Video Gamers Podcast - The Gift of Gaming: How Make-A-Wish Grants Gamers Dreams - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

It’s time to make gaming dreams come true! Join gaming hosts Josh and Ryan as we are joined by the truly amazing Ian Wright from Make A Wish America. Join us as we dive into the impact gaming can have on people, the impact of achieving a dream and more! From granting the most awesome video game wishes, to a great debate on Red Dead Redemption 2, we’ve got the video game chat you love and an AWESOME ending you can’t afford to miss!  Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. There is nothing like gaming to bring people together and there's nothing like seeing the impact that gaming can have on people. Whether it's a first playthrough of one of the all time greats, the excitement of a new console or your first gaming convention, the joys are endless and the impact gaming can have on people cannot be understated. Today we're diving into the gift of gaming and the impact it can have on people. But first some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh and joining

me as Buddy the elf would say, he's a cotton headed ninny muggins and his motto is I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite. It's Ryan. Josh, just so you know that gum over there, it's not free candy. Dang it too late. And joining us, he doesn't smell like beef and cheese. And if gaming had a Santa Claus, this might just be him because he can be found spreading gaming cheer throughout the world. It's Ian. I'm sorry, I don't have a cool buddy, the elf quote for you, but just super pumped to be here, guys. Oh, that's okay. That's okay. You're the gaming Santa Claus. And now right now this is where people are going, wait, what?

Wait, Santa, Santa. I know him. I know him. You're not Santa. You sit on the throne of lies. Oh man. Okay. Well, thank you for joining the buddy. The elf podcast. Yeah, right. No, Ian, we are super excited to have you. And as much as we have teased this little you being the gaming Santa, why don't you, uh, well actually I'll just say it. So, so to introduce you to the listeners, you lead the gaming division at the make a

wish foundation, which, Oh my goodness, what an incredible thing that instantly just makes me smile. So tell us a little bit more about yourself and about what you do at Make-A-Wish. Yeah, yeah. So yes, my name is Ian Wright. My official title is the lead manager for gaming and digital fundraising at Make-A-Wish America.

It doesn't fit on a business card. I usually just tell people I'm the gaming guy. That's just like, that's what I do. I'm the gaming guy for Make-A-Wish America. It doesn't fit on a business card. I usually just tell people, I'm the gaming guy. That's just like, that's what I do. I'm the gaming guy for Make-A-Wish. So when it comes to video games and Make-A-Wish, if there's a conversation, whether it's fundraising or wish granting, I'm usually involved in some capacity. My role in general is to do fundraising. It is to sort of get individuals and corporations involved to help support the mission of Make-A-Wish through gaming. But like I said, if it's wish granting, if it's just spreading the word of Make-A-Wish through gaming, that's what I'm here for. I'm a long time gamer. Since I can remember, my first game I think was Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. So it was like the early 90s. That like, you know, that'll like date me a

little bit there. But that's like the first one I remember. But like I've had the SNES, I had the Sega dream cast. I don't know if anyone remembers that. Yeah. I mean like, you know, fancy caliber on that thing. Gamecube Xbox, like PC all the way. So yeah, I'm a lifelong gamer and super pumped to be here. Dude, we're, we're very excited to have you, man. Yeah, that is awesome. So, you mentioned you handle the fundraising and the kind of the gaming division at Make-A-Wish. Is that kind of like a 50-50 split? Is it more like, hey, I try to get people to support this awesome cause and when gaming comes up, that's kind of my wheelhouse and people kind of point them in my direction. Yeah. But, you know,

tell us a little bit more about that. Like Like are you directly involved in the like granting of wishes that are gaming related and stuff like that? So not by, by like first and foremost, like not every wish, right? Our organization grants, I mean, last year we did 16,200, a little over 16,200, which was a record. It's the most we've ever grand as an organization. So very excited to do that. And then as part of that 16,000,

we grant hundreds of gaming wishes. And so I am definitely not involved in the majority of them, but I am involved in ones that I can try to make a direct impact on, or ones that might need a little bit of help. The way that our organization is sort of split up, we have Make-A-Wish America, which controls America. and then underneath that we have different states and regions, our chapters, and so we might have chapters go, hey, we have a gaming wish in our region. We have absolutely no

idea how to move forward, whether it's contacting a developer or contacting, you know, a gaming celebrity in their area, and they're like, can you help us with this? Or we say, hey, we have a kid who wants to do this very specific thing in gaming, Is that possible? And then we sort of go from there. So most of my time is based around fundraising, just because that's a much more proactive thing that I can do as far as outreach to different communities or groups. But then if there is something that pops up, my inbox is constantly with like a, Hey, I have a gaming question. And then I'm there to answer it. All right. So, I mean, it sounds freaking awesome to be able to work in like the gaming division of make a wish, right?

Like I imagine that this involves talking to studios at times, talking to developers when you're trying to help a wish come true. You know, getting to meet the people that are making these wishes, like, is it as awesome as it sounds? Yes, yes. I will tell you right now that being part of granting a wish is a life-changing process. It will stick with you like forever.

And the amount of outpouring and support you see just from people who are even sort of like tertiary to the Wish, like the amount of enthusiasm they have. It's motivating and heartwarming and just so encouraging because everyone in that moment is just so pumped. The Wish kid is pumped, their family is pumped, the people that are granting the Wish, the people that are watching the wish get granted. No, I get chills talking about it. It's awesome. I love it. Yeah, because I mean, I personally, I mean, when I see somebody that needs a jump at a parking lot or they need gas on the side of the road, I get amped up to help them with

something like that. So to get your whole life is just, you're just helping not only somebody, but you're helping kids. Like I couldn't imagine, because I get chills hearing you talking about it. Yeah. Doing good for people feels good. Right? Like just doing good feels good. And so doing it on that scale and you have this moment where like, you know that the kid has been... And especially the way that our organization does it. So just some information for the listeners. When a child enters into the Make-A-Wish pipeline, the first part of that is basically... We have volunteers and we have staff that they go to the child and they get the child's interests. Some kids, if they're over a certain age, they know what they want. They go, this is my Make-A-Wish, right? Some kids, if they're over a certain age,

they know what they want. They go, this is my Make-A-Wish wish. Boom, like done. If they're younger, or if they're maybe not as familiar with our program, sometimes we'll go, well, what are your interests? What are your hobbies? What do you like?

And we'll sort of try to figure out what is the art of possible. Then from there, we take it behind the scenes and we figure out how to make it with Make-A-Wish magic. And then we do what's called the wish reveal. And so that's when we actually go to the wish kid and we say, hey, your wish is being granted. And so when I started working for Make-A-Wish, the first two weeks, they said, oh, when I first started, I said, hey, I want to be on a wish. I want to be involved with kids. I want to do something. I want to feel the mission. And they were like, cool, to be on a wish. I want to be involved with kids. Like I want, I want to, you know, do something.

I want to feel the mission. And they were like, cool. There is actually a wish real happening in your like town, like in three days or whatever, like you can go and be part of it. And so I went, it was with, it was with Disney and Disney had come out with their, like their wish movie that came out two years ago.

