Gaming For a Cause
By: Anna-Michelle Lavandier
A distraction.
A senseless, useless hobby.
Mindless drones with eyes glued to a TV or computer screen for hours at a time.
Just the word “gaming” can make most people react with anything from shaking their head to rolling their eyes in embarrassment for the person. Usually in anticipation for their non-productive future in society.
Some lucky ones, however, can turn this ‘senseless hobby’ into something that can not only inspire fellow gamers, but also impact others around the world.
Alex Chiricosta (Gamer Tag: RagingCherry) founded Smash the Record in 2014. Inspired by his own introduction to Orlando’s popular Super Smash Bros. community and Speedrunning community, Chiricosta decided to use video games as a way to give back and support a good cause.
“There’s 100 competitive Smash tournaments out there that are very serious and are connected with eSports,” Chiricosta said. “But as far as charity goes, there isn’t really a Smash charity event out there.”
So Chiricosta, with his team from the University of Central Florida’s Gaming Knights, put together this annual event with overwhelming success. It’s inaugural year raised about $14,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In 2015, that amount increased to more than $50,000. Chiricosta says that his goal is to raise at least $1 million in 10 years through Smash the Record.
“It really defined us as the main charity event,” he said. “We grow every year and add extra streams. I got maybe 10 hours of sleep last year, but we rotate the staff so that everyone has adequate rest.”
Smash the Record is an annual Super Smash Bros. and Speedrunning charity event which lasts three straight days and has more than 60 hours of live marathon game streaming, including multiple streaming options.
Nowadays, UCF’s Gaming Knights only make up half of the staff. The event has grown so large that volunteers and even organizers throughout Florida and throughout the country come down to Central Florida to help with Smash the Record.
“It’s really cool to see people continuously come back or tell their friends,” Chiricosta said. “People do gives video games a lot of flak. But through this, it brings a new light. Parents could also be supportive of an event like this that is going to charity.”
Charity isn’t the only thing getting a remix with video games. CodeCombat is also shaking things up in the way that it teaches coding languages to both children and adults.
“The ultimate goal of CodeCombat is to bring more users into the field of computer programming by making the logic and syntax more accessible and enjoyable to learn,” said CEO and co-founder Nick Winters.
The website refers to itself as a community project backed by staff and volunteers who help create, troubleshoot, play-test and translate game levels for multiple branches of experience to guide the player whether they’re a beginner or more experienced in coding.
However, this isn’t meant to appeal only to gamers hoping to gain some coding skills. It’s also meant for those who want to come to the subject of programming in a new, easy-to-follow light.
“The only problem is, the main skill in most games is specific to that game and totally irrelevant in the real world,” Winters said. “There’s no reason it has to be that way, thought — you can absolutely make games where the target game mechanic is actually the same as the real-world skill players want to learn.”
Since 2013, CodeCombat has registered more than 5,000,000 players worldwide (with at least 200 countries represented) and has been translated into 50 languages. More than 500 contributors also helped to enhance this open-sourced project. Educators can also register for this game through the Classroom Edition to provide this option for their students.
Winters has seen many positive results from presenting this complex skill in a video game format that both children and adults are familiar with.
“When you can make a great game that is clearly a productive, positive use of time, with diverse role models that’s free from gender stereotypes — that’s actually one of the best forms of media, a story about what you as a player could accomplish that you can participate directly in,” Winters said.
While gaming can take many forms, it doesn’t have to be “just another game.” Gaming can be the drive that changes someone’s life for the better.
Smash the Record
When: November 11–13, 2016
Where: Osceola Heritage Park, Kissimmee, FL
Tickets and more information: www.smashtherecord.com
CodeCombat
More information: www.codecombat.com/play
The Nerd Castle is an ongoing master’s capstone project with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism that will be used to explore, showcase and expose diversity and the issues surrounding it within the gaming community.
Anna-Michelle can be found on Twitter @amlavandier. The Nerd Castle can also be found on Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.
