Macmillan Gaming Marathon - 24 Hour Livestream for Charity

[Ashen Rohk]

Note: Before we get started, many thanks for Fionavar discussing the legitimacy of raising money for a cause with the admins and allowing me to post this topic. Carry on!

 

Hi there! First of all, go here: 

https://www.justgiving.com/macmillangamingmarathon

and then save this link for the day:

www.twitch.tv/ashenrohk

I’m Alex. I work in an office in York for Macmillan Cancer Support. There’s a whole lot of info further down about Macmillan but I’m sure most of you know that they’re a totally excellent charity who help thousands of people.

When I’m not wearing a shirt and answering phones, a lot of my down time is spent playing video games. And here’s the thing; there’s this game I play called Guild Wars 2. Dragons, wizards and so forth. Every year for nigh on the last decade, there’s an event called Pink Day In L.A. LA is a city called Lion’s Arch and everyone from all over the world gets together to dance, race, go on scavenger hunts – none of this is provided in game, it’s all put together by the playing community. The only slight downside to their marvellous work is that all the charities that they support are based in Canada and the US. It’s the same with other gamer-based charities too, guys like Extra Life and Gamers Giving Back. There's going to be some awesome links to great gaming charity sites at the bottom for you to check out to see what we've done in the past.

Contrary to popular belief that us gamers are a bunch of narcissistic shut ins, we care about people. Waiting for someone's name to light up as 'online' after being diagnosed but probably never will is not cool. 1 in 3 of us will get cancer at some point in our lives, and there are over 2 million people in the UK alone who are affected by it. 

I wanted to do something for charities in the UK with something I'm deeply passionate about and that I'm not completely terrible at.

So here’s the deal.

Come 23rd August from 9am until 9am the following day, I will be livestreaming on www.twitch.tv/ashenrohk 24 solid hours of video games. I’ll be getting help from my totally awesome guild mates as well as other streamers and YouTubers to raise money for Macmillan. If you have friends who want to livestream for the cause on the day, even for a few hours, we did for Operation Supply Drop back in 2013 spearheaded by Bethesda Enterntainment, responsible among other things for Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Also, we’re gonna have stretch goals and challenges, partly set by me and partly set by you guys. Tell me what you want to see me suffer through at 4am. Tell me what games you want to see me play. The most important thing – DONATE and help us kick cancer’s ass.

Some people run, some people shave their head. I'm here to drink tea and blow stuff up. And I've just finished my tea.

Sites that are awesome and you should check out:

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/ (obviously)

https://www.facebook.com/macmillancancer (also, pretty obvious)

http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

http://www.extra-life.org/

http://www.gamergivingback.com/

http://www.operationsupplydrop.org/

About Macmillan

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. 0808 808 0000. This page is monitored Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/

Mission

We exist to help improve the lives of people affected by cancer, both those living with cancer and also their families and carers. Our primary focus for 2013 is to reach and improve the lives of everyone living with cancer. 

Company Overview

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. We are a source of support, providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support. We are also a force for change, listening to people affected by cancer and working together for better cancer care. 

One in three of us will get cancer. 2 million of us are living with it. We are all affected by it. We can all help. 

This group exists to promote upcoming fundraising events, raise awareness of the charity's work, and provide a space for Macmillan supporters and people living with cancer to share their experiences and ideas.

Our campaigns

Macmillan wants everyone with cancer to receive the right treatment and support regardless of who they are and where they live. We work to raise awareness of cancer issues and campaign to bring about changes in opinion, policy and practice at both a local and national level. All our campaigns have one common goal – to make a positive and permanent change to the lives of people affected by cancer.

Join our campaigns e-newsletter at
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/campaigns

Want to find out other ways to get involved? Visit
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/getinvolved

[Walsingham]

Sorry if I'm being thick, but presumably themed live gaming would be more valuable? If we're going to organise something.

[Blarghagh]

You should contact the YouTuber Markiplier to help you out - that YouTuber does a huge load of charity livestreams and always helps out other charities (also, he'll likely bring a sizeable portion of his 2 million subscribers with him).

[Ashen Rohk]

Cheers for the advice, will send him a message.

 

To be honest, I have no idea how successful this is going to be. My original plan was to just stay up for 24 hours straight playing games and get people to donate but there was always a hope that people would be able to join doing their own thing - I've already got a couple of friends who'll chuck in a couple of hours on L4D2 with me or stream a bit of game play themselves.

 

I quite literally have no idea what I'm doing with this, I'm just reaching out to a couple of communities to see what happens.

[Walsingham]

Good on you, fellah. How much do I have to pledge to nominate a game you have to play (technology permitting)?

[Ashen Rohk]

Recommend a game, and if I've got it I'll play it! PC only, though - I don't own any consoles.

 

Donate anything you like, obviously please don't feel pressured to donate even if you do recommend something. Needless to say, the PoE beta will be featuring at some point!