2 Idiot Gamers

With Extra Life about 55 days away most people should be starting the peak of their training for the marathon.   This should involve lots of reps on the nautilus machine and doing lots of laps out on the track.  This is when you make the push to avoid hitting that wall.  Ha, who am I just kidding, we have all been training for this ever since we picked up our first controller.  This is not your simple sprint to the finish, it is a all day adventure that requires some good planning, great pacing and some much needed support.  Having done this 2 years in a row, I have learned some tricks to help make this event the enjoyable one it should be, not a chore.

One of the first steps one should do in preparing  for the run is preparing physically.  Make sure you slept well the night before, got to bed early, get lots of rest, 8 AM Saturday morning will come quickly.  I can tell you this, no matter how much sleep you get you will still see some purple elephants at around the 20 hour mark.  Along with the elephants comes the urge to do something a little different, in my case one year, do the dishes.  Along with sleep is eating the proper food.  Now classically many will lean towards junk food, Twinkies, Ho-Hos, potato chips, etc.  This is okay, however do not lean on them too much.   That much garbage will help put you to sleep much earlier then intended.  Make sure your meal breaks include some healthy alternatives, fruit, yogurt, granola bars.  These will help you feel fresher and help you stay awake a lot longer.  Do not overlook hydration.  Sodas and energy drinks are great at giving you that boost for a few hours, however water is way better.  Not only does it keep you from crashing, it helps keep the excessive calories from being consumed.  Lastly, when it comes to your body is breaks.  Make sure you take them.  Make sure you take 5-10 minutes  every two hours to walk around, stretch, use the washroom.  Take care of yourself.  Your health is more important then gaming for 24 hours.  If you are feeling really tired and need to sleep, do it.  You will make up your time later.  You know it and I know it.

Secondly comes your playlist.  Variety is they key here.   Pick one or two  new titles and make that your reward for time benchmarks.  Last year, I started with a few simple goals.  I started my day with Shadow Complex and tried to do the speed minimalist run, twice.  The took about an hour and a half, I failed.  It didn’t matter that I failed on the goal, I had achieved my first goal, attempt the speed run.   Pick an older title you want to finish.  Go through an achievement/trophy list and find some that you were looking to try.  After making it about 5-6 hours, then start looking at the newer titles.  How many times do you get a new title and play it from beginning to end?  The average game takes approximately 7-10 hours to finish, so you want to make sure you do not burn yourself out.  Last year I spaced out Demon’s Souls and Brutal Legend.  Both were perfect for this event.  Demon’s Souls kept me nice and busy.  Another aspect is multi-player games, these do a wonderful job at making time fly.  Think about how many times you sat down to play Modern Warfare and next thing you know it is 2 hours later.  It felt like 3 matches and 15 minutes.  FPS and MMOs fulfill this perfectly.  I cleared almost 8 of my 24 hours last year raiding in World of Warcraft.  Social gaming not only helps time go by quickly, it also helps spread the word of Extra Life and can help provide some actual support from people out there.  ”Good Job” and ” ‘ata boy” go a long way in keeping you motivated.

This is a list of titles and systems that are coming out a couple weeks prior to Extra Life:

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Oct 5, 2010 (PS3/XBOX360)
• Two Worlds II Oct 5, 2010 (PS3/XBOX360/PC)
• NBA Elite 11 Oct 5, 2010 (PS3/XBOX360) – Also comes with NBA Jam!
• NBA 2K11 Oct 5,2010 (PS3/XBOX360/PC)
• NBA Jam Oct 5, 2010 (Wii)
• Medal of Honor Limited Edition Oct 12, 2010 (PS3/XBOX360/PC)
• Super Scribblenauts Oct 12, 2010 (DS)

Those are some of the big titles that hit the shelves in the first two weeks of October.  There are plenty of others on the slate as well, these are some of the big ones others will more then likely be playing.  Medal of Honor is the unofficial title of Extra Life.  So look for lots of SarcasticGamer folks and the affiliates playing that weekend.