And, and so we actually went, we had a five year old, um, he had leukemia and he loved two things. He loved trains and he loved Disney. Those were his like two things he loved. And so we did a big surprise party for him at the theater. We said, Hey, uh, guess what? Your wish is being granted and you're going to ride a train from Raleigh, North Carolina to, to Florida and get to go to Disney. So you're going to ride a train to Disney and he was amped

out of his mind. Right. And so like that, it's like that. And that was just the wish reveal. That was just telling him he's got his wish. And then he actually got to go do his wish and rode the train with his family and went to Disney and all that. So yeah, like just being part of that, even like the employees there, like we, you know, we go, we're like, Hey, the kid and his family, all the popcorn and candy they want. And like, if you just take a five year old to a counter and say, you can pick out all the candy you want. I mean, that's like, you know, that's the greatest thing in the world. And the employees are back there

laughing, like handing out candy. Like it's just fun. Like everyone involved. It's like, and to be part of that moment. So that's, that's, it's something unique in my job that I can't get anywhere else. I love it, man. There's, I don't know if this is a famous saying or not, but it's like, you know, if you're having a bad day, do something nice for somebody, you know, because it'll instantly turn your day around and you'll feel better. And you know, it just, it really kind of gets us out of that, uh, you know, Oh, this day sucks kind of mentality and stuff.

And yeah, I mean, you're right. Doing, doing good for people is inherently makes us feel good by nature. And it makes you wonder why we don't do that more often. Right? Yeah. It's contagious, man. Why don't you do more good stuff, Ryan? Like that's what Josh and I were talking about before the start.

Yeah. Okay, so that's how this is gonna go. When's the last time you saved a cat, Ryan? Yeah, when's the last time you, yeah, no, no, no. Ryan actually did save a cat. Did he? Yeah, Josh, why aren't you Ryan actually did save a cat. Yeah. You save a cat.

Exactly. Yeah. Let's turn this around right on Josh. I already have two cats and three is the, I can't go more than that, man. So, okay. So, um, I mean, you're, you're heading up this gaming division. You know, it's, it's obviously kind of, you're getting to help kids. It's a dream that anyone would love to have. Like it's safe to say, you know, you said in the beginning, like you're a gamer as well.

Like, have you just always been that way? You've, you've always just loved video games. You love that kind of world. Yeah. Yeah. It's I have always been like a gamer. Both of my brothers are like much taller and bitter and more athletically inclined than me. And so growing up, they would beat me at basketball and soccer and like all other things. And then we would finish the week out by me just destroying them in any video game that you could pick. Right. And so that was like, and I just, I think there's a sense of escapism, a sense of, you know, storytelling.

I love, I love all kinds of media. I love reading, you know, I love movies and TV and video games are just another form of that. They're another art form that tells a story, but it's a more interactive art form. And I think there's something really valuable there. And then there's, especially as gaming has evolved and we've sort of lost couch co-op, which sucks in my opinion. That's, you know, that's not a hot take on the show at all. I probably like, you know, couch co-op is amazing, but there is something great in the online element of gaming and a sense of community you can build. Uh, and so like I've really channeled that and I've made lifelong friendships off of people that I met over the internet.

I had like five or six guys come to my wedding a couple of years ago that I had never met in person, but like I met them playing X-Box, you know, and they're all great dudes. Right. And so it's like, you know, there's a sense of community that I love in gaming where you can meet someone like this podcast where it's three dudes from different backgrounds living in relatively different places, but we're here to talk about gaming. And that's, that's what unites us. I love that. So I, yeah, I've always been a gamer and I just, the power of gaming is just immeasurable. That's what we always say that no matter who we

have on the show, if we ever bring in on, or anyone just in general in life, we can talk games. No matter who you are, if you like video games, we can talk games and we can find some sort of common ground where we can chat about something. It's just one of those things that bridges all gaps and unites everybody, honestly. There's just that bond between gamers where it's it's something different than anything else in the world. And I and I also believe that like people like, I don't really like video games. And like, I'm not saying you like video games, but there's one out there that I bet you do like. Yeah. Right. Like, I bet there's I think there's a game for everyone.

Like even like my dad, who was like the most old school, technologically like dumb person, he'll say that like, you know, he's gaming. He'll say that. He's gaming. He's always active. He has to be up and doing something. If you put him down in front of Mario Tennis for Nintendo 64, he will not get up until someone comes and gets it. That game specifically, right? I think there's a game for everyone, honestly.

It is really funny because my wife is somewhat of a gamer, but she's very, very niche in the game choices. It has to be Nintendo, and it has to be like Zelda or Mario. But if it's one of those two things, she will get completely engrossed in it and just play it for hours at a time until she beats the game. And then she kind of looks around and is like, well, what do I do now?

And I'm like, you know, there's a lot of Mario games out there, right? There's a few. And then going back a couple of years, yeah. My dad is in his mid-70s, and he discovered we got him a Quest 2 for Christmas a few years ago. That's all he does now, legitimately. It's all he does is, my mom will be like,

your dad played the Quest 2 for three hours last night. He's making friends in the multiverse, and he's doing these online co-op things. And that's awesome. That's amazing. And he's in his mid- the multiverse and he's doing these online. And I'm just like, dude, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I broke my wrist. I'm, I'm an old, uh, dingus. So I thought I could skateboard again, like I did when I was 17 and I broke my wrist and, uh, I couldn't golf. I'm a big golfer. And so I threw on the Oculus and then I was just playing VR golf for like two, three months until I could swing a golfer. And so I threw on the Oculus and then I was just playing VR golf for like two, three months until I

could swing a club again. And so there's just so many, uh, categories within like the gaming universe, if you will, that that will fit somebody, which is just so awesome. And I'm sure it's applicable to, you know, you and your industry with your company and, and make a wish to be able to just satisfy all those needs for these kids, man. It's just so awesome. Yeah. All right. So Ian, we always ask people, uh, before they come on the show,

we kind of like to get a little bit of info upfront. Oh, Ryan's looking, he's signing already. That's all we have for today, folks. I love this so much. So Ian, we asked you for a hot take. All right. And I, man, I'm with you. I mean, man, it seems like, you know what? These bearded gents with the handsome faces and this really good gaming knowledge,

I feel like we're just kind of on a different level, man. But what is it? Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. What is your hot take? My gaming hot take that I, let's hear it. What is your hot take? My gaming hot take that I will also stress to the listeners.

I sent this in and then happened to check the guy's top 10 favorites and was like, oh, that was probably a mistake, but it's fine. I am a firm believer that the vast majority of Rockstar IP, so the Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Red, you know, the Red Dead series, Redemption to all of them. Fantastic, incredible games, beautiful world storytelling, world building, character development, everything, writing is amazing. They will never be eligible to be game of the year or game of best game of all time, GOAT status, because the controls are an absolute crime against humanity. And I stand by that. I stand by the fact that I shouldn't have to in this day and age double

tap the A button to make my guy run, which is like one of the most basic things I need them to do in a game that requires a bunch of traversal. And also there's just some line of code in Rockstar's development process that says, if your character is fleeing from a situation, whether it's a gunfight or a car chase or something, and they're running and they get within three feet of an object, they will just randomly ragdoll and trip over it. That's also something I believe. Again, great games.

I played them. I've beaten them. I love them, but they're never going to be at the top of the list because of that their controls just oh, they're the worst thing ever and I stand My heart I'm with you It hurts it hurts me to say it should be but it's like what are you doing? Like what are we here? I have always maintained that listen I I fully admit that Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the greatest video games that has ever been made.

