Gamers are passionate and committed, and for the first time Microsoft is targeting this demo for a charity campaign that asks players to donate their Xbox Live points to the Children’s Miracle Network.

‘They really do embody the community essence. They look out for each other, they socialize with one another. They’re also very conscientious of social issues, and children’s health is always on the forefront of Canadian social issues,’ says Gavin Thompson, director of corporate citizenship at Microsoft Canada, about why the gamer demo is the ideal target donor. About 64% of the gaming community in Canada is male and 47% say they play more than a few days per week, according to Entertainment Software Association of Canada.

Called ‘Mission 4 Miracles’ (M4M), the campaign will be promoted within the virtual world – for example, on billboards in driving games, on the Xbox Live dashboard that about a million Canadian users see before the log on and throughout MSN.ca properties. In-game ads were placed by Massive and Microsoft Advertising, ads were created by Traffic of Toronto.

Instead of building avatars or buying weapons, gamers can use their Xbox Live points to purchase graffiti art by Toronto artist Patrick Thompson, or they can bid for a chance to participate in ‘Game With Fame’ events that will be put on by Xbox Live this summer with celebrities like NFL stars, golfers, singers and Olympic athletes. About 1,600 points translates to $20.

‘We’ve priced a lot of the cool content that we’ve built into this at a price range that’s very reasonable for the gamers. And also they can take comfort in knowing that 100% of them will be redirected to children’s hospitals,’ says Thompson. The Children’s Miracle Network serves 14 hospitals across Canada. The campaign runs for the next six weeks.