Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Hello there. I'm Charlie_Six, the world's first video game mercenary. And the world's first video game mercenary for charity, too! At least, from what I can tell.

A few months ago, I thought it'd be fun if I put up a weird/funny auction on Ebay, in an attempt to get onto the daily featured Auction part of gaming news site, BluesNews.com. So I posted the auction: Battlefield 2 Bodyguard / Mercenary for Hire - 10 Hours. Sure enough, Blue thought it was Auction of the Day worthy, and all the BluesNews regulars had a good laugh.

Somehow, G4TV (TV for Gamers) found out about the auction, and my auction was featured in the "It Came From Ebay" segment of the August 30th airing of Attack of the Show. This helped boost my auctions' hit by the thousands, and my first merc auction ended at $31, all of which was donated to charity for Hurricane Katrina relief. I was later interviewed by Wargamer.com. Since then, I've been hired by a second employer and am currently fulfilling both contracts (these guys don't seem to play very often!).

I plan on doing many more "game mercenary for charity" auctions in the future, and will use this blog to document my adventures through "After Action Reports". These AARs will have screenshots and descriptions of especially cool events that occur during my missions.

Also, a regular feature of this blog will be High Score, where I present some of my favorite film and game music to play games with. Each feature will come with an audio clip that will be in low-quality 64 kbps sound and clipped for length.

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How to Hire Me

If you'd like to hire me, you can comment on this blog or Yahoo IM me at "Charlie_Six". I'll then setup a charity auction on Ebay, with the opening bid at $9.99. I accept Paypal and Bidpay payments. You can pay with all major credit cards. You can also choose which charity you would like the money to be donated to, if you so desire. Charity payments are done through E-bay's official charity system, MissionFish.

Each mercenary contract gives you 10 hours of video game mercenary / bodyguard service from me. The hours expire 3 months after the end of the auction.

Once hired, we'll use IM programs such as Yahoo to keep in touch. Whenever you want me to join you in the game, just send me an IM with server info and I'll join you. Primarily, I make an excellent Battlefield 2 mercenary, but I can play other games too, such as Call of Duty 2, Day of Defeat Source, Counter-Strike Source, Warcraft 3, Neverwinter Nights, Natural Selection, and others. Before asking for mercenary service, ask me if I have the game you want to play, and I'll see if I can support your request. I can also fill in for missing clan members during clan matches.

Once in the game, I'll follow your orders to the best of my ability. You can use me for various roles: healer, driver, scout, helicopter rescue, ammo resupply. This can be very useful for boosting your score and keeping you alive longer in game. Plus, it's fun having a subordinate to boss around.

Buying a virtual mercenary can make a fun novelty gift for yourself or a friend. It also provides a fun incentive to donate money to charity. Usually, you donate to charity, and all you get in return is a crappy "thank you for your support" note from the charity. This is much better ;)