Status Update: #1

This could have been an article about the RPG elements in Stardew Valley. Or it might have been about the phenomenal art in The Deer God. Those are article topics I have decided to write about, and I have a plethora of notes about the first one. There were other topics suggested to me as well, but frankly -- nobody would want to read the resulting articles. (Sorry.)

Instead of writing about these topics or finding other ones to plan out, I have spent the last few weeks assembling an amazing group of my friends into an Extra Life team. I thought I might get two or three people to sign up who would then just forget about it for the year, but it seems I found the best people possible to participate: gamers who have enjoyed seeing what I've done in the past, gamers who already try to reach out to others with their gaming, and gamers who legitimately want to make a difference for sick kids everywhere. I can't shame myself for gathering these people instead of writing in my blog, because the point of both is to reach people and raise awareness.

Therefore, I won't apologize for a lack of game-focused articles here in my blog. I cannot say sorry for something beneficial to the cause! I can at least say that I have had ample time to think about other topics and games to cover. The Stardew Valley article will probably not be the first one I post. I determined that I needed to start in more familiar territory, and that will probably mean something about The Lord of the Rings Online, RIFT, or The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing (I am listed in the second game's credits).

Now that the dirty laundry has been aired, I feel no guilt whatsoever in saying I won't be working on any of that today. It's my birthday, and I have movies to watch and games to play. Cheers!

Wanted: More Teammates!

I'm still looking for more gamers who'd like to join my Extra Life team this year. Computer games, console games, handheld games, mobile games, tabletop games, backyard games -- they're all different things you can play to participate!

You don't have to stream your games, you don't have to game every day -- you can even simply do a little bit of gaming only for the official Marathon Day, and it doesn't have to be 24 hours. Whatever works best for you is all I ask of any of my teammates, and I'd love to have more of my gamer friends involved! (Did I mention they often have game codes and goodies for the participants? I'll have goodies for my teammates, too!)

So far, I have six team members for a total of seven including myself, and we all have different play styles and plans to raise funds for our chosen Miracle Network hospitals. Five of us are in the States, another is in Canada, and one other is in Spain! We'll be blogging, Tweeting and streaming our efforts throughout the rest of the year. Even more fun, we'll be using mascots so you can cheer us on when we do inter-team competitions!

Here's some of what we're doing:

• Purple Squirrel is going to be keeping a character diary based on her adventures in Skyrim. You can follow her here: Diary of an Honorable Khajit
• Green Owl will be streaming his gameplay, and you can follow him on Twitch: ResetReboot
• ((Mascot TBA)) streams his gaming on a regular basis, and you can follow him on Twitch: Lit_Dragon
• Teammate #4 hasn't checked in yet. They may end up getting the Paisley Octopus mascot.
• Red Tiger will be streaming his gameplay later on, and you can follow him on Twitch: DaemonicDvorin
• Brown Bear will be streaming later, too, and you can follow him on Twitch: CombatWombat519
• Gold Deer is the mascot I've chosen to use, fashioned after the mythological Golden Hind, which was also a famous privateering ship (aka pirating). If you know me at all, you know this was too much awesome to pass up! It also means I will certainly be blogging about Black Flag.

From dedicated gamers who are at the top of the leaderboards in League of Legends to my casual gamer friends who know a thing or two about Candy Crush: I invite all of you to join my team, Intelligence Modifiers, and help make a difference -- be a hero! -- for children who need people to do the simple task of asking and raising awareness.

If you have questions, you're more than welcome to send me a message of some kind -- just use the links on the sidebar!

Ready to join the team?

You can click the Join button on our team page: Intelligence Modifiers