In three weeks, on November 4, Team ArenaNet will once more be participating in a 24-hour Extra Life Game Day stream! If this is your first time hearing about Extra Life, check out our first blog post about the event here!
As a part of our partnership with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, we’re doing something extremely special this year: we’ll be adding a CMN Champion child, April Arellano, as a nonplayable character in Guild Wars 2.
Meet April!
At fifteen months old, April Arellano was sick and struggling to breathe, struck with a 105-degree fever. Her parents, Antonio and Shannon, brought her to a local hospital, where they were able to determine that April had pneumonia in her right lung. However, they were unable to treat her. Her family made a quick decision to transfer her to Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC), a member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network.
Once there, doctors were able to immediately treat April and diagnose her with septic shock. Septic shock is fatal in 98% of cases involving children, but thanks to the specialists at CHOC, April was quickly diagnosed and treated, saving her life.
Further tests showed that the septic shock April was suffering from had stopped the blood flow to her extremities, causing the skin there to die all the way down to the muscle. April was transferred to the burn unit at a neighboring hospital where they determined that gangrene had already begun to set in on April’s right calf. The doctors made the decision to amputate April’s leg to stop any further infection—once again saving her life.
April is ten years old now, and she loves to sing, dance, perform in local theater, and play video games. Her parents attribute her current good health to the support provided by CHOC and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Meet April, the Mesmer Wunderkind!
April was born and raised just outside of Divinity’s Reach, in the small village of Garenhoff. She’s an ambitious and adept mesmer—and a serial meddler. We spent a lot of time working together with the real April and her parents to nail down aspects of her design, and we’re extremely proud of the result! April will be appearing in Guild Wars 2 as an important part of a special game update that will go live during our Extra Life 2022 Game Day event.
This event is an important part of our Extra Life plans for this year, so we’re keeping most of the details under wraps for now. We want the maximum impact possible on Game Day to help change kids’ health! Make sure to tune in to our Extra Life Game Day stream on November 4 for more information on how you can access this new content and meet April yourself.
A quick word from our development team on the upcoming content:
“Hey, all, Indigo Boock here! I’m a narrative designer working on Guild Wars 2. We’re so excited for everyone to dig into April’s little adventure during our Extra Life Game Day. I don’t want to reveal too many secrets just yet, but I can say that getting to talk with April Lynn and learn about her story was such a delight. I was immediately inspired by her confidence (and her dance moves, of course). April’s character in-game is resilient, brave, and filled with charm—but she barely compares to her namesake. We can’t wait for you to witness our little mesmer’s shenanigans firsthand.”
