GiantBomb Extralife Team (Play games / raise money for local 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 did this last year and livestreamed for 24hrs straight. With the help of the GiantBomb community I was able to raise $200(ish) for charity and gave away some games in the process. This year I hope to do it again but I would love to see some other people in the GB community give it a go.

So if you want to get involved go to http://www.extra-life.org/ and during registration select GiantBomb as the team you would like to join or if you have already registed go to this link 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.

How... exactly does this work? Because it's something that seems like it would be neat to participate in. I'm just not entirely sure I understand the idea of the 'sponsors' thing. D:

@aurahack: It's really simple. The site may give the impression that people have to sponsor you by the hour. That's not true. Basically you set up your page and people can choose to donate to you. Extralife handles all the transactions to avoid any foul play.

I've been following Extra Life since it started. I used to follow Sarcastic Gamer around the time they set it up. It's a great cause. I'd love to participate in it one year, but I don't expect many random internet people to donate, and people I know in real life will all be like "You're playing video games for 24 hours? That's hardly a challenge. Don't you do that every day? Go run a marathon or something!!!".

@MattyFTM: Well last year all my sponsors were random internet people. You should do it anyway, it's fun and for a good cause.

@MistaSparkle: If you just want to donate to someone you don't have to play at all.

@aurahack: That's not how it works. People choose to donate a set amount. I can see why you would think that though, it isn't clearly explained on the site.

I've updated the first post with some common concerns people seem to have.

I might be doing something this year. I'll let you know if I do decide to.

@aurahack: Glad to hear it. Just so you know you don't have to be able to livestream your gaming, it's just what some people do.

@benjaebe: Excellent!

Ok, I have actually been considering doing a "play through all 4 MGS games" charity run for a few years now. I want to find a way to do it in a public place though, and it will probably take something like 48 hours. Anyway, the big thing that was keeping me away from doing that was having to actually deal with the monetary aspect and stuff, so if there is a big thing going on then I can finally make my dream a reality.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5123

@nintendoeats: Added you to the list!

@darkwingduck: Added to the list!

is there any recommended hardware for console gamings and streaming on a mac system that's somewhat cheap?

@Matt: And people can keep donating even if I reach my goal, right? I am assuming so.

http://www.extra-life.org/participant/charlesalanratliff

That is me. I joined the Giant Bomb team.

@Vito_Raliffe: I'm pretty sure they can!

@TurboMan: I use this for console streaming on my PC but it's compatible with Macs

@Matt: thanks, might look into it...

If that doesn't work out, I'm thinking of doing a dumb 24 hour pac-man-athon of me going for the world record

I'm super interested in this, I just need a good idea of what to play. Any suggestions?

I'm in!
 
http://www.extra-life.org/participant/tgwaltney

@Sjupp: I would just play whatever will keep you going for 24hrs

@Ragnarok512: Great! Added to the list

How are you guys getting those clean URLs?

@nintendoeats: Should be one of the options in your extra life profile

So, I've been thinking about how I want to handle this thing. I would like to get a bunch of people at my university involved and try to make this happen in a public place. If anybody is in Nova Scotia, I'm at Dalhousie. my plan currently is:

1. Get a space at the student union building

2. Get people that I know involved.

3. Put up signs looking for donors and participants.

4. Run around annoying people and businesses, hopefully with the help of some of the aforementioned people (but I have lots of experience with this sort of thing, so I can do it on my own).

5. Set up the space with not only dedicated stations for participants, but also with "PWYC" arcade setups, mostly derived from my insanely large game collection.

Sounds fantastic! I will check back and hopefully get something set up. If not I will be there for support no doubt!

Man, it's a good thing I'm a bit of a social networking maniac.

Here's my link. Hopefully I'll be able to join in on the streaming stuff as well. :D

I'm in to :)

Here's my link

@Sparklykiss: @BeefyGrandmole: Added both of you to the list!

Count me in too Matt.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5290 

(the link in Opera doesn't work)

Looking forward to this. :)

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5291

I always wanted to use my ability to play video games for extended periods of time for good. Count me in!

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5295

I'm not sure I'll be able to stream it, but if I can, I'm in.

Now I just need to think of the perfect game. Maybe Deadly Prem for 24 hours or maybe ME 1 + 2 back to back.

Sweet I have been wanting to do something like this for awhile! Once I have a free moment I am going to register and I will repost here once I have! I am excited thanks for posting this! I will be joining the team soon!

I'm completely down for this. As someone who spent my first year of life being helped by the kind people in Childrens Hospitals I'd really love my chance to give back. I registered but didn't add to the team, so I have sent an email request to join it.
Here is my profile : http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5301
I'll probably be doing some World of Warcraft with multiple steam games thrown in for good measure

As I stated elsewhere, while I'm not really into the donation style, I'm starting to see some possibilities for halfway interesting things to do during the 24 hours.

If I can find an inexpensive way to stream what I'm doing on my Xbox 360 with higher quality than pointing a cell phone at a TV screen, I'll probably end up joining.

@Matt said:

@Sparklykiss: @BeefyGrandmole: Added both of you to the list!

Yay. :D Also: How much does it bug you that the title of this thread is "GiantBom" instead of "GiantBomb?" Because, boy, is it driving me bananas.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5302

Join and support me as I try to top the world record in Pac-Man on Oct. 15.

For those of us who want to join but are unable to stream the gameplay, could we do something like gathering a team or two for a multiplayer game (Halo, Black Ops, etc) with at least 1 person streaming and keep playing matches together for the 24 hours? This is something I would love to do because of my internet speed preventing me from doing streams.

@Sparklykiss said:

@Matt said:

@Sparklykiss: @BeefyGrandmole: Added both of you to the list!

Yay. :D Also: How much does it bug you that the title of this thread is "GiantBom" instead of "GiantBomb?" Because, boy, is it driving me bananas.

You have no fucking idea! It's driving me nuts!

@Kandycane2029: Well I'm planing to stream for the whole 24 hours and play a bunch of different games. I want to put together a schedule of games I will play so anyone who has the game but can't stream themselves can get in on the action.

This sounds like a really good thing to do. I was planning on getting the "Intensity Shuttle" and new good mic to do some Let's Plays, so if I can get my "Intensity Shuttle" this week then I will sign up for this...hell if I can't then I still have my PC to do games on...I will now go ask my friends to see if i can get some sponsors, then make my account.

Alright registered! Here is the link! http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=5308

Updated the list and added an option for a live stream link. Keep it up guys!

@Matt said:

Updated the list and added an option for a live stream link. Keep it up guys!

I plan to live stream so can you add mine please. Thanks. http://www.twitch.tv/mrcraggle

After watching Vinny and Drew play IL-2, I may purchase Combat Simulator: A-10C Warthog which I heard was just the pinnacle of flight sims or maybe some Hentai games which I've been watching Benzaie play recenely when he did Let's Fap month back in April or maybe I could just get him involved.

For a second, I thought I lost this thread now that the title is fixed. Pretty excited for this, by the way. Hoping to make it a big family thing since so many of us have been through those hospitals. (And we're all fans of sitting around and playing games. Yep! Two birds, one giant stone.)

@Sparklykiss said:

For a second, I thought I lost this thread now that the title is fixed. Pretty excited for this, by the way. Hoping to make it a big family thing since so many of us have been through those hospitals. (And we're all fans of sitting around and playing games. Yep! Two birds, one giant stone.)

Luckily Coonce saved the day and corrected my typo!