Hey, guess what? I’ve watched more of these crazy videos and I will share some of them with you.
The first of this list is a discussion by Jane McGoniga, who talks about how games can possibly help solve real world problems. Far fetched? Maybe. It is very interesting how she has used that idea to apply to games that interact with real life. I could use to hear the word “epic” less.
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It has certainly been a while, but we have started preparations for our next charity event over at Hardmode.org.
If you don’t know what it’s all about, allow me to explain briefly: Last fall my friends and I, after a night of intense Scrabble playing, sat in quiet contemplation on possibly putting together a project. We had heard of other sites doing online gaming marathons for charity, and since we had the means and the intelligence to do it, there really was no reason not to attempt a marathon.
Our first event went live last December, and over the course of 48 hours we raised $1,150 from 60 donations that all went to kids in hospitals. We had a great time and now it is time to do it all again!
I’m sorry for everyone who follows me on twitter for getting a million tweets about this, but it was really fun and I’m excited to be getting back in gear.
Also, be sure to check out the site; it’s been redesigned to reflect our theme for this event: NINJAS!
I want to tell you about one of the best board games ever made. It’s called Arkham Horror. It has nothing to do with Batmans, but everything to do with H.P. Lovecraft and also sometimes Cthulhu.
The goal of the game is to work together to destroy monsters and the gates that they emerge from them. If you fail to do so, an Ancient Other (read: super-demon) comes to town and you have a last ditch effort to destroy it else your group of investigators are devoured. It conflates Lovecraftian lore with D&D elements to create an great game that should not be missed. Let me just put it to you this way: there’s the possibility of being a nun with a tommy gun. Buy this game.
The video above is of myself and a group of friends putting some time into the game this weekend. All told it was an hour of footage, but that was really only about half an hour of gameplay. The initial set up of the game takes some time (especially with newcomers), but it’s all worth it. One full game can run from two for four hours, so bring snacks.
It’s been roughly two weeks since I’ve last thrown anything up here. That sentence actually sounds a little gross after reading it again. There hasn’t been an incredible amount of exciting news going on around my world. Like normal, I’m pounding away at a new novel. Currently A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin. It’s a hefty tome, and I still have two more in the series after this, but it’s a great curl up and read novel. Does anyone have a fireplace that I can borrow?
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I was browsing through the internets and came across this video. And while your tastes in music my vary and differ, you have to admit these guys put together a pretty swell video.
So Nintendo has this program that was recently started in America called Club Nintendo. I say “recently” only because Japan has had this program for about the last 100 years or so, but who am I to complain? Basically what it is is a program that rewards people for purchasing their games with kitschy crap that really only hold value to those who would want them to begin with. Enter: this swank ass hat. Let me clarify that sentence: “this swank-ass hat,” not to be confused with a “swank ass-hat” – that’s a totally different thing.
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You all will probably get tired of hearing about it, but some friends of mine and I are going to do a gaming marathon in December for the charity Child’s Play. Child’s Play gives games/toys to children who are in hospitals and don’t have access to these things otherwise. In the last five years or so, they’ve raised something like 1.4 million bucks for hospitals all around the country. Pretty cool stuff.
Now, if you’ve never seen or heard of an event like this, let me break it down:
Basically what will happen is we will congregate all at one place and broadcast live a play-through of a game series or selected games. Other groups have done this and have raised a pretty significant amount of money in doing so. It’s actually quite interesting. But that’s about it in a nutshell, along with simply displaying the game, we have a couple of cameras showing the group as well, and we plan on doing fun things outside of the game. I just bought a fifteen foot firewire cable for my camera, so be prepared for EPIC CAMERA ANGLES. Oh yeah, baby.
But to reiterate again, you’ll probably hear a lot about this as the time gets closer and closer to the event. I’m sorry for those following me on Twitter, because I’m going to be tweeting the hell out of this charity stuffs. I really hope we can raise a lot of dough.
Let the excitement begin….NOW.
Some interesting things are abrewin’ within the small town of Oklahoma City. I don’t have the full details yet to pass along, but in the coming months I may or may not be helping out with a charity event that will hopefully raise some funds for ze kiddos. Right now all the logistics are starting to roll. Until I have some more information, here’s a hint at how we might be going about raising the monies: