How's it going g1s?  What a glorious couple days it has been.  The SGC Kickstarter blew everyone away by raising over $70,000 in 2 days after a 48 hour gaming marathon that left Craig dreadfully tired.  I have got to say guys, I'm really proud of what we were able to do there.

That is a beautiful thing right there.

Despite the goodwill and euphoria we're all feeling right now we are far from done.  While the Crew begins the tedious work of setting everything up, we g1s have a bit more work to do too for SGC.  Most of the things I'm going to mention here are simple reiterations of things from the livestream but since very few people were there the entire time (or at all) it is important to make sure everyone knows.  To that end I'm going to list a few things that we g1s can do to help make SGC even better.

This one is the most time-sensitive thing we can do.  During the Craig-athon the Crew managed to get Paypal setup to take donations for SGC.  Because of the way Kickstarter and Paypal work though there were certain conditions tied to it.  Paypal ends their donations at 9pm unless the Kickstarter goal is reached before that time, since ours was successful in doing that we received an extention on the length of time to donate.  Any donations via Paypal to SGC will be accepted until August 31st (8/31/2012).  Those who couldn't donate to the Kickstarter for whatever reason can still get their money in; to make it even sweeter, the Crew has agreed to continue the rewards for donations listed on the Kickstarter page.  So if a person donates over 50 dollars then they can receive an e-ticket and all rewards up to that point.

More details can be found here:

http://www.screwattack.com/help-bring-back-sgc-paypal

The livestream changed the face of the Internet forever by actually making people HAPPY to see ads.  Why were we happy to see ads?  Because Twitch has a deal that for every 1000 people that see an ad on their site (you don't have to click on it, just have it play), the stream host will receive $3.50.  Since the ad money was going towards SGC, that added another couple hundred dollars to the pot.

At the end of the stream, Craig ran an idea by everyone: from now until SGC, all ad money from Twitch will go towards SGC.  We're more than likely going to be seeing a poll on this but I don't see why it would be an issue, as we would likely see only about 90 seconds of ads per episode of Screwin' Around.  To that end we g1s have to: 1) agree to this whenever the poll shows up; and 2) let the ads play.  That means that we have to turn off our adblockers during Screwin' Around so that ScrewAttack can get as much money as possible out of the ads to put towards the con.  Will it be a bit of a hassle?  It's a first-world problem to be sure but it's worth it in the end.

Let's be honest, it doesn't matter if you live in Dallas or Switzerland, SGC is probably going to cost you a pretty penny.  For the g1s who don't have much money going to SGC can be a problem  if they want to physically be there.  The more people we get to the con, the better it will be so start saving NOW.  Scrimp a little bit here and there and maybe forgo a few things you may want for a little while, just keep your mind on the ultimate goal.  g1 LeoSep made a nice little blog about things to take into consideration if you're travelling from Europe.  This also ties in nicely with my next point...

This is the biggest one of all.  We made SGC happen but now we have to get there and enjoy it!  One of the big issues for people outside of the Metroplex (Dallas area for those who haven't heard that name before) is simply getting there.  There are going to be g1s coming in from all around the world but travelling is expensive: transportation costs and lodging conditions can add up fast.  The solution to this is to work together with other g1s to ease the pain of paying. 

For instance, I know there are a lot of g1s from the Vancouver area who are interested in going to SGC but are stricken by the cost of getting there.  If a handful of g1s were to carpool together then they could pay a much smaller amount for gas money than they would individually for a plane ticket; the same holds true for sharing hotel rooms. 

The last two SGCs only had about 1000 people show up, we made this hapen so let's blow that number away this time.  Put out a call to g1s from your state/province/city/country to see about working together to get everyone there without breaking the bank.  A fine example that has popped up already is for Michigan g1s by g1 VariXx.

By the way, if there are any Houston-area g1s, feel free to contact  either myself or g1 curtisalanmcgee. 

This was suggested by Ben and I can't believe I forgot to mention it myself.  Now that SGC is happening, we shouldn't just keep it a secret to ScrewAttack, this is supposed to be a convention for ALL gamers.  Feel free to spread the word to the farthest reaches of the world and the Internet.  Post about it on other sites you visit, tell your friends, get them to tell their other friends.  Heck, maybe an artistic g1 could even design a poster/flyer for people to print out to help advertise.

So there you go g1s, five points to think about to make SGC the best it can be.  The more money it can get the more the Crew can do and the more g1s that can show up the better the time we can have together.