Any form of pocket gaming really helps, this is something like the PSP/iPhone/DS.  You can always go lay down for a little while and burn an hour or two relaxing in bed.  Or screaming at the mini-screen in the case of Angry Birds.  I used this in the early hours of the morning.  They helped push me to those final moments.  Social Networking games can also be a benefit here.  Farmville, MafiaWars, Wheel of Fortune (via twitter), etc. all count; so use them accordingly.  These, like online play, accomplish a few tasks.  They help you spread the word, solicited a few more last minute donations, and raise the relevancy of the charity and what we are doing.

Please remember, sports and boardgames count as well.   Boardgames beings the support of friends and family in around you.  They help pass the time and allow you to share the experience with others.  Sports are great too, they allow you to get out, stretch your legs, and burn off some of those wasted calories all of us gamers eat.  The only downside to sports is that depending on the sport, you may exhaust yourself and hurt you from finishing the 24 hours.  Again, do what you want first, you will always make up the time.

The biggest challenge of the day is the wall.  This will manifest in more then likely one of two ways.  The first, which happened to me the first year was, believe it or not, boredom.  I just got bored of playing games all day.  This occurred about the 18th hour, while playing Dead Space.  I was looking for any reason not to continue, it was not the fault of the game, it was a wall I hit.  I wanted to do the dishes…DO THE DISHES, rather then play a game.  Who was this person.  I never do dishes.  Anyway, this was because I was not prepared.  I didn’t plan accordingly and just got bored of sitting on the couch holding on to the XBOX360 controller.  It actually ruined Dead Space for me, I did not finish it until about 9 months later in July.  I played other things in between, however I equated the boredom of gaming with Dead Space, so I never went back to it right away.  On a side note, I ended up loving Dead Space and was very happy when I finished it.  The second wall was just being over tired.  This hit me last year.  Right around the 21st hour I had a hard time staying awake.  This is where mobile gaming worked wonders.  I was able to go to bed, relax, and continue to play.  This allowed me to finish off my time  and then just roll over and sleep for a few hours.

I know 24 hours sounds like fun, there are challenges, and risks participating in it.  With proper planning, eating right, and variety you can set yourself up for success.  Remember, it is a timed event, not a race, pace yourself, take your time, and have lots of fun!

Good luck and Stay Frosty!

So we sit 50 days from this years Extra Life.  We are in the middle of  an effort to double the amount of registered  gamers and we are trying to beat previous years in funds raised.   I tweeted some today about the final push for some big recruitment before end of day Friday.  From these tweets, some people had some questions.  Becasue of these question, I decided to bullet point some things that you need to know about registering for Extra Life.

• It is free to sign up and participate.
• You do not have to go anywhere, you play from the comfort of your own home or your gaming location of choice.
• When you register you can only choose one hospital to support.  That choice is yours and if you choose to change the hospital, you just need to email support from your donation page.
• We recommend that you get friends, family, co-workers, etc to sponsor you $1 an hour, bringing the total donated to the $24 to the event.  Although, any amount is appreciated.
• People who donate are donating a lump sum.  It is expected that you will complete the 24 hours, in one sitting or over time in October.
• You are not restricted to video games.  Sports, poker, board games, tag, etc are all acceptable forms of participation.
• You do not need to complete the time in one sitting, although it is recommended.
• You can join a team, this is does not affect your donation or hospital.  This is designed to be  a support group, benchmark, or just to symbolize friendship.
• The main participation date is October 16th, with a make up date on the following Saturday.  It is encouraged to participate on this day.  Not only because it is the scheduled date so you will have brothers in arms as you work through the 24 hours, but your tweets, facebook comments, blogs, social network, etc. will help create awareness and perhaps raise more money that will help more kids.
• Raising money for sick kids is cool and an easy way to get chics  (or the sex of your choice)
• Raising $192 earns you a free t-shirt provided by Extra Life sponsors SplitReason.
• Lastly, and this is important, 100% of the money raised goes to the Children’s Miracle Network hospital you choose.  There is zero overhead by the organizers in this event, it is all driven by volunteers.

