Hey everyone!
I've been playing Dwarf Fortress on and off again for about three years now, but I've only just now signed up for the forums. I've been more active on the /r/dwarffortress subreddit, but even then I tend to play on my own and lurk more than anything.
Tomorrow, however, I will be participating in the 2013 Extra Life charity gaming marathon, and I will be live-streaming 25 straight hours of dwarf fortress.
If you haven't heard of
Extra Life, it's a rather fantastic charity that does this event once a year. It's similar to charity running marathons, in that the runner gets people to donate on their behalf, and then they run the marathon. The only difference is that instead of running, I'll be playing Dwarf Fortress. All donations benefit the Children's Miracle Network of hospitals, and each marathoner chooses a specific hospital to put their funds towards. Tomorrow I will be playing for the Seattle Children's Hospital; all money donated goes straight to them. I won't make a single penny off this. This will even be my first time streaming anything so I don't have a fancy monetized twitch or youtube channel.
The link to my personal donation page can be found
here. I'd love for you guys to check out the charity and consider donating. Nothing is too small. $1, $5, whatever, it's all for a fantastic cause.
And even if you don't donate, I'd love for you guys to check out my live-stream tomorrow, from 8am PST Nov 2nd to 8am PST Nov 3rd, accessible
here. I have no interest in picking some serene embark site and sitting at the same fortress all day. I want to lose half a dozen embarks tomorrow. I have about a 50/50 success rate with aquifers these days. I'll also be taking votes from the viewers in the chat channel about certain decisions, so that people who can't necessarily play DF on their own can feel like they're playing and influence the game. Choices like which embark to choose, where to build within an embark, what economies to really beef out, how best to "trade" with the elves, how to set up defenses, etc. I won't just be live streaming one of my normal play sessions and doing everything on my own. I want this to be an interactive live-stream where everyone gets to impact the game. And if you can't view the stream tomorrow feel free to post up in this thread with anything you'd like to see, and I'll try to check back here periodically through the day.
I'm considering trying to build a giant hospital complex at some point, because of the nature of the charity. Maybe crank up the child cap so I have 100 kids, build a 100 bed children's hospital, and see if I can fill the beds without filling the cemetery... would that be in bad taste? I guess we'll see how I'm feeling at hour 20 or so.
I will also be recording the whole deal, and then editing it into a summary video and tossing it up on youtube. That way everyone can see what happened throughout the day, and you can watch my inevitable spiral into madness, without having to watch all 25 hours. And if you feel like you want to donate but aren't able to watch the stream, you'll still be able to see the summary video and be amused by what promises to be a rather Fun day. I will post the link to the video in this thread when it has been uploaded.
Again, please, at the core of all of this is a great charity that helps children in need in a very real way. Every dollar helps end a tantrum spiral in real life, and generates a new one in Dwarf Fortress.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free.