ExtraLife Game Day 2018

YEAR 7!?!

Hard to believe I've been doing this for 7 years now... and getting started on another 24 (possibly 25) hour marathon of games - the perfect opportunity to catch up on the gaming I've missed out on over the last few months due to work and school.

So, to address a few questions:
How did you get involved in this charity?
Seven years ago, my roommate (Jackie) in veterinary school had mentioned hearing about a 24 hour video game marathon, I was interested - it didn't matter what the cause!  Year after year, I've been playing and raising funds thanks to the support of friends, family, coworkers, and my mom's office.  From 2012 to 2017, we have raised $2,228 for the charity, and collectively, Extra Life has raised more than $40,000,000 since starting in 2008.

What games do you play?
It varies a little bit year-to-year.  I tend to be a solo player, so I play a variety of single-player video games.  However, if I have a friend or two stop by, we have played board or card games in the past (perfect opportunity to play that full game of Risk).  I post updates of game choices intermittently throughout the day.

Sounds interesting... how can I help?
As always, if you are interested in donating or checking out my fundraising for the year, please do so here:  Zadrya's ExtraLife 2018 Fundraising Page.  I've already hit my $500 goal for the year, but it's not too late to help out!  And remember, all proceeds raised are #FTK (for the kids) at Boston Children's Hospital.
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I will be continuing to blog throughout the day, just as I have in prior years.  However, I will also be posting public posts on Facebook (maybe with a video or two) with these updates intermittently.  I do also have a PetCube (which would be the only way I can essentially "life-stream"), so if you are interested in this opportunity, just contact me, and if I'm comfortable with you watching over my shoulder, I'll get you set up in the app to do so from your phone.  (You get the added bonus of being able to interact with the cat and dog while I'm away at work.)  I also have a Twitch account... but I have yet to figure out how to stream... 😂

Screenshot of the Title Screen

@9:30am:  Ugh... slept through the alarms again... I guess I really needed the sleep.  The nice rainy day start made it so hard to get out of bed - but, that's where the beauty of phone games comes in.  I've been occasionally playing a silly picture-based story game called Two Eyes (with similar gameplay to Minesweeper).  It's cute - and the artwork is very interesting (very Okami-like).  Just had the wolf and the deer meet as young adults, so we'll see where that story ends up.  However, it's time to get out of bed, take a quick break to feed the pets (the axolotls are hungry - I forgot to feed them last night), take the dog out for a quick walk, and pop some waffles into the toaster.  Coffee... yes... coffee is a must-have!

From www.guerrilla-games.com - official website

@10:35am:  Starting up again with a game I've been borrowing from Steve for a few months now (and where there's newer downloadable content, he's been asking for the disc back so he can play the new stuff) - Horizon: Zero Dawn.  In this game, you play as Aloy, a young tribal outcast, who is trying to find her place in the tribe and survive in a post-apocalyptic world where machines have taken many similar roles to animals in the forests.  The artistry of this game is beautiful, and I certainly am enjoying this game whenever I pick it up (although I've never been good at portions of games that require stealth as a key component).

@3:03pm:  Time for another quick break for the dog and to make a pit-stop by the leasing office.  Gonna have to decide on a game switch, as the PS4 controller is almost dead (and I only have one).  The Boston Extra Life team has supposedly sent us game-day kits, so I'm hoping it's sitting in the mail room...

@4:30pm:  Package isn't in yet... boo.  :(  So, I sat back on the floor (so the controller could reach to charge) to play some more Horizon: Zero Dawn.  Although I like this game, it gets tedious when you climb up a mountainside just to fall off when you can see the vantage point or banuk figurine you were aiming to get to...

Image from "Den of Geek"

@6:44pm:  Ok... enough's enough - time to move on to another game for a bit... so, I pulled up Call of Cthulhu, only to find out that it already has 3MB update to go through.  Still not feeling up to playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, I went for another oldie that I had been meaning to play - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (yeah, reppin' it old school with the XBox games here).  Wow... wow... wow... I don't know if I can deal with these graphics for very long... they're almost Final Fantasy VII bad.  And the combat!  Don't get me started - you can't even walk forward to get closer to the enemy without aborting your turn to attack...