There is more official information here: http://extralife.sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2010/03/extra-life-faq.html

The registration page is located here: https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/

Information on the Children’s Mircale Network is here: http://extralife.sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2010/05/extra-life-benefits-childrens-miracle-network-hospitals.html

You can register for the SarcasticGamer community here: http://forums.sarcasticgamer.com/register.php – This is were you will find some new friends, perhaps some enemies, but this is the life-blood of Extra Life.  There is also a support community where you may find out about events going on in your area.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me and I will answer them, if I cannot, I will direct you to those that

brad at twoidiotgamers dot com

So register, spread the word, or just support a gamer you know participating.

Gamasutra is reporting that 11 states have joined forces with California to try and make the sale of ‘mature’ video games to minors illegal.

I was wondering, do books have a rating system?  If I walk into a store, walk up  to the horror section, or perhaps, True Crime, and look at the wall, does it tell me what to expect and whether or not my 13-16 year old should read it?  Some of the graphic depictions of violence and execution of the crimes are a better ‘learning tool’ then games.  Will the store be fined if a kid purchased the book?  Hell why stop at games.  If I go to a museum, is there a warning about naked pictures and violence ahead? If so, many go unnoticed.  Let us reevaluate all forms of media and entertainment and see what further regulations we can impose. /sarcasm

Gaming does a better job then most entertainment mediums in regulating themselves and giving parents the information they need.  Parents need to do one simple thing, parent.  Not a new or novel concept, just good old fashioned take an interest.  Tools are there to help.  Modern game consoles have lock-out features.  Microsoft has done a good job at trying to promote them.  This, much like the v-chip, requires some parental research and set-up.  More times then not I believe parents do the right thing.  Take interest in their kids, what they do, what they like, who their friends are.  As a kid growing up, my passion was gaming.  I had to save up almost a summers worth of mowing lawns to afford one cart for my NES.  I relied on my birthday and Christmas to help subsidize the rest of my habit and collection.  Game prices may have gone up, however in reality, they seem to have gone down.  A new cutting edge Neo-Geo game (circa 1990) cost anywhere from 100-300 dollars depending on the title and arcade popularity.  That was the cutting edge system at the time.  Now all games, no matter the popularity top out at or around 60 dollars.  With the ability to trade-in titles the cost of games has gone down.  So it is possible for more kids to buy more games.  If parents were to shop with their kids and help educate them, perhaps put the console in the living room and monitor play, this would be a no issue.  Like I stated before, I believe this is happening, just the stories of the bad eggs stand out more.  I believe that if a teenager is mature enough and their parents trust him/her the kid should have the right to walk into a store and purchase a copy of Modern Warfare 2, Mortal Kombat, etc. even New Super Mario Bros. Wii.  Because we all know why four men are rushing to save a princess, for the ‘cake’ (Zero Punctuation Reference).  Even when a kid wants to purchase a game at a midnight launch, some parents even accompany them.  At the midnight release of MW2, I was behind a dad and kid waiting inline.  They had a good time talking about the game, the crowd, and how cool it was.  The kid was 16 or so the dad was well into his 40′s.  It was nice to see.

Gov’t is slippery slope.  It just takes one wrong idea for a bunch of people to jump on and think this is the ‘right’ thing.  However it is unjust.  I am well over whatever age is needed if the law comes out to prohibit me from buying video games.  This law though, would send a message to the medium knocking it down a notch, once again stating games are for kids, and we need to delineate that market.  The problem is not so much the law, but what the law represents.  If stores will be levied fines, up $1000 per title, they will start to not carry the higher rated titles for the fear of loss of money, fines, and poor publicity.  This means ‘Adult’ Video game stores will need to open.  And what kind of message will that send.  When we are essentially buying an R-Rated movie.  The Gov’t needs to get out of the role of raising our kids and doing the more important things, like fixing our economy, roads, and jobs availability.  I know this is still a newer medium and plenty of people have a reason to fear it, however the hard part is taking the time to raise a responsible child.

