ExtraLife 2012 GiantBomb Team! - Play Games, Heal Kids

Extra Life, an annual 24-hour video game marathon that raises money to help kids at Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has been running for a while now and is truly a great cause. I've been doing it for the past 2 years and livestreamed it for 24hrs each time. With the help of the GiantBomb community last year we raised $1,859.62 and I see no reason why we can't raise more this year. On Oct. 20th, 2012, We'll attempt to play an 24 hour video game marathon and it's our hope that you'll support us with a donation that will go directly to that team member's chosen hospital.

So if you want to get involved go to http://extra-life.org/ and during registration select GiantBomb as the team you would like to join or if you have already resisted go to this link (http://www.extra-life.org/team/teamgb) and hit join team. If you are participating but for whatever don't want to join the GiantBomb team post the link to your fundraising page and I will update the first post with a list of charitable duders.

The following is taking from the official FAQ:

What if I can't commit to that date or the entire time? The idea and spirit of Extra Life is that everyone pulls together at the same time, but we know that’s not going to be possible for everyone. Don’t let a commitment on the 15th stop you from joining. Just do what you can and make up the game time later. What matters most is the time you put in BEFORE the event to raise money for these kids.

What if I can't finish the full 24 hours due to commitments or exhaustion? If you won’t be able to finish the whole thing, you can make up the remaining hours later. It’s all on the honor system and what really matters is that we’re all raising money for a great cause. Your sponsors should know they are supporting the cause whether you crash on hour 18 or not.

I will try to get some money saved up for donations

FOR THE CHILDREN!

I'm excited!!! I'm also happy you are using Twitch this time as there will be an archieve, I always wanted to go back and see some shenanigans from last year. Oh and this year I am in a way better situation than last year so SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

@Matt: For the children at The Royal Hospital for Sick Children (UK)

I joined the team and my name is William Stubbs, I am unsure whether I will live stream it yet. I may turn my Mac towards my TV and just live stream it like that.

I want to see @Matt do some more Dark Souls and chat with pony lady (@Sparklykiss)

Otherwise I'm totally down with doing one myself. I'll just have to see if nothing is happening that day.

Hey, why the hell not.

I'll probably throw in some cash and stream during the event. Most likely be streaming here. and the link to my fundraising page is here

Nice. Get some Dark Souls action going and I will definitely be watching.

Not playing so much Forza Motorsport 4 again! No way, no how! ...well, I might consider it, but it would take a much higher goal this time.

I'll think about joining legitimately, but I'll most likely freeload and be an annoyance in your stream (again) while encouraging donations to other GB'ers instead.

Had a great time with this last year, so I'm definitely doing it again.

@Matt: To the front page promo!

(I'll bump the promo again when we get closer to the event)

So, I am interested in participating, but I have NONE of the equipment necessary to deliver a quality broadcast. What systems do you guys use to deliver decent content? Is game capture enough, or should I also have a camera on myself? Is the latter perhaps more important than the former if I spend it playing fighting games? If I want both, how much am I spending? Is there a way to get reasonably priced console capture equipment, or am I probably using my PC?

Sounds great to me, I'm in. I'll be working myself to death by playing EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis 2 on the PlayStation Move for the full 24 hours, and yes, I will allow the world to watch my body slowly fail ;)

My Extra Life Page

My Twitch.TV

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I love this idea :)

@Little_Socrates said:

So, I am interested in participating, but I have NONE of the equipment necessary to deliver a quality broadcast. What systems do you guys use to deliver decent content? Is game capture enough, or should I also have a camera on myself? Is the latter perhaps more important than the former if I spend it playing fighting games? If I want both, how much am I spending? Is there a way to get reasonably priced console capture equipment, or am I probably using my PC?

I don't really think a camera is necessary, or at least, it shouldn't be a main priority if you have a tight budget, a microphone wouldn't hurt though. I think at minimum for a quality console stream you'll need a powered HDMI splitter which are around $15-$20 (If you plan on streaming PS3 you may have to go with component cables/splitter because of HDCP?), three HDMI cables (a couple bucks on Amazon or monooprice) and a cheap 720p capture card like the Avermedia HD DVR which is around $70-$100 depending on where you get it. You'll also need the bandwidth/processor power to stream at 720p (it can also do 720p60 which is nice for fighting games.)

