Editor's note: Chas grabbed an interview with the organizer of a Child's Play charity event that resulted from a Team Fortress 2 controversy surrounding a randomized giveaway. It's a really interesting read, and I feel a citrusy cliché about turning turn bad into good coming on, so I'll just leave it there. -James

John "WiNGSPANTT" Tran, the recipient of a rare and controversial Team Fortress 2 weapon, will soon delete his item along with 10 other recipients. The event is an attempt to rid themselves of the weapon’s stigma while raising over $9,000 for Child's Play, a game-related charity.

One hundred Team Fortress 2 players received golden wrenches last month, and while the weapon only differs from the default wrench cosmetically (it turns defeated enemies into golden statues instead of killing them), the golden wrenches have created controversy within the community.

“The wrenches have been controversial for many reasons, but primarily because there were only 100 distributed and Valve told a few white lies about how they were ‘randomly’ distributed," Tran said in an interview I conducted. “A hacker later proved it wasn’t completely random.”

Tran realized how controversial the golden wrenches were when someone hacked a recipient’s account and deleted the weapon.

“When I saw how much drama this decision caused, I realized I could draw a lot of publicity by purposefully doing the same."

Rather than just recreate the drama by deleting his golden wrench, he wanted to use the attention to do some good.

“I thought if I was going to get a lot of attention, why not use it to help benefit a good cause? And I also figured that if everyone was so angry about the whole situation, it would be good to vent some of that emotion into something positive.”

Tran indicated that he didn’t know what response to expect when he announced the event.

“I had never run a fundraiser before, let alone an online one, so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought it could be $200 or $30,000 but really wasn’t expecting much.”

The initial reaction was very negative, but the donations quickly added up.

“In the original Steam Forum Thread where I announced my decision, the first several pages of replies were full of very negative, angry responses,” said Tran, “I thought it was doomed, but then before I knew it, the charity had raised $500, then $1,000, then $3,000! So, in that regard it’s been astounding.”

Tran noted that it has been difficult to get in touch with other golden wrench owners to invite them to delete their wrenches for the cause.

“So far, I have contacted about 20 or 25 of the golden wrench owners. It has been very hard to contact them, because they get a lot of harassment and attention from strangers. Even beyond that, most live in other countries and play at odd hours, or don’t speak English or French, or don’t even really play Team Fortress 2.”

While some have been sympathetic to Tran’s cause (10 have joined him so far), he said several refused because they enjoy owning the rare weapon. Others, however, have reacted negatively to the proposition.

“The rest basically told me to go fuck myself. Two of them even had me banned from their servers. Overall, I’d say it went pretty well, considering!”

Valve has issued its seal of approval via the Team Fortress 2 Official Blog, and people can help support the cause even if they can’t donate money.

“I’d like to just ask anyone out there, even if they can’t donate, to help by spreading the word to friends, to Valve, and to the gaming news media.”

Over 400 people have already donated to the cause with all proceeds going to Child's Play. The organization helps hospitals purchase toys and video games for children staying at their facilities.

Tran will be the first to destroy his golden wrench on August 31. The top-20 contributors will join him in the game to celebrate the first wrench deletion.

Read about how video games can be more than just entertainment at BOLDSTATE.