Gamers go extra hour for charities
A GROUP of gamers came together to raise £6,400 for Male Uprising Guernsey and Pink Ladies by taking part in a 24-hour gaming marathon.
And as the event was over the weekend when the clocks changed from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, they ended up playing for an extra hour too.
Guernsey Gaming for Good, founded in 2014, smashed last year’s £5,000 total to create a new record and add to the £26,000 raised for local charities over 15 events.
‘I never thought we’d get that close again, we’re just a bunch of geeks playing video games,’ said graphic designer James Hookway.
The event saw 30 gamers gather sponsorship to play a wide variety of video and board games at the Digital Greenhouse.
Making it through the early hours of the morning usually proves to be the biggest struggle for participants, but this year extensive planning of a series of challenges and tournaments spurred the group on to keep spirits high.
‘The challenges really helped to perk everyone up,’ said Ben Wratten, non-executive member of Guernsey Gaming for Good.
These included a mini retro game tournament using a Nintendo 64, board games such as Mousetrap, a video game quiz show, a Dragonball Z tournament and a homemade version of the popular TV game show Catchphrase.
‘At 14 hours in you tend to feel the grind, but the 25 hours rocketed by,’ said Mr Hookway.
A livestream of the event was set up, broadcasting gamers’ screens, and multiple cameras were set up in the building, with more than 1,000 people joining to get involved in the fundraiser.
Online donations reached £800 and gave off-island members of the group the opportunity to support the cause.
Planning for next year’s event has started already, with the aim of including more people to grow the event and keep breaking records.
