AGDQ 2015 Feedback

Tamloo

Edit history:

Tamloo: 2015-01-24 12:07:02 am

Tamloo: 2015-01-24 12:06:30 am

2015-01-24 12:03:21 am

Quote from Cool Matty:

If we ever do get a place with a stage, then we'll do that. But it's just physically impossible to do the layout you guys want with the size we're at.

Why don't we have the couch up front and center and go a few rows back and with the projects on the left and the right.

So there would be about four rows behind the couch that let's say have 8 columns of chairs. And then after that, have about 20-30 columns of ~20 rows (or whatever remains) of chairs behind that. Have two aisles which separate a left, middle, and right section. Surely there is a setup that can work to have an audience behind the runners instead of just saying it's not possible. For some reason, it really made the event seem like it had extremely low attendance on the feed. And when I went to SGDQ this past summer, it really felt like I wasn't even in the same room as them.

Cool Matty

2015-01-24 12:12:15 am

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from Tamloo:

Why don't we have the couch up front and center and go a few rows back and with the projects on the left and the right.

So there would be about four rows behind the couch that let's say have 8 columns of chairs. And then after that, have about 20-30 columns of ~20 rows (or whatever remains) of chairs behind that. Have two aisles which separate a left, middle, and right section. Surely there is a setup that can work to have an audience behind the runners instead of just saying it's not possible.

If it were possible I wouldn't be saying it's not possible Tongue

Reiska

2015-01-24 12:29:16 am

Quote from thief:

Hey everybody. I loved this AGDQ probably as much as any other, however I do have one gripe about one specific run, which was the Super Marisa Land run. I honestly don't know how this got entered into the marathon, but I will try to keep my criticism as constructive as possible. Not to mention it was right after Battleblock Theatre which was ridiculously awesome/hilarious.

1) The game was peppered with auto-scrollers, in which it doesn't matter how fast or slow you go, you go the speed the game allows you.
2) The runner mentioned that there were skips in a few areas, but often avoided them as they were a risk. He didn't go into details about these risk, or how much time would be lost, but it would at least be nice to know why we're playing such a safe (yet seemingly dull) run.
3) The runners were overly comparing the game to Super Mario Bros, and even often slamming Super Mario Bros in certain features of the game. This seemed unnecessary and kind of immature.
4) The scheduling of the game should have probably been after something not so epic. Battleblock Theatre is a hard act to follow, but this really was a downer to watch.

I'm not familiar with the speedrun or any of it's associated tricks but I have played NSML casually. That said, I'm going to limit myself to more general comments here:

1) There are lots of speedgames that have autoscrollers. Some of them even have a fairly high number of them, and yet they're still popular speedgames; consider SMB3 no-warps for example. This doesn't necessarily mean that blanket criticism of autoscrollers is unwarranted, but don't act like NSML is the only speedgame ever to have them.

2) I think many marathon viewers have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a speedrun marathon event is, for the people who are doing the actual running, as evidenced by the number of people every year who make ask questions like "why don't you have a place for the world record on the stream layout?" Marathons are a unique environment for speedrunning because you only get one take. You don't get to reset like you would if you were making serious WR attempts. As a marathon runner, your role is to showcase the game to the best of your ability, while making sound judgment calls on the strats you use, and the strats you would use in a serious WR attempt may not be appropriate for the one-take environment. For example (no offense to the runners involved), much of the excitement and hype behind this year's Super Metroid race was lost when one of the runners (sorry, I forget who) died to Phantoon, effectively aborting the race. If the run had been a non-race, this would have forced the game to be mercy killed, which is not something that you want to have to do with the #1 donation draw in the marathon, and at least elsewhere I've seen several people suggest that in the future safety saves or safer strats should be mandatory, even if it costs a bit of time, so as to avoid another blowout like that happening.