But I have been a staunch believer in that the gameplay is a seven out of 10. And people go, what are you talking about? And it's the exact same thing. It's the controls, it's the shooting in that game. It's the weird, when you press forward on the stick, there's that pause in the slight acceleration of the character where it feels like it's laggy or right? It just takes a little bit to get going It's the same thing when you stop they kind of have to you know, come to a stop and it's just Your ACLs would both completely explode if you just stopped on a dime

But you know what I stopped at the same time Okay, you can stop you know the the crazy thing to me is that like, I don't even like double tapping to run. Like that's, that's the hangup on the greatest, the greatest game ever made. It's so dumb. It's so dumb. No, it's the greatest game ever made. There, there's, um, if your hangup is, is having to double tap to run or like to me, like when I, when I'm a gun battling flick that joystick up, you know, and it's a headshot. Boom. You know, it becomes second nature when you, when you play it a little bit more than, uh, I guess you guys have, uh, maybe you're not sure. I know. And I don't like that you got me going, but I am because it's, it's, um,

But I am because it's, it's, um, I can, I can say that there are games that gameplay is better, but I don't think that the gameplay in, in Red Dead is bad enough to negate all the other 99% of how amazing that game is. Like that, that is not enough to justify not letting it be game of all, all time. Like for me, do you want to hear something that might also send you over the edge? That I realized, I realized the whole rest of this episode is just ways to trigger Ryan. At this point. Um, this is also kind of just like the definition of like the duality of man, because I would put, I would say that the Witcher 3 has really janky, awkward combat,

and I think it's the best game ever made. So I completely just ignore the whole rule I put for myself for Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto, and just put The Witcher 3 at the top. And that's, I mean, that's fair, because I mean, Witcher 3 is one of our favorite games of all time. Absolutely. I mean, it's one of those things where I still, switching between the swords and like, just the combat is so kind of But just like you said like it was not a problem for me cuz I got good at it You know what? I mean just switch it over the art sign all the different things like yeah

I just knew when I had to run it takes a second to take a couple steps But that's you know, and I'm not a sim guy. I don't like like real-life sims I don't like sim games as much, but like, it does make that more realistic. Like I'm a, I'm a cowboy in 1890 or whatever it is. And I'm just running. So like, it takes a couple strides to get going. But, um, yeah, man, I, I just, oh, I just, I don't know. I don't even know what to say. I, I, to be fair to the Witcher three, it came out in 2015 and then red dead two came out in 2018. You think that in those three years, they would have figured out, but no they just went eh whatever yeah have you seen some of the games lately like come on I am also with you and I

mean I think we all agree Witcher 3 is one of the greatest games ever made so you know the game has really really good controls and gameplay is that God of War the one the game that actually won game of the year in 2018, that game was the true, you know, the true Victor and rightfully so as well. So, right. Right. I know I love God of War. It's like one of my favorite games of all time as well. I just, I just read that it read that it's just that, that next level above for me. Um, but it's fair. I get it. I get some people can't handle, you know, controls and they're not good enough to do

it. So it's, it's not a, you know, not a big deal. Oh, man. There's also just like, you know, I could, I could just keep going. Like there's just like, it's like, it's like the fact that like, yeah, there's like a sense of realism, you know, like I get that argument, but then there's also the, like, if I aim my pistol down or rifle down too far, I can accidentally shoot my own horse. But like, and I get it's like, well, that's really what would happen, but

you would never do that if you were actually, you know, so it's just like a janky controls that are, that are making it do that. It's no, I had, um, so, so, uh, my, my wife, her name is Sarah. Um, I, I had like Sarah 6.0 because I would just randomly clip a wall or a pole or something with my horse Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's true and I just kept renaming it to just keep it like the running joke because It would just my horse would explode and I'd run and tumble and I'm like dang it I'd have to go get another one and so I I get it I get it

But you know, there's a lot in that game. They can only do so much. Everything can't be perfect, man. And that's why it's a seven out of ten game play. All you need to do is just accept. All you have to do is accept the seven out of ten and we can put this to bed. If you were to say eight, I could muscle my brain into like seven and a half. I'll meet you in the middle. Honestly, I was gonna say I'll give you an eight and a half, right? Like it's fine.

Like I think it's great. Just, you know, it's just not, not great. I can't go up to eight and a half. I'm sorry guys. Stick it first. I love this. All right, listen, we got to take a quick break. And then when we get back, we want to hear about what some of your favorite games are, uh, beyond the rock star games here. So we'll be right back at just a second. All right. We are back chatting with Ian from the make a wish

America. Oh my goodness. I am loving this episode already. Ryan, sorry for the trolling there. That was completely unplanned as well. So, you know, this is, this is what is great about this, but,. But getting to know Ian a little bit more, Ian, what are some of your favorite games over maybe the last few years or something, just so we can kind of get an idea of your taste in games? Yes, last few years, I'm gonna say a few years is 10 years.

I feel like that's probably like a good number. So going back very specifically, the first Destiny, and then Trials of Osiris, very like that specifically. Is that a bad ride? Friday night? Oh yeah, yeah. Okay, so I have 1700 hours in Destiny 1, and I spent more Friday nights

than I care to remember in Trials of Osiris, and you get real sweaty on Friday nights. And yeah, it was a lot of highs and a lot of lows for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I loved the, I love destiny and like the grinding and the, the bot, like boss runs, doing raids, everything, all the mechanics of it. Great game trials over Cyrus specifically.

If I could, I said it yesterday, I was talking to my buddy, he used to play trials with, and I was like, if a developer would just take trials and just, that's the game, you make a billion dollars. So if someone knows how to do that, just give me 10% for my idea. Thank you. Yeah. Um, the destiny outside destiny, uh, cause I haven't, I haven't played that in a while to be fair.

Um, so, uh, I play a ton of game called smite and smite two now that smite two is out. So, uh, you know, if everyone's not familiar, it's, it's a MOBA, a la league of legends, but it's like third person instead of top down, uh, that's the one I've got like four or 5,000 hours in, I think, uh, that's a game that I've no life super hard. Um, recently it's, it's like a cop out because they both got game of the year, but I've been playing a ton of Bellot bilateral and then a ton of Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 is in my top 10 that was near the top as well. That game is very Yeah, and so wait eagerly awaiting patch 8 when that drops so I can play with my friends on Xbox because I'm on PC And I could do cross cross. Yep, super pumped on that. Um you know, it's, Fortnite is, is still fun for me. It is, it is fun. It's, I didn't think I'd like it, but it's fun. I play, so I play Fortnite and I play what I call, I have a mortgage mode. And so that's, I play Fortnite OG, no build.

So basically like the least skill level and I don't have to learn anything new, you know? And then I play with my other friend who also has a mortgage and we don't get destroyed by nine year olds. We just get to be destroyed by like 15 year olds. You know what I mean? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. No build mode was the best thing they did for that game in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. And so I've actually played that a little bit and it's been fun. I'm trying to think of any others that have like truly captured me over the last decade. And I'm sure, oh, there was a game called storybook brawl.

That's unfortunately, I see you mentioned that I've never even heard of this game. Yeah. So it was a, it was a, uh, auto battler. Um, it was sort of like a, not like a deck builder, but you had like a limited bench and then you could swap out characters. Um, so auto battler, uh, that was made by a team that they were eventually acquired by Sandbank Menfri during the whole crypto FTX thing. And then when his assets got frozen and taken to court, they unfortunately

went under because of that. And so to me, I'm not a big auto battler guy and it actually is the game that got me into auto battlers. And since that game, I have tried like a dozen other auto battlers and none of them do it for me, like including Hearthstone. I know everyone loves Hearthstone, but like, yeah, like that for me, like that one was like, I could maybe learn it, but there's such like a high skill ceiling. And I don't really want to invest my time. So that's probably a great game. No shade is not for me. But the game that made, the team that made Sorb or Brawl now have come out with a new game that's primarily mobile focused,

which is cool because I don't play a lot of mobile games. So that's kind of fun to be part of that. But it's very, it's very early in development, still kind of like in beta. It's not, you can download it. It's not fully in beta, but it's on the app store called Beta it's not you can download it's not fully in beta, but it's on the app store called um, uh, once upon a galaxy Which is really fun again like auto battler It's a very small community very dedicated group of people And so it's kind of cool to be part of that and watch the game grow and the community grow and listen to feedback So that's been fun It's kind of a nice little uh mobile game that I can play when i'm you know, not in front of my pc

But those yeah, those have been the ones that are probably taken over my life for like the last 10 years, I'd say. That's awesome. There's the, I have a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone. I was very, very big into Hearthstone when it was new and all that. And then got out of it for a while. And then when they released Battlegrounds, it's the only like auto-battler game I play.

