Thanks to some Victoria sketch comedians, one of the world’s most boring video games is yielding a charitable bonanza.

Desert Bus, produced in 1995, simulates, in real time, a tedious eight-hour drive between Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas. And as long as donations flow in, the members of online comedy website LoadingReadyRun.com are prepared to play the game to oblivion.

Last Friday, the group kicked off Desert Bus for Hope III, their third annual Desert Bus marathon fundraiser.

“We play 24 hours a day until you stop donating. Scary, isn’t it?” declares their official website. In previous years the group has raised almost $100,000 for Child’s Play, a charity that provides toys and games to hospitalized children.

“It’s for the children,” states the Desert Bus for Hope mantra.

The marathon is headquartered in a cramped office above Kabuki Kabs. A stack of empty pizza boxes stands outside the office door. Chocolate wrappers, coffee cups, and half-filled donut boxes litter the room. “The tolerance for junk food can only go so far,” said Paul Saunders, one of the marathon’s originators. After a few days of binging on sugar, the team will usually develop a strong craving for fruit, he said.

On desertbus.org, fans can tune in to a live video feed showing the “driver” as well as the antics of the assembled Loading Ready Run crew members. The webcam usually counts no less than 1000 viewers at any one time – and has attracted an extremely dedicated global fan base.

“Anything we do when we’re not away sleeping is being watched by thousands of people,” said Loading Ready Run member Graham Stark.

“And then as soon as it’s over, we almost don’t know what to do, we’re just sort of like, ‘oh yeah … normal life,’” said Stark.

A team of four drivers are in charge of piloting the bus, on a constant rotation of four-hour shifts. After each eight-hour drive, the players score one point.

Fans keep in touch with the crew through a chat room, displayed on a massive flatscreen propped up in the marathon’s headquarters. Donors will often send the crew monetary “challenges.” For $50, the team belted out a Karaoke version of the Village People’s YMCA. “Someone gave $100 for James [one of the drivers] to drive for 3 hours with socks on his hands,” said Saunders.

Across the internet, blogs and Twitter feeds have exploded with Desert Bus for Hope fandom. “These people should try driving a REAL bus, then they’d realise how draining and challenging it actually is,” said one surly comment.

After two days, the team had already had already pulled in $35,000. “You’ll see the same people donating, again and again, what is obviously a significant portion of their income,” said Saunders.

The money has been a dramatic boost to the Child’s Play charity.

“If you think about how many video games you can buy with $100,000, it makes a huge difference … and then when you think about how many kids are going to use those games every day, it’s an absolutely dramatic difference,” said Kristin Lindsay, the project manager of Child’s Play.

Serving 70 hospitals around the world, Child’s Play has donated more than $5 million worth of toys, games, books since 2003.

“(My cousin’s daughter) is only 7 years old and is facing death every day. Something as simple as a game brought her so much joy, and she got to feel like a regular child again, if only for an hour,” said Colleen, a letter-writer to the Child’s Play website.

Desert Bus was originally conceived by magicians Penn and Teller as a snarky response to mid-1990s fears that violent video games were corrupting American youth.      “‘Desert Bus’ was a game we thought would really appeal to people who didn’t like unrealistic games, and didn’t like violence in their games. It was just like real, loving life,” said Penn in a 2006 interview.

Penn and Teller have remained devoted fans of the marathon. In previous years, Teller has arranged for deliveries of food to Desert Bus for Hope headquarters.

The Desert Bus for Hope team see themselves in a similar bid to strike back at negative stereotypes of video gamers.

“(Desert Bus for Hope) is furthering that philosophy that gamers are not social outcasts who sit around in a basement and are going to suddenly snap and shoot people – we’re actually normal people,” said Stark.

“We use the phrase as almost a joking excuse for why we do these stupid things, but it really is for the children,” he said.

To discuss the Desert Bus for Hope charity event on VibrantVictoria.ca’s discussion forum, click here.

Tristin Hopper is a journalist currently residing in Victoria, British Columbia.

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