Image from ign.com

@9:11pm:  Giving up!  Can't do this much longer, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Call of Cthulhu update had completed.  Back to this one - I had already played Chapter 1 the night I downloaded it... but I definitely won't be able to deal with the jumpscares too late into the night... luckily, these earlier chapters are more to set the stage - the creepier things probably won't start for a bit longer, from what I can tell.  I have yet to form a strong opinion on this game - but I can sure say that the Boston accents are ATROCIOUS so far... not even close...

@1:38am:  Oooookayyyy... getting to be a bit too much for this late at night with the start of sleepiness kicking in - the main character's panic attacks when in a claustrophobic environment are a really good simulation, for a video game (pulsating controller, screen getting all wavy, edges of the screen going black).  But now to decide what to play - do I go back to Horizon: Zero Dawn?  Do I do something a little more brainless until I catch my second wind?  I'm leaning towards brainless with a cell phone game again right now.

@4:30am:  Just riding my robot horse around the forest.  Don't mind me!  (Horizon: Zero Dawn)

@6:30am:  Seems to be the time every year that I start to crash and burn a little bit, isn't it?  I'm standing to try to play this game, but keep getting ambushed by the robots.  Robot uprising > tired Nicole. 

@8:40am:  Still in the throws of the bonus hour... less than one to go! 

ExtraLife Game Day 2016

Just like last year, I'm using this event to start off another vacation week.  I love my ability to plan, sometimes.  Like last year, I may have slept through some of my alarms (in my defense, I thought I had an 8:00, an 8:20, and an 8:30am alarm set... but I apparently didn't have the 8:30 one on).  So, I am getting started slightly later than anticipated... but 10:30 isn't too bad.

If you are interested in donating or checking out my fundraising for the year, please do so here:  Zadrya's Personal ExtraLife 2016 Fundraising Page.  I'm about $100 away from my $500 goal, and it's not too late to help out!

I will be continuing to blog throughout the day, just as before.  However, I will also be posting on Facebook (maybe with a video or two) and sharing these posts here as well.  I do also have a PetCube (which would be the only way I can essentially "life-stream"), so if you are interested in this opportunity, just contact me, and if I'm comfortable with you watching over my shoulder, I'll get you set up in the app to do so from your phone.  (You get the added bonus of being able to interact with the cat and dog while I'm away at work.)  I also have a Twitch account that I just set up, so I'm going to be learning how to use that once I start up the XBox One (thanks to my lovely boyfriend's birthday gift).

@11:00am: While enjoying a nice vanilla-orange smoothie and a side of coffee, I decided to wrap up a series I've been working on before moving to something new:  Mass Effect 3.  I am in love with this series (many thanks to Jackie for making me get started with it in the first place) and the depth of the story.  [Side Note:  I did apply to become a voice actor for the new Mass Effect: Andromeda... so keeping my fingers crossed that I may be a bounty hunter in that one.]  But, for now, I'm busy kicking some Reaper butt and romancing Kaidan along the way (I failed to woo Garrus in the second game.  :(  )

@3:30pm: I have two things to say at this point in the game:  1) THANE!  :'( and 2) Kaidan! <3

@5:58pm: Thank goodness for pre-cooking from that Blue Apron shipment the other night--I just had a delicious meal (roasted chicken, apple, butternut squash, and golden potatoes) while reading through Shepard's "emails."  I can't believe I've already been playing for almost 7 hours now.  About a quarter of the way in, and the story for Mass Effect 3 continues to draw me in (even though I died at least 3 times during this time frame...).

@7:34pm: O.O  The game just froze as I was completing a quest in the hospital on the Citadel, and when I restarted the system, I got an error message that there may be a corrupted file.  Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

@12:21am: Ok... so that was a little bit of a false alarm, but still gave me a good scare.  More than halfway through it by now!  I had to finish off a few quests again, but the game was intact after a reset.  I also didn't realize I wasn't as close to being done as I thought.  More flying around the galaxy for me... I suppose...