But it's like, everybody needs that game that they can just almost like tune out and still play. Yeah. You know, and it's like if I'm eating at my desk for whatever reason or I'm working on something else, it's like, oh, let me play this because I can, I can pay a little bit of attention to it for like 60 seconds and then I can kind of turn it off and get something done on the side. And I love that those games fill that role because it's like, everybody kind of needs

that type of game, you know, to play when, when they're, you know, they need it when it's like, Hey, I just need a little distraction, but I actually have to focus on something too. I, I recommend once upon a galaxy for like, for that exact thing, the games are super quick. It's actually, um, a it's asymmetrical. So it's not live lobbies. So you can like play around and then be like, Oh, I have to go take care of the kid or walk the dog or, or do my job that they pay me to do, you know, sort of thing. Um, so I recommend I'll get you, I'll get you a PC download code. I got you. I was gonna say, I'll get you a PC download code. Yeah. All right. All right. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll get into it too.

I swear. He's like, I don't want to play that. I'm not taking anything. This guy says no. No. Yeah. After the, after the seven, eight out of 10, I was like, I don't want to play that at all guys. I'm not taking anything this guy says now. No, yeah. After the seven, eight out of 10, I was like, I don't know about that. I gave you eight and a half. I thought we were building bridges.

Actually, that is, no, that's, we're building a rapport. This is very good. This is much more than Josh has ever given me. Still overrated. I'm not going to date him. Come on, dude. No. All right.

Moving on, moving on. So like with games like that, what is, you know, what is it, I know we all, as, as gamers, we just, we have a feeling that gaming gives us. And so, you know, it resonates with everybody. And like we talked about before, there's all sorts of categories. There's something with within everybody that, that they can find a game. Like you said, everybody has a game that they can find a game like you said everybody has a game that they can find like did that help lead you into this role like uh uh just having a love for gaming like what what

brought you to to this yeah yeah so my my journey to employment is kind of interesting it's really cool to kind of see the building blocks along the way um so i actually uh when i graduated high school um i ended up i ended up joining the army. So I was in the army for a few years. And when I was in the army, played a ton of video games, played them like, that was a really good way to like, kind of like have camaraderie with your friends, you know, and like, you know, play video games on a Friday night. I actually played it like we played a ton of video games, we were deployed, I would run the table in N64 Super Smash Brothers. Like I am, I will stand here on business right now that

Super Smash Brothers Melee, you'll beat me. I'm not good, wave dashing. I'm not strong. Original N64 Smash Brothers, I'll take my Pikachu anytime, anywhere, and I'll bring it to wherever you need it. I'm putting that out there just for the record. Just for the record. But yeah, so play a ton of video games then. And then after I got out of the army, went to college, got my degree, and then I found a job working for a charity called the USO United Services Organization. It's a military nonprofit, working just kind of at a desk, ended up doing like data analysis for them for a while. And then my boss at the time was like, Hey, you're a gamer.

I'm a gamer. This organization is no presence in gaming at all. And we're both military vets. We both know that they love gaming. The military loves gaming. There's something here. And so him and I worked our day job. And then the night we built out this small little fledgling gaming program, built that out over the years. Eventually it led to my personal claim to fame moment that I was like, oh, I've been successful in my role role is we actually partnered with the NFL and we run now they still do it run an annual Madden tournament for the military winners go to the Superbowl.

So that's like, like, yeah, taking it from like little Twitch streams to that was really, really cool to see. It's still going on super proud of them for what they're doing. And then, yeah, I was doing that role. And then this opportunity with make a wish came up and it was like gaming and I can't say no to the kids. You know what I mean? Like, so, so yeah, that's kind of where it ended up. I went from doing it for the military to this and it's, it's been fantastic. You know, granting wishes and, and raising money for kids with video

games is like the best thing. Yeah. Well Morgan, yes. That's so awesome. Oh man. All right. So we, we gotta man. All right, so we gotta put you to the test here, right? We like to be stupid. We come up with stupid ideas and episodes because it's just kind of the fun thing that friends do. So what video game character do you think

that you could take in a fight and still have it be a close fight? Oh my God. Have it be a close fight, but I win or they win? Yes. Yeah, you win. I can win, but it's still gonna be close. Probably like.

Cause it's like, I'd smash like. Don't say Arthur Morgan cause of the gameplay. No, I'd smash Toad in a fight. That's not a fair fight. Toad, dude, I'm gonna destroy him, right? But it's like, but we, you know, what character do you think would be close in a fight? Yeah, I couldn't beat Arthur Morgan. He throws hands. He would be walk very funny at me,

but he would end up beating me. Like for sure. Um, this is a great question. I like this a lot. Uh, who, okay. I'm trying to like go through, I'm not trying to sell myself short and say like one of the animal crossing characters. Cause Tom Nook, like I'll take you. It's on site with Tom. No, I'll take it. I'm not. It's on site with Tom. No, who's who's up there that like, I think, but I also think could like also put some damage to me. Yeah.

Oh, I think most Pokemon would just kill me outright just because like they, you know, they have lightning and all those different things. Probably need to find a human. You know, I would have to be human. This is probably kind of crazy. If he doesn't have any of his like special abilities, I fight Mario. I fight him. So Mario without like, no, no, no, no fire flower, no star, no mushroom, anything just straight up plumber versus me. I think I, he might get me on edge, but I feel like I'm a little younger than him. So I might have that. Um, yeah, it's, I don't know though, cause he has some experience.

Yeah. I know power up Mario. I think no, no power of Mario. I think he'd be, he'd be good to squabble with. You know, on, I'm going to, I'm going to throw this out there. I think you're selling yourself short. He's a five foot one plumber. So he's, so he's, so first of all, he's a plumber.

He works the trades, you know, he's, this is a strong guy. He's got carry stuff around. He's active. You know what I mean? Full respect to him. He's also like from New York. There's a certain edge that, you know, he carries himself with, you know, and also he, he stands on business.

His princess gets captured. He immediately goes and fights a fire breathingbreathing turtle dragon like this is true The man steps up so I I'm kind of concerned. I might be over selling my own abilities, but I would I'd fight Mario I stand by that. Yeah, I think you do it. Yeah. Thank you. Yoshi is mine. I yeah, you think Yoshi. Yeah, screw that guy He'd probably get a bite or two in on me or whatever, but I'm choking him out again. All right. Yeah.

OK. OK. Oh, gosh. Oh, man. All right. So let's see. One more question here, and then we're going to move on and talk a little bit more about what

it's like to actually grant a wish for somebody. Let's do this one. How about this? Is there a game coming out in 2025 that is at the just absolute top of your height meter? Oh, I mean, a VALDE comes out tomorrow. I don't know if it's going to be the same. From this recording, yeah.

From this recording, yeah. But yeah, a VALDE comes out super pumped on that, just because actually I want to, a Val comes out super pumped on that. Just because actually I want to get because give a little shout out to my list of games before a game that I loved, I think was criminally slept on the outer worlds. Like, I don't know if you guys played the other worlds, but I didn't play it. I'm familiar with it. Yeah. Original Fallout developers.

