It's 6 AM and I'm lying on an unfamiliar couch in an unfamiliar home, passing in and out of consciousness. To my left I see my friend Pete swapping between two SNES controllers. He is carrying on a two player run of Donkey Kong Country 2, which I failed to continue after succumbing to the incredible exhaustion I was feeling on the tail end of 25 hours of playing video games. I knew at the time that that would be one of my most vivid memories of our Extra Life marathon. Pete was one of the only people who was capable of playing video games at this point, and somehow he managed to single-handedly round out the final two hours by forging ahead with Diddy and Dixie's adventure.
Extra Life is an annual charity event in which video gamers come together to support children's hospitals by marathoning video games and raising money through donations. I had watched the efforts of others via online streams in years past, but this was my first experience as a participant. We managed to exceed the fundraising goal that was set for our team, and that is something I am proud of, but I would be lying if I said that the marathon was easy. The last 6 hours of our run was very difficult for a combination of reasons. I had not been able to get much sleep the night before (in part because of a screening of Fellowship of the Rings that was intended to give people something to fall asleep to, but instead resulted in me finishing the entire 3 hour extended edition at 4 AM). I felt some kind of illness developing of the course of the day, manifesting itself in the form of a hacking cough. Poor diet decisions also compounded the problems. But all of these are small manageable problems, and it was worth it to be able to make a small contribution to those who have real difficulties in their lives.
There was however lots of fun had. Our matches of Halo 3 once again reminded me of how great that game was and continues to be. My traditional Jackal run with Pete was especially challenging and goofy on such little sleep. My first mythic raid in WoW was a fun experience, trying to maintain focus in a room full of people and activity instead of the silent room I usually play in was not easy. One of the best things was being able to sit down with a bunch of friends in the same room and play video games, something that has become more elusive as we have all grown up and acquired responsibilities that limit the time we can spend together.
Gaming often gets a bad reputation, sometimes deservedly, but Extra Life is a chance for gamers to come together under a shared love of video games and do some good in the world; and despite all the highs and lows, the fun and the exhaustion, I feel proud of what we were able to do, and I hope to be able to make another effort next year.