@6:15am: Starting to crash and burn.  My vision is getting blurry and the bed is calling my name... almost there... and I can only hope I don't have dreams like Commander Shepard does--those are creepy!  Kind of regretting that I started an hour later than planned... gotta keep pushing on, though!  The end is near.

@11:21am: That was one of the best showers ever... now, the next 24 hour period will be filled with random nap-attacks, writing up my thank yous, and finishing off the Reapers.  I'm one of those people who can only play a single sprawling, epic story-based game at a time... so I've been putting off all sorts of other games, like The Witcher, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age off so that I can finish this one.  There's also a certain sadness to completing a series, so I switch to a bunch of little indie games in between each main one.  Even if you aren't a gamer, you know that feeling--when you finish a good book and you know it's over.  *sigh*  Off to make more coffee and try to normalize out my daily pattern again!
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11/14/16 @12:30pm:  I wanted to take a few minutes to thank everyone who donated this year--friends, family, and co-workers.  As always, a special shout-out to my mom and her company, Andler Bottle Co., as they have always been one of the biggest supporters of this event.  Si-Si, you were far too generous this year--but we love you for it!

Although I finished off a little shy of my $500 goal, it's nothing to be ashamed about.  I currently sit at $425... with a total 5-year grand total of $1683 for the Boston Children's Hospital.  Here's to another successful year, and I hope we can continue to spread the word about this event!

Thank you again from myself and on behalf of the Extra Life charity, #FTK (For the Kids, not the standard shorthand of "For the Kill," in this particular case...)
 - Zadrya (Nicole)

Extra Life Game Day 2015 - Zadrya

Hard to believe yet another year has come and gone (and celebrations of yet another year in the veterinary field).  But, here we are with the start of yet another game day.  If you are interested in donating, or checking out my fundraising for the year, please do so here:  Zadrya's Personal Fundraising Page 2015.  I'm about $150 away from my goal for this year of $500, so it's not too late to help out!

I will be continuing to blog throughout the day, just as before.  However, I do have a PetCube, so if you want to live-stream, just contact me and, if I'm comfortable with you watching over my shoulder, I'll get you set up to link in with me and the girls.  (Added bonus of getting to play with Reese while I'm at work.)

Well, this is a good way to kick-start a vacation, don't you think?  I did start late today--with leaving work around 3:00am (got to get caught up on the files and calls and labwork prior to leaving for 10 days), I didn't wake up until about 11:30.  With that, here goes the day!

@12:37pm:  Started the morning out right with a rather tasty sausage and egg white scramble, grapefruit, and coffee (gotta start the caffeine intake early).  While making breakfast, I got my brain's ability to think fast warmed up with some of the speed tests on Lumosity.

But now comes the challenging part--what game?  I have such a ridiculous back-log of games, that I'm not even sure where to begin!  I never did finish Borderlands 2 from last year (life certainly got in the way), and I'm about halfway through the first Mass Effect... but then Steve had me buy Witcher 2 and Dragon Age...

@7:57pm:  Mass Effect seems to have won--there's an amazing story to that game... and what can I say?  I have a soft spot for the Krogan race (lizard-men),  For the last 6 hours, I've been sucked into the side quests before proceeding on to face the Geth...

Extra Life 2014 - Zadrya

Well, here we are with my third year of participating in Extra Life to this point.  :)  I have raised more money this year than the past 2 years combined, so I cannot thank you all enough for donating.  For those of you who haven't donated yet, my fundraising page is here:  Zadrya's fundraising page for Extra Life 2014.  My team's page is also up on the drop-down menu to the right of this blog post.  Unfortunately, my team has dropped off like flies, and I think I'm flying solo today.

Unfortunately, I do have to stick with the blogging, as I'm not sure how to do live streams.  Perhaps next year, that will be on the agenda.

I have had a rough week to this point--many 12+ hour days at work, a root canal on Wednesday, several days a week at the chiropractor, and my 30th birthday (ugh!), but that didn't stop me from starting up early this morning to get my gaming marathon in to this point.

