James Portnow is CCO of Divide By Zero Games.

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There are some days that you can be unabashedly proud of our industry, some events that remind you what we could be, what we are at our very best.  Tuesday, December 9, 2008 was one of those days and the Child’s Play charity dinner was just such an event.

For a moment, in the Skybridge of the Seattle convention center, we as an industry transcended being a money making machine and returned to what, at the core, we really are: purveyors of joy.  We did so with grace and dignity, belying all the stereotypes of us as anti-social mal-hygienic geeks.    We did so with the class and elegance befitting the occasion.  We did so with laughter and cheer and a spirit of human kindness.  But for those of you who couldn’t attend, let me try and convey a sense of the event…
 

First you have to understand downtown Seattle in December.  It’s forty degrees, a 161 foot star hangs from the side of Macy’s, carolers compete with street saxophonists to fill the tight streets and arching skyways which reverberate like a cathedral quire.  The Salvation Army and panhandlers in Santa suits man the street corners looking for change or a warm meal.  It’s raining but no one is walking with their head down.  I watch a businessman give his coat to a homeless man in a gaucho hat.
 

To get to the event you have to ascend through four quiet stories of Seattle’s unique convention center.  Once you pass the lip of the final escalator it becomes another world.  It’s like a scene out of some strange philanthropic, gamer, F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.  Everywhere your friends and acquaintances, your t-shirt and jeans buddies, are dressed in tuxes or formal gowns.  There is a sense of regal dignity and mirth, levity and gravitas.  The champagne flows freely and all around you familiar faces smile and friendly hands clasp your shoulder, or embrace you, or grasp your hand.  For a moment our community is a family.
 

This is the silent auction.  There are donations here from Microsoft, Bungie, Bethesda, Midway, Sega, Valve, Blizzard, PopCap, Harmonix, Razer, Privateer Press, Heroes the TV show, and of course the fantastic set of Sex Panther Cologne and a signed Anchorman Script from Omni Consumer Products Corporation (and dozens of others which I’m sure I’ve overlooked).  The hall is bedecked with stunning art selflessly donated for the occasion.  
 

At 7:30 Mike and Jerry (Tycho and Gabe) call us all to gather in the great glass skybridge that spans Pike street to take a meal together and to share in the live auction.  The skybridge itself is a vaulted dome of crystal strung with cascades of lights, the floor is filled with at least fifty tables covered in brilliant white linen ready to seat those ready to give and at the fore is a stage festooned with the signature green and the cross controller of Child’s play.  Kristin, a Penny Arcade, representative gives a touching speech about the value of Child’s Play and the meaning of our gathering to break bread together that night, then Mike and Jerry take the stage.
 

The auction itself is a whirlwind of laughter and cheering.  Items from Wizards of the Coast, Harmonix, Valve, Blizzard, The Behemoth and many more go up on the block.  Items go for thousands of dollars.  Industry notables via with ardent fans to give the most (John Vechey I’m looking at you…) then things go off script and Mike’s auctioning a song, composed by him, about how awesome the winner of the song is, Harmonix announces that all the proceeds from the Penny Arcade Expo song pack will go to benefit Child’s Play and Jerry’s auctioning a drink after the auction with him, Mike, Joss Whedon and various other celebrities at the event.
 

In the afterglow of the event I was struck by exactly what I had witnessed.  It’s been a grim season for all of us with reports of companies shuttering and waves of layoffs happening every day and yet there we were, all coming together to give.  I saw recent severees and the employees of penniless startups making actual sacrifices to do something simply because it was good.
 

As hard times are upon us as an industry and a nation, in this microcosm I saw us grow up as an industry and I saw hope – real hope that by coming together to support those less fortunate we may weather the worst and come out better for it.
 

Never has the spirit of the season been so clear to me.
 

Thank you Mike and Jerry for organizing this event, and more importantly the charity itself.  If any of our readers would like to contribute to Child’s Play you can do so at:
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/index.php
 

 
If there are other events of this nature that I should be made aware of I can be reached at jportnow@gmail.com

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