Yet Another Gaming Tumblr

By Ian Anderson

I sit here at 2:20 AM, just a little more than 6 hours of gaming left in the Extra-Life gaming marathon.  I am surrounded by 16 other gamers.  I hear a group silently curse; repeatedly getting nuked in Starcraft 2.  I hear the loud exuberation of 4v4 Halo death matches.  I for the most part have stuck with single player games, relying pretty heavily on Double Fine’s “Costume Quest”, Naughty Dog’s “Uncharted”, and Digital Polyphony’s “Gran Turismo 5”.  As I sit here sipping on my third Red Bull of the day, adding some more caffeine to the pile of the countless Diet Dew’s I’ve consumed, I’ve had a few thoughts about this 24 hour gaming marathon:

1. Buy some healthy food.  We’re lloaded up with junk food.  Beef jerky, chips, pizza, soda … all the gamer staples.  I would kill for a handful of carrots right now.  My only savior is water …. sweet sweet neutral water.
2. Do not go it alone.  This one seems obvious, the highlights thus far for me has been walking around, chatting with random geeks, and seeing what other people are playing.
3. It is possible to get road hypnosis while playing video games.  I was deep into a GT5 circuit when I shook my head and realized that I’ve only been using half accelerator for a quarter of the track.  That moment led to Red Bull number two.
4. Never underestimate the comfy pants!  A few hours back, a bunch of us decided it was comfy pants time … totally worth it.

 
I should probably get back to gaming, Uncharted is pissing me off to all hell.  I love the game, but I am getting sick of having to drive jet ski while trying to also gun down enemies.  Maybe I will log some hours on something that will sooth my soul, like Batman Arkham Asylum.

And then, a little later …

We now have less than an hour left.  I have been reduced to playing Angry Birds in Chrome while listening to Florence + The Machine.  This is the minimum amount of gaming I can handle.  About an hour ago, I tried playing more GT5 … however, I was actually falling asleep while slinging my Ferrari around the track at mach nine.  Scary right?  The scarier part, I have to drive my very real car to my very real (and o-so soft) bed.  It is time to add a few points to the list above:

5. Bring a tooth brush.  As someone so eloquently stated, “It feels like my teeth are wearing a woolly sweater”.  It is freaking gross and I would love for nothing more than polished pearly whites.
6. Bring some healthy food.  Yes, this is a repeat of number one, but everyone is suffering some form of gut rot.  The mixture of energy drinks and Mtn Dew is slowly eating away at our stomachs.  I envision this group using up a Costco size container of Tums and Pepto after the required “nap”.

I am very proud of everyone that raised money for the kids stuck in hospitals.  It was sometime in the middle of the night that we started getting word that we gamers collectively raised about 1.1 million dollars, with some more funds expected to come.  I need to get back to the gaming, so I can go home, brush my teeth, and curl up in my mattress.