Phyrfight Intel

In 2003 the nonprofit organization Child’s Play was created by gamers in response to wild accusations that video games only hurt children. The organization is dedicated to making a child’s visit the the hospital more comfortable by donating money and games to hospitals around the world. Many other examples of charitable organizations formed around video games include: Get Well Gamers and Fun for our Troops.

Here is an example of what can happen when games are introduced into what would otherwise be a somber situation, from ArsTechnica:

Ryan related a story about how he witnessed two young amputees—one missing the left hand, the other missing their right—joining forces to master the guitar in Rock Band. “One child strums with their one hand, and the other child frets with their one hand. It’s truly an amazing act, and they’ve gotten through songs on the Hard difficulty together! I can’t even finish most songs on hard!”

The IOC has capitulated to the Chinese government over the censorship of the Internet for foreign reporters:

Jonathan Watts, president of The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, said he was disappointed that Beijing had failed to honor its agreement to temporarily remove the elaborate firewall that prevents ordinary Chinese from fully using the Internet. “Obviously if reporters can’t access all the sites they want to see, they can’t do their jobs,” he said. “Unfortunately, such restrictions are normal for reporters in China, but the Olympics were supposed to be different.”

This is why the IOC should have never agreed to let a country that is so obviously on the wrong side of human rights host the games. Although, maybe this will put the spotlight on China and the people of the world will realize that “free” citizens in China have access to less internet sites than do prisoners in the United States of America.