Gaming For A Good Cause

We all want to do good at some point on this planet. So what better way to do something good then to help a charity? Even better? Gaming for charity! Yes, this is possible. That’s why on October 16^th, my friends and I decided we would help a good cause. Extra Life is a children’s charity and has been around for two years. It was created for a beautiful young girl called Victoria Enmon who had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Sadly Victoria passed away in January 2008, but her story touched the Sarcastic Gamers hearts and thus Extra Life was born, gaming for 24 hours in order to raise money for children like Victoria. What a great way to get money for such a good cause. Sarcastic Gamer even said that for $192 raised, the gamer would receive an Extra Life shirt to show off with pride. And yes my mister went and got that shirt. I’m so proud of him!

Well, the day started at 7am! Not on a Saturday, I hear you cry. But it’s for charity! So pancakes and energy drinks were downed and gaming got underway. My weapons of choice were my DS, PSP and my mister’s PC. The men were focused on Halo Reach, Borderlands, Limbo, and Uncharted. Alan Wake also helped with his new DLC, as did Sonic 4 Episode 1. I myself decided to take this time to chill out with Alistair and co. from Dragon Age. Minecraft of course did put in an appearance, but only to show off a huge castle with extra dungeons and a lava pit. We had some colds going round, so unfortunately pretending to be Scott Pilgrim on Rock Band was out of the question. But the day was full of sneezing, explosions, game glitches and laughter. Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Sadly I fell at the 18^th hour, no amount of energy drinks could save me, so I retired to the good old double sized bed as the guys fought on until 7am. Overall it was a fun day with achievements and trophies unlocked for everyone.

I know I’ll be signing up next year and will do my best in order to go the whole 24 hours so children like Victoria can get a big donation to help them keep going. I can’t recall the overall amount raised as we are still waiting for donations, but whatever it is, it helps towards the goal. This also shows non-gamers and people who stereotype gamers that gaming is not a waste of time. There are perhaps millions of gamers in the world, all different ages and races and they do something like this to help children. So I hope next time someone decides to have a pop at gamers, someone can show them the Extra Life website and demand an apology. Because gamers came together in order to help ill children when many “normal” people don’t… and the best news was Extra Life raised more this year then they have in the last two years! If anyone wants to donate any spare cash or wants more information, then please visit the Extra Life website.

A big thanks to Sarcastic Gamer for creating Extra Life, Victoria for her inspiration, gamers around the world who gave up a whole day for something they love and the guys at the Geek House for continuing on whilst I snored everyone to death!