Yeah. And like, like super fun. Like I thought the dialogue was cool. I liked the whole concept of like corporations and space. Like, you know, I just, I really enjoyed it. Another game where like the gameplay kind of suffered compared to the storytelling and the characters, but like still really fun. But like a lot of the same people that did that did avowed and I've read some reviews and apparently there's a little bit of that like kind of snark and humor, which I'm excited about, but like in the world of, you know, Skyrim, I know it's not Skyrim, but come on guys, let's be real here. Oh, you know, but so yeah, I give it to me.

Yeah, I'm that one. Honestly, it's like, uh, I've, I kinda, I got sad cause I was like, oh, today's a holiday. I can play a vowed cause it comes out today. It comes out tomorrow. And that was tomorrow. Oh, I know, man. This is, this is the funny thing about about two is it's like, I, you know, this is something we see as gamers too, right? If you go online, everybody hates everything, right?

Or it's, I love everything and I can't ever criticize anything and then it's like, dude, come on, that's like just as bad. Seven out of 10. This is a terrible game, right? Seven out of 10. Yeah, seven out of 10, exactly. So it's funny because if you go online and you see people

are like, oh, avowed's just kind of mid, every gamer that I have talked to that is actually playing about has been like, dude, this game's great. On like, you know, it's not the best game I've ever played, but like, this is a modern feeling Skyrim ask type game. Like what's not to love? I, I think that that like, that's such a good point that like, I feel like it's the same for even music and movies and TV, but like now with games, I feel like if people take the game and they go, Oh, this

isn't the greatest video game I've ever played. It's a dumpster fire. And it's like, that's not, that's not how that works at all, man. Like for me, like I played, I played a ton of hell divers too, when it first came out and like I played it, it was fun. It was silly over the top action gore, you know, you're, you're watching yourself off a clip from firing a nuke at a bunch of aliens. Like it was silly.

And at no point did I go, this is the greatest video game I've ever played. But I was like, this is fun. I'm very happy to have put time and money into this. This is awesome. So yeah, it's like, I'll play a valid and I could even be like, Oh, this is worse than Skyrim. That's fine. Okay.

Skyrim is like 75% of Skyrim. That's fine. Okay. Skyrim is like, what? Also 75% of Skyrim. And I'm perfectly happy. He's out there. It's like, you know, that's, that's, you know, people will compare it. They're like, Oh, this isn't as good as Skyrim. Great. Or, you know, an open world adventure game or, you know, a sandbox to go, dad, this just doesn't as good as Red Dead.

Oh, so it's not as good as arguably the best video game of all time. Sorry. It didn't hit that bar, but are you having fun? Like, are you enjoying your time with this? So yeah, I'm pumped for a Vowd. I'm going to walk into it with a very open mind. I also have not read a ton of reviews on purpose. So I'm going to go in and hopefully I'll enjoy it.

That's smart. Yeah, we're pretty far into like Kingdom Come deliverance too right now. And we're having to break off to start a Vowd. So it's, we're like kind of reluctantly doing it, but we're, we're super excited to check it out because man, like you said, I mean, you have, you have an amazing pizza or an amazing burger and just cause it's not the best one you ever ate doesn't mean it's not good.

Yeah. You have a good time. It's a joy and have fun and enjoy it. You know, and oh man, that's crazy. But, um, I guess so, so, you know, with you, with, with the gift of gaming, you know, you lead the division for, for Make-A-Wish and you give all these kids, kids, you know, their dreams, you know, how does that, how does that process work? How does it come to you to where you can come in

and fulfill those dreams and, you know, explaining that process to us? Yeah. So I would say that like, it's really, it's kind of like a misnomer, but like you'd like lead the division, like I just do the gaming stuff, man. Like, you know, I do the gaming stuff. I have a whole team of people I work with that like are incredible at what they do. And I just do the gaming stuff.

On like the helping grant wish aside, like I think like a perfect example of it is we did a wish last year with, um, a Twitch streamer by the name of Jinxy. I don't know if you're familiar with, with Jinxy. So he does rainbow six, another fantastic game. Um, and so we had a wish where, um, we are the kid, his wish was I want to meet Jinxy and I want to play rainbow six with Jinxy, right?

Like that's what I want to do. Right. Super cool wish. Uh, and so it was like, they were like, okay, we want to do this. But like, how do we do that? Right? Cause like, also it's like, you know, if they're like, oh, I'll just go to his house. We know we don't always want to just like let people know where celebrities in this case live, right? Just out of their privacy and things like that. And so we're like, we have to find a neutral area for them to go and play, you know, Rainbow Six, right? And so then they were like, we don't know what that means.

Cause they were like, can they play on Xbox? Is it a Nintendo game? Like do PCs work? Like all these different questions. And so then it comes to me and they're like, hey, do you know anything about this? Like, cause you're the gaming guy. I'm like, I know who Jinxy is.

Yes, I will. And so it long story short, I have an entire team of people, um, that are absolutely amazing, credible in their entire existence is to link celebrities, whether that's movie stars, musicians, content creators, streamers, like celebrities and link them with, with the kids set up the travel, set up the schedule and all that. And then I just kind of pop in and go, Hey, I've set up two PCs over here. I set them up. I installed the game.

I got the characters unlocked. It's all set up and good for you to go. Right. And then, you know, push it from there. So like in that case, like it was just me helping them do it. Um, there's also like, if there's overlap, like we're at Twitch con every year. Um, this past year we had a wish who the kids wish was I wish to go to Twitch con. And it's like, sweet.

That's an awesome wish. I think that's super cool. So, you know, him and his friend, him and his family friend, like they all fly out. Um, they, they got to go to TwitchCon, get to enjoy San Diego. And then while they're there, I'm already at TwitchCon luckily, cause we're, we already have a presence there, but then I'm walking around talking to this Twitch staff going, Hey, his favorite content creators, so-and-so, could we set up a meet and greet kind of just as a surprise.

Right. And then that goes back to like the people are just pumped to be part of it. So then like, I've got the Twitch staff that are just like, Hey, we just thought it would be cool to give you all of the apparel that they sell at TwitchCon. Here's a bag of it for free. Like enjoy, right? Like, cause they're just excited to be part of that. And then like, I'm talking to people, like I talked to some people at Elgato and at Origin PC,

because they're both owned by Corsair. And I was just talking to them about Make-A-Wish. And I was like, I have a kid here. And they were like, we want to meet him and give him free stuff. So they brought him like, you know, they brought him like a Steam Deck and like a bunch of like PC parts and stuff. And we're like, here you go. Just because they want to be part of the process. And just to see him light up and get really excited about it and them smile. It's like, it's just awesome moments. So it's more of like a, if there's a way that I can help and sort of amplify and try to make it better, I will.

But then otherwise, like, you know, I'll let the, let the people do what they do best, let the celebrity team do it. Or if it's like, I want to be in a video game, I want to create a video game. Great. Hey, I have a friend who works at Blizzard or I have a friend who works at, you know, et cetera. Like let me link them up, make sure that everyone's set up and then I'll sort of step to the side

and let them do their thing. That's awesome, dude. That's so cool. It really, I watched the video of the, I don't remember the kid's name now, but that got to be in, like he created a video game with the Xbox studios and stuff. We have a Asher?

Yeah, I mean, we have a ton of those, right? Like we have like we have a ton of those we have like, I mean, we have one that I love talking about. And it's actually like super time wise. It's super cool, too, because his it was like 20 years ago. And his name was Ben. It was 2003 and his name was Ben. And Ben wanted to design his own video game.

