While microtransaction technology is nothing new to the non-profit world, this is however the first report that we’ve heard of regarding a gaming company using this technology to raise funds for charity.  Austin, TX based Tandem Games announced yesterday that they’ve introduced a new feature to their popular free-to-play MMORPG Domain of Heroes.  This new integrated feature allows users to donate 5% of their in-game purchases to a charity of their choice.

Currently, Domain of Heroes has partnered with Child’s Play and Women In Games International with a host of additional charities on their way.  Child’s Play is a non-profit organization that donates toys, games, and books to sick children spending time in the hospital.  Women in Games International is dedicated to the inclusion and advancement of women in the gaming industry.  Both very worthy, and great launching points for this type of action, as both non-profits have a particular focus on gaming.  Domain of Heroes is supported through microtransaction via purchasing of ‘wishes’.  Wishes are the games’ form of currency, used for both vanity upgrades (a custom name for example) and in-game usage (a mule, for example allows users to carry more loot).  It’s these in-game purchases that now allow for 5% of the purchase to be donated to the non-profit organization.  Domain of Heroes users have already raised over $500 via in-game item purchase donations since the feature was introduced.

“It’s a great way for players to have a direct influence on where their donation dollars go, while raising awareness for game-related charities in general,” said Aaron Murray, Technical Director and Founder of Tandem Games.“Both Child’s Play and WIGI are very excited to see this level of ongoing commitment from a company. We hope other companies will follow suit and share their revenue with deserving charities.”

Domain of Heroes, which launched back in November of 2008 is a browser based, text based MMORPG that has seen over 28 million PVE actions and 160,000 PVP battles.  Given the games’ ‘play anywhere’ factor, Tandem Games makes Domain of Heroes available to, literally, anyone with an internet connection, fully compatible in IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.  And this isn’t just a barren wasteland, as over Domain of Heroes now counts over 18,000 players worldwide, so there are always others to play with, should you so choose.

Overall, this is a great move by Tandem Games.  Not only are they generating some great press and buzz about the company and Domain of Heroes, but they’re doing for the best of reasons: a good cause.  If this type of donation is successful, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more and more microtransaction based titles doing this as a special holiday promo (I’d gladly fork over $5 during the holidays to a charity of my choosing), or as an ongoing option.  No word on how long Domain of Heroes users will have this option, but for the foreseeable future, it’s here to stay.  Hats off to Tandem Games.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Child’s Play – Charitable Gamers Unite! (dizzygeek.com)
• Child’s Play Done For The Year, Final Amount Tallied [Charity] (kotaku.com)

Tags: charities, Domain of Heroes, gaming company, gaming industry, microtransactions, non profit organization, sick children, tandem games, text based mmorpg

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under industry news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.