Gears of peace: Engadget & Major Nelson Vs. you and your pals
- Real bids only people, this is for charity!
- One week auction, no reserve.
- Game will be held Saturday, the 2nd (or Saturday the 9th, if necessary).
- Payment will go directly to Save Darfur, and will be expected to be made within two days of the auction's close.
- BYO Xbox 360, Live account(s), and Gears of War.
- Plan on us posting the final scoreboards on Engadget when the dust settles, even if we're humiliated pathetically.
P.S. -No, the irony of a Safe Darfur charity Gears of War deathmatch isn't lost on us (hence the name). All we can say is, you guys picked the charity, we already planned out the event.
Filed under: Announcements, Features, Gaming
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CobraRob @ Nov 22nd 2006 1:32PM
Tell Major Nelson to find out why the heck my gamertag is corrupted on their server and I can not play anything on my 360 for the last 3 days.. Then maybe I can join in on this...
SOOO unhappy right now.. Finally get some time off for holidays to play and I still can't because of a MS error.
Jason @ Nov 22nd 2006 1:49PM
This is cool. I met the Major at one of the GoW promo events and he was a genuinely nice guy who remembered me from a short email exchange we had. It would probably be a lot of fun to play GoW with him and some of the guys who write for Engadget.
otakucode @ Nov 22nd 2006 1:52PM
Hmmm, I don't get what you mean about ironic? Just because it's a violent game and you want to stop violence in Darfur? Real world violence and videogame violence have as much in common as pancakes and sentient extraterrestrials.
Neil Christie @ Nov 22nd 2006 1:54PM
Next you guys will be putting Major Nelson and Ryan Block on Game With Fame as "celebrities".
Come on guys, why would you want to pay money to play a video game with journalists?
If you really want to donate, just do it, don't let these guys' egos get in the way.
Ryan Block @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:05PM
Yeah, we could just put up a post asking people to donate to Save Darfur (which we already kind of did), or we can offer something in return for their donations. I know it's not much (trust me, I'm pretty sucky at video games and will be the first to admit it), but at least it's something! Either way, there's still nothing stopping people from donating to this fund without bidding to game with us!
Arno @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:00PM
CobraRob, have you tried calling them to resolve whatever issues you're having or are you waiting for them to fix themselves?
Jason @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:11PM
He's a moron, let him tell Engadget to get in touch with Major Nelson so he can tell someone in MS support that some schmuck messed up his Live account.
CobraRob @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:03PM
Tell Major Nelson to find out why the heck my gamertag is corrupted on their server and I can not play anything on my 360 for the last 3 days.. Then maybe I can join in on this...
SOOO unhappy right now.. Finally get some time off for holidays to play and I still can't because of a MS error.
Charles @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:03PM
Wow, great cause =). I would much rather give my charity to victums of ethnic clensing (geneside) under a radical muslim government than some dumd ass who despite all the advantages that our great country offers still managed to end up broke and homeless. I think we as americans offten times choose charities that are not as usefull as we think such as canned food and toy drive for the "needy". I love to give to charities because it makes be feel better about all the bad thinks I have done, but I dont think we should give to charities that aid the surrplus population whitch by the way are already being suporrted by our upper and middle class via wellfare, which I think is a complete joke and should be revised.
tonsils_mckinly @ Nov 22nd 2006 3:47PM
Always great to hear the informed opinions of the sensitive and considerate tech elite.
What do you think we should do with all those beaten wives, sell 'em to Japan?
Scott @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:04PM
I see this getting pulled by eBay for some stupid reason. They're worse than Buzz Killington
CobraRob @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:18PM
Jason,
Yea I know I am just venting.. Of course I called tech support.. Played games with the first toolbag that answered the phone... then got shifted to a manager who was actually knowledgable and he was also unable to recover the tag on their systems so it got escallated to MS... Now 3 days later the status is still "to be resolved no ETA" would be nice to atleast have a timeframe or somthing..
Jason @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:29PM
Oh.
That bites. Can you make a new account on your box and use the one month free gold until it gets fixed maybe?
CobraRob @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:45PM
Jason,
Yea but you are kinda crippled since you have no access to your saved games so who wants to put time into something like TDU without being able to save progress and having to start game over.. Also don't get to keep any of your achievments, or have access to your MS points to try out say the marketplace or play your arcade downloads...
about to head out of here and give them one last call today to see if there is any chance of getting it looked at before the holliday..
On that note everyone have a good thanksgiving and enjoy the food.
Hired.Geek @ Nov 22nd 2006 9:07PM
WOW, "Surplus people" that has got to be about the most heartless thing I have ever heard. I bet there are allot of people through out the middle east that look at all of Americans as Surplus People. And we call them butchers and animals for exploding bombs in market places, but that comment really puts in perspective of how some of the simplier minds in the world work.
Major, you know offering a guest spot on your podcast might be something quite a few people would bid on.
Ryan, you might not be that good at Gears of War, but I bet Major can do some serious curb stomping he has had access to Gears for a lot longer then the rest of us, plus if you listen to his podcast it sounds like him and a friend of his Tyco play this game allot!
Good luck if my wife will let me have the funds I am definately bidding on this.
Tom @ Nov 23rd 2006 1:02PM
how is payment going to be verified? do it in the name of engadget?
K_G @ Nov 24th 2006 12:24AM
Just a suggestion for next year...Only have 5 or less charities to pick from,...Looking at the numbers, if you combined childs play and toys for tots (similar organizations serving slightly different groups (sick kids vs poor kids) would have surpassed save darfour, which is only a PR organization and not actually doing any directly to help the people of Darfur. To me, charity means helping people fairly directly...Save Darfur purpose is to run ads/PR which MIGHT result in government action which MAY help people down the road. This is an interesting auction item, but I'm not going to be bidding because I don't think running newspaper ads and holding news conferences are charitable acts....they can be part of an overall plan for a charity but they shouldn't be the whole purpose of the organization.
Ted Y. @ Nov 24th 2006 3:10AM
I agree with K_G. The idea behind donating to a charity is a great one, but Save Darfur is little more than a PR Campaign. From their website
"The Save Darfur Coalition's mission is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the Darfur region."
I'm currently deployed with the Department of Defense to the African Region, and Darfur is one of the issues we deal with. Without getting into to much detail, the main problem we face with providing aid is the Sudanese government itself. Sudan recently agreed in principal to UN force in Darfur, however if you ask most people who know the region, that's just a stall tactic. They don't intend to let UN peacekeepers in, but it's a political concession given to appease government and organization like Save Darfur. In the end, the responsiblity falls on the government and people of Sudan. Organization like Save Darfur and movie stars like George Clooney, can do little to influence the corrupt government leaders who will not listen because to do so means they lose the one thing they have, power. Just my 2 cents.
On a side note, it's late Nov and in the 80's out here in Africa!!! No White Christmas for me =(
Ross @ Nov 30th 2006 11:03AM
CobraRob I know what you problem is i have had the same problem your profile is currupt first go to system on your dashboard and go to memory then profiles you should see the currupt profile. Deleate your currupt profile off your hard drive and then go and recover your profile and all should be back to normal.
I do not know why the xbox 360 does this at random but it is probably to do with somthing you download or an achevment you have done that currupts the profile. anyway try that and post hear what happens