Last week, gaming charity drive group Omnithon raised $2,367 for the Child’s Play charity. The event was a 48-hour Oculus Rift gaming marathon that was streamed live to viewers — at the end, the team raffled the Oculus Rift to a lucky donor. I spoke with Omnithon member Kyle Owsen to learn more about the successful event.
Omnithon is a group of 14 gaming enthusiasts who come together to raise money for Child’s Play. The group says they’ve raised $7,000 in past events for the charity, not including their latest Oculus Rift event.
After raising $2,367 during the 48 hour marathon, the team raffled the Oculus Rift (signed by Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Nate Mitchell, and Michael Antonov) to user BestRbx, according to the Omnithon site.
Child’s Play is a certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity. In 2012, they raised more then $5 million for their cause.
Child’s Play is dedicated to improving the lives of children in hospitals around the world through the kindness and generosity of the video game community and the power of play.
Child’s Play works in two ways. With the help of hospital staff, we set up gift wish lists full of video games, toys, books, and other fun stuff for kids. By clicking on a hospital location on our map, you can view that hospital’s wish list and send a gift.
Child’s Play also receives cash donations throughout the year. With those cash donations, we purchase new consoles, peripherals, games, and more for hospitals and therapy facilities. These donations allow for children to enjoy age-appropriate entertainment, interact with their peers, friends, and family, and can provide vital distraction from an otherwise generally unpleasant experience.
You can donate at any time through the Child’s Play site.
Interview with Omnithon’s Kyle Owsen
Road to VR: How did the Omnithon Oculus Rift event go?
Owsen: The event went awesome. As with every marathon, we met a lot of really cool people on the internet, and the participants bonded a lot in part through mutual exhaustion. Our experiences with the Oculus Rift varied quite a bit. I was only able to wear it for about fifteen minutes at a time before nausea struck when we first got it, but after a few days I was able to game for about an hour or so before feeling sick.
Kevin was able to wear it for about five hours with no averse effects aside from some pretty extreme goggle marks…
My mom on the other hand looked like she was about to vomit within ten seconds of putting it on, and on the other extreme, Kevin was able to wear it for about five hours with no averse effects aside from some pretty extreme goggle marks on his face. Thankfully, we had about eight people who spent most of the weekend at the marathon, so we had plenty of people to swap in if someone felt a little lightheaded.
The game that we consistently went back to during the marathon was Minecraft. It almost feels like it was designed for the Oculus Rift, and you can get so much more immersed into that world playing it this way than with any other method. Half Life 2 was another fun one, in part because it’s one of the best games ever, and also because of how well Valve games support the Oculus Rift. TF2 was also a blast.
Those games are fantastic even without a Rift though, so what was really surprising was how fun the simple demos we came across were. Proton Pulse is a fantastic pick up and play game which I think is the best demonstration of how much fun a simple game can be when VR is added. Alone in the Rift managed to scare us half to death even though, all things considered, it’s a pretty terrible game, which makes me fear the day when something as good as Amnesia makes its way to VR.
I had high hopes for the Vireio Perception driver, and was really excited to play Slender and Mirror’s Edge on it, but it just didn’t feel right to me for any of those games. A few people at the marathon didn’t seem to be bothered by it though, so maybe it’s just me.
Road to VR: How did this event compare to previous Omnithon events?
Owsen: This was definitely one of our better events. The worst part of a gaming marathon is when you’re looking at an empty chatroom and a viewer count of zero at 3am and wondering if you should just give up. Thankfully, our fans and the fine people of Road to VR made sure that never happened. We always had someone to talk to, and that in itself made for a fun event. I feel like I spend most of the year just getting more and more angry at the internet, and then these events always turn me around and show me the best side of it. If people are given a chance to, they can come together and do something meaningful, and that’s what our viewers did last weekend.
I’m sad to see it go, but I know it’s going to a good home, and I feel like we had plenty of time to play with it.
Road to VR: Who had the idea to raffle the Oculus Rift, whose Rift was it?
Owsen: The Oculus Rift was mine. I’m friends with Palmer Luckey from our old forum days, and he mentioned a few times that the Rift would be a perfect fit for a gaming marathon, so eventually I scrounged up some cash and bought one. I’m sad to see it go, but I know it’s going to a good home, and I feel like we had plenty of time to play with it.
Road to VR: Congrats on raising $2,367 for Child’s Play! Do you have any other interesting stats to share about the money raised?
Owsen: A stat you might appreciate is that in the early hours of the marathon before people started coming in from Twitter and Facebook, a vast majority of our traffic came from Road to VR, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you guys for believing in us and pointing people our way.
In an age where the newest special effects and graphics tend to be greeted by shrugs, that’s what tells me that this is something special.
As far as general thoughts on the Oculus go, three things strike me. The first is that we strapped it to my friend’s mom, someone who’s played video games a handful of times in her life, and within less than a minute she was a pro at Proton Pulse. The second is that the other day, I was playing a traditional FPS with a controller, and I found myself instinctively turning my head to look around, which freaked me out. The last is that the first impulse of every person I put the Oculus on was to say “wow” when the game world came into focus. In an age where the newest special effects and graphics tend to be greeted by shrugs, that’s what tells me that this is something special.
