The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been rolling through the games industry faster (and with more *Steam*) than in the film industry. Recently, game commentator and gaming personality TotalBiscuit (John Bain) accepted the challenge from fellow Polaris persona WoWcrendor.
But instead of pouring ice water over his head, TotalBiscuit upped the ante by donating $1000 to ALS Research.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is a very simple – and effective – charity drive where celebrities, famous personalities, game developers and producers, and everyday people are challenged to either donate $100 to ALS Research or post a video of themselves to YouTube being doused with a bucket of ice water. Any participant who accepts the challenge and makes a donation or gets doused then gets to challenge whoever they want.
Phil Fish is one of the developers behind “Fez” (seen above), but lately he’s become controversial in the industry for his views on game streaming.
In a bold move, TotalBiscuit decided to challenge Indie Game Developer Phil Fish – of Fez fame and Fez 2 infamy – after donating ten times what was required. TotalBiscuit’s choice is very interesting after considering Phil Fish’s stance on YouTubers and streamers making money off streaming gameplay and walkthroughs.
Fish believes that game developers are entitled to a portion of that revenue by virtue of having made the games being streamed, but the real question is will the Fez developer do the Ice Bucket Challenge despite his objections to streaming in the gaming community or will he decline to help the charity out instead.
TotalBiscuit also challenged members of Axiom eSports with the statement that “it shouldn’t be too much of a problem” for them. This is a bit of a contrast for his call-out of Phil Fish, which he claims to have done “just for funsies.”
