4th Annual Desert Bus For Hope

[DotKritic]

LoadingReadyRun starts busing this Friday night at 8pm Central Time (US) from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Desert Bus FAQ

Q: What exactly are they doing?

A: Put simply? They sort of invented the internet telethon by accident – you give donations to Child’s Play, and they play Desert Bus. It’s really boring and mind numbing and generally unpleasant. The more you donate, the longer they play. To keep you and themselves amused and to increase the donations, they will auction off and give away prizes, have celebrity guests stop by, and become your monkeys. Want them to sing “Still Alive?” Sure, they’ll do it for a $20 donation. They play 24 hours a day until you stop donating. Scary, isn’t it?

Q: How much money have they raised?

A: In 2007 they raised over $22,000; in 2008 they raised over $70,000; in 2009 they raised over $140,000.

Q: What is Child’s Play anyhow?

A: Child’s Play is a charity started by Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade to raise money for children’s hospitals to purchase toys and games – for more information see www.childsplaycharity.org.

Q: Who came up with the idea for desert bus?

A: The concept for desert bus was thought up by Paul. He is a genius, they have yet to see him ever use his gift for good. James had an idea to play Desert Bus to raise money for Child’s Play, and once he and Paul sat down to discuss it, this terrible wonderful fundraiser was born.

Q: How can they do this 24 hours a day for days and days?

A: They usually have four drivers who drive 4 hours at a time (as in the past marathons), but this year they will have 5 drivers who will each drive for one 24-hour shift. This year’s drivers are James, Jeremy, Morgan, Bill and Kathleen. If they receive enough donations for another shift, James will step in again. Paul drove once and vowed he would never do it again.

Q: How does donating money work? What does LoadingReadyRun do with all that?

A: They don’t actually collect the money. It is deposited directly into the Child’s Play PayPal account. They never actually see the money. They’re like a street corner Santa, ringing a bell to get you to donate to the charity pot, but instead of a Santa, it’s a sleep deprived gamer, and it’s a virtual pot. Remember - Child’s Play is a registered charity, so if you live in the United States, your donations are tax deductible. You can get a tax receipt by contacting Child’s Play. They cannot give you a receipt because they do not actually handle the money.

Q: How can you help?

A: First of all, you can donate money. If you cannot do that, perhaps you can help them by spreading the word – help them make #desertbus a trending topic on Twitter, tell all your friends, watch the live stream, hang out in the chat and enjoy the show. If you have ideas about how you can help them raise even more money, contact matt@loadingreadyrun.com or kathleen@loadingreadyrun.com.


The Rules of Desert Bus

First off a run down of what exactly desert bus is. The following is information found on wikipedia.com:

Desert Bus is the best known mini game in the package, and was a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthly’s preview. The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph, a feat that would take the player 8 hours of continuous play to complete, as the game cannot be paused.

The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other cars on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision they must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen over halfway through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.

So now what you know what desert bus is and what it looks like, time to get down to the rules.

1. There will be a total of 5 drivers. James Turner, Jeremy Petter, Morgan vanHumbeck, Bill Watt and Kathleen De Vere. Each driver will take a 24-hour shift, with James taking an additional shift if they receive enough donations.
2. If they are stupid enough at any point to drive the bus off the road, the game will be reset and we will start over. It makes little sense to sit there and wait for a tow truck and then watch themselves get towed all the way back to the start, and would artificially extend the length of the drive.
3. Drivers are not allowed to leave their post at anytime. If it is an emergency and they need to leave one of the members of the pit crew will briefly take over

If this sounds pretty boring to you (the game that is) it’s because it is. And if you would like to see first hand what the game looks like here is a short video that is up on YouTube right now.


The Donation Process

How long the team has to play Desert Bus is determined by the donations they receive – The more you donate, the longer they play.

In order to reflect the increasing challenge as the marathon goes on, the donations required to add another hour increase geometrically every hour.

The first hour costs $1.00, and the cost-per-hour goes up by 7% every hour (meaning the second costs $1.07). This means that the 10th hour of busing costs $1.84 and total donations are $13.82, whereas the 40th hour costs $13.99 but has made a total of $199.64.

The donation total in the sidebar will be updated frequently. Remember that they are using ChipIn to track they're donations, so all your money is going directly to Child’s Play.

Here is a very quick overlook:

Total Money $10.26 = Hours 8 Days 0.33
Total Money $102.07 = Hours 31 Days 1.29
Total Money $1070.80 = Hours 64 Days 2.67
Total Money $10 104.50 = Hours 97 Days 4.04
Total Money $100 952.11 = Hours 131 Days 5.46
Total Money $1 007 439.84 = Hours 165 Days 6.88
Total Money $10 052 477.33 = Hours 199 Days 8.29
Total Money $100 304 888.34 = Hours 233 Days 9.71
Total Money $1 000 853 692.41 = Hours 267 Days 11.13
Total Money $10 685 696 139.43 = Hours 302 Days 12.58
Total Money $106 623 089 429.58 = Hours 336 Days 14

Child’s Play..................LoadingReadyRun..................Desert Bus For Hope

[Starshot]

Oh wow, I forgot it was this time of year again. Desert Bus was how I found out about LoadingReadyRun in the first place.

Stay up with them and watch the live stream. They're all really cool, clever, and hilarious people. You wont be disappointed.

[DotKritic]

I still remember this. Funny as hell.

[DotKritic]

Total Donations: $3,030.03

The event hasn't even started yet.

[DotKritic]

Current Total Donations: $36,334.47

Drivercam..........Live Chat..........Buscam

If you want to chat in the chat room, you will need a ustream account. If you want to view either cams, you will need Java.

edit: Check out the Silent auctions and the Live auctions link at the homepage.