For a bit more you can pick up this card instead which will handle 1920x1080 input. If you want to go the cheaper route you can pick up an SVideo capture card like the Dazzle, KWorld DVD Maker or EasyCap and pay only like $15 for the capture unit and cables, but be stuck with a 30 FPS 240p stream.

For streaming software you can pick up something like FFSplit or Flash Media Encoder for free or pay for XSplit.

Oh and a PC with a PCI-E 1x slot is required for the two HD cards listed in this post. There are USB alternatives, although they're usually more expensive or not as good.

This was a lot of fun last year. I will definitely be watching again.

Glad to have raised as much as I did last year. May not have time this year, but I'll definitely chip in for another Duder.

Pumped for this. This is such a great cause - can't be there in person so I'll donate until I don't feel bad. And I'll even check out the stream!

@Matt: If this is for the kids than It's not a question...

Hi Matt! I've been a Giant Bomb user for a while but don't use the forums much. I had a question for you. I participated in Extra Life last year through the "official" channel and am planning to do the same thing on the same day this year (likely playing DayZ for 24 hours with a stretch goal to play Amnesia in one sitting, I also plan to do a live stream) but I am not doing it through the Extra Life organisation. They were a disorganised mess last year, it took months to get the premium t-shirts from them, they never responded to e-mail questions in a timely manner and they took so long to make the donations to my hospital that their fiscal year had concluded when the money made it to them so a my donors didn't get tax receipts. I e-mailed them multiple times this year asking how they were planning to combat these organisational challenges and have been completely ignored. Their support e-mail directs to the IT support desk of a Minnesota hospital (I guess the organisers work there) and they said they'd forward my concerns but I never heard anything.

As a result, I'm going to be organising and promoting my event through Fundrazr.com which will still allow me to accept credit card donations. The trick this time is that I'll be receiving the money personally and will be passing it on to the charities myself (I'll likely be splitting mine between the hospital and a local humane society that's hurting for money). I know this requires an extra element of assumed honesty from me but given that most of my donations came from friends and co-workers last year, needless to say I would be drawn and quartered if I tried to pocket any of it. I will be donating 100% of the money to charity and personally assuming all the expenses for setting up the live stream. Given this, would you be comfortable listing me here or would you prefer to keep it only to people participating through Extra Life "proper"? Either way is fine by me, I just wanted to ask you first. Thanks!

Oh hey, what do you know, October 20th is my birthday, and it's on a Saturday. It's like everything is just right for me to participate. Though I don't have any way to stream footage, and I don't have a twitter account to update.

Well, I guess this could be the one thing to get me to make a twitter account...

@PXAbstraction: Hmm that's a tough one. I will allow it but I will also add a note explaining why it's not going through extralife.

@Matt: That's cool of you, thank you. The Fundrazr/livestream pages aren't setup yet (working on both this week though I'm holding down IT at work by myself this week so it might take a bit) but I will let you know once they are up.

@Matt: So you've done it before, would you recommend a game every hour, a few games, one game, loads of games? It's my first time, oh and I've never stayed up for 24 hours before, are energy drinks a must?

@Hizang: I usually just play whatevs but I am going for a more structured approach this year, not sure what I'm going to do yet. Energy drinks help would you gotta save for for the home stretch when you really need them.

Ok so I've just acquired 25 copies of Cards Against Humanity to be giving away to people who donate at least $5 to me on extra life, so go get yours! http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=28578

@Matt: Ok sounds good, I need to get all sorted. I booked the Friday and Monday off to give me plenty of time to prepare. I am unsure whether I'll be live streaming it, may just do tweets like Matty.

while I was singning up about a week ago there was Giant bomb group so I have joined it. I will be livestreaming from China

http://pl.justin.tv/danteveli

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=31853

Just updated the table with new charitable duders! @MattyFTM@WilltheMagicAsian@Jensonb@Danteveli

I'm pretty interested in participating in this, and aside from the proper equipment(because streaming is way better than tweeting), is there anything I would need to know about the event in general? Also, how do random people find out about random participants in order to donate?

