When the general public thinks of the word gamer, the clichéd loser nerd comes to mind. You know, the guy that has no direction in life because he sits all night in front of the screen drinking Mountain Dew. The gaming community knows that isn’t true.
Gamers now include close to everyone: the small kid playing his Pokemon games, the armchair quarterback playing this year’s installment of Madden, the Grandmother at the senior center playing the Wii. We are made up of hardcore FPS players, masters of MMO realms, and Kings of Fighters. As a large part of the population, we carry a lot of economical and influential pull - something that we usually take for granted. It’s time we put all that to a good cause.
Gaming all night?: Fotolia
An Extra Life is something gamers get from a green mushroom, a great fairy, or a 1up. In the video game world, it gives you that extra chance at beating the game. In the real world, Extra Life [1] is an event put on by Sarcastic Gamer [2](a gaming community), to help give kids with cancer that extra chance.
What Extra Life consists of is a gaming lock-in. Remember the heyday of rollerskating and bowling lock-ins? You can be locked into a house of gaming on Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. until 8 a.m. Oct. 18 at the Alegria Dance and Performing Arts Center [3]. Console stations will be available, and you can bring your portables to have some ad-hoc fun (DS, PSP, even iphones/touch). Come jam out to some tunes at the RockBand stations, or spend your time beating high scores at the classic arcade stations. All this fun and you’re helping to find a way to cure cancer … could there be anything better?!
Extra Life is a great way to show how connected the gaming community is, it’s a chance to do something we all love and a chance to help out. The entry fee is only $41.99, which goes straight to Texas Children’s Cancer Center [4]. I’ve had the displeasure of having people in my life affected by cancer, so I will definitely donate such a small amount of time and money to this great cause. For all the details, make sure to visit http://extralife.sarcasticgamer.com/ [1].
I’d like to invite everyone that reads this to spread the word; in fact, 29-95 would like to sponsor someone to attend. It's contest time! Answer the following four questions, email the correct answers to games@29-95.com [5], and we’ll draw a winner on Oct. 14. The deadline to enter is Oct 14 at 8 a.m.
Extra Life Gaming Event
Saturday, Oct. 17, 6 p.m. - Sunday, Oct. 17, 8 a.m.
Alegria Dance and Performing Arts Center [6]
Entrance fee: $41.99
Links:
[1] http://extralife.sarcasticgamer.com/
[2] http://sarcasticgamer.com/
[3] http://www.alegria-arts.com/
[4] http://www.texaschildrens.org/
[5] mailto:games@29-95.com
[6] http://www.29-95.com/art/alegria-dance-and-performing-arts-center