Extra Life 2018 Is Just Around The Corner! Join Up Now!

Hi All!

For some reason I didn't think to check out the GWJ Extra Life team till late this year and found out there isn't one for 2018! I have taken part in this little tradition for five of the last six years so I figured I might as well try to get things organised!

For those that don't know what Extra Life is, it is an annual donation drive where people play games for 24 hours. All of the money donated goes to various children's hospitals to buy various equipment to keep the kids entertained. Because this is so last minute I have made a team goal of $1,000 .

The official for date for this year is The 3rd of November, but you can do it any day or split over multiple days. So if you want to play games for 24 hours straight, or split it out over multiple days head over to our page on the Extra Life website

In previous years I have done the event on Sunday in a 24 hour go so I could coincide with you guys, this year I will do two 12 hour shifts over the two days of the weekend.

Because this is my first time organising this if anyone has any suggestions please yell out below, let me know if you are keen on joining in and I will post a link to your profile page and any streaming links you want to add.

Thanks for stepping up, SpaceDog! I’m not sure how I’m going to organize myself this year. I’ll have my two boys on Game Day, November 3rd and I’m away the weekend before that and I still have my boys on the weekend of November 10th, so I’m a bit at a loss how I’m going to cram everything in the schedule this year. I’ll figure something out.

Same as last year, me and a bunch of friends are getting together to Do A Thing. Over the last two years we've raised $10,000; we're aiming to at least crack $15K this year.

Place still TBD, but it's probably going to be the same place as last year, the Cambridge Innovation Center, where we can take over their cafe and do some fun dumb stuff.

Eleima wrote:

I’m a bit at a loss how I’m going to cram everything in the schedule this year. I’ll figure something out. :D

You can split it over multiple days to work around you! I'll be doing both the Saturday and Sunday this year due to not being able to take my usual Monday off (Time zones are annoying).

Ed Ropple wrote:

Same as last year, me and a bunch of friends are getting together to Do A Thing. Over the last two years we've raised $10,000; we're aiming to at least crack $15K this year.

Place still TBD, but it's probably going to be the same place as last year, the Cambridge Innovation Center, where we can take over their cafe and do some fun dumb stuff.

Wow, that's a solid chunk!

Okay, so I didn't see a GWJ team, so I went ahead and created one. I kept the goal modest, since we didn't hit it last year.
I am indeed going to split my participation. Probably over October 26th and 27th. It's a bit of a tight thing, we'll see. I'm thinking I can spread it over those two days. It's not the best, because I pick up my kids at 6pm on October 27th, but I figure that worst case scenario, I can cram a couple of extra hours in the following days.

Eleima wrote:

Okay, so I didn't see a GWJ team, so I went ahead and created one. I kept the goal modest, since we didn't hit it last year.
I am indeed going to split my participation. Probably over October 26th and 27th. It's a bit of a tight thing, we'll see.

Spacedog linked to the one he created in his first post.
https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm...

Now we have 2!

Oops! My bad. I kept looking for GWJ and Gamers With Jobs, like last year's team. I'll fix it.

Edit: Oh crap, I can't seem to be able to switch teams. Should'nt have done this at midnight...

Eleima wrote:

Oops! My bad. I kept looking for GWJ and Gamers With Jobs, like last year's team. I'll fix it.

Edit: Oh crap, I can't seem to be able to switch teams. Should'nt have done this at midnight...

I think you need to contact Extra Life support to fix that one.

I don’t know that it’s even worth it, my schedule is a mess, I can’t even stream right now because my connection has been on the fritz. Might have to throw in the towel.

I’m definitely in.

I may be on a field exercise on the actual day. If that’s the case I’ll aim as close to that as I can for a 24 hour day. I love doing this thing.

Eleima wrote:

I don’t know that it’s even worth it, my schedule is a mess, I can’t even stream right now because my connection has been on the fritz. Might have to throw in the towel.

