On Saturday, Nov. 4th, while many will be out enjoying the weekend, hundreds of gamers are going to pick up gaming consoles and play all day.
This isn’t a new scenario, but on that day they will be doing it for a good cause.
Extra Life is a charity event that allows gamers to do what they do best in support of its parent company, the Children’s Miracle Network. Children’s Miracle Network is a charity group representing hospitals in the United States, Canada, and the UK. The charity group raises money for children’s care in those hospitals and for medical research on diseases affecting children.
Gamers participating in Extra Life raise money by asking friends and family to donate for each hour of the 24 they plan to spend gaming, similar to how charity runs structure their donations.
With a first year goal of $500 dollars Florida Southern College has decided to take part in this global charity event. On Saturday, Nov. 4th, gamers from Florida Southern College will take place in the first ever Extra Life event in the campus’s history. The Florida Southern community will be showcasing Extra Life from two locations, each one holding either video games or board games. The event will be hosted by FSC’s very own Philosophy Club.
Extra Life began in 2008 as a way of honoring a young woman named Victoria Enmon who passed away due to leukemia at the age of 15.
Victoria’s battle against acute lymphoblastic leukemia inspired a radio disc jockey from Sarcastic Gamer Community, an independent video gaming blog and podcast, to collect a number of games and gifts to keep Victoria’s spirits up despite her numerous visits to the hospital and three different bouts of the disease.
After Victoria’s death, the team at Sarcastic Gamer Community decided to host a 24-hour video game marathon to raise money for the hospital that cared for Victoria. From there, the “Extra Life” movement has grown to what it is today. A global event that has over a million different groups playing games to help heal kids.
The gaming marathon is in its ninth year. Last year, Extra Life raised more than $30 million for the Children’s Miracle Network. Its Twitter account announced gamers had already pledged $1 million before the gaming had even begun.
The Extra Life’s website says any game, from hardcore PC games to casual Facebook games, are acceptable. They also said there is no penalty for splitting up the 24 hours since not everyone can function without any sleep.
For anyone who doesn’t want to participate and instead wants to watch hours of gaming, Twitch, the biggest streaming network for gamers, will host many of the charity streams in one place all day Saturday, including Florida Southern’s own stream.
There are also several gaming media outlets participating, such as G4tv, Joystiq, Destructoid and GameInformer, along with Ubisoft’s professional all-girl gaming group the Frag Dolls. Also anyone can also support the cause by visiting the Extra Life donation page and find new streams on Twitter to watch through the #ExtraLifeStream hashtag.
More information about Florida Southern’s part in this event will be available to readers soon.
