This year's annual Summer Games Done Quickevent took place between July 1st and the 10th, with the marathon going between July 3rd and the wee hours of July 10th, ending on a bonus encore of Super Mario 64 because last year's donation total of $1.21M was THOROUGHLY exceeded with a grand total of $1,298,554.44 for Doctors Without Borders. Being the first GDQ marathon Saxxon and I had the opportunity to watch live, we spent a good portion of our week (outside of work, of course..) taking part in watching streams, posting reactions on Twitter, and hitting up streamers both before and after their performances. Needless to say, being involved during the actual event was exhilarating! Our first intent was to go on-site during the week this year, considering it was in Minneapolis, but given our other obligations, we had to sit this year out and instead stream via Twitch (which did a very admirable job with handling the network traffic - over 200k viewers were watching the stream at one point!). Regardless of not attending in-person, it was amazing being wrapped up in the donation counter rising, the anticipation of the streamers, and the recurring jokes (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!). Suffice it to say, it was an inspiring week!
Being involved in a few different fandoms, I find myself at a crossroads! While I truly appreciate the furry community, it feels like I have more to offer on the game and technology sides of things. Saxxon and I are involved with many furry conventions as staff, given that it's both relaxing and an opportunity to volunteer for charities, though with charity streams like Games Done Quick's offerings, the same can be done in a vastly different community, despite some overlap. Zero Hour Productions, again, fully intends on doing its own charity stream in the next year, though we're still working out logistics: where will we stream; what games will we play; at what skill level should we be at before we make attempts; are casual 'Let's Plays' good enough; how do we take donations and avoid needing to establish a non-profit ourselves? Watching SGDQ this year live has emboldened me and really given me the energy needed to move forward with these plans!
Games Done Quick's next event is Awesome Games Done Quick, and it'll run between January 8 and January 15 2017 in Hemdon, VA. We may have to rethink which conventions we staff and attend throughout the year in order to make one of these weeks; I'm sure we won't be disappointed.
