It's Time For Another Edition Of The Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run!
Whelp, it is Spring, and you know what that means! It's time for another edition of the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run (i.e., the GBCER)! As many of you already know, through the GBCER, I help raise money for an educational charity to fund academic opportunities in developing nations. The charity, Pencils of Promise, builds schools, trains teachers, and sends kids to school in Ghana, Laos, and Guatemala. This year, my fundraising goal is $2,500, which is enough to fund an entire classroom operated by Pencils of Promise for a whole year! It would be the most significant amount of money I have ever raised for charity if I am successful, but even half this amount would be exciting.
Here are the important donation links. While the page recommends donations of $75, as that is the cost of fully funding a year's worth of education for a single student, all donation amounts are appreciated. A handful of my close friends donated $5, which is still a huge help. Please consider sharing my donation page with your gaming groups, co-workers, friends, or family members if you cannot contribute financially.
- Individual Donation Page: https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraiser/3759614
- Team Donation Page: https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/team/412231
- Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/zombiepie
However, I wouldn't be writing this blog if it weren't at least tangentially related to video games or this community. As mentioned in the introduction, all of this charity work will be streamed on Giant Bomb and in chat as part of the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run! From April 8th through the 10th, you will be able to watch Giant Bomb staff, guests, and users stream endless hours of video games, all in the name of charity! If you are interested in being able to keep track of the many streams we will have running live on these three days, check out https://www.explosiveruns.com/. With all of that out of the way, let's talk about my plans for the event!
April 8th - The Quest For The Worst Adventure Game Puzzle: The Journeyman Project 1: Pegasus Prime [3:30 pm – 10:30 pm PDT]
Are you someone who has enjoyed my adventure game blog series on this site and is interested in seeing how the sausage gets made? If you said "yes," I have a stream for you! On Friday, I will be kicking things off for a solid six to seven hours, during which I will stream The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime As part of my stream, I will take notes and discuss puzzle rankings while playing the game blind and without a guide. I will endeavor to complete the entire game in one sitting. However, given the game is about six hours long, and that's the expected duration of my Friday stream, I make no promises. Nonetheless, it should be a fun time regardless, considering the game's reputation for having some bizarre and wacky puzzles that only an MIT graduate could solve and a story that I understand "goes places." Also, if you wanted to know, the next adventure game I expect to cover for my puzzle ranking series is none other than Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Though I "finished" Starship Titanic, I have no idea how I want to cover or discuss that game on the site, if at all.
Nonetheless, let's talk about some of my donation incentives for this stream! I have been meaning to do this for a while, but I will allow COMMUNITY SUGGESTIONS for future episodes of my "The Quest For The Worst Adventure Game Puzzles Ever Made!" series. For just $35, you can add the name of your favorite adventure game to my list of possible topics! To give you an idea of how this will work, I put games on a Google Form, and then I use a random number generator to figure out which game I will discuss next. If you donate the specified amount, I promise to play and blog about your game before the end of the year! That's an absolute promise I am willing to adhere to for the rest of 2022! So, if you want me to tackle a highly-venerated classic in LucasArts's catalog or maybe a more obscure Myst-like, donate $35, and I will do the rest of the work to make the magic happen! Also, if you are feeling exceptionally generous, I am willing to take up to THREE suggestions per person! This challenge will be available for the entire event and is NOT time-sensitive!
April 9th: 12(+1) Hours For Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII [10:00am – 10:00pm PDT]
As they say, new year, ordinary me, and the same old shit. As is tradition, I will be playing a Final Fantasy game for the lion's share of my streaming for the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run. Last year I decided to play OG Final Fantasy II in the hope of people reveling in my absolute misery. This year, I decided to "treat myself" to what some people promised would be a good time. So, here we are; I'm playing Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII for twelve hours straight. I hope this isn't some trick. I hope that the opening scene I saw when I tested my streaming set-up isn't just a one-off goof. I hope all of you that said this game's version of the dressphere system is fun were not bullshitting. I hope those who said Lightning is an enjoyable character in Lightning Returns are not dirty liars. Because if this is a cruel prank, I will be miserable for twelve hours.
