At press time, a dedicated team of volunteers had raised almost $400,000 as they entered day four of a grueling 24-hour/day gameplay marathon behind the wheel of “Desert Bus” – touted as the world’s most boring video game, as part of a fundraiser for Child’s Play – a charity that seeks to improve the lives of children in pediatric hospitals and other child welfare facilities. Every donation extends the clock and the contestants won’t stop playing until the donations stop coming in, which is predicted to run until late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
Designed by magicians Penn and Teller, “Desert Bus” challenges players to drive a bus through the desert from Tucson, AZ to Las Vegas, NV in real-time, a full eight-hour trip. Upon succeeding they are awarded a single point and given the option to make an identical return trip to Tucson. With no other traffic or obstacles of any kind, the game becomes an endurance test, as players must pay full attention to the road for eight hours straight to prevent the bus from crashing.
The event is being webcast live at https://desertbus.org/ via Twitch (Twitch.tv/desertbus). Viewers can enter to win prizes or bid on items in a silent auction. Meanwhile, volunteers are doing everything they can to keep the audience entertained with a mix of planned and unplanned activities – from singing, to dancing, to human pyramids – anything they can do to keep the drivers focused, keep the audience interested and keep the donations coming in.
Now entering its 13th year, the annual Desert Bus for Hope event kicked off Friday morning in Victoria, B.C., and had raised almost $400,000 so far.
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Update: After 6 days and 18 hours behind the wheel of the world’s most boring video game, the Desert Bus for Hope challenge wrapped up, having raised $864,460 to support Child’s Play.