We're headed into the final week of our Child's Play 2012 Charity drive and sitting close to 30% of our goal.  What does that mean?  For one it means if you have donated you are pretty much guaranteed to win SOMETHING at this point - maybe even that awesome signed Loot Chest Edition of Borderlands 2 you see pictured above.  We've got a pretty extensive prize list with plenty of goodies, certainly helping out some sick kids and getting something off that list is worth at least $5.

The Child's Play Charity, created by Mike and Jerry of Penny-Arcade, has been something I've personally supported since it's inception.  Like Extra-Life, it's a charity drive that's used to benefit sick children and children's hospitals around the world.  Child's Play has grown from humble beginnings of toy donations to an epic undertaking collecting toys and money for over 70 hospitals worldwide in an effort to give these children an amazing holiday.  Last year Child's Play raised over 3.5 million dollars.  That hopefully brought a lot of smiles.

It's been a few months since we've heard of the Fate of Carmine charity campaign for Gears of War 3.  The goal of the campaign was to raise money for Penny-Arcade's Child's Play Charity and have a little fun by having the community determine whether or not the latest Carmine brother in Gears of War 3 would live or die.

The next AI War micro-expansion called Children of Neinzul has hit beta - which you can get access to simply by pre-ordering it for only $3.99.  New features include more starships, map types, and AI types; but perhaps most interestingly, is the Neinzul race itself.  

Starting July 29th, you can influence the fate of a Gears of War 3 character and donate to the Child's Play Charity in one fell swoop. Microsoft and Epic Games will be offering two Avatar shirts (age gate required to view link) on the Xbox Live Marketplace: one declares "Carmine Must Die" and the other pleads "Save Carmine".

In less than two months the Co-Optimus staff will descent upon Boston to bring you guys coverage of PAX East, a giant gaming convention that hopes to equal the success of the original Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.  But before that happens the founders of Penny Arcade, who created PAX, will be honored at another gaming convention - GDC.

The team over at Twisted Pixel is awesome.  How awesome?  To support the Colony of Gamers Network Child's Play Drive they've donated two awesome experiences to the raffle.  All you need to do is donate at least $10 to Child's Play through our Chip-In Link or PayPal and you'll have a chance to win.

Every year the fine folks at Penny-Arcade put together a charity drive of epic proportions to benefit sick children.  Called Child's Play, the charity event spans the internet raising what literally amounts to millions of dollars, all from gamers.

Co-Optimus has joined the rest of the Colony of Gamers Network in doing a fundraising drive for Penny-Arcade's Child's Play Charity.