Because I genuinely want to maximize the experience, I am going into this game with zero prep. I have not consulted a guide, and I have not gone past the game's opening act. I have tested the first cutscene and combat sequence to make sure the game works on OBS. That's the extent of my exposure to Lightning Returns, and it will remain that way until April 9th. If you have any tips or tricks, feel free to share them, but I think the stream overall will benefit from me not knowing what I am getting into until I start. Before progressing the story, I don't know which outfits to make a beeline for or which side quests to complete. This is a "true" blind playthrough. If you are worried about me making rookie mistakes, please tune in when the stream starts or follow my Twitch account to get updates on when I start.
I'm using my old charity stream battleax for incentives: food challenges. However, this year, I will tackle an area of cuisine I have known issues processing. While I have done very little to prepare for Lightning Returns, I have gone on a bit of a shopping spree and came across some fine products manufactured by the Jelly Belly candy company. Now I know it is still popular to eat those 50/50 rancid Bean Boozled jellybeans, but I'm not too fond of those because if you get the non-rancid flavors, it's a bummer for the audience. As a result, I bought two packs of the "Fiery Five" edition of the Bean Boozled jellybeans. No matter what, I will set my tongue on fire, and as someone who is notably weak to spicy foods, this is bound to get "interesting." The jelly beans rank in spiciness from "Siracha" to "Carolina Reaper." Whenever I raise $200, I randomly select a jelly bean while blindfolded and eat the bean I pull up. Also, if I reach my fundraising goal before the end of the stream, I will play the game an additional hour.
April 10th: Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind & John Drake's Pizza Challenge! [10:00am – 4:00pm PDT]
Last year, I streamed King of Dragon Pass for six hours, and it was a surprise hit with the community. For this year, I will play the game's spiritual successor, Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind. Based on what I have gathered, it is as confusing and irreverently up its own ass with its lore as King of Dragon Pass. It has a different, wildly detailed pantheon of gods and goddesses, leading to extraordinarily rambunctious and unpredictable side quests. Additionally, from what I could discern from the few hours I tested it, Six Ages has as many inscrutable sliders and alignment charts. Also, despite only playing the game for three hours, I somehow managed to get a "Game Over," which confirms that Six Ages also has the same cruelty and randomness as its predecessor. These "hints" about the game's qualities should lead to a highly entertaining livestream to cap off my contributions to the GBCER.
Now, I have to weave you a bit of a legend for my donation incentive. A few months back, I celebrated the anniversary of the most successful blog I have ever published on Giant Bomb. This blog involved me eating an entire Little Caesars Hot N Ready pizza in real-time. That blog drew over 180 comments, and I will almost certainly never surpass that mark. Regardless, while I was celebrating this blog's 12th birthday, a one John T. Drake decided to cyberbully me on Twitter. At first, I didn't make anything of their relentless but cruel teasing. However, after their playful jests of me being "soft," they then began to spin a bunch of yang of how not only could they eat a Costco pizza without a complaint in the world, but also how they could down a chocolate shake as a side dish. John Drake is a menace, and I would be grateful if you could help me prove as much on the final day of the GBCER. Therefore, if I raise $2,000 before Sunday, April 10th, I will buy a Little Caesars Hot N Ready pizza and challenge myself to eat it within one and a half hours. I want YOU to help ME prove John Drake wrong! THIS MAN CANNOT BE TRUSTED!
Hi, I was raised eating deep dish, these numbers do not scare me. pic.twitter.com/RfzHvv76Gb
— johntdrake (@johntdrake) February 24, 2022
Not only that, but you can also make my pizza the stuff of pizza-eating ironman legends. If you donate $50, you can suggest ANYTHING be placed on a slice of pizza. And when I say "anything," I mean it. Do you want me to put fresh banana slices or peanut butter on a pepperoni pizza? Donate $50, and I will make it happen. If you want me to put stupid shit like fish or cocoa powder on my pizza, donate $50, and you will be able to do that. As I said, I am open to ANYTHING, and I encourage it because I want to create a pizza I know John Drake would NEVER eat. After all, he's as soft as sour cream. So, with that in mind, here are the donation links if any of you reading this blog are interested in helping me!
- Individual Donation Page: https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraiser/3759614
- Team Donation Page: https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/team/412231
- Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/zombiepie
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