Post by atma on Jan 28, 2010 15:49:08 GMT -5
(Reposted from my post on GameMarathons.com)
It seems that one of the big problems facing marathon groups is people not wanting to donate for various reasons, some of which are legitimate concerns and others that are less legitimate and more petty tripe than anything else. The question is how to get rid of these concerns and make every group a success like the Speed Gamers, Mario Marathon, or Desert Bus.
So what concerns are these? Well, one of the big ones is, "I've become pretty much desensitized to 'donate to charity because we're playing videogames.' There are so many of those now." To which I would argue what your point is. Presumably if you are being informed about these types of events or are the least bit interested in them you are a gamer, so why is it a bad thing that more people are using something you enjoy—that the majority population sees as a bad thing—to do something good? If you don't want to watch them, we're not making you, but it would be nice if you could donate nonetheless. So, how do we overcome this problem?
Another common one I've heard around the Interwebs is, "they don't actually DO anything," which is rather a silly comment to make, especially if the person making the comment happens to donate to other fundraising type events since the majority of them are people that aren't actually doing anything. Of course that raises the question of what exactly someone has to do before they consider it "doing anything." That's a rather subjective term. It will change depending on who you ask. I hate to use this as an example, but it's current. People around my university campus are collecting donations for Convoy for Hope to help the Haiti relief effort. How are they doing it? They're sitting in heated buildings sipping coffee with a bucket that has a quarter-slot cut into it. People will say they're doing something to help a good cause, but how is sitting around, doing nothing any different from sitting around playing video games, doing nothing? How do we get by this problem of people thinking we're doing nothing to help a good cause?
A third concern is, "they take money and you never really know where it goes." Here is another case of what's your point. Most charity fundraisers take your money and you never really know where it goes, but I know a good few of the people that use this excuse on me are quite willing to give their money up to other people claiming to raise money for charity if "video game" isn't tacked onto it. Here's the stigma against the gaming community kicking in. People immediately assume that if a group of gamers are trying to do something good it must be a scam, because gamers are horrible, socially backwards people that just want to take your money, right? Of course we all know that's a generalization. Certainly there are some gamers that fit that bill but not all of us do. So how do we dissociate ourselves from the bad gamer stereotype enough to let people know we're legitimate?
The fourth big one really makes me want to punch a kitten with how angry it makes me. It appears that if a person supports one marathon group they don't want to support any others, as if that will somehow damage their loyalty. Going hand in hand with this some other marathon groups are less inclined to promote and help out other groups, likely thinking it will somehow take away from them. This faction-like behavior needs to end. We're a community that can only grow if we help each other out. If we stick to just the group we started out supporting, yes that group might start doing well, but eventually the community will die and when that happens eventually people will begin losing interest in that one group you support as well. I know we all started doing this to do some good in this world, but somewhere deep down you can't tell me part of this isn't also so vindication can be given to playing video games; to show the world that gamers can be good people too and shove media hype about video games being bad back down the throats of people that would promote such drivel, like Jack Thompson. Well the only way we do that is by standing up together and helping each other out to make every event a multi-thousand dollar event. People will only accept us as a legitimate community when we start acting like one, and while GameMarathons.com is a good start, it isn't enough. What else can we do to bring us together as a community?
So, what are your thoughts about all of these problems? How do you think we should fix them? And if you agree with the last bit post it to any other marathon group's forum that you visit. Let them know that it's time to come together and help each other out.
It seems that one of the big problems facing marathon groups is people not wanting to donate for various reasons, some of which are legitimate concerns and others that are less legitimate and more petty tripe than anything else. The question is how to get rid of these concerns and make every group a success like the Speed Gamers, Mario Marathon, or Desert Bus.
So what concerns are these? Well, one of the big ones is, "I've become pretty much desensitized to 'donate to charity because we're playing videogames.' There are so many of those now." To which I would argue what your point is. Presumably if you are being informed about these types of events or are the least bit interested in them you are a gamer, so why is it a bad thing that more people are using something you enjoy—that the majority population sees as a bad thing—to do something good? If you don't want to watch them, we're not making you, but it would be nice if you could donate nonetheless. So, how do we overcome this problem?
Another common one I've heard around the Interwebs is, "they don't actually DO anything," which is rather a silly comment to make, especially if the person making the comment happens to donate to other fundraising type events since the majority of them are people that aren't actually doing anything. Of course that raises the question of what exactly someone has to do before they consider it "doing anything." That's a rather subjective term. It will change depending on who you ask. I hate to use this as an example, but it's current. People around my university campus are collecting donations for Convoy for Hope to help the Haiti relief effort. How are they doing it? They're sitting in heated buildings sipping coffee with a bucket that has a quarter-slot cut into it. People will say they're doing something to help a good cause, but how is sitting around, doing nothing any different from sitting around playing video games, doing nothing? How do we get by this problem of people thinking we're doing nothing to help a good cause?
A third concern is, "they take money and you never really know where it goes." Here is another case of what's your point. Most charity fundraisers take your money and you never really know where it goes, but I know a good few of the people that use this excuse on me are quite willing to give their money up to other people claiming to raise money for charity if "video game" isn't tacked onto it. Here's the stigma against the gaming community kicking in. People immediately assume that if a group of gamers are trying to do something good it must be a scam, because gamers are horrible, socially backwards people that just want to take your money, right? Of course we all know that's a generalization. Certainly there are some gamers that fit that bill but not all of us do. So how do we dissociate ourselves from the bad gamer stereotype enough to let people know we're legitimate?
The fourth big one really makes me want to punch a kitten with how angry it makes me. It appears that if a person supports one marathon group they don't want to support any others, as if that will somehow damage their loyalty. Going hand in hand with this some other marathon groups are less inclined to promote and help out other groups, likely thinking it will somehow take away from them. This faction-like behavior needs to end. We're a community that can only grow if we help each other out. If we stick to just the group we started out supporting, yes that group might start doing well, but eventually the community will die and when that happens eventually people will begin losing interest in that one group you support as well. I know we all started doing this to do some good in this world, but somewhere deep down you can't tell me part of this isn't also so vindication can be given to playing video games; to show the world that gamers can be good people too and shove media hype about video games being bad back down the throats of people that would promote such drivel, like Jack Thompson. Well the only way we do that is by standing up together and helping each other out to make every event a multi-thousand dollar event. People will only accept us as a legitimate community when we start acting like one, and while GameMarathons.com is a good start, it isn't enough. What else can we do to bring us together as a community?
So, what are your thoughts about all of these problems? How do you think we should fix them? And if you agree with the last bit post it to any other marathon group's forum that you visit. Let them know that it's time to come together and help each other out.
