It’s common around the world, especially in the UK, for people to play computer games for hours on end to raise money for a worthy cause. Charity gaming marathons often challenges players to game for a given set of hours without a break.
You don’t have to sit down for long, of course, but you get to play any type of game for a given period – sometimes even 24 hours straight. Participants ask their families and friends to donate money for each hour of playtime. Donation vary depending on what the charity event has decided on as cost per hour for each game played. To ensure your gaming marathon meet all its goals, consider doing a few things.
Get organized
Like all other events, charity gaming marathon preparations start months before organizers start accepting submissions from the public or existing supporters and donors on the big stage. A gaming marathon is easier to organize when shorter games are involved then really long games. Technical malfunction can happen during a long game affecting the event and its credibility.
So it’s important for organizers to ensure there’s a mix of games at a gaming marathon event. Another thing. Make sure to introduce games not so common or seen at any other marathon before. The idea is to keep the gaming event entertaining and a bit challenging for participants. This will attract more players to your charity gaming event, which translates to more money for your special cause.
Invest in serious charity gaming technology
If you think you need some simple software or a modern gaming console attached to your PC to make your charity event successful, then think again.
Remember you’ll be streaming hundreds of different games while integrating a high number of cameras, multiple audio devices, and data sources into the mix. This complicates everything. It also means you need some serious technical setup to ensure your gaming event runs well for hours on end.
In other words, you need to invest in serious tech to make your event successful including reliable game-playing hardware, high-end audio mixers, a production studio, etc.
You also need to consider emergencies. What if there’s a power blackout, how will you contain it? This calls for plenty of backup systems on hand in case anything happens. Machines, for no reason at all and without warning, can stop working.
But when you have a great system in place, such problems are easy to control to keep the gaming marathon event running as if nothing happened.
One way to save money when running a gaming marathon event is to find volunteers with hands-on gaming experience, and technical know-how in handling all the machines and setups. Because some of the setups are often unique and only a few engineers can handle them – making everything so expensive to run and even maintain. As always, go for quality equipment and games for your event.