And in 2003, like obviously games were around, but like they were not what they are now. And so Make-A-Wish kind of had a harder time getting something set up. And then eventually they worked with LucasArts to like set up a game and actually Ben designed a game. I miss LucasArts man. Right? Yeah. It's an incredible designed a game. I miss LucasArts, man. Right, yeah. They have some incredible, incredible games. And they got Ben, eventually, he built his own game.

The whole concept of it was fighting cancer and fighting the, because he had leukemia. And so fighting cancer and fighting the symptoms of chemotherapy and sort of just empowering his vision for the game and empowering kids fighting cancer. It ended up like getting downloaded like 30,000 times, like all over the world. Um, and then the reason it's super cool is because December of 2024, just a few months ago, marked 20 years of Ben being cancer free and remission. And so like seeing, yeah, like seeing like hit star and then him

being an adult and talking about it. And now I think he works in like vaccine research. So we still in the medical field and like kind of like seeing that come full circle. It's just like really, really cool to talk about and like see his vision and all come there and then him still be around to kind of talk about the impact that it had on his life. So yeah, I mean there, there's all kinds of gaming wishes that we do. Uh, and if a kid could wish it like it's not guaranteed, but we're pretty good at making it happen. Yeah.

That's my next question that cause I, you know, we'd like to ask the questions that pop into our heads and stuff like that. And it's like, cause I, we think our listeners are probably thinking the same thing here. So it's like, is there a type of wish that is like, is like the hardest wish to kind of say, Hey man, like we can, we can try to do this, but this one's going to be tough, man. It's I don't, you know, it kind of just depends.

A lot of, a lot of wishes. So some of them, we just have to be, we have to do the best version of, of the wish that we can. And so like, if we have a child whose wish it is to meet like a content creator and maybe they're in Australia and the content creators in Canada, like I'm trying to think of, you know, really supports the globe there. Um, like, and the child has a medical condition that makes traveling hard for them and the content creator has like just a schedule that makes it impossible

for them to travel or like there's reasons behind that. Then maybe it's like, well, we'll wind up doing the video call just like this. Right. Well, we'll do a video call of virtual, a virtual wish is what we call it. And there's usually an element of that where if it's a gamer, they'll play a game together, things like that. Um, a lot of it, honestly, it's such a boring answer, but a lot of it's just like getting schedules to line up.

Uh, and that's not just, and that's not just like on the, like the, the, the celebrity side, which is a big thing, obviously, but like for our wish kids, like people don't think about the fact that like wish kids are still kids and they're still in school. So like we've, I've had, I've had wishes where we go, Hey, so and so, like your wishes to meet so and so, and like, they're good to go and they go, Oh, I can't, I have exams that day. And it's like, I mean, fair, but like fairy, you know what I mean? Right. Yeah. So like for us as an organization, we grant the most wishes in the summertime,

like because of that, because kids are at school. Families can travel a little bit more and stuff like that too. Yeah. They can travel easier. Weather is usually a little better versus like there's on a blizzard somewhere. So yeah, yeah, like it's, it, there's, it just really depends kind of on the, the, the wish kids health on the availability of different things. Um, and then just timing too, like, you know, you'll have a wish kid the day before the super bowl, go, I want to go to the super bowl. And it's like, I would love for you. You're going to have to wait the next year.

Like, it's like, I'd be like, just the nature of it. Um, I love some of my favorite wishes are, um, Olympics wishes. Cause I'm like, dog, like you're committing to like, that's your wish. You're going to have, you might have to wait four years for the next one. You know, like I wish you go to the Olympics. Like we will send you for sure. But if they just happened, I cannot make the Olympics happen any sooner. That's just the nature of things.

So, uh, yeah, it, it's there. There's, I don't think we ever have one that we comes across our desk where we're like, Oh, not one of these. It's more of just like, okay, we know the challenges. We know the things you have to do behind it. And so we'll just make it happen. So, so, you know, like kind of the, the, the, maybe the more challenging ones or things that are a little bit, you know, harder to accomplish and stuff. What is, what is the most favorite one that you've had that just kind of like stuck with you? Maybe just, um, what's the most unique or something that, that just,

just held on tightly that, that you've granted. The ones that I've, yeah, we did, um, we did a virtual wish for, uh, a kid to meet Jacksepticeye. I don't know if you're familiar with Jack, but Jacksepticeye. Yep, yep. Super sweet guy, super nice. He's granted a ton of wishes. Awesome human being.

I always like to stress too, I'm not being polite and professional here. He is genuinely super nice and has granted a ton of wishes and I love him for that. That's like, he's super cool. And we grand a ton of wishes and like I love him for that Like that's like he's super cool And we grant a wish for a kid similar like as I mentioned earlier He had a condition that just may travel really really hard and so

He wanted to do a virtual wish and meet Jack and talk and he wanted to talk about becoming a youtuber and sort of get Tips and tricks behind those things But there was this moment During the wish there's always a moment during the wish. We're always a moment during the wish where like you want to cry. And like we did one at TwitchCon with Jaden Animations and who draws on YouTube and it's incredible. And she's granted a bunch of wishes too. And like during the middle of the wish, the little girl was just drawing and she looks up and she was like, this is the best day ever. And it's like, oh, come on, dude. Oh, come on. So, yeah. So I can't.

Yeah. But so, no, the one that, so the one I was going to say with, with Jack's out, the guy is Jack was talking to our wish kid and our wish kid was like, so first of all, first of all, let me say this too. Uh, it's similar to like any other podcast you do hint, hint for the listeners. Like you usually talk to the people before you actually like do the wish. And so I had the opportunity to meet the wish kid and kind of talk to him and be part of that process. And he was like, he was like, oh, I want to ask him about, about like, this about this one thing very specifically. I'm trying to be like kind

of nebulous to you because I don't always like putting all the information up. So I want to talk about one thing specifically. And I was like, dude, I love that. Like, I'm such a big fan of that as well. It was about space. He's like, I want to ask him about this thing about specifically. And I was like, dude, I love that. Like I'm such a big fan of that as well. It was about space. He's like, I want to ask him about this thing about space. And I was like, dude, I'm a big space. And I love that. I think that's super cool. And he was like, yeah, cool, man.

And then the wish kids starts talking and he's talking to Jack. And at one point Jack was talking to him about this treatments and the kids like, yeah, it takes me like six, my treatments take like six hours. And I just have to sit there. I can't really do anything for six hours. And Jack was like, so like, what do you do? And he was like, I watch your videos. And I was like, brother, like, come on, dude.

And so I was like, dude, come on. And so he says all that. And then at the end, um, you know, we have all left the wish and like, like during the wish, it's just Jack and the kid talking. Um, my camera's off. I'm muted, probably crying. If I'm going to be honest with you, I've saw it during several weeks. Um, and at the end, Jack said his good

byes, he's left the call, absolute gentleman. I come back on, I talked to Wish Kid and we're like, Hey, do you have a good time? And the Wish Kid looks at me and he goes, yeah, I thought you were going to jump on. And I was like, what do you mean? He goes, yeah, when I asked him the question,

you said you wanted to talk to him about it. So I thought you'd want to, you know, be part of the conversation. And I was like, you wanted to invite me to your wish? Like this was your moment, dude. Like brother, like you don't, such a sweet kid. So like, it's like moments like that, where you like, you meet kids that are in the midst of just like the worst possible thing you can go through as a human being. And they're still like, so positive and just like a beacon of hope and like so giving. Yeah. Um, it just, it, it, it just hits you.

