Extra Life: A Gaming Marathin for Charity

Extra Life: A Gaming Marathon for Charity

JOHN JARVIS

Hey pro gamers, I know what you’re thinking, “Wow I love gaming so much. I wish I could play games for 24-straight hours and get paid to do it. And since I’m a great person, I wish all the money would go to a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.” Nine years ago I was in your exact position! I too wanted nothing more than to play games for 24-straight hours and have 100% of the tax-deductible proceeds go to a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital of my choice. Then one fateful day, my friend on campus said to me: “Hey John, you like gaming right?” “Sure do.” I replied. “You should participate in Extra Life.” “What’s that?” “It’s a 24-hour gaming marathon that raises money for children’s hospitals. You can sign up for free at extra-life.org or spend $19 to sign up as a Platinum Player to unlock rewards as you hit certain milestones, which helps keep the organization afloat.” “Okay I’m in. But what if I fall asleep before 24 hours is up?” “Just do your best, nobody is going to force you to play all 24 hours. The most important thing is that you raise money for your hospital.” “That makes sense, but I don’t know how to stream. Last I checked twitch was an involuntary body movement, and now apparently it’s a streaming platform??” “While many Extra Life participants choose to stream their marathon, it’s not a requirement. You can participate however you’d like, although I’ve found streaming a lot of fun each year!” “Well what if I want to play a board game instead?” “You can do that too. If it’s a game, it’s viable. You can play hopscotch for all 24 hours if you want; play a single game, play a medley of games, it’s up to you.”

With a little more exposition added for you, dear reader, that’s approximately how I started doing Extra Life. This will be my 9th year in a row participating and in total I’ve raised over $8000 for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital thanks to all the generous donors.

I’ve played many games over those years. Usually I choose a game or two to beat 100% within 24 hours depending on how long I think it will take. I’ve played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (100% cleared), Pokémon Yellow (completed the Pokédex), Super Mario Galaxy (all stars), the first Pikmin (100% cleared), a medley of Kirby games (100% cleared), Mario 64, Kirby 64, Pokémon Snap and Yoshi’s Story for the 64 special (100% cleared), and last year I played through the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild completing

THE AKITAN all 120 shrines, finding all the memories, and defeating Ganon while raising 2120 dollars in the process, the best year on record!

I encourage anyone who is a gamer, especially those that stream, to sign up for Extra Life. You can register any time throughout the year and donations remain open until the last day of December. It’s definitely not too late to participate in Extra Life 2021, but if you’d rather do it next year, you can register as early as the first week in January. Even if you don’t want to participate, I would certainly appreciate if you would check out my donation page at extra-life.org/ participant/JohnJarvis where you can find more information, a timeline of my Extra Life achievements, and, of course, please click that big green donate button.

Your donation will help children battling cancer, cystic fibrosis, and other illnesses, accidents, and injuries at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Maine. In the event The Akitan gets published before I do my stream, this year I’ll be playing Splatoon 2 nonstop for 24 hours starting on Saturday, December 11th at 9PM. If you want to follow along in my adventure, I’ll be doing my yearly stream at twitch.tv/swoopking and will be playing the majority of Sunday. As I said, donations will remain open until the last day of December so even if you’re reading this after my stream has ended, please feel free to make a donation! Thank you!

For the squids! Uhh, I mean… for the kids!