26 minutes, 26 games, 1 day, 1 goal

When I saw the post from Cancer Research UK, calling for a games marathon, it didn't then sink in just how much this would require.

My thoughts at the time of writing are actually quite long. For those who are looking for the page to donate, this is the link:

 https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/toms-giving-page-34

I pondered it vaguely for a couple of days not really wanting to go down the route of seeing just how long I could sit in a game for, wanting to do something for this that felt like it was a little more meaningful than just an extra long gaming session. After all, I wasn't getting ready to run an actual marathon.

The idea just kind of popped in there I guess.

If I wanted to avoid a single game, then that necessitated multiple games. How does one go about picking?

I think the 26 miles of a marathon race must have crept into my brain somewhere. When the conscious thought of picking an alphabet of games, the 26 letters clicked. I still had then to decide which games and with now a broad spread to pick, what were my criteria going to be?

I actually didn't spend long on this - by starting with what games I already owned, or had easy access to, that helped the beginning of a list.

Somewhere around here, I hit upon allowing the viewing public to pick - this almost instantly took the form of a twitter poll, with 3 games listed and a 4th option that allowed for a comment to be made with another suggestion, and naturally the 4th option would also have to start with the correct letter of the alphabet.

My twitter feed here:
https://twitter.com/ReprobateGamer

This also meant having to get a viewing public - also an issue raised by the 'how do I demonstrate to people that I'm playing 26 games in a session'. The obvious answer was to livestream the gaming, followed immediately by 'I've never live streamed before'.

I'm wanting to stream to both Twitch and to Youtube. I have channels on both only used my youtube channel for pre-recorded gaming videos, not yet taking the time to grow the channel to a point where I even have a custom URL.
Discounting Mixer, as I can't see that working if I pick any gaming platform other than Xbox One, that also leaves the option of Facebook Live. This is something to be investigated over the next week, including how do I balance the potential need to talk to a stream against team talk on any game requiring online play. Another machine running audio recording for commentary? Failing everything else, it will come down to a long day of recording and uploading to Youtube

Putting that challenge to one side, in terms of practicalities, I was going to need a long period of time to actually sit and play. Leaving with a family means that setting up in the lounge for a whole day or more isn't really much of an option - however, a clear solution was that the family is scheduled to visit in-laws in less than two weeks.

Suddenly I had a deadline, which always helps to clear the head, and it's incredibly close. As I write this, it's 11 days to that point. 11 days with within which, I need to pick 3 games per letter of the alphabet (for that twitter poll), ideally set up an auto-scheduler (which I haven't used) so that the polls are released in a regular order and that I can get some idea of which games are needed before the day.

I need also to check the bandwidth for home to see if I can play and stream at the same time (and those who game with me know my internet is notorious for not behaving) and work out how to actually do a stream and, perhaps, mod comments at the same time.

One of my earlier idea's, before the games were being chosen, was to do an hour a game. That, would take 26 hours.

Ouch

Even with just 30 minutes a game that was still a 13 hour run time - a fair amount to be spent fairly still. And I still needed some goal in the playing - the ulterior goal is to raise the donations but what was the goal per game? Did I need one, or was the playing enough? It felt like I should be aiming to achieve something and I was toying with the idea of playing a game until I reached a milestone of some sort (be that level complete, acheivement unlocked, or whatever)

The immediate disadvantage was the loss of control of the time factor. For reasons of real-world work, I'm not able to stretch this out over more than one day. Besides it feels a little like it's not a marathon if I do that.
Wanting to have a time-related goal, I drifted back to the idea of 26 - now taken as 26 minutes per game. It seems to fit neatly with the 26 number theme that is already part of the idea and also builds in a few moments for both contingency time, and quite honestly, for a few minutes rest break.

As the goal is to livestream the session, and I can't remember Nintendo's policy towards streaming, another factor in my games list was games playable on the consoles as I don't have a gaming PC and needed my laptop in order to deal with the stream itself.
This limits my console choices to a PS3, an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One, which to be fair still provides for a good-sized library of games.

I know from previous testing that my Elgato capture device can take the PS3 and one of the Microsoft consoles at the same time so if possible I wanted to bias the games to one of the Xbox's. And from the 3 that I was limiting myself to, in order to get feedback, I didn't want to be picking all AAA titles. Quite apart from that I don't own all those well-publicised titles, I don't play enough to be a top tier player in them, but I did also want where I could to showcase games that possibly had been overlooked.

I had wanted, and still do want, to have brought the family in for a game or two but my decision to restrict Nintendo games from this (this time around ...?) and that simple fact that they were going to be elsewhere in the country, meant that I didn't need to look to have couch co-op as a factor.
Or, for that matter, family friendly games ...

The games picked are games that largely I haven't played much, in some cases at all, but possibly quite a lot for a couple of choices. For games that have a persistent end-game, or no real story, like a racing game, I would look to get some playlist or activity complete in the alloted timespan. For story based missions, I will in most cases start at the beginning as to avoid spoilers.

I'm deliberating avoiding some types of games, especially RPG and 4X and have noticeable games in my collection around fighters and sports games. But if I can also showcase an indie gem that hasn't had great publicity, that feels like a little bonus.

I'm trying to avoid rage quit games also - as that seems to run contrary to the ethos behind who and what the donations are for

Some letters just don't seem to have many games - Q is an obvious one as is Y but I actually found that J and K were more sparse than expected. You'll note that a couple of choices on the Twitter polls, presuming I get them to work, are for franchises rather than distinct games at this time. The tight time frame to get this all up and running means getting the polls constructed before the list is finalised - especially as I'm making the choice to not receive the result for Y and Z until during the session.

There are simpler ways for me to participate in this gaming marathon - even simpler to not take part as, prior to this being published, this is not a decision I've yet made public. Or even private to my family.

It would be easy for me to quickly drop the thought and continue - but that isn't an option for those who are fighting with cancer every day.

This isn't a real marathon I'm running, but it is taking me out of my comfort zone. It will mean making my online presence much more prominent than I like the idea of, and certainly runs the risk of alienating online cohorts as I will need to be encouraging donations - which is, after all, the point of doing this.

It's not about taking me out of my comfort zone, it's about raising money for a killer disease, which comes in many forms and which impacts not only those who have cancer but everyone one around them.

I hope that some money is raised, and that people can get behind the idea I'm going for here.
I won't have to spend weeks and months training my body in order to manage 26.2 miles in a single session. But I will have to spend time and effort and money in making what, if it goes correctly, will look like me sitting on a sofa gaming for a day, go smoothly. It will be thinking a little differently about how I can challenge myself to encourage donations to a good cause. And it will be knowing that if I have misjudged friends, family, coworkers and fellow internet gamers that I will be letting down Cancer Research.

The goal I've set is only a couple of hundred - I doubt myself to make even that as I don't know if this seemingly clever idea is going to work.
I'm not an entertainer, I'm not a games speed-runner, or an esports champion. I know that much of the day is likely to pass with me on my own, talking to an empty broadcast
But I do firmly believe that if you want to make things better, you have to do it yourself. I trust that knowing that I'm going to be putting myself through this challenge will encourage And I'm hopeful that that innate need to assist will be enough to provide a little more money for Cancer Research UK. And through them, to the people who have to suffer the debilitating effects, mental as well as physical.

If you made it this far, my thanks for reading. And, I hope and trust, thank you for donating.
To save you scrolling all the way back up, I repeat the donation page link here.

 https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/toms-giving-page-34

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