Well, this has been quite the journey. From ups and downs, love and hate, praise to threats, you never know what you're going to find in your mailbox next!

Today has been a very monumental day for the game, as we've been given the patch notes for the very first major "update" to No Man's Sky. There have been colorful comments directed at me regarding Sean's careful use of wording on the "exploit" of picking up free items sitting in the middle of an Atlas Station and putting them to good use, but rather than jumping too far in to that in this post, there are plenty of other posts you can easily find in this sub where I've happily engaged in others on the topic.

There are lots of other juicy tidbits in the patch notes, of which my favorites that stick out are the idea of the game being much harder from a survival standpoint, and the improvements to inventory space, particularly the 5x ship cargo. This is a huge improvement from the "beta" version and I'm thrilled to see it. All in all, I'm very curious to see what these changes do to the overall flow of the game.

Over the course of this last week, I've had some... interesting commentary directed my way regarding the nature of gaming, who I am as a gamer and my "ulterior motives" for playing the game early and/or leaking early basic footage and/or giving first impressions and feedback here in this reddit. It's been quite the social experiment to see how people react to these sorts of things. I've found it fascinating that people have tried to center in on my "grab for attention" in this, all the while even going so far as to suggest I "get a mic and become a YouTuber" instead of being a "random reddit voice" to somehow validate my thoughts, concerns and opinions. This is shockingly backwards to me, because if anything I'd hoped the fact I'm NOT in this for personal end gain was a way of emphasizing that this was just an honest opinion, and not in some way a tainted version of my thoughts pushed out for clicks and views. No, I don't have a dedicated YouTube channel I'm trying to milk with this. No, I don't stream full time and I'm not trying to drill you for follows and donations. Isn't that a good thing? How does this invalidate my opinions as a gamer?

I've streamed a couple of times at short lengths, mostly to address some questions or to give a review, and the response was somewhat positive. People have asked me to do more, and while I have no intentions of ever streaming this game full time as some other streamers have and likely will, I have decided on one final exercise that will serve as my end all be all gauntlet toss. As mentioned above, this will be a one time stream for this game as I'm not doing this to build a reputation as a streamer in any way. I will not accept personal donations, either.

On Monday at 9PM PT, when the game is officially green lit to be streamed on Twitch.tv, I will begin my stream at twitch.tv/daymeeuhn. This will be a fresh playthrough using the new patch with a fresh save file. My goal with this stream will be to reach the center. I do not intend to rush it, or make it my sole focus, but I am confident I can reach it in one streaming session with no breaks, and that's what I intend to do. It might take 30 hours, 40 hours, hell even 50+ hours, and that's fine. I'll do it without stopping.

For every hour that it takes me to reach the center, I plan on donating a set amount to the charity highlighted in my stream profile during the marathon. Additionally, as mentioned I will not be taking personal donations and will redirect anyone interested in to donating at the link provided.

After this session, I will be done streaming No Man's Sky. This is a one shot deal. This is an all-in post patch/release final thing for me. People have asked for me to stream some more, people have asked to see my thoughts on the game after release compared to the game pre-patch, and this will be the way I pass along those thoughts. I will also do my best to answer questions and help new players as they make their journey as well. I certainly don't expect people to watch a long marathon stream, and a lot of you will be going off on your own journeys and won't be watching streams at all - and I say travel well! Enjoy the game! Have a blast. I know you probably will. But if you do watch streams, pop in and say hi a bit while I'm on this journey of my own. See what I'm up to, and maybe ask a question or two if you're stuck on anything.

As for this reddit, it's become clear that I can't actually consistently handle dealing with trolls or people that don't "get it" on a basis that lets me enjoy being a face in the crowd any longer. The constant unnecessary call outs, the mindless drivel about things I have or haven't said (of which 90% is almost always not true) etc etc, it's become too much for me to actually enjoy it and just be a contributor. I know it will only get worse, too. So this post is it for me - no more responses or posts out of me in this sub. I've enjoyed my time here, the majority of you have been really cool to talk with and thank you immensely for your support in how the last week played out. I realize I'm kind of reaping what I sowed with this in being at the "LeakGate" forefront, so it is what it is. I brought this on myself, and I realize that. Despite the common complaints of toxicity or what have you, I think this sub is a fun place with a lot of well placed jokes and content, in addition to supporters of the game that really understand how to level their expectations, and I think it will be a positive place for newcomers in the future after the game launches.

Anyhow, this is it, thanks for letting me be a small part of this community for the time I was here, and I hope we all enjoy the game when it hits. The changes coming in the patch sound sweet. This last stream will be my final hoorah with this game in a public sense, and I hope I can provide a fun stream throughout even after my brain begins to melt in to jelly 40 hours in. It should be... interesting.

Farewell! See some of you then!