Q: Come on, you guys are just going to take the money I donate for your own evil schemes, right?
A: Don’t worry. Even if we were sick and evil enough to want to steal donations, we can’t. If you check the confirmation message after you donate, as well as your confirmation email, you will see that the money is going STRAIGHT to Child’s Play’s paypal. The super fancy donation button will record who donated though, so we know who to get the prizes to.
Q: Have you done this before?
A: Yes. We do the annual Halo: Endurance Evolved marathon of which there have been two, and in April of this and last year we did Retrothon, where we played a bunch of retro games for charity. We also did the Fallout 3 Marathon in Feburary, which was by far our most successful marathon. So far, we’ve raised $5484.26 for Child’s Play Charity.
Q: Why is there a chatroom here. The chatroom is stupid, and you are stupid too.
A: The chatroom is for audience interaction. It is NOT for saying “LOL I LIKE BUTTS AND SO DO YOU” over and over again. A big part of all of this is audience interaction. We’d love to talk to you as much as possible. Good discussion topics are…
- Telling us what mistakes we’re making, and mocking us for making stupid decisions. There are many ways to play Halo, and part of the reason why we have a chat is to get help and to see the game from another point of view. Please speak up if you disagree with what we’re doing.
– Giving us pointers. If you know an easier way to get through a place that we’re stuck at, PLEASE speak up. Your help is the other reason why we have a chatroom.
– Talk amongst yourselves. The more of you that are in there, the more likely more people will stay, and hopefully donate.
Things to avoid are…
- CAPS LOCK. WHILE MANY WILL TELL YOU THAT IT IS “CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL” OR “FOR THE COOL KIDS, BRO”, THEY’RE BEING SARCASTIC. IT’S REALLY ANNOYING. PLEASE USE IT SPARINGLY.
– Excessive foul language. There is a fine line between swearing fitting into regular speech, and it becoming obnoxious. If you’re being obnoxious, you’ll get a warning and then a ban from the chat.
– Being quiet. Please talk. We’re all lonely. That’s why we’re playing 60 hours of Halo. We need human interaction.
Q: How can you guys afford to do this?
A: Because we really wanted to help a good cause. Split between all of us, the costs of the prizes aren’t that high. Besides, we’d GLADLY spend 50 dollars or so in order to get hundreds or hopefully thousands of dollars to Child’s Play, which is really a great cause.
Not to mention the fact that we’ve already done five marathons, so we already have all of the materials needed to make this happen.
Q: What are you using to make this?
A: We’re using a combination of a Logitech HD webcam, an “AVERMEDIA Game Broadcaster HD” we got off amazon, we may end up breaking out the old “Easycap” which we got from an awesome website called Dealextreme as a secondary capture card, and some microphones Michael has for some unknown reason. We added in some duct taped and very cobbled together audio and video splitters and adapters, of which there are more and more as things break during the marathon. We also have a Blue Snowball microphone and an old laptop to chat over Skype with friends who can’t be at the marathon, assuming our internet connection is up to the task. This website is made with wordpress and hosted by bihira, which is an awesome host. The Picture in Picture effect is done with xsplit, and we’re streaming through the awesome that is twitch tv. We’re collecting donations through a modified version of tutorialzine’s php donation widget, which can be found here. I think that’s about it.
Q: I don’t trust you
A: Well, I’m awesome. So you should. Look, I even didn’t put a referral link for the easycap.
Q: This whole marathon thing looks like fun, and I want to plan one myself. Any tips?
A: The first place you should look is
Mario Marathon’s page of tips. The more we’ve followed what they do, the more successful our marathons end up being, and they’re also incredibly awesome, intelligent, and handsome. You can also shoot us an email at
staff@omnithon.com and I’ll respond as soon as possible.
Oh, one important tip that the Mario Marathon guide doesn’t have is that if your team is small enough where a lack of sleep will be an issue, prepare to start hating your friends. You learn who people truly are once they’ve been awake for 24 hours straight constantly playing video games, or when you try to wake them up at 4am for their shift.
Q: Are you really so lazy that you’ve used the same FAQ page for two years?
Q: Something on this website isn’t working for me. It is obviously your fault, and that makes you a bad person. You should crawl in a hole and die, because you are evil, and I don’t like you. Blarg.
A: I’m not surprised, as by this point, this site is pretty much held together with the internet version of duct tape. Anyways, please email us at
staff@omnithon.com, or look at the
contact us section.
Q: I have a question that isn’t on this FAQ that is either about this event or a question about how I can do a charity gaming marathon similar to this. I promise I won’t just email you 100 messages saying “LOL BUTTS”, because I am a good person, and not a drooling idiot.