I originally had planned on getting out of work around 5:30pm yesterday, but that didn't happen, so my plan to wake up at 2:30am this morning somewhat failed.  However, I did start at 6:00am this morning, and intend to make it to 6:00am tomorrow morning despite having to work.  Caffeine is a wonderful thing!

(http://www.edge-online.com/review/
borderlands-2-review/)

11:03am - The morning has been filled with frustrating attempts to play games.  Many of my PS-Network free games had expired, my Kindle battery died (so my Doctor Who game was out of the question for a while), and I had to update a few games to start to play them.  I also had one more chiropractor appointment, but was able to get away with playing some games on my phone in the meantime.  I eventually did get Borderlands 2 up and running, and that has been the staple game of the morning so far.  I actually love how they have the same feel as the first in the series--the animation style is still beautiful, and the side quests are challenging (albeit frustrating at times).  ClapTrap continues to be the comedy relief of the game, and 4 new characters are introduced.  Naturally, I'm drawn to the female psyonic character once more.

5:00pm - Still working on this game... it's done a good job at sucking me in!

7:15pm - Mmm... roast beef sandwich, mac & cheese bites, and carnage.

(http://www.digitalspy.com/)

8:35pm - Finally calling it quits on Borderlands 2... I've hit a point where I just keep dying, so I'm gonna switch over to my Doctor Who: Legacy game on the Kindle for a little bit of brainless gaming for a bit.  It's essentially one of those gem-swapping games, but each set of colors triggers an attack with your party of Doctor Who characters.

11:40pm - With a little over 6 hours to go, this is usually the point I start to lose some steam... I wish I had a game like The Sims to just suck me in... I remember many nights in college playing for 5 hours, but having it only feel like 5 minutes.  Since my roommate has fallen asleep on the couch, I have returned to my room to do my work on the PS3 or XBox... depending on what game I end up wanting to play.  Right now, it's looking like I might give Borderlands 2 another go.

Update as of 10/31/14 @10:49pm - I kept meaning to return to this to post my final update... but passed out pretty much right at 6:00am right at the end of the event.  I was so tired that I barely even had the focus to turn off the Playstation!  I'm surprised this year that two games kept me focused for so long.

I'm hoping that next year, I can bring in more of my friends to join in the gaming and fundraising.  :)  That's right--I'm coming after all of you guys!  I don't care where you live--there's such a thing as the internet.  Tyler, we've gotta finish Ibb & Obb... Jeff and Jenn, we've got Cards Against Humanity and Arkham Horror.

With that being said, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donated this year--my friends from Ross University (Beth and San-San... on a technicality ;) ), co-workers (Amber and Linsey), family (Aunty Betsy and my mom), and everyone at my mom's office (Andler Bottle Company).  I've raised far more than my goal--a grand total of $560 for this year.  That's $953 since I've started participating back in 2012!  That's more than I did in the previous two years combined.  I can't thank you all enough for donating to the charity, and blowing my previous fundraising years out of the water.  Here's to another successful year--I wish you all the best!

 - Nicole (Zadrya)

HabitRPG

Been getting a few members of the team into a new (ish) website called HabitRPG. It's a habit-building website, that applies the process of "gamification" to your life, treating it like an RPG (sort of along the lines of SuperBetter).

You're able to start off the game by choosing any of the typical party roles--rogue, warrior, mage, or healer. You can join parties with your friends to take on boss battles and shared task lists (I'm currently fighting Trapper Santa, and he's a real doozy). You level up as you succeed with accomplishing your daily habits, daily tasks, and to-do lists... you lose HP for neglecting any of these tasks... and you gain money through the process to buy weapons and armor to further defend yourself.

Originally, I had learned about this through Kickstarter and have watched the site grow by leaps and bounds. The mobile app allows you to update your tasks while on-the-go, whether you have an iPhone or an Android.

If you want that extra little bit of motivation to better your life, and find that turning things into a game helps, it's definitely worth checking out!

Secondary link here!

