Play games. Heal kids. That's what Uncle's Games set out to do when we partnered with Paizo and others to throw one of the biggest Extra Life board gaming events in the nation. Over 200 people descended upon Redmond Town Center in Washington state with the goal of playing games for 25 hours straight. For each hour they gamed, their friends and family donated money to Seattle Children's Hospital.
Uncle's Games joined with Paizo, the hit web-series Tabletop, and many other publishers and game designers to create a gaming experience similar to that which you would typically find at a convention. The Pathfinder Society gamers began showing up an hour before the event was scheduled to start, full of enthusiasm for a marathon of roleplaying. Throughout the day other gamers came and went in waves with everyone participating in the awesome cause of playing games to help heal kids.
Boyan Radakovich, producer of Geek & Sundry's Tabletop, flew out to participate in the festivities. His goal: to beat Wil Wheaton's Season 2 win record by playing through the same games, in order. His table was full throughout the entire 15 hours it took him to play through all of Season 2. Ultimately, Wil's honor was defended as Boyan ended with the same win record, 2 wins out of 11 games.
Thanks to the generous support of Paizo and many other game industry folks, this Extra Life event featured a silent auction. There were four full tables of games and geeky items to bid on. The first table was full of games that had been signed by designers and famous people. These items included a Pathfinder RPG bag with a retail value over $300 signed by the entire team at Paizo, Star Trek Catan signed by Wil Wheaton & Jeri Ryan, and a whole host of other items.
Uncle's Games started the event with the hope of raising $1000 for Seattle Children's Hospital, but with the fantastic support of our gaming community, we were able to raise over $3000 for Seattle Children's Hospital!
While our event was a success, in that we had a ton of fun playing games with our community, the even bigger win is the record-breaking $3.8 million raised by Extra Life participants across the globe! We can't wait to do it all again next year!