And like, I've never been part of one, but we do have a ton of kids whose wish is to grant other wishes. Like they want to help grant other kids wishes. We've had a kid who wanted to feed all the homeless people in his town. Um, you know, like, I haven't had the privilege of being one of those cause I'm on the gaming side, but like, um, like seeing those, it's it's just like dude. It's it's just crazy to see it like the amount of love that they have It puts life in perspective when we complain about the little things like traffic and this and that or oh I got to go to Work today, you know what I mean? And it's just like I think there's something there that

Honestly, it's like I mean, I don't know a person in the world that honestly doesn't love what make a wish does. You know what I mean? I think you see this response from just about everybody where, you know, again, if you're at Twitch con and you mention it, somebody's like, Oh, absolutely dude. Like let us get in on that. What can we do? Right. Exactly. Because it's just such a, it's such a noble thing. And I think again, people just want to be a part of that. And I think it does for people that

might be outside that process. I think it's perspective for people to say, dude, there's a lot more to life than work and traffic and these little things that we complain about. And I think that's necessary for people. So OK, so my brain has to go to this. And I don't mean this to sound negative in any way. But it's just something that my brain kind of goes like, man,

that's a lot of pressure to grant this wish. Is there ever the worry or that moment of you're about to grant a wish, and then you just go like, dude, please let this be as cool as we think it's going to be? Yeah, not for me. I don't want this kid to be let down. I hope this plays out like I wanted to. Yeah, no, it is. It is like, yeah, I mean, you, so for me, yeah, like it's, if it's like, yeah,

I wish for a gaming PC, I'm like, well, I hope they like the gaming PC that we get for them. Right. And like, we'll get them a good one. Like, I'm not going to skim, I promise. But you know, but it's like, it's also there's stuff outside your control. Uh, like we, when we did the TwitchCon wish, um, we did the TwitchCon wish and there was just literally like we had all the tickets are purchased. I've got Twitch staff with me. Like it's all it's been set up for, for weeks at this point. But when we get there, there's just literally a computer issue

and we can't print their, their passes. It just, you know, just like a one in a million glitch where we just can't print their passes. It's just like a one in a million glitch where we just can't get their information to pass to the printer and it just wouldn't work. And I'm just sitting there and I'm like, great, in the first five minutes, I already have this kid waiting in line. He can see all the fun stuff happening, but he can't go anywhere because the computer isn't working. And I'm like, I'm so sorry. I really want this to work, man. But he had a great time. It all works out, but you know, you, you just that, and then there's always the, um, when they meet a celebrity, you're always like, I hope you don't suck.

Like, I hope. Um, and like for me, like never had a bad experience with any of the creators that we've ever worked with. Like they're absolutely fantastic. I've never had, we usually, depending on the wish, we always give a time. We like to set standards and boundaries and let both the creator and the kid know, hey, you're going to be doing this for this long. I've never had a creator not go over. They always go over their time, every single time. And afterwards, they're never upset about it. They're never like,

oh, well, you said it would be an hour. No, like they're, they're super always understanding and happy to be part of the process. And so like, yeah, for me, I've never had that happen. That's a concern. But if it's someone that's grant a bunch of wishes, I don't have the concern because I know they're awesome. But if they're a first time wish grander, it's always like, Oh, it's tough. But no, everyone's been amazing. This is awesome, dude. I, it just goes to show you that like gaming, like we, we have been saying this since we've started this podcast man is like, you know, and we kind of touched on it earlier.

Gaming brings people together. Um, we have had a, a, a, a psychologist on the podcast to talk about like the bonds that are made through gaming and things like that and how they are legitimate, like friendships and important to people's lives and things like that. You know, it's something that we stress. Our community is fantastic. We say it all the time. We hate that there is this like sub-branch of gaming that has become like toxic. Let me just put people down and try to make, you know, and a lot of the negative kind

of connotations that go with that. And, you know, we just we this is something that we're very passionate about is kind of promoting, you know, gaming's for everybody. You know, everybody's entitled to an opinion. You know, it's OK to have opinions on things just because they're different. Doesn't mean that somebody has to be wrong and things like that. And this is just awesome to see, like how gaming can impact people's lives. I mean, you guys are literally getting people that are saying this is my wish. Yeah how gaming can impact people's lives. You guys are literally getting people that are saying, this is my wish.

And it's gaming related that I think that indicates, again, the importance of gaming and the escapism that it can be, the bonds that people can form through that. And we absolutely love it. So one of the things we always do is we always like to say, hey, what's something really important that we can bring up on the show. And when we asked you that, obviously you said, Hey, make a wish. And the fact that it's the world wish month. So can you explain what world wish month is? And if there is a link or something that somebody can go to, we'll put it in the episode description, but we want to make sure we kind of put that in front of people as well. Definitely. Definitely. So World Wish Month is a celebration of the lead up to World Wish

Day. And what is World Wish Day? So April 29th, it's a little history, right? A little history here. So April 29th, 1980, in the Phoenix area of Arizona, there was a young man by the name of Chris Gracious, and he had leukemia. He was battling his sickness, and he had always wanted, I think like most young boys, wanted to be at some point in his life a police officer. I think that's pretty common for kids,

either police officer or firefighter. I feel like it's probably one of the two. And his parents knew that. And at the time, there wasn't anything like make a wish around. And so his parents talked to some friends who had some friends, et cetera. And they eventually got linked up with the local police department. And they said, we're going to make Chris a police officer for the day. And so they gave him a uniform, they gave him a badge, they put him in the cop car, let him ride around, let him be kind of a officer for the day. And so they, they gave him a uniform, they gave him a badge, they put him in the cop car, let him ride around, let him be kind of a cop for the day. And they said, Oh, no, Chris actually loves helicopters. Like most young boys, you know, loves helicopters.

Would you, would you think you could let him like sit like in the helicopter and just kind of like, you know, look at the buttons or whatever. And they were like, dude, he could fly it. So they flew him around the city, you know, it's helicopter, you know, so he got to be a police officer for a day. And then shortly after that, unfortunately, his condition turned worse and he passed away. And after that happened, his mother, Linda said, this can't just happen for Chris. This needs to happen for all of the kids everywhere. And so that wish started Make-A-Wish. So it wasn't the first Make-A-Wish wish, but it was the wish that inspired

Make-A-Wish. Right? There you go. I can only get so many goosebumps. My body's like, it's like, dude, what are you doing? Like, stop it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. But so I, yeah. So that was kind of the first wish that inspired Make-A-Wish. And so, you know, ever since we've granted, you know, tens of thousands of wishes and hundreds of thousands of wishes, you know, worldwide. And so that day, April 29th, is the day that we celebrate the movement that started Make-A-Wish. And so for us on the gaming side of things, we use that opportunity to tell the story of Chris,

tell the story of Make-A-Wish. We work with content creators and streamers to fundraise during that time. So if anyone has ever been on Twitch for more than five minutes, they probably see the charity stream. We work with YouTubers. We work with any kind of content creators that want to do a fundraiser in honor of Chris and honor of Make-A-Wish and the work that we do during World Wish Month. And then as part of World Wish Month, we celebrate what we call Wishmakers.

