Child's Play refuses money from Atlantica Online due to 'negative player complaints'
In a move that some Atlantica Online players found disagreeable, online game company Ndoors Interactive recently introduced a grab bag item for the holidays ("Acong's Stocking Stuffer") that promised in its original announcement to donate "a portion of the proceeds" to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. According to a response from the Atlantica Online Team, though, Child's Play has withdrawn support for the donation, citing "negative emails from Atlantica Online players around the nature of the donation and the box."
When we asked Child's Play for its side of the story, a representative told us, "We were approached by Ndoors in November, inquiring about how to get involved with the program, so I sent along some basic info ... but we did not receive any details about the in-game item." Furthermore, after "a few weeks," CP began receiving complaints from players about the item. "So we contacted Ndoors and requested we not be involved with their fundraiser," the rep said. This is reportedly the first time such an incident has occurred with Child's Play.
Our sister site Massively suggests that the anger from players may have to do with the relatively low amount of money promised by Ndoors Interactive to Child's Play -- "5% of gross revenue generated [from sales of the item]." No indication has been given yet as to where the donation will go, though NI has said, "We will continue our fund-raising efforts, and will actively look for other charitable causes." We've contacted the Atlantica Online Team for more information and printed the full statement from Child's Play after the break.
[Via Massively]
"We were approached by Ndoors in November, inquiring about how to get involved with the program, so I sent along some basic info on sponsorship tiers etc. but we did not receive any details about the in-game item. A few weeks later, we started to hear complaints from players, so we contacted Ndoors and requested we not be involved with their fundraiser.
This was a first for us, but I sincerely hope that we can work something out with Ndoors in the future, and I apologize to the players who donated that were disappointed. I believe that Ndoors is currently searching out another charity for the donations to go to."
-Child's Play foundation coordinator Kristin Lindsay
