For the third year in a row, gamer-driven charity Child's Play has seen donations of video games, cash, toys and other items exceed a net worth of one million dollars.

In all, the total donations for 2008 sat at $1,434,377, as of January 16, 2009. The charity's annual total first broke $1 million in 2006, a figure that was surpassed the following year with a then-record total of $1.3 million.

"Being the voice of a successful charity is actually quite strange, because typically when one is in this position they must constantly gesture at the machinations of a grim universe, and say this, this is what we are up against," Child's Play co-founder Jerry 'Tycho' Holkins wrote in a Penny Arcade update. "There is never any need, here. You never give me an opportunity to indulge in dark imagery. You simply make light."

Founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade writer Holkins and artist Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik, Child's Play has been collecting donations since 2003, its goal to provide sick and hospitalized children with new toys and other entertainment-centered items, such as coloring books.

"It's time to be amazing again people," wrote Mike "Gabe" Krahulik of webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder of the Child's Play charity, which has officially started its 2008 giving season.

Child's Play, a gamer-founded charity benefiting children's hospitals worldwide, was started in 2003 by Krahulik and Penny Arcade partner Jerry "Tycho" Holkins to counter negative press about gamers to resounding success. Last year, the charity raised $1.3 million for over 40 hospitals.

In the wake of economic turmoil, Krahulik stressed the value of small donations. "I understand that the way things are right now, buying toys for sick kids might not be an option no matter how much you'd like it to be," he conceded on the Penny Arcade website. "I wanted to make sure you knew that even giving a couple dollars to Child's Play helps out. Trust me when I tell you that it all adds up."