Last Sunday I was bumming around Twitch.TV looking for something new to watch. I happened to stumble on a channel called RPG Limit Break. The name of the channel is what intrigued me and drew me in to check it out. Then I heard the commentator chatting about what was going on, and I instantly recognized them as one of the folks that commentates for the GDQ events. I decided to stick around and check this new channel out.
Well, it turns out that RPG Limit Break is not much different from a GDQ event. This is an almost week long (Sunday – Friday) donation event. Instead of donations going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation, they are instead sent to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Players also speedrun games, but they are restricted to RPGs. I’ve also noticed that they tend not to glitch a 40-hour game into a 10-minute run. Instead, there is a lot more RNG manipulation and using game mechanics to beat the game quickly. Quick is also a relative term as games could run as long as six and a half hours long.
I’ve spent the past week checking out various runs. I couldn’t actually sit and watch a longer run the whole way through as I’m busy getting my home remodeled so I can sell it and move…again. However, what I have been able to catch has been highly enjoyable. Most of the folks on the couch share a ton of information on what is going on. How the runner is manipulating game/system memory, fudging RNG, or avoiding various encounters all in a hope to knock just a few seconds off their total time. It’s been extremely enjoyable.
Yet, timing is a bitch. On Thursday, news broke out that Chris Cornell had passed away. Later that day, it was released that he had hung himself. Now, I’m not one that really gets all emotional over a celebrity/artist death. We don’t know one another. It’s not like I was calling Cornell to ask how his weekend went. However his death has weighed heavy on me.
When I was at one of my lowest points, I would listen to a lot of Soundgarden. I won’t say it’s what pulled me from the dark abyss that almost ended my life, but it was a very significant part of my life then. In later years, Audioslave would play another role in helping me deal with life as well. The fact that Cornell hung himself is a bitter pill. While we didn’t know one another in any significant form, his music helped pull me through some very dark patches in my life.
Like I said, timing is a bitch. Here I’ve been watching a stream all week where gamers are now raising money ($86,207 at the time of this writing) to help fund mental illness awareness. Almost at the very end of this event, a musician commits suicide. You bet your ass that I sent in a donation. It wasn’t much, but I know that anything can help.
Today is the last day of RPG Limit Break. You can easily check their VODs for games you might be interested in. I’d also encourage you to check out NAMI.
You know, gamers get a lot of shit for being toxic on the internet. We are often stereotyped as basement dwellers. Yet, we can pull together and do amazing things. Events like this, the GDQs, Child’s Play, and so many more show just how much we truly do care for our fellow humans.
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