A beginner's attempt at Extra Life 2014

Hey y'all!

My name's Luis, and I have been following Giant Bomb for a while now, I think since mid 2008 or so. I would like to say I've been part of the Giant Bomb Community, but I have never really posted on the forums or gone to events with other duders and stuff. So I am "part" of the Giant Bomb Community, but not as much as I could be, and I hope I can change that.

My one goal for this year was to go to PAX East to meet the Giant Bomb crew, make new friends, and see what PAX was all about. So that is what I did. I drove all the way from San Antonio, Texas to Boston, and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Being able to ask a question at the Giant Bomb panel was a great experience, even though my question was kinda garbage. To be fair, I didn't really have a question lined up when I got up to the mic. I didn't even expect to get up to the mic at all, but it was worth it, and I had a great time.

That one goal, has evolved into a desire to be more involved with as much as I can, whenever I can. After PAX I went to California Extreme (I flew :P) and that was so much fun to play all those classic machines that I never experienced because they were before my time. Though I didn't really run into many duders at CAX, hopefully next year we can plan out a get together of some fashion. Oh and also PAX is coming to San Antonio in January (yeah, after I freakin' drove all the way to Boston :I) so I'll be going to that as well!

So in an attempt to get more involved with the Giant Bomb Community, I have joined up with our Extra Life team to help raise money...

For The Kids!

I have watched the Giant Bomb crew do their Extra Life streams since Drew and Alexis did their Halo stream in 2012. I did donate a sum of money over the years to the cause, but other than that I never did anything else to help. I have wanted to at least try and do a livestream of my own, but I kept telling myself I wouldn't be able to raise any money and it wouldn't be worth anyone's time. This year that's changing, and I hope I can raise at least a few dollars for the cause. I always worried that livestreaming would be too difficult for me. Turns out it's stupid easy! I suppose there's a reason why Twitch is so big, with everyone streaming everything now, go figure.

Really the only hard part is...

Spreading the word.

@dwigtk mentioned that he posted flyers at local businesses to let people know about the event, and raise some extra money. I am no wizard when it comes to image editing or creativity, but check out this thing I made:

I put this flyer up at my apartment complex's mailbox area, and in the break room at the store I work at. It is hopefully going to get around to other places soon, but I am still working on that. Thanks @dwigtk for the inspiration.

So that brings me to my Extra Life stream.

@fattony12000 is doing a "Road to Extra Life" where he will be streaming for four consecutive weekends before the main Extra Life event on October 25th. Thanks to him for inspiring me to attempt a similar task, with a different style. Be sure to check him out here when he starts his streaming on the 27th of September.

Here's the plan

Starting this week, on Monday, September 8th, I will begin my journey to Extra Life by streaming EVERY DAY (likely between 8am - 12pm CST) up until the week of Extra Life.

What will I be playing?

I'm glad I asked myself, because I will be playing through...

Persona 3!

Why Persona 3? Well, in 2011 I played through Persona 4 for the first time, even though I never played any other Persona before. I loved the shit out of it, and I really wanted to give the other Persona games a shot. So with Extra Life coming up, I thought it would make for a great excuse to play through Persona 3, and even raise some extra money before the main event.

Speaking of the...

Main Event

My plan for the stream on the 25th of October involves the following:

• Siren for the PS2
• Siren: Blood Curse on PS3
• 100+ super famicom games (for palate cleansing from the Siren gameplay)
• Windjammers (with my good friend @zagzagovich)
• a ton of 4-player games including (but not limited to): Mario Party 2, Crawl, and Samurai Gunn.
• and some foreign snackery ( DJ ungelvral anyone?)

So I hope to have y'all drop on by to check out my progress through Persona 3, and watch me try not to fall asleep in my chair on October 25th. Here are my things:

My Twitch page: http://www.twitch.tv/meatsoevil

My Extra Life donation page: http://www.extra-life.org/participant/luismartinez

I will make another blog post perhaps halfway through my Persona playthrough, and again after I finish it.

Thank you so much for reading, and please if you have any questions, suggestions, or any thoughts in general feel free to let me know!

-Luis

and presented without comment:

Cool. I'd kind of like to try streaming this year as well, but have no clue where to begin.

This is absolutely awesome :D I always liked watching other people stream for Extra Life. I'll definitely make sure to follow you on twitch and watch.

@csl316: Just give it a go man! If you have a backlog on your steam library, play through those! Bring some friends over and play a bunch of dumb nonsense, couch co-op style. I use OBS to stream stuff, it's free and easy to use. It's also worth looking at some guides on streaming. I'm happy to offer assistance if you need it.

@thethingaboutmachines: Thanks so much dude! :D

Good luck man, I'll probably drop in on your streams and check it out.

Good luck! I'll try to drop in during your livestream, if I remember. ;)

@joesracistsister: As your first post, talking about kicking a dog (even in jest) kind of makes me want to destroy you. Pretty sure @rorie doesn't like damaged puppies, even if he intends to chomp them afterwards.

On topic, good luck Luis. I'll definitely check out your stream and contribute if I can.

This reminds me I should also fix up some semi reasonable looking flyers to post around my community. Last year no one really seemed to care but I expect if I keep putting them out each year someone will eventually be generous enough to donate. Since your going to be streaming every day I'll at least check out your stream every now and then. Good luck!

I'll tune in. I know nothing of Persona 3 besides the summoning mechanic.

@meatsofevil: Whoa! You're going at this HAM! I wish you all the very best in your endeavour! I'm sure things will go great, you've already put in a good amount of effort so far.

(And thanks for the shoutout!)

It's Persona 4 if all the happiness was replaced with depression.

@mooseymcman: I would love to have you Mr. Moose I Am - aww forget it, I'll stop now ;)

@fattony12000: Of course dude! Without you I wouldn't have even tried something like this. So my thanks goes to you my friend, for inspiring me to get more involved.

Good luck! I've already made a donation to an Extra Life team in my local area, but I hope you manage to get some donations going your way.

@meatsofevil: One day a text to speech program will be able to handle my username! ONE DAY!

Sounds like my kind of place.

I'll be watching duder =D