Lifesaving Has No Limits

By Lance (Lance is a lifelong gamer and a graphic designer with Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center who has been looking forward to this moment for months.)

Nov. 12 is an international holiday as far as I’m concerned. Why? The PlayStation 5 arrives. I always look at these launches as milestones, and I know a lot of other people, too. 

There’s a lot of hype with each new release, but this year was different because of COVID-19. It was all digital, and I have watched each live stream event with building excitement. It was impressive to me that Sony was even able to launch this thing amid the pandemic. 

So when preorders went live on Sept. 17, I was first in line. I secured one PlayStation early on in the evening, but I knew others would love a chance to play the latest, most technologically advanced gaming console, so I pressed on to get a second system. I knew others would have to go to sleep eventually, so I just kept hitting the “refresh” button on the Target and GameStop sites. 

At 4 a.m., I secured a second console, and I’m excited to announce that one of Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center’s heroic donors is going to win it. Every donor who gives blood between Nov. 12 and Nov. 27 is automatically entered into the contest.

To some, my excitement about this launch may come off as extreme. But my relationship with PlayStation began in the mid-90s when the original console launched. This was back in the day, when people still used cartridges, so the whole disc thing was new. We built our skills playing Crash BanditCoot, Tekken, and that demo disc you got when you order food from Pizza Hut. 

When PlayStation 2 came out, it was competing with Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube. It was legitimately a technological boom, and that’s when online gaming began to take place. We could connect our consoles to dial-up internet (much to our parents’ chagrin) and shared our experience with others.

We became a community. 

Over the years, I’ve maintained my passion for the PlayStation. I’ve collected each of the new systems that have come out. In 2013, at South by Southwest, someone just handed me the PlayStation Vita and said I won it. I even worked for Sony for a time, presenting products like the PlayStation at conferences in the North Houston area. 

From the PlayStation 1 to the PlayStation 5, I’ve watched the gaming community grow from a thing that nerds did to a mainstream activity. With each new generation of the console, I’ve watched its audience become more and more diverse. 

I’m excited to combine my passion for gaming with my work at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, where I get to help save lives every day. 

 

Sony’s tagline is “Play has no limits.” We believe when we work together as one community, “Lifesaving has no limits.”