In 2006 Empire Arcadia introduced to the culture of gaming a very popular holiday. That holiday is no doubt today “Valentine’s Day”. Since then, Empire Arcadia has celebrated the holiday in gaming fashion; merging the love of gaming with the love of people. This has created a new way to show love during Valentine’s Day.
Each year since Empire Arcadia hosted its first “A Gamers Valentine”, the organization has created new ways to show their love for gaming. The first celebrated event took place at web2zone in 2006, when Empire Arcadia invited all female gamers of the Greater Gamer Community to celebrate the love for gaming.
The Empire’s Valkyrie of Arcadia division (VOA) was responsible for the organizing of the event. Gamers throughout New York State showed up and played a multitude of games with each other, laughed and enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere. The few male gamers that were in attendance all contributed gifts for the female gamers that attended. |
Justin Wong, TriForce and Nightmare. |
Deadly Alliance's Dire shows his love of gaming through teaching it.
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In 2007, the Empire decided to celebrate the anniversary of its newly adopted cultural holiday. Once again VOA put together the funds to obtain a venue for gamers to gather and enjoy the holiday.
“A Gamers Valentine 2” took place at NYCLAN the former lower Manhattan LAN center for gaming. This time the celebration gathered media attention from FCI (FUJISANKEI COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL, INC.) the #1 network among Japanese in the U.S. The event was a success and influenced everyone into the spirit of Valentine. Pictures of couples showing there love with a kiss became contagious and displayed the true meaning of Valentine.
Now in 2008, Empire Arcadia and its Valkyries look for a new way to celebrate what is now considered by the Empire as a traditional holiday for gamers. How can the gamers of the Empire create an innovative way to show their love for videogames and people? That answer was created in January of 2008, when Empire Arcadia hosted their own charity at Music and Games 6 for Child’s Play Children’s Charity. |
TriForce the CEO and Founder of Empire Arcadia Inc. held an “Iron-man Gaming Marathon Charity” at Music and Games 6. There he completed 25 games in less than 24 hours to raise money from the spectators of the festival to give to Child’s Play. Just when you though no more good could be done for the charity, President of Valkyries of Arcadia Daisy Johnson (Empress Valkyrie Wyldflower) decided to spend time with those in need. Wyldflower then spoke with Kristin Lindsay who is the project manager of Penny Arcade, Inc. Kristin connected Wyldflower to Meghan D. Kelly, MS, CCLS Director of Child Life Program & Carl Sagan Discovery Program of the Children's Hospital at Montefiore. Empire Arcadia then worked with Meghan to create a event where the gamers of the Empire would spend time with the children of the hospital for Valentine’s Day.
The event was granted by Meghan who help set up the appointment and kept the newly acquired tradition alive. The Empire then gathered some of its best players in all 3 of its divisions to come out and spend time with children of Montefiore Children’s Hospital. |
Royal Lance sharing his love of gaming.
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Empire Arcadia and Montiforie shows love for Valentine.
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From the Knights of Arcadia, Emperor Game Master: TriForce, along with World Fighting Game Master Justin “Marvelous” Wong and Twin Galaxies World Record holder Royal Lance were in attendance. Justin Wong brought his Japanese Nintendo Wii along with Super Smash Brothers Brawl (X) for the kids to enjoy before the American release.
From the independent Super Smash Brothers (Professional Gamer organization) Deadly Alliance, Dire Vulcan and Compton took time out of their busy training regiment to teach what they know about the game professionally to the kids of the Montefiore Children’s Hospital. Finally from the beautiful ladies of Valkyries of Arcadia who are directly responsible for this event showed up with Valkyrie Wyldflower the Empress of the Valkyries, Valkyrie Nightmare the General of the Valkyries and Valkyrie Legaia who assists Wyldflower with projects concerning the Valkyries. Special intern member of Empire Arcadia’s newly redeveloped Royal Emperial Guard, David Faria experienced first hand what Empire Arcadia Inc. actually does as a development company for gamers and their culture. |
The group was briefly orientated about the hospital rules and guidelines for media issues by Steven Osborne who is the Media Relations Director Office of Public Relations at Montefiore Medical Center. When all the formalities were finished the games began. The Empire brought Nintendo Wii’s systems sponsored by "Game Express" to play Super Smash Brothers Brawl (X), Mario and Sonic at the Olympics and Mario Party 8. Knowing that not everyone would get a chance to play games on the Nintendo Wii each member brought Nintendo DS systems with a library of games for the kids to choose from. From Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS, The New Super Mario Brothers, Contra 4, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl and more…the kids had a variety to choose from to enjoy the day.
The Empire arrived around 2pm yesterday and spent a few hours with the kids. From Deadly Alliance teaching the kids how to play both Smash Brothers Melee and Brawl professionally to Justin Wong inspiring kids to never give up on being what they wanted to be as; he used his professional career as a gamer to relate to them. Finally, TriForce entertained all the children in attendance with a Super Game of Star Fox 64. Ultimately the children had a great time and hoped that the Empire would return so that they could enjoy more games and fun.
One of the children of the hospital who we was not given clearance to be publicly posted stated: “I’ve been waiting since Monday for you guys to show up. I’m glad you’re here.” It was a heart warming moment for the members of the Empire to know that videogames can be used to help people in there lives.
“This is a prime example of how gaming can affect the lives of people in need positively. We do this because we are gamers and more importantly human beings that care and love others.”
- Nightmare
“When I was younger I use to compete for myself, but when I learned from TriForce that doing anything for a greater cause than yourself brings out your true full potential, it made me realize just how fortunate I am. The time I spent with these kids today makes me reflect on that. This year I will play harder for them.”
- Justin Wong
“Gaming has come a long way and before I just thought that it was about winning. Now I see that there is more to it than just that. If we can use our skills and talents to help people, then as human beings we should.”
- Dire
“I could give you some colorful speech and make it look good in our work, but why talk about it, let's just get it done!”
- TriForce
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