***WE'VE HIT OUR TARGET AND ADDED SOME STRETCH GOALS! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED***

Greetings and welcome guys, gals and nonbinary pals to the first Words About Games fundraiser of 2024!

We're raising money for Special Effect, an awesome charity that changes the lives!

If you've seen our charity fundraisers before, then this one works a little bit different. We're getting older and streaming for 24 or 48 hours straight might end us.

So instead, we're spreading out our marathon. We'll be raising money through our usual livestreams and podcasts, but we've got a series of milestones on our way to our overall fundraising goal. Every £50 we hit will unlock a special stream.

Check out our milestones:

At £50 - Amy ranks Resident Evil (COMPLETE)

Video games, movies, novels, manga, animation, games that aren't even Resident Evil. Amy will sit down with Vitz and Moody and rank it all in one long, unhinged stream.

VOD: https://youtu.be/RSqfVmvvyfg?si=W0ZxW8bLexh8sAc4

At £100 - Moody will play Halo: Reach (COMPLETE)

Remember the last time we did a charity marathon? We played through the Halo: Master Chief Collection and Moody had...a less than good time. It turns out he didn't like the Halo games. So, for our newest charity marathon, we absolutely had to convince him to return to the Halo franchise for one last ride.

VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D62dnsAWTqk&t=7779s

At £150 - Legally Distinct 90's Gameshows (COMPLETE)

Hi, it's me Amy, I'm the one writing this. This was an idea put forward by Vitz. He will be hosting it, writing it, the works. I have no idea what he has in store for myself and Moody. However, it does sound like it's going to be a good time.

VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLYbbQXCFs

At £200 - Our Favourite Games of All Time (COMPLETE)

A stream (or series of streams) where Amy, Vitz and Moody will sit down and create a list of their favourite games of all time. Will it be a top 50? Top 100? More? We're not sure yet, it depends how many games we bring to the table. If you watched our 2023 Game of the Year podcast then it will follow the same format, but larger.

VOD: To follow...

At £250 - Amy plays a mystery game (ACHIEVED)

Amy is going to play a game. What game? It's a secret. But a good secret. It'll be a good stream. Promise.

The mystery has been revealed. Amy is going to spend a stream playing as much of the original Dino Crisis as she can.

At £300 - 10-Hour Livestream! (ACHIEVED)

Once we hit our goal, we'll schedule an all day, 10-hour livestream to celebrate reaching our total and to try and see how much further we can go. Also shenanigans.

So please, if you're able, hit that donation button and let's have some fun and raise some money for an awesome charity.

STRETCH GOALS!

Thanks to everyone's amazing generosity, we've hit our initial fundraising goal and unlocked the 10-Hour Livestream. So now let's talk stretch goals - these will be added as activities during the long livestream (time and date TBD)

At £350 - Amy plays Umbrella Corps (ACHIEVED)

Remember when Amy called Umbrella Corps an "abomination" during her Ranking Resident Evil presentation? Well, now she's going to inflict the game on all of your.

At £375 - Halo: Reach Free For All Deathmatch (ACHIEVED)

Amy, Moody and Vitz will fight it out in a Halo: Reach deathmatch. Will Amy's lapsed muscle memory kick in? Will Moody reveal he's been practicing for months? Will Vitz turn out to secretly be a Halo God?

At £400 - Moody ranks all the Kanto region Pokémon (ACHIEVED)

Moody, perhaps inspired by Amy's Ranking Resident Evil (for some reason), will spend a portion of the stream ranking all the Pokémon from the Kanto region.

At £425 - Box Art Attack (ACHIEVED)

Amy, Vitz and Moody will all attempt to draw the box art from some of their favourite games and try to guess what each other have drawn.

At £450 - A review/argument of Dino Crisis (ACHIEVED)

Moody loves Dino Crisis, Amy will be streaming Dino Crisis, and Vitz is also here. So during the 10-hour stream they'll argue about and/or review the game.

At £475 - Halo: Reach Legendary Lone Wolf time trial challenge (ACHIEVED)

We'll each replay the final level of Halo: Reach with the difficulty cranked up to Legendary, and see who can survive the longest against the hordes of hyper difficult Covenant.

At £500 - The 10--hour stream becomes a 13-HOUR STREAM! (ACHIEVED)

An extra three hours. We will dance for your entertainment. Perhaps literally

At £525 - Name that game (ACHIEVED)

Amy will describe video games. Badly. Very badly. It'll be up to Vitz and Moody to figure out what the hell she's talking about.

More stretch goals to follow if they're necessary....

UPDATE: We have modified our fundraising goals slightly. Updated graphics to follow. I'm sure Vitz is very excited.

About the charity:

"SpecialEffect are a charity that transforms the lives of people with physical challenges right across the world through the innovative use of technology. They're enabling inclusion and enjoyment by helping people to unlock the magic of video games to the best of their abilities, they're bringing communication, independence and hope for people in intensive care units with severe injuries, and they're using telepresent robots to reconnect medically isolated children with their education and friends. Find out more at www.specialeffect.org.uk"