So a Wishmaker is anyone who basically pushes the Make-A-Wish movement forward. It pushes our mission forward. So spoiler alert, both of you guys are now Wishmakers, right? Just by kind of putting me on this podcast to talk about Make-A-Wish, like you're moving our mission forward. Right. And it's anyone from our fundraisers to donors to people who volunteer their time. It's the people that if you're driving the shuttle at the airport and a wish kid is on it, you're a wish maker. Right. You're helping make that wish happen. You're part of the Make-A-Wish mission. Last year, our sort of goal and what we achieved was we recruited a million

Wishmakers in the month of April. So we had a million people sign up and were like, this is how I'm helping the Make-A-Wish mission. And so that's what it's all about is World Wish Month is all about becoming a Wishmaker in some way. On my end, ideally, it's starting or donating to a fundraiser to help support the Make-A-Wish mission. Our goal is $50,000 this year. It was $50,000 last year. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We did $50,000 last year. We're going to do $50,000 again this year, hopefully. And if people do want to be involved with that and become a Wishmaker, they can go to either wish.org slash stream, or they can go to wishmaker.org. The wishmaker.org will have, we have some updated wish kid stories that I'm really excited to show off in the near future.

And so that's the easiest way. And I would say to outside of the wish granting and the fundraising when we raise like, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars for kids with critical illnesses, the one of the coolest things that I've had happen for me at Make-A-Wish was last year, I got the opportunity to sit and talk with Linda,

Chris's mom, the woman who started Make-A-Wish. She's still in Arizona, she's still part of things. And I got to sit and talk with her for like five minutes, just literally one-on-one, just at a table, her and I, no one around. And I kind of explained what I do. Um, and shockingly, like she, uh, is not too familiar with the world of gaming and different things. That's not her forte. Um, but when I explained to her what I do and what we do with video

games and what we do with streamers and content creators, she just looked at me. She like helped put her arms out. She, she put her hands on my hand and she looked at me. She said, thank you for telling Chris's story to a new audience. And I was like, yeah. So it's that, that for me is like what world wish month is about is telling Chris's story and make a wish his story to that new audience, right? Telling it to streamers, tell it to their viewers, podcasts, right?

Like talk about what Make-A-Wish does, why we do it, the importance of what we do, who we serve, and just getting our word out and our mission out. That's... I love it, man. I know, right? It's, I mean, Josh and I, we're both, uh, you know, Phoenix, Phoenix, uh, uh, people here. I'm a native born and raised.

Um, my, my son's been at, uh, uh, Phoenix children's and my, and my little sister as well. Uh, I know, make a wish I've seen them there, um, before. And so like what you guys do is just, it's, it's second to none. And um, there's a lot to be said. And you know, it's, it's something that we try to kind of put forward too with with our campaign of just No Gamer Left Behind that there's we just we just want there always to be a good space for everybody

and for anyone that that is having a hard time or needs help or anything like there's always there's always somebody there for you you know and then that's what you guys do you make these dreams come true. And so, um, you know, what we want to do on, on behalf of the video gamers podcasts, we want to help you guys out. Um, we're dream makers now, apparently we're on our dream makers wish makers. Uh, so, so we're going to donate $5,000 to the make a wish foundation. Thank you.

And, uh, and, and we just want to, you know, we want to make those wishes come true. Thank you. And we just wanna, you know what? We wanna make those wishes come true. Thank you. And I mean, thank you guys, dude. That's awesome. Thank you, man. That means a lot. We absolutely love what you guys do.

It's the same thinking, right? Like good people do good things for people and good things happen, you know? And it's just one of those things where Ryan mentioned it. We're very staunch believers. We've kind of been pushing this. Nobody, the saddest thing to us is like somebody that goes, I want to play this game,

but I don't have any friends to play with. Yeah, that sucks. You know what I mean? I'll download it right now. Let's play. Yeah, I will play with you. That's literally our answer is you come, come join our community.

We'll play with you or, you know, because that's something that nobody should not be able to do. And with what you guys do, especially, it's just, we want to, we want to support that. We want our listeners to support that. And, and, you know, we appreciate you coming on the show and hanging out with us. And so this, this donation is, you know, just a thank you for what you guys all do and for what you do

as part of that as a bigger whole, man. It's really impressive. I mean, I know I've gotten chill bumps about three or four times this episode. I know, it's the whole episode, yeah. So it's just, you know, yeah. And again, this is just- I won't apologize, I won't apologize for it.

No, no, not at all, man. And so it's just one of those things that as gamers, this is what we want, man. This is what we want other gamers to do as well. And it shows what gaming means to people, like what it can do and how it can heal and help and bring people together and make wishes come true. It's just, there's nothing like it. I'm really excited to go back and tell my bosses that you guys are going to make a $5,000 donation, not because of the amount of money, which is amazing, like genuinely from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

But it's more of the fact that I get to go because they're gamers, right? Cause they're gamers and they get it right. Like not just to make a wish mission, but they understand that like, you know, we have kids who they wish for a gaming PC and not because they want to play on ultra settings, but because their friends have PCs and they want to connect with their friends while they're in the hospital. Right. Or like they want to, you know, they want to keep up and like stay connected and be part of the newest hot game.

Like they want to, you know, I had a kid one time just wish for V bucks cause he just wanted to buy skins for Fortnite. You know what I mean? Cause, but like, cause his friends had them. So it's like, there's just so many versions of what gaming looks like. But like you said, like it can be used for Fortnite. You know what I mean? But like, cause his friends had them. So it's like, there's just so many versions of what gaming looks like. But like you said, like it can be used for good. And so that's, you know, that's what I'm here for.

It's what you guys are here for. So thank you. It means a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Dude, this has been freaking awesome, dude. It's such an incredible thing to try to bring like gaming to the world, to share the experiences. I mean, honestly, the friendships that we make along the way.

I mean, you're hanging out with us and we get along really good, man. It's like the start of a friendship right here. I love it. Whether you're escaping the trials of life, a hard day, getting to be that wizard or that cyberpunk assassin, it really just means a lot to the people that are in it. And so we do have one before we go, because we're about to close out the show, but we do have one more tough question for you.

So you spend your time and the people you work with spend your time fulfilling people's bucket list items. So we have to ask what is your bucket list item? Oh, it's like, what is my like it basically like, what would my wish be? Yeah, exactly. I probably, if I could pick anything, it would be spend an afternoon with Bill Watterson, the author of Calvin Hobbs, the comic, this right here. Oh, man.

That's that would probably be number one. Bill, Mr. Watterson is famously not a fan of doing interviews or things like that, and I respect his privacy. So if he said no, then it would probably be cooking a meal with Gordon Ramsay, who's a big wish-granter as well. So I could probably get him to say yes. That would probably be easier to get to say yes. So those would be one of the two. My wife and I watch Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. Like we're big fans of Gordon

Ramsay. I just want him to call me an idiot sandwich. Yeah. And I'll be good to go. Like that would be life. For sure. Life accomplishment. Like, yeah. He's one of the most kindhearted people out there, but he comes across with that attitude. And it's so funny because it's exactly the opposite of who he actually is. And I just, I think it's funny. It kind of tickles my mind. Another dude who has granted a ton of wishes and says yes, like anytime, like he's like, he's super great about it. So yeah, he'd be on my list as well.

Awesome. Well, listen, everybody, that's going to do it for this episode. We're going to put the links. If you want to be a wish maker, we'll put the links in the episode. Like Ian said, just get, you know, just participate in any way that you can. I mean, I'll be honest, this is absolutely my favorite charity, man. I mean, I absolutely love what you guys do.

There's a lot of really good charities out there, but this one just touches people's hearts, man. And getting involved in that is awesome. Thank you for coming on and giving your time to this podcast and just being silly and talking video games with some dudes. You know, we hope people enjoyed it. That will do it for this episode, everybody.

Make sure you click the link, support, make a wish. Thank you, Ian, so much for joining us. That's it for this one. Until next time, happy gaming. See ya!