A fan-created convention for Destiny, GuardianCon, has raised $1.2 million for St Jude Children’s Hospital in the week leading up to the event. GuardianCon officially takes place over the course of today and tomorrow, but thanks to a group of streamers working around the clock to keep the event’s Twitch channel filled with constantly entertaining Destiny streams, it’s already making a difference.
GuardianCon began as a meetup between a group of streamers who all enjoyed Destiny. Now the event is somewhere that players from all around the world can come to in order to play with other Guardians and compete in intensive PVP tournaments.
The highlights of the Twitch stream were when Mr.Fruit came on and the total raised hit $1 million, and when King Gathalion was streaming and the numbers hit $1.2 million. The total is still rising as the event continues, though everyone’s expectations have already been blown out of the water by the money raised so far.
There are very few gaming events that can raise a substantial amount of money for charity and make a real difference. Just last Christmas the Yogscast managed to raise more than $2 million for charity with their Christmas streams that they put on every year. Similarly, Games Done Quick, and Summer Games Done Quick, events that showcase the speedrunning community, raise even more for charity twice a year, making a real difference in the community and to people’s lives.
With Destiny 2 just around the corner GuardianCon won’t be slowing down anytime soon. In fact the even is surely going to get bigger and bigger with the inclusion of streamers who play Destiny 2, and those who continue to play the original game for as long as Bungie support it.
It would be interesting if Bungie makes more of an effort to be involved in GuardianCon in the future. It would make sense because the event only serves to provide more advertising for their game, and positive advertising at that. When it comes to charity events maybe Bungie could put on special playlists in-game that accumulate points which relate to money Bungie will donate to charity.
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