This weekend is the third annual Sick Kids Save Point charity gaming marathon. The event sees nearly 50 dedicated gamers across the country devoting an entire weekend to gaming, with the goal of raising money for the Edinburgh Sick Kids Foundation.
First held in 2010, Sick Kids Savepoint has so far raised over £30,000 and is backed by a who’s who of developers and games companies. In 2012, the event is being supported by Rockstar North, Capcom, Lucky Frame, Blazing Griffin, Ludometrics and Twiddly, who have all provided prizes for fundraisers.
While sitting down and playing games may not immediately strike everybody as a worthwhile way to raise money, it should be noted that many of the participants have increased the stakes considerably, by setting themselves challenges that even hardened multiple marathon runners, ultra athletes and dead hard soldiers would hesitate to touch.
For example… one particularly brave gamer plans to spend the entire weekend playing nothing but wrestling games, which is akin to being pathetically beaten to death by Jeremy Kyle, in front of a hooting crowd. Another will be attempting to survive for 24 hours in the horrifically difficult Day Z AND will be live streaming the whole thing, for that added extra challenge.
And it’s not just PLAYING games either. One dedicated and clever developer spent 24 hours designing and creating a brand new game, using the rather awesome Game Maker…
In short, Sick Kids Save Point is a noble, worthwhile and seriously good way to support a great cause. You should participate. By which we mean chuck in some money (don’t forget to agree to gift aid).
Any participant who raises over £100 is automatically entered into a prize draw for the splendid list of prizes from the companies mentioned above.
Gamers will be tweeting their progress and updates of the competition over the course of the weekend using the hashtag #SKSP.
You can find the Sick Kids Savepoint page online. You can – and should – follow them on Twitter AND Facebook.
Find your favourite participant and throw them a few quid. It’s all for a good cause and in you’ll be helping prove that gaming is good for more than ‘wasting time’.
Good luck to everyone involved. Keep us posted. We’d be delighted to run the results and make sure the charity gets more coverage, visibility and cash however we can. There are a couple of well-heeled developer CEOs we can point out in dark car parks (just as an example…)