Marathon FAQ

So you want to get into making your own game marathons? Well, in spite of what it may look like, there’s more work that goes into this than you’d initially think. This guide is meant to help you get started based on my own experiences running marathons and what I’ve seen from other teams. These are meant more as guidelines than strict rules, so feel free to deviate from these as needed.

Also, please note that this is a work in progress. If you have any different experiences, ideas, opinions, or anything else, or you’re not sure what I’m talking about on any part of this, just reply to this thread.

Your team and what to do with them:
It’s unlikely you’re going to be able to do this on your own. Get some friends involved first. Remember, you’re probably running a show for at least 24 hours, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to stay awake that long, so these should be people you trust to be able to run the show in your absence. At any given point, you’re probably going to need one person on the games and one person running the chatroom and/or broadcasting equipment, and given that you’ll probably need to switch off at some point to rest, 3 people is a pretty safe minimum. If you can get more than that, go for it, more power to you. Be careful about getting too many people, though, it might be hard to run the event seriously if it feels more like a 24-hour party.

As with running any other group, make sure everyone’s on the same page. Communicate with them frequently. Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks. And of course, make sure you can all stand each other for as long as the marathon lasts.

Your games and how to play them:
Obviously, the centerpiece around your video game marathons are – you guessed it – video games. The standard right now seems to be to pick one game series and play almost every game in it, and it’s a fairly safe way to go since unless a series suddenly changes genres partway through (Metroid, for example), a fan of one game will be interested enough to see the others. Picking some favorites among a specific genre or games that have a common theme among them are other good choices. And not too surprisingly, a well known game is probably going to get more views than an obscure one. Regardless of how you select the group, you should have games that are fun to play, fun to watch, won’t get too repetitive by the end, and that you think you can do reasonably well at.

Try and figure out what you’re doing with the games too. Are these going to be casual playthroughs? Trying for the hardest difficulty level? Are you trying to get everything in the game, or is it a speed run? Perhaps an informal competition amongst the people playing the games? Or some other creative challenge? Try and figure out as many details as you can. Practice the games beforehand too – while it’s fun to root for the underdog, it’s not as much fun to watch you repeating the same segment over and over again if you’re just not good enough at them. It also helps to get a time frame on how long each game will take so you can accurately judge whether or not you can finish everything on your list.

The software and hardware you’ll need:
Let’s start with the hardware. The most obvious thing you’ll need is a way to capture the game video and audio, and the easiest way to do that is through a DVD recorder. These are available at your local electronics store for somewhere between $30 and $75, and are pretty easy to use – just plug the AV cables from your console into DVD recorder, which in turn connects to the broadcasting computer, and you’re getting a clean feed of the game! (Not all DVD recorders are able to stream sound on the fly, particularly the Dazzle DVD recorder, one of the most available on the market – keep reading for a solution on this.) You might be able to get away with also just taking a video camera and simply pointing it at the TV screen, but the result won’t be as pretty and is generally not recommended. While I’ve seen a few teams get away with not having any video input besides the game, getting a webcam to record you, the players/team, is also strongly recommended. From a viewer’s perspective, it’s a little easier to follow who’s playing or who’s talking if they have a face to attach it to. Just make sure you have a webcam that can get a good view of the room without being unusually blurry. And of course, you’ll also need some way to pick up sound. Just placing a USB microphone in the center of the room will get the job done provided you can adjust your game’s volume (and to a lesser extent, your own speaking volume) to get a good balance, but better solutions with multiple microphones or sound sources definitely are out there.

In terms of software, you’ll need a good webcam program. For a Windows user, Webcammax is probably the best choice out there. It’s shareware and you’ll have to pay for the full version, but it provides many helpful features, including picture-in-picture (meaning you’ll be able to display both the game and the players) and some special effects. If you’d rather not spend the extra money for a registered version, SuperWebcam is a decent alternative. Mac users, while I have no firsthand experience with it, I’m told CamTwist is the best you’ll be able to find. You’ll also need to set this up on a video streaming site. Most marathons tend to use ustream.tv for this, but Justin.tv and livestream.com are also good choices.

Collecting for charity:
Before I start this section, keep in mind this part is optional. There have been several successful marathons that had no donations or contributions at all. But if you’re interested in playing games to help out others, read on.