Extra Life 2013 - Zadrya

Welcome everyone and thank you for taking the time to follow me in this year's event.  Today is the official make-up day for the Extra Life 2013 drive hosted by the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals (especially the Boston Children's Hospital in my case).  I've rallied to raise money for the last month and now just have to sit back, relax, and play 24 hours of games.  :P

I did miss this year's original date (Nov. 2) because I was on a small animal emergency rotation in school.  (For those of you who don't know me for whatever reason, I'm a fourth year veterinary student from Ross University finishing out my last year of school at the University of Illinois.)

Anyway, that's enough rambling for right now.  If you would like to see our team page, there is a link over there on the right, or you can can just check it out here:  The Doctor's Army homepage.  If you would like to donate, you can do so on my personal page here:  Zadrya's homepage.

And without further adieu... here goes the day's event!

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10:52am - So I've been playing some more of The Wolf Among Us, a game that my sister had gotten me for my birthday.  It's put out by Telltale Games and is more of a narrative story, sort of along the lines of The Walking Dead.  You play as Sheriff Bigby Wolf, (yes, the "Big Bad Wolf" of Little Red Riding Hood fame) and you are solving the mystery surrounding the death of one of your town's residents.  It's a really nice, dark twist on the story tales that would even rival the Grimm Brothers' versions.  Plus, how can you not like a game that makes a reference to Grendel (of Beowulf fame)?  It's got that gritty, comic book feel to it, sort of akin to Sin City.  I've already played through it once, making an important decision to drive the game forward... so now I'm on my second play-through to have a different save file for when the second episode comes out.

(http://uthmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/
The-Walking-Dead-7.jpg)

1:51pm - 3 1/2 hours into the marathon and I've had little spurts of being tired (but I blame that on a weekend and having been worked to the bone over the last month on my clinic rotations).  Anyway, I've caught up with all four of the main plot lines for The Wolf Among Us... but I'm still on a Telltale Games kick, so it's back to The Walking Dead.  For some reason, all the trophies didn't link over to my profile, so I need to catch up on those.  :P  It's a storyline-based zombie game based on the graphic novels (although there is a lot of plot overlap with the popular TV series as well.  We'll see how many episodes I can get through before I switch off to something else, but I'm gonna try to see how differently I can make my choices this time.

(http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/xcom
%20main%202.jpg?1350863703)

6:27pm - Well, I was mistaken... I never downloaded anything beyond episode 1 of The Walking Dead, so I let myself get sucked into this game called XCom: Enemy Unknown, which is a tactical alien-killing game.  Not my usual style, but it passed the time pretty quickly to this point.  I'm not exactly very good at it, but I'm doing significantly better this time around than I have in the past with it.

11:08pm - For a game I'm not a super crazy fan of, I'm surprised I'm still playing this one... but I've been doing much better tactically than the last time I tried to play.

3:25am - So tired at this point... but 6 hours to go at this point.  Switching gears back over to The Walking Dead... now that it's all downloaded finally.

6:53am - Just about done with Episode 3 of The Walking Dead.  I want the platinum trophy for this game, dammit.  :P  Well, that and sleep... just another 2 1/2 hours to go at this point.

2:43pm - I just barely made it to 9:30am.  Writing on the blog was one of the last things on my mind.  :P  I went straight to bed when I finished... rather, I slept on the couch for a few hours THEN went straight to bed.

Thank you everyone, for participating and donating, and I look forward to next year--I'm aiming to have a bigger team this next time.  :)  Anyone want to play?

Extra Life 2012 - Zadrya

As I mentioned before, if you're here looking for another veterinary school post, tune back in a few days--today is the 24 hour gaming marathon that I'm participating in for the Extra Life drive put on by the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, especially the Boston Children's Hospital in my case.  Basically, we raised money for the last month and a half and are now just playing those 24 hours of games.  :P  (My personal page is also here, on that site, if you'd like to see it for whatever reason.)

