Under normal circumstances I would just put this in the RTM Forums topic, but part of me doesn’t think that’s getting these updates the attention they really need. So here I am abusing my front page posting privileges to get more buzz for my event that’s not happening for eight months. I am obviously the best.

For anybody that doesn’t know, a few details have changed since the charity event in December was actually announced. Estimated length is still 6 to 7 days of straight streaming, but the tentative starting date has been pushed forward from December 26th to December 28th. Obviously this is because why would anybody fly out the help us the day after Christmas? Nobody is gonna do that. We were stupid to put that at first, so please forgive us for being dumbs.

We’ve also announced our games. We were going to give clues and have everybody guess what it was, but then we realized we wanted to have people come out to Kansas to help. Why would anybody do that not knowing what games we’re going to play?

So, before the break let’s get this out of the way. The three games will be Persona 3, Persona 4, and a small Persona 4: Arena tournament at the end. That’s two seventy hour games, all the way through, in one go. We’re not going for speed runs or anything, just nice relaxed playthroughs. Grinding sessions will probably be accompanied by us making complete fools of ourselves for more donations.

Now there’s more for me to bring up, but first a break for those of you reading on the front page. Trust me, it’d help us so much for you to hit that there “SEE FULL POST” button. Please.

SO FIRST THING’S FIRST, I sent an email to Child’s Play awhile ago. I got a response about a month ago. I figured it’s a good idea to just bring it up. Here was the response I got:

Hi Joe,

Thank you so much for reaching out! I’m glad you read the fundraising guide, that’s my best resource for the basics but I’m always happy to answer specific questions. You’re already on the right track by planning well in advance, so good work 🙂 I think my first suggestion is to make sure that you have a good rest schedule – long marathons are physically grueling, and in the case of Desert Bus they have people do 12 hour driving shifts and hang out when they’re not sleeping. Bringing other folks on board will be important to lasting your full goal time. I’d say start conservatively and you can always do them annually, or even more often if you feel like the first one was manageable.

Considerations for venue are strong internet connection and ability to set up good computer/webcam space. Sometimes campuses or community centers have good locations that won’t charge too much (or not at all, since it’s a charity event). Luckily, even though ChipIn is closing, we’ve actually been in development and later this month will release our own donation collection widget. Keep an eye on the website and @CPCharity on Twitter, which is where we’ll announce it. Auctions are harder to coordinate and I’m not sure we’ll be releasing that functionality with the widget, but raffles and giveaways are definitely possible. Once you have the details really nailed down, make sure to add it to the event calendar on the site, and start networking via Twitter and Facebook. I’d also recommend stopping by the “Marathon Support Group” forum – it’s not Child’s Play specific, but these folks are experienced and may have good advice for you – http://forum.gamermarathon.net/index.php

Thanks so much for your hard work for Child’s Play. We deeply appreciate it! If you have other questions, let me know.

Regards,

Jamie

So yeah, that happened. Let’s address the things she brought up to us, and let’s start with talk of venues.

Right now I am planning on looking into the community center down the street from my old home. She mentions that those are usually willing to rent out a room for cheap or sometimes even for free, so honestly that may be our best shot. I have one other possible place in mind that would be free and absolutely perfect, but we have about a 2% chance of it actually being acquired so don’t get your hopes up for that one.

Next is one of the most important parts of this whole thing. We need people, we need so many people it’s not even funny. This event WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE with the four people we have pretty much 100% confirmed to be attending/hosting. As Jamie says up there rest is important. 24 hour marathons are way exhausting, Ben and I know this from two years experience doing it. Seven days of that would kill us, even if we were switching off with Joe and Clay.

Four people’s not enough. I know some of you have contacted me to say that you’re interested in coming out, so here’s what I need you to do:

If you have even the slightest interest in coming out to Kansas to help us with this, and there’s even the slightest possibility that you can, CONTACT ME. IMMEDIATELY. Use Skype, use Twitter, PM, anything. We’ll get with you and talk about any questions you have, and any help you may need. Even if you have already approached me about it, approach me again. This is super important, guys. We now have eight months to get this completely organized, and we’re seriously gonna need help.

The last little bit is some technical difficulties that have presented themselves. Ben and I each have a capture card that should work very well for our purpose this December. PROBLEM. We can’t figure out how to get them to work in a variety of ways. I explained a bit in an update video on our YouTube channel, but lemme just say them again here. If anybody out there has experience with either of these capture cards and can work miracles with two dumbs like Ben and I, get in contact with me IMMEDIATELY.

Ben’s is a Hauppauge HD PVR. He’s figured out how to record without commentary last I heard, but recording with sound and the more important part of streaming with it has yet to be figured out. Since that’s why he bought it in the first place, we kiiiinda gotta get that working.

Mine is a Diamond VC500. The problems I’m having with it are weird and stupid, and I know it works cause I used it to record this video on my last computer. It may not be the best quality (especially with sound though that’s the least of my worries) but it’d be a nice backup to have. I’ve read about work arounds for my problem, but they’re all really confusing and don’t seem to actually work, so I don’t know.

Also guys, spread the word out there! Let people know about this, probably about this wall of text post in general! Maybe you don’t have an answer to our troubles, but SOMEBODY out there does. This is only gonna work well if we work together to MAKE it work well, so let’s do this SMYNjas! Let’s show the world what we can do!

I can be contacted by email at thedobaga@yahoo.com, on Twitter @thedobaga, and on Skype as thedobaga. You can also feel free to P/M me with questions or responses to anything above. Alright, that’s it for my way too long update, bye guys.