The usual standard with donations is that you should bring up who you’re donating to and what they do periodically in your marathon, particularly during slow points in the game, and anyone entertained enough by what you’re doing will make a contribution. Before that happens, though, the first step is the obvious one – pick one out. A good resource to find places is www.charitynavigator.com, but given the type of thing you’re interested in raising money for you can probably find a few good choices just by typing your cause into your favorite search engine. A common charity choice for marathons is Child’s Play, a group that gives toys, books, and games to children in hospitals. This group is founded by the guys at Penny Arcade and received donations from several of the first and most popular marathons, and they’re probably a good choice for yours if you can’t think of anything else.

Once you’ve decided on a charity, reach out to them and let them know what you’re doing. Some of them have pages so you can raise money yourself and keep a running total of what you’ve done. If they accept donations through Paypal, there’s a widget called ChipIn that allows you to do pretty much the same thing. If that’s not an option, you can always send them directly to the charity’s website, or collect into a middleman account and make one large payment to them in the end (but get permission first if you’re going this route). If you can, get them to mention your event on their site, or have them pop in at some point and talk about what they do. But above all else, make sure you portray them in a favorable light!

Getting the word out:
Occasionally you’ll get lucky from people stumbling blindly into your stream, but for the most part no one’s going to watch your show if no one knows about it. Before you do any sort of promotion, you should have almost your entire marathon planned out. You’ll also want to put up some basic info somewhere on the web. Putting something on the stream page itself is a good start, but you’ll look a little more presentable if you put together a website dedicated to your event or group. In short, make sure you already look like you know what you’re doing before you start telling others.

Once you’ve gotten this far, look into places or people that you think would take interest in your show. You’re probably already thinking that telling your other friends and emailing this site are obvious and easy choices to spread the word, but what else can you do? Try making some emails or forum posts on sites dedicated to the games you’ll be playing. Social bookmarking sites like Digg or Stumbleupon are also worth looking into. Even a quick mention on your Facebook or Twitter can get something. There really isn’t any wasted effort here, do whatever you can think of to let people know they’re gonna miss something cool.

So you’re marathoning! Now what?
As I touched on earlier, there should be a minimum of two people actively participating at a time – one actually playing the game, and one on the broadcasting computer, moderating the chat. It’s up to you two and anyone else in the room to keep things going, and here’s some suggestions on how.
* Try and have something going on at any moment. If you can avoid it, don’t pause the game. If you have to get up for a while, pass the controller off to someone else or get up during a cutscene.
* See if you can get into the habit of explaining what you’re doing in the game as you’re doing it, especially if the game mechanics aren’t well known or you’re doing something that seems like a deviation from what’s expected. And if that’s not available, try and talk about anything at all relevant.
* Find some way to interact with people watching. Chat with the audience. If you notice the chat slowly making some sort of recurring joke about what you’re doing, embrace it. See if you can come up with some sort of side game for the chat, even if it’s something simple like game trivia or side bets on how well people will do.
* If you find yourself doing poorly at the game, it’s probably time to let someone else play. At the same time, if you see one of your teammates struggling, see if you can offer any advice, even if it’s just an observation (we do tend to notice things differently between watching and playing the game, after all). Try not to repeat the same segment from losing too often.
* Try not to offend anyone. While we tend to think of gamers as a fairly liberal crowd, if you think there’s a good chance someone will interpret something the wrong way, don’t say it. Keep in mind that most of the viewers will probably be fans of the games you’re playing, so if you’re going to bash them, be prepared to give a legitimate reason why.
* If your marathon goes on for a long time, make sure you’ll have enough people to maintain it at any given time. In short, people are going to need to sleep sometime and try to make sure everyone’s not going to crash at the same time. If all else fails, try taking a break to rest if it seems like everyone else is up at the same time.
* If you’re raising donations, periodically mention who you’re donating to and what they do. Try not to do this too much, as it comes off as begging. A good rule of thumb is to bring it up during a slow point in the game, whenever you’re switching games, or if anyone else specifically asks about it. And if you do receive a donation from someone in the chat, thank them for it.
* If you can afford to go longer than what you planned, and you’ve got enough demand from whoever’s watching, go for it! It’s always good to try and meet your goal as far as playing the games go, if you think you can realistically pull it off.
* On the other end of things, if it looks like you’re going to be finishing the games you set aside early, keep going! If you can find any other games that fit your theme, or you’re getting requests to see a game again, try playing those to fill any extra time.

Want a second opinion? The Mario Marathon team has put together a similar guide, and you can find it here.

Still got questions? Email us, or leave a comment on this page, and we’ll help you get sorted out!