That's a pity, but sometimes that's life!

Squee9 wrote:

I’m definitely in.

I may be on a field exercise on the actual day. If that’s the case I’ll aim as close to that as I can for a 24 hour day. I love doing this thing. :)

Cool bananas!

Internet is back up!!! Streaming is once again operational! As the day approaches, I’ll start hammering a schedule, but I think I’ll be streaming on and around October 26th. Can’t be helped.
As I messed up, I’ll write to the EL team and try to have our two teams sorted out.
And yay Squee!!

Things have been a little touch and go with me lately, streaming wise, so I hadn't opted in the last few years. I did a few test streams and current setup seems to be okay. Will see what I can do on the back end for twitch hosting and the like from the GWJ account for folks running streams. One year I recall we had a spreadsheet, should we do that again?

I don't know what my time or energy constraints are quite yet, so I hesitate to organize or run anything in an official capacity, but would love to participate as a member. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help

So I might be able to help with an hour or two. My PC might be able to handle streaming DCSS or maybe Codingame. And I have a good condenser Mic, but have not setup any streaming software. Any tips for practicing?

Awesome guys, the more the merrier. Just remember to sign up for the team!

Next year I will aim to make it a bit more organised, but if anyone has any ideas for things to do this year let me know.

Alright so I’m officially rescheduled to Saturday, 17NOV. Actual EL day I will be traveling to Georgia for work.

I should be able to get on and support some streamers the actual day. Bummed I’m missing it, but still excited for the whole thing!

Geez, I really need to start my planning, since I'm aiming for a October 26 & 27th Extra Life.
Don't forget to join the team!

Okay, I feel I've hammered out a schedule. It's a bit of an odd schedule, because I have kids, and life, basically.

Thursday, October 25th
10pm-midnight (GMT+1, so 4-6pm eastern) : Guild Wars 2

Friday, October 26th

  • 9am-12:30 (GMT+1, so 3-6:30am eastern) : Jurassic Park
  • 1-4pm (GMT+1, so 7-10am eastern) : Assassin's Creed: Chronicles of India
  • 4:30-7:30pm (GMT+1, so 10:30am-1:30pm eastern) : Assassin's Creed: Chronicles of Russia
  • 8-9pm (GMT+1, so 2-3pm eastern) : Guild Wars 2
  • 9pm-midnight (GMT+1, so 3-6pm eastern) : CHUCHEL

Saturday, October 27th

  • 9am-noon (GMT+1, so 3-6am eastern): Dishonored
  • 12pm-1pm (GMT+1, 6-7am eastern): Guild Wars 2
  • 1:30pm-3:30pm (GMT+1, 7:30-9:30am eastern): Agents of Mayhem
  • 9pm-midnight (GMT+1, so 3-6pm eastern): Oxenfree

I feel that should cover it. I'll probably squeeze in Crypt of the Necro dancer daily runs in there too. Schedule subject to change too.

Looks like I am going to have to do some work on the actual weekend, so i am going to be doing half on the Saturday of that weekend and the other half the next weekend. This getting old thing and having real world commitments seemed cooler when I was younger!

It's all good my dude. I always take a nap in the middle myself.

I always took some sleep too.
So this year is a bit of disappointment and I’m absolutely sure it’s because of my schedule, completely broken up into bits and pieces and way ahead of Game Day. Ah well. A for effort, right?

I wanted to do a stream but my internet isn't good enough. Anyone playing any multiplayer games that would want me to join in on?

I might stream some Guild Wars 2 on saturday evening if you’re interested. Can’t remember if you already have the game or not but if you don’t, I have some codes for the base game (which is free to play), heroic edition.

Eleima wrote:

I might stream some Guild Wars 2 on saturday evening if you’re interested. Can’t remember if you already have the game or not but if you don’t, I have some codes for the base game (which is free to play), heroic edition.

