It's the Mass Effect Marathon For Charity!

[Andy Chalk]

It's the Mass Effect Marathon For Charity!

G33kwatch is holding an all-weekend-long Mass Effect Marathon to raise money for Child's Play.

Good news for those of you who just can't get enough of watching other people play videogames for charity! The gang at G33kwatch is holding the Mass Effect Marathon 2, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: they're going to play Mass Effect 1 and 2 non-stop for the entire weekend in order to drum up donations for Child's Play. And yes, it's Mass Effect Marathon 2, not Mass Effect 2 Marathon; the original Mass Effect Marathon went down in November 2010 and raised over $14,000.

There's more to it than just Mass Effect, though. Requests are taken for things like eating gross foods or having participants punch each other [presumably not in the face] and there are also celebrity call-ins, including one tomorrow [that's Saturday] at 12:30 PM EST from The Escapist's very own Miracle of Sound man Gavin Dunne. Those who donate will also be entered into raffles for some awesome auction [http://masseffect.g33kwatch.com/raffle-prizes/], too.

It looks like last year's total will be easily bypassed this year; the team has been playing for roughly 13 hours at the time of writing and has already raised over $7500, more than half of last year's total and well on the way to this year's goal of $30,000. Nice job, guys!

Thanks to shado_temple [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/shado_temple] for the tip.


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[sturryz]

Mass Effect? I know Desert Bus is pretty bad. But there can't possibly be anything worse then Mass Effect.

 

[MisterDyslexo]

I'm still waiting for the day I get to throw money at a playathon of Duke Nukem for domestic abuse shelters, but this will do I suppose.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I wish I could make money by doing things I'd be doing anyway.
I suspect, if I manage to make some friends...

 

[Phlakes]

It feels wrong to watch this after Desert Bus just ended. And it's not like I have money left anyway.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Huh. Not only is it a similar idea to desert bus. (Though why Mass effect would be something that you'd play in a case like that is beyond me...), it's raising money for the exact same charity.

worse still, it's being done at the same time of year.

Somehow this just doesn't sound like a good idea to be doing.

 

[stuka06]

While the timing might not be ideal considering desertbus and such, it's the holidays maybe more then any other time of the year, that these children deserve to have a childhood.

Plus a lot of fun is to be had with those guys! Like MST 3000 style voice overs while they talk like GLaDOS...

 

[Roofstone]

Sure, allright. I feel it kinda looses some of the fun when the game they play is actually entertaining though. The boredom and torture of desert bus is half the fun.

 

[Inner Pickle]

Really? I agree with the cause but I pretty much did this with both Mass Effects myself (horrible food and punches to the face included) without the charity thing. Perhaps I'll do this for ME3 but if I said I was going to play Mass Effect non stop for a weekend and people should give me money for charity I'm pretty sure I'd be met with a certain amount of cynicism.


As I say I agree completely but the task just seems too... Easy. Desert Bus For Hope definitely had the right idea.

 

[aashell13]

So this is basically ME themed desert bus. While I don't have a problem with that, I think the timing could be better; say late spring since desert bus is in late fall.

 

[teebeeohh]

the timing kinda sucks
while the cause and the idea is great and there is some actual incentive to watch gameplay once in a while i just spend a lot of time watching desert bus and don't have any money left.

oh and picking a game that is not as bad as desert bus still horrible might be a better idea.
duke nukem comes to mind.

 

[mjc0961]

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite marat-

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite cause on the Citadel

Dammit!

Anyway I wish them luck. This just seems kind of like weird timing though. Right on the heels of Desert Bus For Hope? I'm sure a lot people are a bit tapped after that. It's always nice to have people doing things like this, but maybe they should work on their timing next year.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

They've got nothing on Desert Bus! Bussing all the way across the sky! ...and all that >.>

Well let's hope they attract a different audience than Desert Bus because i think the people who followed Desert Bus would be pretty broke right about now (i know i am). I'll tune in anyways though to see how things are going. Maybe i'll distribute evenly next year if these guys do a good job.

But as has been mentioned i don't think it's quite the same when they might actually enjoy the game they play and actually have to pay some attention to it. I missed who did it, but i heard one of the LRR guys played Desert Bus with his feet in order to do something else at the same time. Good luck playing Mass Effect like that

 

[TimeLord]

Huh. Not only is it a similar idea to desert bus. (Though why Mass effect would be something that you'd play in a case like that is beyond me...), it's raising money for the exact same charity.

worse still, it's being done at the same time of year.

Somehow this just doesn't sound like a good idea to be doing.

Ah, but everyone gave all their money to Desert Bus first since they did it earlier in the year!

OT: So it's Desert Bus with a significantly better game? I don't see the attraction. One of the main selling points of Desert bus is that they play the worst game ever created for 150 hours to raise the money.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for the money for the children and good on them! But it just smacks of a Ctrl+C Ctrl+V to me.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Huh. Not only is it a similar idea to desert bus. (Though why Mass effect would be something that you'd play in a case like that is beyond me...), it's raising money for the exact same charity.

worse still, it's being done at the same time of year.

Somehow this just doesn't sound like a good idea to be doing.

Ah, but everyone gave all their money to Desert Bus first since they did it earlier in the year!

Precisely! Which is why it's so strange to be doing it at basically the same time, and collecting for the same charity too.

Way too much overlap. XD

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I remember the end of Desert Bus, where we all jumped onto their cause, and suddenly flooded them with the veteran memes of hours before, and supplied them a steady stream of cash, for about 20 minutes, before we all fell asleep. With them in an apartment building, with neighbors about, they can't be as loud, as awesome, or as fun, sadly. Though, really, terrible timing. DB hadn't even ended when they started. If they do it again next year at the same time, and DB goes longer, then they'll get eclipsed. Bummer.

 

[Stormwaltz]

(leaving)