9:25am:  A bit of a later start than I planned/anticipated... I wanted to be up at 8:30 so that I could make some breakfast, but I happened to just wake up at 8:50.  Oh well.  Breakfast can wait a bit--I'm not hungry anyway.  Fed the animals, woke up a bit, and grabbed the laptop to play some Cthulhu Saves the World as  I wake up.  It's a cute (albeit basic, both in the storyline and graphics) old-school RPG (think the original Final Fantasy, if you've also played some games), but it excels in the banter and comedy with its references to the dark lord himself.  For example, I'm fighting a raptor right now and his flavor text says "surprisingly adept at opening doors."  (If you get the humor in that statement, you are awesome.  :P)

10:54am:  Don't worry--you aren't missing out on much... I just kept dying... and replaying some fights... and dying... and re-playing some fights.  (One of the good features of this game is that you can select the option to get all your "random" fights out of the way before exploring a dungeon, so you don't keep getting distracted by the random encounters.)  I should be able to finally travel through this volcano though!

11:54am:  Stupid astral cave.  I'm a true "adventurer" in those types of games.  I'm told there an island and a town to the west of my starting point, but I had to go exploring first... came across this cave and keep dying 1-2 fights in... time for a shift to something a little less painful.  Plants Vs. Zombies it is!  I want to get my streak of 15 in the Vasebreaker mini-game...

1:26pm:  Still working on that streak... got up to 14 rounds, though.  :(

4:17pm:  FINALLY!  Got the "China Shop" achievement from 15 streaks on Vasebreaker Endless... let's see what other achievements I can do in this game.  :P

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7C44GCARbg/UG7s2XVqcaI/
AAAAAAAABDg/4SW4ay2GAf0/s640/alice11.jpg)

5:17pm:  Giving the laptop a bit of a break from the whole gaming thing and switching over to XBox to play some Alice:  Madness Returns, a sequel to the American McGee's Alice game from the early 1990s.  Very dark twist on the "Alice in Wonderland" story--I love it!  Basically, it follows Alice into her own twisted psyche after the fire in her house from her childhood.  So, you basically fight to maintain your sanity.  This image isn't from the game itself, but it's some of the concept art used in the loading screens.  Just check out what they did to the Cheshire Cat, and you'll see what I mean.

6:20pm:  Greeted by Lolly and Kevin with Chinese food and Last Night on Earth, a zombie board game where someone plays as zombies trying to take over a town and the other people play various townsfolk.  :)  It's gaming, so I say it counts!  And for those of you who are skeptical of that idea, I'll play Solitare on the computer at the same time.  :P

(http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/
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9:30pm:  That game took forever!  It was fun, despite playing Solitare the whole time too.  Now on to Arkham City to get a bit of action in... starting to get a little tired... but only 11 1/2 hours to go.  For those of you unfamiliar with the "Arkham" series, it's a Batman game where Bruce Wayne gets put into the asylum where all of Gotham's most violent criminals are incarcerated.  Excellent twist on the villains (Penguin, Joker, Harley Quinn, and Bane are the ones I've come across so far)... and a great action game.  I just tend to play it only in short bursts because I get so frustrated with some of the levels, especially the ones where you have to be all sneaky to pick guards off one at a time...

(http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/
edgeonline/oldfiles/FROM_DUST_S_005_Tribe.jpg)

12:23am:  Ended up switching to an XBox arcade game called From Dust about an hour ago, when I got stuck in Arkham City.  If you are familiar with games, it's kind of a Black and White style game.  If you are not quite as knowledgeable about video games, you play as a god and instruct your villagers to build cities while you manipulate the world around them to make this possible--by moving water, building lava walls, freezing the water, etc.  It's fun--can be quite challenging at times as well.  *yawns*  Getting tired... almost 2/3 of the way through this... just 8 1/2 hours to go!  And now off to play League of Legends with Tyler (and maybe his roommates).

2:31am:  6 1/2 hours... and I'm starting to lose steam, so it's time to get away from the games that require a lot of coordination and thought.  That means it's time for The Walking Dead. :)  Yes, a video game based off the TV series/graphic novels of a zombie apocalypse.

5:33 am:  Episode 1 complete... on to episode 2...

8:02 am:  Almost there!  The light at the end of the tunnel!  I'm dying for a shower and bed...

8:49 am:  And done!  Time for bed.  Goodnight all!