This week in gaming: A special thank you

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

Our massive game of “Werewolf” hosted by Derek

I’ve gone through a lot, personally, this year. I lost my uncle to a heart attack, my aunt lost her battle with cancer, I’ve been “in between moves” for most of the summer, and looking for a job is a never-ending story with me. However, the one thing that has been the biggest help to keeping my sanity have been all you – my friends, my family, and the entire gaming community at Battleground Games & Hobbies.

The night before the 24-hour marathon, I got very little sleep. If I remember correctly, I went to bed around 4 AM. That’s been the norm for me for quite some time, but I still wish I had gone to bed a little bit earlier.   The day started like every other day. I got out of bed, checked my e-mail, and then made my postings for the store on all of the social medias. That’s when it hit me. The culmination of almost eight months of work was almost here.

I admit I was a little nervous, but more anxious than anything. Who was going to be there? Was anyone going to show up? Would I hit goal? As you could tell, there was a lot on my mind. In the end, though, it was an amazing day with amazing people. Even if you were there just to poke your head in, I appreciated it.

There are a few people I’d like to single-out though. They are in no particular order.

Wyrmwood Gaming

When I got to the store the first thing I wanted to do was check on the package that Wyrmwood Gaming had sent me to help support the fundraiser that weekend. There is no doubt they had a big part in us hitting our goal.

I remember when I first met Ed and Doug at PAX East 2014. I had been introduced to them by my friend Eric who wanted to know if I’d be interested in covering their product. When I first laid eyes on what they had to offer, I knew I was looking at something special.

In early September, I ran into Ed and Doug again at the Boston Festival of Indie Games. They were posted in the table top gaming area. It made sense, especially considering the product they offered. That’s when I first pitched to Ed the idea of being a part of the Extra Life marathon. I thought their product would be a great way to entice people to donate to the cause. It would also help get their name out to their primary audience.

Ed was extremely gracious and had told me that they had recently donated to another cause and would be happy to help me out. I was blown away at what they had to offer. One of the items they were showing off at the festival was their new Dice Tower. In fact, it was making it’s first public appearance. I was a little scared at first, but I eventually gathered the guts to ask if they’d be willing to have a Dice Tower ready for the fundraiser. This was a bold move in my part because they had just that prototype from what I understood. Luckily Ed said yes and more.

I’m happy to say that the Dice Tower package went to a very deserving couple at the end of the night.

Alley, Amanda, and Ken

Wyrmwood wasn’t the only ones to personally help out that night. Those of you who were there may have seen a couple of the other items we had up for grabs that night. One of them was an awesome painting done by Alley Livingston. She had messaged me, one day, on Facebook and told me she was going to do some art that I could raffle off at the marathon. Up to that point, I only had the Wyrmwood gaming items and, possibly, box of Magic cards that I was going to donate myself to the raffle. So, for someone to come out of nowhere and say they want to donate something that takes time, creativity, and more to make means a lot to me.

Amanda was another person who took the time to make something for the raffle. That crazy-looking purple thing you may have seen is called a Hanar. It’s actually an alien character from the game Mass Effect. If you don’t know what that is, then I recommend you look it up after reading this week’s article.

Over time, Ken has amassed an incredible amount of packs for winning numerous drafts and other events at the store. In fact, he may even have a vault similar to the one Scrooge McDuck has. However, instead of gold coins, it’s full of booster packs from Magic. Unlike Scrooge McDuck, though, Ken was gracious enough to donate a box worth of boosters to the event that night. These are packs that he earned from playing and with money he spent. He may not want others to know, but I want people to know, he had already made a generous donation prior to donating the box. So give it up for “Good Guy Ken.”

Derek and Chase

Of course, there would be no event without Derek and Chase. When Derek gave the approval to host the 24-hour gaming marathon at the store, that’s when I said to myself, “ Alright. We’re really doing this.” To be given a space to hold the event with such ease, I have to consider myself extremely lucky and am happy to have friends in such high places.

The months leading up to the event, my mind had been set only on the Abington location. I think it was only a couple of months prior to the event that Chase said he wanted to host an event at the Plainville location. I have to say I was caught off-guard. I thought it was great enough that an event was going to happen at one location, but who can say that they had the ability to host the event at multiple locations? Not a lot.

As I look back on things, I can’t think of any problems that were had. We may have blown a fuse or two due to the number of Xboxes we had, but that’s a first-world problem some wish they had. If I needed anything, I could have it.

Do me favor, and I’m sure you do this enough yourself, the next time you see Derek or Chase, shake their hand and say thanks. What they do is tough, and there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that can make their jobs difficult, but, in the end, they manage to put on a different face when they’re around you.

The overnight crew and everyone else

Before I say anything else, I want to thank everyone who showed up, donated, and even helped spread the word. There are a lot of you. You all know who you are. The last spotlight I want to shine is on the overnight crew. Who is the overnight crew? This is the late night crew. Some of them I have already thanked, but this is for those who I haven’t. Check out the picture below.

Note: there may be some who aren’t in the photo and that might be due to the fact that they were passed out upstairs in the loft, or were in the back room playing Dungeons and Dragons.

These people were there either all 24-hours or for most of it. These people are like my brothers/sisters-in-arms. It’s one thing to try to take on a beast that is 24-hour of gaming by yourself, but to be in the company of others makes it a little less painful.

Some other quick thank you’s go to Josh for driving me to the event and then leaving me there, Scott for lunch, Dan for bringing extra donuts after Josh brought some, everyone who participated at the Plainville store, Chad for setting up the Xbox corner, and to Pete who shared his personal connection to the event (that was the best feeling ever).

I’m really hoping I didn’t leave anyone out, but I’m sure I did – everyone does when they’re thanking people. If I did, I’m sorry. Don’t hate me. Thank you!

One last thing…

In case you missed it, I announced a couple of nights ago how much was made. Both stores, combined, raised almost $2000 for a grand total of $2538! For our first year, I think we did a pretty good job.

That’s it for now. If you’d like, the 2014 Extra Life donation page will be active for the rest of the year. Who knows, maybe we’ll break $3000. A couple of quick thoughts: we’re doing this again next year, I’m going to organize a team, we’re going to change the times of the event to what everyone else does: Noon – Noon.

As always, if there is something you need to say, ask, anything, sound off below in the comment section, and until next time.

About the author

Simeon is now the Community Manager for Battleground Games & Hobbies. If you have any questions or inquiries, then you can reach him at Sims@battlegroundgames.com. He is also an avid gamer who loves to play board games and video games. He graduated college with a degree in Political Science, and now serves the public by writing about games. You can check that out here. Don’t forget to “like” him on Facebook as well. It’ll update you on all of his newest content. Best of all, you can follow Simeon on Twitter (@SimeonCortezano) for some real time hilarity. Thanks for reading!

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Tags: extra life, fundraiser, Simeon Cortezano, Thank You
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