Team Fortress 2 in-game hats raise $300k for quake relief

@Prboi
It doesn't mean people are donating just because there was an incentive. How do you know if someone was going to donate but then saw the hats? Why not donate if you were already planning too and get a small token of appreciation in return?

@Reapers Which probably led to even more money being donated they initially planned..

@Reapers

The "token of appreciation" should be the satisfaction that you are doing something right & helping someone who needs it. If people choose this over donating their own money directly, it had better be for the simplicity of it & not the hats.

@Prboi

I don't really see the difference between money helping people in need that came from hat or hatless donations.

@Prboi
I donated $50 my self and then bought the $8 hat.

@Prboi
Most incentives to give donations are selfish anyway. People want to feel good about themselves so they give money.

@Prboi
You do realize you're also complaining about every charity auction ever made? And charity wristbands you can buy? And Girl Scout cookies?

Why do any of these things when you can just "donate directly to the charity", hm? Why single out Team Fortress 2 of this alleged pandering to people's selfishness?

@Prboi

"The "token of appreciation" should be the satisfaction that you are doing something right & helping someone who needs it."

I really don't want to sound like a troll here but I don't believe in telling people what kind of "satisfaction" they should or shouldn't have... Nor do I really see any usefulness for fulfilling the goal of helping Japan in making a chart (complete with moral analysis) of people giving them money because they are "kind-hearted and rightful" and people giving them money because they "wanted hats"...

@ngSliver

The difference is that instead of taking it upon yourself to do the right thing for Japan, you wait for somebody (In this case Valve) to basically persuade you to help out. I can guarantee that the people who choose buying the hats over doing it themselves are just wanting attention & they want people to look at them & know they donated. IF MORE THAN 2 PEOPLE KNOW YOU DONATED MONEY FOR CHARITY OR RELIEF EFFORTS THEN YOU DONATED FOR THE WRONG REASONS!!!!!

@PointlessPuppies

I never singled out Team Fortress 2. I was just using it as an example of how out of whack people's morals are. People would rather buy something than just give their money to whoever needs it. People don't want to think that they "gave their money away" so they want something in return.

@Prboi

Sorry, but you're so wrong. The fact is, the hats sold well, they raised lots of money for Japan. I think you're the one who wants attention by questioning it.

Some donate for the sake of donating, some donate and get something in return, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Japan is receiving the help they need.

@Apsac D

Did you read what I wrote? Clearly you didn't. Of course there were people who donated for the sake of donating. I said " I can guarantee that the people who choose buying the hats over doing it themselves are just wanting attention & they want people to look at them & know they donated."

Key words being: "choose buying the hats over doing it themselves"

That means they have the ability to donate their money & they choose not to & they buy the hats instead. That's what makes me upset. That's what I'm arguing. People don't want to feel like their just throwing away money at nothing, so they want something in return.

Now if you did this but you didn't have the ability to donate money directly, then I have NO problem with that, but if you have the ability to donate money directly, then just donate the money. Don't buy the cookies, don't buy the t-shirts, don't buy the digital goods. If you are going to do it then do both.

@Prboi

Plus, it's a lot about the notion of feeling like you're collectivized with something. Knowing that you're doing something that actually has a goal, a use, a purpose, especially with something so popular in the gaming community, makes a huge difference as far as the accessibility of the idea. What's wrong exactly with doing something that's essentially acting like the Red Cross of the gaming world? What's so bad about people donating in general, regardless of their method? A donation is a donation, you know, and it doesn't matter whether you do it through something you love, like TF2, or through a miscellaneous Red Cross function. So. Yeah.

@Prboi

I read what you wrote. You're just arguing a point that nobody is arguing back on, because it's not worth arguing over.

People donated, some got nothing, some got hats or cookies or whatever. If I owned Team Fortress 2, I would've bought the hats, even though I already donated through multiple ways.

Who cares? Let's just see Japan get back on it's feet soon.

@Prboi
Honestly, who gives a sh*t why people donate, so long as they donate.

@jameskond

I was planning on donating $20 through my church to aid Japan, but then I saw the TF2 donation for hats and ended up buying the $30 hat pack. I was going to donate anyways, but seeing the hat deal actually led me to donate a bit more than I initially planned.

Whether you donated out of the goodness of your heart or were a hardcore hat collector, the fact of the matter is money was donated. A Japanese person getting aid isn't going to say, "I can't accept this. The donor just wanted a silly hat."

Ok, next time you see a $30k car being sold with all funds given to charity, lets see you donate that much for no reason?

@arucious
I am talking about individual people, not organizations/companies

@Gaddes
Cynic.

@Special Agent Steve
Calling me a cynic doesn't make it less true, although I won't be a cynic if Valve actually matches the donations... I would be quite happy about that.

@Gaddes
They're a corporation not a goddamn charity. Of course they want to make profits on what they do. It's called economics.

@Marshillboy Oh really? Economics? I never knew that! Of course I know they're a goddamn corporation. What I'm saying is that by getting these tax breaks they aren't the little donating angels that people seem to keep painting them to be. What doesn't sit well with me is their middleman position in this donating business. When I try to present the case, I get called a cynic, and when I try to talk about the donating, I get cynics being snippy. I'm just being realistic about this situation. Take it as you will.

@Gaddes

I don't see what the problem is? Sure Valve might get credit accidentally but when people donate money through normal channels do they expect a mention in Newsweek?

You see this kind of thing all the time; "the Red Cross raised $X for Y cause" and rational people understand that it means that people donated money for the cause.

@Gaddes

I could be wrong here but my understanding is that in America when you donate to something you aren't taxed on that much income. It's not like you see how much you owe the government and then say "Wait! subtract $300,000 from that!" It's possible that this money even counts as income, so nothing is really gained.* I don't really have a horse in this race, so I'm not trying to convince you that what I'm saying is correct (I'm totally out of my league here).

*Other than the possible intangible benefits of being a charitable-looking company. I... guess? Somebody out there must look at metacritic scores and then look at how charitable the developer is and take them both into account.

And who exactly made you so high and mighty? You want to complain about people's morals whenever they still donanted money reguardless. Your basically complaining about the people who actually donated instead of the people who said "No gtfo".

@ZachFACEyay Did you even read what I wrote? I have no problem with the individuals that donated... if anything I really admire the TF2 gamers that donated so much. As I've said, I only take issue with the fact that Valve is simply passing along this money to the Red Cross and netting themselves a charitable tax write-off while doing so. Did I donate? Yes. Did I do it through Valve? No. I went straight to the Red Cross. It's the middleman element that doesn't sit well with me.

Now, if they end up matching the final donation amount, then that would be a wonderful gesture indeed, and I wouldn't feel the way I do about this.

But again, I am in no way complaining about the hat purchasers.

Reading comprehension- it's a good thing.