I have been going back and watching a lot of older movies.  Things from the 80′s when I was a kid.  One thing I realized was how much PG-13 has changed.  You were allowed to drop one f-bomb per movie, have one sex scene, and display one pair of breasts.  These standards have become so much tighter.  Just look at the first PG-13 movie, ‘Red Dawn’.  Kid’s die fighting for their freedoms trying to ward off a Russian invasion.  That was in 1984.  Imagine seeing that today with a PG-13 rating, the remake will more then likely be rated R.  I watched that movie a lot as a kid growing up and I like to think I turned out okay.  I have lots of stories like that.  My parents raised me to be responsible, look out for myself, and try to be as good as I can.  I remember as a kid, maybe 9 or 10, I was allowed to watch ‘Alien’.  I had to lay on the couch, on my stomach, so I could tuck my head in the armrest when I got scared or my parents told me too (I’m looking at you spaghetti dinner scene!).  I remember being scared.  I remember sleeping in my parents bed that night.  I also remember being proud that I made it through the movie.  My parents watched it with me.  They told me it wasn’t real and it was okay to be scared by it.  They took an interest and cared for me.  Perhaps that is what the gov’t should be promoting, rather then more laws that affect the choices people and companies make.

If you are against this bill, let your representative know.  Below are the links to each state that supports the bill and their Representatives.  I have contacted mine, you should too.

Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia

So Max and I were unable to go to E3, however most of the information is out.  We are still in the process of digesting all of the press conferences and stage shows.  We will be delivering an extra large podcast later this week.  This will include our reactions to the big 3′s press conference.  In an interesting note, Microsoft did announce a XBOX 360 Slim.  And in a twist, it is shipping this week.  If you are interested in getting one, you can get it for about a hundred bucks or so.  If you have a XBOX, a few controllers, maybe even an extra hard drive you can reduce your costs greatly.

continue reading…

There are few things I feel more passion towards then this event.  For the third year running the folks over at SarcasticGamer have given the gaming community something to rally behind and show our caring and supportive power as a group.  I have been part of ExtraLife for 2 years, this will be my third.  The first year I was a little lost and saw it more as a reason to play games for 24 hours in a row.  The second year, I rallied behind the cause and raised over a thousand bucks for Texas Children’s Hospital.  I became more active in the community and really enjoyed the interaction with other folks like myself.

This year, we are handling the charity aspect of this a little different.  Instead of it just being for Texas Children’s Hospital, we will be raising money for our local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.  If you register, you can choose a hospital local to your community or anyone on the list presented during registration.  Here in Chicago, we have 3 to choose from.

St. John’s Children’s Hospital (Springfield, IL)

Children’s Memorial Hospital (Chicago, IL)

Children’s Hospital of Illinois (Peoria, IL)

If you want to participate, please go here and register.  If you do register, please sign up for the 2 Idiot Gamers Team, just join a team, search, we will be listed right there.  If you want to donate, please donate to my page.  I am raising money for Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL.

Working together, as a community, over the last 2 years we have earned over $300,000 for Texas Children’s Hospital.  This year we can earn that much together and have it help those who need it near you.  So please sign up or donate.  Gaming has become more mainstream over the last few years, however ‘gamers’ still have a stigma around them.  It is events like these that can help garner a much healthier positive image for us.  So again, please get the word out!

Over the coming weeks, I will be giving you stories of how I prepared for ExtraLife,  got the word out, events we plan on having to promote this event, and how to deal with the 4AM stir-crazies that inevitably set in.

Thanks,

Brad

Again, you can donate here - https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/m.aspx?i=17049DE3A55B080CD – All Major Credit Cards Accepted.

If you have questions concerning ExtraLife, please consult the FAQ!

About Extra Life: Extra Life takes place on October 16th, 2010 and is the 3rd annual occurence of the event, which aims to raise money and awareness for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.  To date the event has raised more than $300,000 dollars to help kids live long happy lives by providing hospitals with much needed funding for equipment and programs.  100% of the money raised stays where it is raised.  In the gamer’s LOCAL CMN Hospital