Also, are you just calling something team Giant Bomb, or are teams actually a thing?

@YI_Orange: Teams exists as part of the site. It's totals the donations from every member of the team and displays it as a team total. It's really down to you to promote yourself through various means and try and raise as much a possible. Honestly the likelihood of someone just coming across your page and donating are low but it could happen.

@Matt: Well I tried joining the team, but I keep getting an error that I'm already registered for Extra Life (which I am, I don't know why I can't get on the team still though). Anyway, my donation page is:

www.extra-life.org/participant/jformoso

I just got done making up a graphics set up and stuff in BoinxTV for my stream. I have no idea why I felt the need to get that part done so early, but I guess I was excited :D

I bought a Game Capture HD not too long ago. Count me in.

What am I going to do? Beat a world record....

...in something.

I wish I had thought of getting prizes of some sort when I was at GenCon. :|

But Borderlands 2 will be out by this time and I have a ton of scary games I can't play alone...

EXPECT TO SEE ME THERE. REQUESTING OFF WORK NOW. CAPS LOCK.

EDIT: Here is my link as promised. http://www.extra-life.org/participant/sparklykiss

I'm very excited for this year. :) Are we doing the same Skype call setup as last year? We all know I love the sound of my own voice. >.>

The best of luck to you and everyone involved. Unfortunately I will not be able to participate at all this year, but that wont stop me from donating what I can afford (which is less than I would like).

@Matt: Hey Matt, I think I'm already signed up on the Extra Life site with the GB team.

D'you mind adding me to the list on the forums? I'm over at this link.

@Sparklykiss: Right Borderlands 2 will be out.

Well I might not start my own raising of the funds, but will try and stick around for moral support to those on the skype call. And if anyone wants to play Borderlands 2 and needs another I am in =)

@Matt: Why am I not on the list, here is my linky link.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=32106

Ive done Extra Life the past 2 years with another forum but seeing as I just left that one I may have to join the GB team.

Just added @Sparklykiss@applet0n and @Hizang to the list!

I'm going to go to Matt's house and drink cider while he plays videogames. For your entertainment!

I'm contributing!

Alright, I signed up. Even stopped being stubborn and made a twitter account which I'll use to provide updates during the 24 hours.

This could be fun. It is for a good cause, after all.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=7940

@Alaska_Gamer: That's the spirit! Added you to the list.

I have decided against streaming it, I have no means of doing so without it looking like shit. So instead I will be posting tweets throughout the event complete with pictures.

My Twitter - https://twitter.com/HizangWS

@Sweep said:

I'm going to go to Matt's house and drink cider while he plays videogames. For your entertainment!

I'm contributing!

I can imagine the insanity now. This Extra Life is gonna be awesome~

I don't have the equipment, or the internet capacity to stream anything, but October 20th is my birthday and you can bet 100% I'll be playing games and donating with you guys. My page.

Here's my page.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID;=29007

I'm in, I missed it last year. I don't know if I'll be streaming though.

My page.

Any other UK guys here, because we are going to start way ahead of you guys.

Just added @ckeats@Mercot and @zolloz89

@Hizang: Yeah that's how it worked last year. I can't remember if @Sparklykiss and @PsEG were with me at the beginning or not but I plan to start around Noonish UK time.

@Matt: I know I was there from beginning to end, what with timing my Forza driving around the same schedule.

On that note, and completely contrary to Alaska_Gamer's situation, October 20th is also my birthday. While I'll try to attend and join in the festivities for as long as possible, I'll have to break away at times for other obligations, and I can't guarantee 24 full hours of gaming this year. Still, when I'm available, I'll be glad to join in on any multiplayer games, and chatter along over Skype or whatever else as long as I'm remotely tolerable to the crew.

It'll be better this way, trust me. At least there'll be less whiny grumbling on my behalf (and certainly no shitty laptop webcam streaming on my part, either).