Nothing like a bit of good news to end the year with a bang, eh? The Child's Play charity movement run by Penny Arcade has reportedly exceeded its projected million-dollar mark for this December. Details on this big news are available in the full article.

Just recently, Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik (a.k.a., Gabe) has written a scathing commentary in response to a story that was published by CNN. In his commentary, he expresses his dissatisfaction at the fact that, once again, a murder happens and it all gets blamed on the under-aged suspect's gaming habits, and not on other factors which may have shaped the individual into a killer.

For those who don't frequent CNN's site too often, the article in question discusses the recent rise of the number of incidents which involves homeless individuals being murdered by teenagers "for sport."

As a primary example of such an incident, CNN uses the story of the 49-year-old homeless man, Rex Baum, who was killed in 2004 after he was beaten to death by Nathan Moore, Luis Oyola, and Andrew Ihrcke. At the time of the incident, the killers were 15, 16, and 17 years old respectively. After Baum's body was discovered two days after he was killed, the police were able to track down the teens and question them about what they've done. According to police reports, the eldest answered that Baum apparently "reminded him of playing a violent video game."

That statement from Ihrcke may actually be enough to raise more than a few eyebrows within both the gaming and the legislative community. However, what caught Krahulik's attention was the fact that even though the original article continued to present more facts and examples, and also mentions several other theories on what may have been prompting minors to go on killing sprees, it is inevitable that many would stop reading at the point where video games are mentioned. As Krahulik laments:

These kids have given the media their angle and just like all the other cases where games are mentioned no one will ever look any further. No one will ask what their family life was like, what their parents were like, what the kid was like before all this happened. Games did it and that’s the end of the story ... I'm perfectly aware that the reality of the situation was somewhere between the two extremes. I know full well that violent games did not create this killer and I also know that his parents did not make him a murderer ... The sad truth is that the reality we're talking about here would probably never actually see the light of day. The media will tell the story they want to tell regardless and that story will be about violent games. The parents of these kids will be lucky to get two lines in an article about the crime. If they tell a reporter that their son hardly played games or that he was f***ed up long before they bought a Playstation do you really think that will make it into the final article? You'd never see that side of the story, not in a million years. [Bold format not in original text. - QJ]

However, all that has now changed, as the stepmother of one of the suspects (they did not mention which one) has bravely come out in the open to let everyone know the truth about these teens. Who would have known that the parent of a so-called "video game killer" can actually be a gamer herself? Who would have thought that she was a regular Penny Arcade reader? Who would have expected that she would choose to trust the folks of Penny Arcade with the truth instead of handing it over to the mainstream media?

We'll never be as eloquent as Tycho or Gabe, so click on the "Read" link below, read on, and brace yourselves for what a lot of people in politics would probably hate to hear.

Amidst the bad PR we gamers usually get, Child's Play trudges on to get the world to think otherwise. This year, it has raised around US$ 963,000 for sick children in hospitals around the world.

Child's Play is a Seattle-based charitable organization founded in 2003 by gamers Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, aka Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade. The organization donates games, DVDs, books, and other toys to sick kids around the globe, including hospitals in Canada, Britain, Egypt, and Australia. Gamers, or people who simply wish to help, can see the wish lists at Amazon.com or donate cash through PayPal.

This helps a lot of sick kids go through uncomfortable treatments and gives them some sort of relief that they would be able to play while in therapy. And some people think gamers are mindless zombies with cash to burn. Think about it, hitting the one million mark would be a great milestone for all of us.

To anyone who has ever wanted to go to college for the sake of gaming, listen up since this may be your chance to do just that.

During this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), the creators of the widely-popular online comic Penny Arcade, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, have announced that they are offering a $10,000 college scholarship which will be awarded at PAX 2007.

The said scholarship will be awarded to a student who plans to attend an accredited college or university with the intention of entering the game industry later on.

To qualify for the scholarship, the aspirant must apply for it by submitting a two-page essay on how he or she will fit in the game industry as well as two letters of recommendation. Applicants must also have a GPA of 3.3 or higher and all applications must be in by February 1, 2007. All applications will then be examined and considered during the period between February and August. The winner will be selected based on service, leadership, character as well as financial need.

Full guidelines regarding the scholarship are in the full version of this article, so be sure to check that out since this may be the chance that you have been waiting for. With that said and done, we bid "Good luck!" to all applicants! Make PA proud and give back to the gaming community!

And by the way... Gabe and Tycho, you're our heroes!


Click on Full Article for the complete guidelines.

"The thing about the Penny Arcade guys is there's no question they're gamers. I think these guys have a really great sense of how to put together the show to really appeal to the gamers." said Russell Williams, Flying Lab Software's chief executive officer.

As with a lot of other companies, Flying Lab Software's announcement of the release of their five year in the making Pirates of the Burning Sea has been made in PAX. PAX or Penny Arcade Expo, is the brainchild of Jerry Jolkins and Mike Krahulik, also responsible for the popular online comics. Right on the tail of that announcement are these two new screenshots from the game.