TL;DR: Here's a link to my charity page. If you donate you will help to make my 12 hour livestream even more entertaining. Small donations are appreciated, and please spread the word if you can!

Introduction

Hello everyone, and it is that time of the year again! That's right; it is time for me to play a ridiculous amount of a Final Fantasy game in the name of charity! And good GOD is my plan this time around one of the worst I have ever conceived. Before we get to into that, let's review the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run (i.e., GBCER). The Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run is a community-run spring-time charity event that raises money for Pencils of Promise. Pencils of Promise is a non-profit organization that builds schools, trains teachers, and provides access to clean water in developing countries. They are a 501(c)(3) charity, and all donations go to support their services and not their overhead.

But let's spend more time talking about my plans on raising money for this great cause. For those of you who have followed my previous GBCER follies, you know I have a habit of giving the people what they want. Usually, this means playing hours upon hours of Final Fantasy games. Well, this year I decided to change things up. For the sake of my sanity, I have set aside time for a few non-Final Fantasy based games. However, you have my assurances these streams will be as entertaining as my usual fare! So, without further ado, let's jump into the madness!

April 12th - (6 Hours of Streaming) [6 p.m. to 12 p.m.]

• Game: Star Wars: Empire at War - Thrawn’s Revenge [Total Conversion Mod]
• Donation Incentive: Star Wars "Story Time"
• Minimum Amount: $15

On Friday I plan to ease into the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run with a game I know like the back of my hand: Star Wars: Empire at War. To spice things up a bit, I'll be playing a total conversion mod for the game. This mod, Thrawn's Revenge, allows you to choose one of eight playable factions and embark upon on a galactic campaign spanning 80+ planets. To better share the modification's excellent "Era System," I'll be playing as the Imperial Remnant, and if things go according to plan, I should be able to beat the game during the Dark Empire era. This endpoint should be fun as the Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyers are a sight to behold.

To me, RTS games are the perfect gaming "comfort food" after a hard day of work. In the case of Empire at War, the game can be paused for in-depth conversations about lore and mechanics. Likewise, unlike the game I will be playing on Saturday, I feel I can talk about Empire at War with authority. Not only do I know the game's content by heart, but I have memorized quite a few of the game's glitches and exploits. It would be my honor if you joined me during my stream, and an even greater honor if you could see why I love this game unconditionally. If you enjoyed my write-up from a few weeks ago about Empire at War, and are curious to learn more about it, then this is an excellent opportunity for you!

The donation incentive here is relatively straight forward. If you donate $15 or more, you can ask any question related to Star Wars, and I will answer it during the stream. If you ask your question before the start of the event, I will research the answer and share the results in as much detail as possible. Do you want to know more about Chewbacca's death in the original Expanded Universe? Or how about a lecture on the biology of Twi'leks? Did you know Luke Skywalker once fell in love with a ghost that possessed one of his Jedi padawans? For a measly $15 you could understand the answers to all of these questions! As long as your prompts are NOT morally reprehensible, and avoid swearing on my PoP page, I will answer anything you ask!

April 13th - (12+1 Hours of Streaming) [9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (possibly 10:30 p.m.)]

• Game: Final Fantasy XIII-2
• Donation Incentive #1: Reaching 100% of the fundraising goal results in me playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 an extra hour!
• Donation Incentive #2: Food-based tomfoolery, see table below.

Good Lord, what am I getting myself into this time? Well, I guess in some sadistic way, this stream was unavoidable. I have played Final Fantasy games for charity before, and these streams have been monumentally successful in raising money for Pencils of Promise. To cut to the chase and because I am not the smartest kid on the block, I plan to play Final Fantasy XIII-2 for twelve hours straight. More importantly, as I have yet to finish my series on Final Fantasy XII, this playthrough is entirely BLIND! That's right; everything I see and interact with during the stream will be my first impression. If what people have told me about this game is correct, then I should be in for a "treat."

Honestly, I have no idea what I am getting myself into with this stream. Playing twelve hours of any game is a daunting task, but Final Fantasy XIII-2 seems to operate on a different level. Speaking of which, if there is one thing you can help me with, it's extending the length of this stream. While the food-based donation incentives, which I will detail in the next paragraph, are fun in their own right, I am also willing to extend my overall play-time an extra hour. However, I am only going to do this if I reach 100% of my fundraising goal before the end of my Saturday stream. Last year, I set up a similar donation incentive and was able to achieve my goal halfway into my Saturday stream, and I hope to accomplish that this year as well! Also, extending the stream an extra hour provides several of you in different time-zones an additional opportunity to join the fun!

