On October 2, 2023, the video game “Warframe,” by Digital Extremes, began its now annual campaign “Quest to Conquer Cancer” with the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. The event has taken place in October for four years now, coinciding with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The event raises money that goes toward supporting the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Canada. 

About the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Canada

Forming part of the University Health Network, a network of public research, the Center contributes to scientific developments in cures and understanding diseases like cancer. This work is extremely important, especially for people in developing countries — in 2004, more than 70% of the 7.4 million deaths that cancer causes occurred in developing countries.

The Conquer Cancer Campaign

The campaign, created by the center alongside the developers of “Warframe,” Digital Extremes, incentivizes donations through a contribution aimed for the end of the month, with milestones that unlock various rewards in the game for their players. By donating to the campaign, players can unlock purchased rewards which are, with the profits going directly into the campaign. 

It also encourages content creators of various games to participate, further raising awareness of the event. Through the use of in-game purchases and the support of content creators, the “Quest to Conquer Cancer” ties in communities from the entertainment industry, using their shared interests to contribute to the greater good. The campaign has a fundraising goal of $100,000 each year, with a total of $185,000 smashing that figure during the 2023 campaign. 

Foreign Aid

This campaign, which has become a tradition for Digital Extremes, is only a facet of their humanitarian efforts. Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022, like many companies worldwide, Digital Extremes demonstrated their support for the citizens of the country by donating $100,000 in humanitarian aid. 

It was not the only company from the video game industry to do so — this section of the entertainment industry raised a total contribution of more than $88 million. These contributions included direct donations from companies and their employees but also in-game campaigns and purchasable bundles that incentivized their respective communities directly within the game. Public statements made on their social media accounts also helped to spread awareness and support, skyrocketing the scope of the issue in a variety of communities. With more than 13 million Ukrainians displaced from the war and tens of thousands of confirmed civilian deaths, the support that these industries provided goes a long way to aiding those the war affects. 

An Example to Follow

The amount that these companies raised demonstrates the capability of industries not traditionally connected to humanitarian campaigns to band together and provide significant foreign aid. The “Quest to Conquer Cancer” is one of many campaigns that shows this. Similarly, a variety of companies have employed many other campaigns to engage their player base in ideas of foreign aid and advocacy. 

The video game industry represents an unconventional manner of introducing people to humanitarian aid, one that is likely to stick as it has in Digital Extremes with its yearly campaign. By tying important issues to passionate hobbies, a variety of people can more easily accept the call for aid.

Video Games Without Borders

The sense of community that these games have created has also been developed in other ways. The nonprofit organization Video Games Without Borders focuses on the use of the games themselves as forms of aid; one of its games “Antura and the Letters” focuses on giving refugees the education they might be lacking. 

More than 2 million Syrian children were left out of an education due to ongoing conflict; however, through the colorful and bright game, a refuge for immersive learning has been developed for these children. In the game, children can customize the titular character, Antura, while developing their literacy in the Arabic language. This has recently expanded to aid refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan but also to help them integrate with the inclusion of European languages like English.

An example of the work NGOs can and continue to do for the less fortunate, Video Games Without Borders originates from and is registered in Spain, but the organization prides itself on its international members and its desire to further expand its membership and scope of projects to the global scale, as one can see with the developments made to “Antura and the Letters.”   

Constant Development

The unique nature of constant innovation and development that is so key to success in the entertainment industry has affected companies’ philosophies outside of catching and retaining the attention of their consumers. The gargantuan support shown to Ukraine by various video game companies showed a level of developer responsibility that has hitherto been nonexistent. This sense of duty shown by them encourages their communities to share the humanitarian values that can and continue to contribute to some of the biggest wins against poverty and strife in the world. 

– Chinua Ebereonwu
Photo: Flickr