{"63139":{"#nid":"63139","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Students Benefit Charity with Marathon Gaming","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor the third consecutive year, four Georgia Tech students will punctuate the fall semester\u2019s academic efforts with at least two straight days of Zelda, sacrificing sleep for charity as they play.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ERyan Adams, Joey Dolensky, Ryan Hoffman and Peter Sohl, each a third-year undergraduate at Tech, started the 4\/48 Zelda Marathon, named for its original concept of playing four Zelda games in 48 hours, in the fall of 2008.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe had just played a long game and I was thinking back on\nit, and I\u2019d read about gaming marathons raising amounts like $10,000 at a\ntime,\u201d Sohl said. \u201cIt was around October I really presented the idea to the\nother three.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFreshman year it started as just a fun idea, just friends\nplaying games,\u201d Adams said. The team set up what it now calls a \u201cpathetic\u201d website\nand video stream, and scheduled the marathon for the first weekend after finals\nin December. The fundraising strategy was to stream the marathon online and entertain\nviewers while playing, hopefully prompting donations to the chosen charity. Between\n2008 and 2009, the marathon raised around $1,000 for Invisible Children.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2009, an Australian student contacted Sohl via Facebook;\nhe had seen the team\u2019s website, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/zelda448.com\u0022\u003Ezelda448.com\u003C\/a\u003E, and had a group of friends who\nwanted to race Sohl\u2019s team. Hoffman, who manages the technical aspects of the\nevent, set up a video feed enabling them to watch and chat with the Australians\nas the two teams raced. The Tech students \u201cblew them out of the water,\u201d said\nSohl, playing all four games in around 41 hours \u2014 a three-hour improvement from\n2008.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year, Adams spent much of the summer revamping the website.\nHe added a widget that tracks the amount of donations given through the\nmarathon, while still allowing donors to give directly to this year\u2019s charity, Child\u2019s\nPlay. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe thought it was wise to choose a charity related to what\nwe were doing,\u201d said Sohl. Child\u2019s Play distributes toys, games and other\ndonations to children in hospitals worldwide.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe addition of donation levels requires the team to\ncomplete additional Zelda games upon reaching certain donation thresholds; the\nfirst level of raising $150 has already been met. The goal is to raise $2,000, requiring\nthem to play all seven Zelda games in 72 hours; however, Sohl and Adams estimate\nit will only take the team around 60 hours. Sohl has been in contact with the\nGuinness Book of World Records and will submit the team\u2019s final time, in hopes\nthat it\u2019s record-breaking material. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ETeam 4\/48 will re-match the 2009 Australian team this year and\nadd a third team, also from Australia. Sohl expects around 20 to 30 friends to\ngather at his parents\u2019 home in Acworth throughout the three-day event. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe 4\/48 Zelda Marathon goes live online Monday, December\n20, at 8 a.m. EST, to accommodate Australian time zones. To watch or make a\ndonation, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/zelda448.com\u0022\u003Ezelda448.com\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EUpdate\u003C\/strong\u003E: The 2010 marathon raised a total of $2,422.50 for Child\u0027s Play Charity. A \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.zelda448.com\/marathon2010\/2010.html\u0022\u003Efull summary of the 2010 marathon\u003C\/a\u003E is available on the team\u0027s website under \u0022history.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor the third consecutive year, four Georgia Tech students will punctuate the fall semester\u2019s academic efforts with at least two straight days of Zelda, sacrificing sleep for charity as they play.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Four Georgia Tech students punctuate the fall semester with a charitable Zelda marathon."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2010-12-13 14:59:20","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:54","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-12-13T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2010-12-13T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"63169":{"id":"63169","type":"image","title":"Zelda Marathon","body":null,"created":"1449176668","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:04:28","changed":"1475894554","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:34","alt":"Zelda Marathon","file":{"fid":"191764","name":"11P1000-P29-068.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/11P1000-P29-068_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/11P1000-P29-068_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3026232,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/11P1000-P29-068_0.jpg?itok=Lru8ZMlw"}}},"media_ids":["63169"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/zelda448.com\/","title":"4\/48 Zelda Marathon"},{"url":"http:\/\/childsplaycharity.org\/","title":"Child\u0027s Play"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDavid Terraso\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EMedia Relations, Communications and Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-2966\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.shaw@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Shaw\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EStudent Communications, Communications and Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-7061\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}