I'll have to download it to my new computer, but I do have it. What time will you be playing it?

Remember to join the team if you aren't part of one!

EverythingsTentative wrote:
Eleima wrote:

I might stream some Guild Wars 2 on saturday evening if you’re interested. Can’t remember if you already have the game or not but if you don’t, I have some codes for the base game (which is free to play), heroic edition.

I'll have to download it to my new computer, but I do have it. What time will you be playing it?

Not before 9pm my time, so that’s... 4pm Eastern if you folks haven’t switched to DST yet. Can’t remember when you switch.

All right, I've done a few test streams and I think for the most part everything is set on the technical side. I'll likely need to tweak the volumes of some games as I go, but for the most part I think I'm good to go.

I'm sticking with my plan from last year of starting with genre blocks instead of specific games just because it gives me some flexibility to tap out of games that aren't as exciting or end up being more frustrating than fun.

One thing that is returning from last year is my Wing Commander run. I ended up beating the whole first game during the "Space/Flight Sim" section last year (mostly due to audience request), and so I thought it would be cool to transfer save game over into the expansion and see if I can beat that as well.

It's going to be a mad dash to make sure everything is set up as much as can be before I go to bed tonight since I'm starting at 6:00am Eastern tomorrow. The plan is basically to wake up, grab a shower, then go live.

Anyway, here's the link to my Twitch Channel and then also the link to my Extra Life page that has my gaming schedule if anyone wants to donate there. Looking forward to getting Game Day started!

Eleima wrote:

4pm Eastern if you folks haven’t switched to DST yet. Can’t remember when you switch.

Funny enough, we switch on Saturday. You know, when Extra Life will be happening I can't recall but I believe this happened last year, too. I was going to be funny and play an hour of Persona 3 during the "Dark Hour", but I ended up deciding against it.

Eleima wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:
Eleima wrote:

I might stream some Guild Wars 2 on saturday evening if you’re interested. Can’t remember if you already have the game or not but if you don’t, I have some codes for the base game (which is free to play), heroic edition.

I'll have to download it to my new computer, but I do have it. What time will you be playing it?

Not before 9pm my time, so that’s... 4pm Eastern if you folks haven’t switched to DST yet. Can’t remember when you switch.

If I am able to get on I will message you in game. I think we are friends in game.

Fortunately I avoided a two week stint in Georgia (thanks Trump! (Long story)), so I’m in! Streaming will start Saturday afternoon ‘Murica time for me after I win a frisbee tournament. Very little prep done by me due to nonsense, but I hope to receive my new GPU and install it tonight then be ready to rumble!

I’ll be sure to stop by the other streams. Especially in those delightful wee hours.

Well, I did it! I actually reached my goal again this year (which was going to be stretch), and the achievement is due in no small part to the generosity of the GWJ community. There were so many of you that stopped by over the 25 hours just to say hi or even participate directly. I'm pretty sure that the only time I didn't have someone in the chat was around three in the morning? And even then it was only for about an hour.

I did have some technical issues that took the stream down a few times. I'm pretty sure it was a combination of the USB capture device I was using for console games in addition to using a monitor input switch that was causing my computer to hard lock. Even still, I stuck through it and adjusted. My plan for now is to take some time to edit all of the video files and upload them to YouTube as an archive. There's not going to be a ton of editing, to be honest. Probably just cut the various games up into their own videos?

If for whatever reason you want to go back and watch the videos right now, you can still catch them on Twitch. The titles of the games aren't entirely accurate (I ended up having issues with Gemini Rue for instance, so it became Night of the Rabbit instead), but you can poke around there to see some highlights.

Thank you all again so much for making this year's Extra Life amazing! You're all the best. Even Oily.

Well my usual sources of donations weren't out this year, I think the USD to NZD conversion rate at the moment hurt that, we'll see if my stream works this weekend for the final 12 hour stretch. If not, it'll be my first goose-egg, but there's always next year!