No, it's not April Fool's. The puzzle game will be added into WoW next Thursday, allowing players to kill time when they're on long, tedious tasks, like waiting for a raid or gold/item-farming.

What's interesting on top of packing one world-class timesuck inside of another (in real world terms, this would be like snorting bacon-flavored meth), is how it all came to pass. Michael Fromwiller, a student at San Jose State, wrote an add-on he called Besharded, which came reasonably close to mimicking PopCap's hit. But it didn't come close enough for PopCap, which instead of sending out a C&D letter, reached out to Blizzard and offered the real thing. And Blizzard accepted. Wired has the word straight from PopCap itself, but a no-comment from Blizzard.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/09/bejeweled-comin.html

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/398207774/bejeweled-coming-to-warcraft-yes-really

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