The Child's Play 2008 charity drive has officially launched, and the Web site has been updated so you can donate toys and games to children in hospitals worldwide. The charity was organized in 2003 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.

We ended our 2007 drive with over 1.3 million dollars in donations, thanks to gamers all over the globe. We’re welcoming ten new hospitals in Canada and the US to the Child’s Play network, so please have a look at the map to see if your local children’s hospital has come on board. Every hospital has a wish list full of gifts, and is hoping for your support.

We hope you'll visit the Child's Play site and consider purchasing some gifts. All you have to do is click on a hospital on the map and you'll be sent to the hospital's wish list on Amazon.com. It's that simple. For more information, check out Mike's recent post on the Penny Arcade site. The "thank you" letter they received from a hospital in Connecticut says it all. The full post is also below.

Dan Kinney posted on the Station Community Forums : 

There will be a system maintenance that will be happening early, early tomorrow morning (California time).  This particular maintenance may cause some of the "endless processing" issue that we saw a couple of weeks ago.  There will be no update of the Station Launcher or any of the LaunchPads during this update.  It is back-end only.

After you play late into the night (and you know that you will be), log out or exit your Station Launcher.  If you are hit with this condition, you should be able to recover with a logout/login.

Of course, if you run into any problems, post a message to this forum and we'll try to help you through.

-dan

Dan and Colleen have been very responsive to user issues with the Beta Station Launcher.  We expect great things!

On June 25, 2008, Sony Online Entertainment adjusted our billing system to lock country and currency as part of our ongoing fraud prevention measures as well as to provide a better service on a global basis. For existing accounts, the change locked the selected currency on the user’s account as of that date. For new accounts created after that date and accounts that have been modified after that date, users selecting Australia as the country are then tied to the Australian dollar currency.

Additionally, we have reviewed our current pricing and are adjusting the prices for Australia due to prevailing currency exchange rates. Therefore, on October 28, 2008 Sony Online Entertainment will be adjusting the Australian dollar subscription rates as follows:

1 Month of EverQuest for the MAC: $14.95/month (Australian dollars)

1 Month of any other SOE game: $17.95/month (AUD)

1 Month of Station Access: $35.95/month (AUD)

Fans of Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest II will definitely want to listen to the newest SOE podcast, number 49, for interviews with designers from both games. GMs also share their favorite in-game Halloween moments. It can be found on SOE's podcasts page.

Tune in for our Halloween cast! This Podcast includes an interview from Niklas "Swede" Johansson, Game Designer for Star Wars Galaxies, another interview with EQII Designer Nathan "Kaitheel" McCall and Associate Game Designer Carlos "Gninja" Mora. In Quotes from the Underground, the GMs tell us about their favorite in-game Halloween Moments, hear about what the staff at SOE is up to for Halloween and listeners share their scariest in-game moments.

Are you using the Beta Station Launcher to start your SOE games?  The Station Launcher team is seeking your honest input on the Launcher.  Please click the "Station Launcher Feedback" button on the Launcher or click this link to give your feedback.  Dan Kinney and Colleen of the Station Launcher team have been highly responsive and want your feedback!