Nevertheless, every year I have some food-based donation incentive to keep things entertaining. Last year I threatened to poison myself with expired halibut, and the year before that I ate approximately twenty Vienna Sausages. The less said about the latter of these two, the better. Regardless, this year is no different from previous ones, but this time around, I decided to export the responsibilities of developing my incentives to someone else, namely @thatpinguino. Fun fact, thatpinguino is an avid vegetarian, and I asked him to select foods and beverages that are "healthy" to the average human body. Moreover, you should know I am not the biggest fan of vegetables. So, without further ado, here are the incentives:

Donation Incentives

Admittedly, some of these donation incentives may come as a surprise to any "normal" human being. For example, some of you may be batting an eye at the notion of me eating a raw bell pepper, or slicing up a mango. In each of those cases, I have only had their cooked or dried counterparts, respectively. More important, and if I can be perfectly frank with you, there are a few fundraising goals I am genuinely afraid of doing on stream. For one, eating raw beets sounds like the worst thing in the world. Alternatively, playing a game with one hand, and opening pistachios with the other, sounds downright impossible. But what has me shaking in my boots the most has to be the final donation incentive. Even thatpinguino, a professional plant-eater, hates the taste of raw kale! No matter, as long as it is for a good cause, I'm willing to try anything once.

April 14th - (6 hours) 11 am to 5 pm

• Game: Hatoful Boyfriend - More Specifically the Bad Boys Love Ending
• Donation Incentive: Hatoful Boyfriend dramatic reading - The highest bidder can select any storyline in the game, and I will do a dramatic reading of that storyline.

With my final stream, I plan to correct what I consider to be one of the greatest injustices in Visual Novel history. That's right, I'm playing Hatoful Boyfriend, and more specifically, I will be playing the game's "Secret Ending!" For those who know what I am talking about, my Sunday stream will showcase Hatoful Boyfriend's "Bad Boys Love" arc, in other words, the Hurtful Boyfriend storyline. If you have no idea what I am talking about, then I IMPLORE YOU to watch my stream! If your only impressions of Hatoful Boyfriend are "silly" anime nonsense with pigeons, then buckle up, because you are about to have your mind blown!

I am hosting this specific stream for a few reasons. First, this stream has the most straightforward donation incentive. Whoever bids the highest, with a Hatoful Boyfriend request, will get a storyline of their choice dramatically "acted" out for their entertainment. Just pick any romanceable option, and I will do my best to entertain you. Second, I want more people to know about this game's secret ending. Despite the game's heavy media coverage when it initially launched on Steam, no one in the game press covered what I consider to be the game's heart and soul. That is to say; the "Bad Boys Love" arc is the whole reason for the game existing in the first place.

While the Bad Boys Love arc starts no differently to the base game, things take an unusual turn when the game's protagonist complains of headaches and retires to bed early. The following day, the female lead is nowhere to be seen, and the player assumes the role of one of her romanceable options, Ryouta. Ryouta explores his surroundings in hopes of finding the protagonist and eventually stumbles upon a box lying in the middle of a hallway. When he opens the package, he discovers the SEVERED HEAD OF THE PROTAGONIST! The game then turns into a murder mystery, similar to Umineko When They Cry, and several of the characters from the main story are murdered one at a time. To make matters worse, Ryouta is pursued by a bloody scarecrow monster while trying to get to the bottom of the murders. If you wish to learn more about Hatoful Boyfriend's insane dark turn, then feel free to join me, and donate if you can!

Final Word

Hopefully, you can see how ambitious my plan is for this year's Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run! I truly wanted to add more variety to my streams to allow more people to join the fun! My current fundraising goal is $1,500, and that's only a little more than what I raised last year. Part of my reasoning is I WANT to showcase all of my donation incentives during my streams. In the end, I want you to know all about my love for Star Wars and laugh as I toil away at Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Finally, if my blogs or works of writing have ever entertained you, please show your support, however you can. Small donations as little as a few dollars can go a LONG WAY during these sorts of events! Even more, PLEASE spread the word to any communities, friends, or family members who might be interested in supporting Pencils of Promise. If you have a social media account, or another forum you partake in, just mentioning these types of events does more good than you could ever imagine! Finally, watch the streams when you can, and drop a comment on Twitch or the Explosive Runs chatroom when things go live! Until then, here are some links on how you can show your support!

• My Pencil's of Promise Donation Page
• Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run IX Team Page
• Explosive Runs Chatroom