That all said, as mentioned, I don't know any of the specific tricks that were or were not used in NSML and can't comment with respect to this game specifically. I do think it's a fair point that the runner or couch crew could have explained better why the tricks were mentioned but not used, the risks of failing them, etc.

3) The commentary could have done with less slamming, sure (I wasn't paying close attention to it but I've heard this complaint before you, so I'm assuming there's something to it).

4) Perfect scheduling is impossible, period, especially considering that not all games appeal universally to all viewers. I had the stream running during Battleblock Theatre, but I admit I mostly ignored the run because I have no particular attachment to the game. It looked like a pretty fun game from what I saw of it, but as someone who's never played or even seen the game before AGDQ 2015, I had no frame of reference and couldn't really follow what was going on very well.

[quote="thief"]Hey everybody. I loved this AGDQ probably as much as any other, however I do have one gripe about one specific run, which was the Super Marisa Land run. I honestly don't know how this got entered into the marathon, but I will try to keep my criticism as constructive as possible. Not to mention it was right after Battleblock Theatre which was ridiculously awesome/hilarious.

1) The game was peppered with auto-scrollers, in which it doesn't matter how fast or slow you go, you go the speed the game allows you.
2) The runner mentioned that there were skips in a few areas, but often avoided them as they were a risk. He didn't go into details about these risk, or how much time would be lost, but it would at least be nice to know why we're playing such a safe (yet seemingly dull) run.
3) The runners were overly comparing the game to Super Mario Bros, and even often slamming Super Mario Bros in certain features of the game. This seemed unnecessary and kind of immature.
4) The scheduling of the game should have probably been after something not so epic. Battleblock Theatre is a hard act to follow, but this really was a downer to watch.[/quote]

I'm not familiar with the speedrun or any of it's associated tricks but I have played NSML casually.  That said, I'm going to limit myself to more general comments here:

1) There are lots of speedgames that have autoscrollers.  Some of them even have a fairly high number of them, and yet they're still popular speedgames; consider SMB3 no-warps for example.  This doesn't necessarily mean that blanket criticism of autoscrollers is unwarranted, but don't act like NSML is the only speedgame ever to have them.

2) I think many marathon viewers have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a speedrun marathon event is, for the people who are doing the actual running, as evidenced by the number of people every year who make ask questions like "why don't you have a place for the world record on the stream layout?"  Marathons are a unique environment for speedrunning because you only get one take.  You don't get to reset like you would if you were making serious WR attempts.  As a marathon runner, your role is to showcase the game to the best of your ability, while making sound judgment calls on the strats you use, and the strats you would use in a serious WR attempt may not be appropriate for the one-take environment.  For example (no offense to the runners involved), much of the excitement and hype behind this year's Super Metroid race was lost when one of the runners (sorry, I forget who) died to Phantoon, effectively aborting the race.  If the run had been a non-race, this would have forced the game to be mercy killed, which is not something that you want to have to do with the #1 donation draw in the marathon, and at least elsewhere I've seen several people suggest that in the future safety saves or safer strats should be mandatory, even if it costs a bit of time, so as to avoid another blowout like that happening.

That all said, as mentioned, I don't know any of the specific tricks that were or were not used in NSML and can't comment with respect to this game specifically.  I do think it's a fair point that the runner or couch crew could have explained better why the tricks were mentioned but not used, the risks of failing them, etc.

3) The commentary could have done with less slamming, sure (I wasn't paying close attention to it but I've heard this complaint before you, so I'm assuming there's something to it).

4) Perfect scheduling is impossible, period, especially considering that not all games appeal universally to all viewers.  I had the stream running during Battleblock Theatre, but I admit I mostly ignored the run because I have no particular attachment to the game.  It looked like a pretty fun game from what I saw of it, but as someone who's never played or even seen the game before AGDQ 2015, I had no frame of reference and couldn't really follow what was going on very well.

your_name_here

Edit history:

your_name_here: 2015-01-24 01:06:05 am

2015-01-24 12:57:49 am

Quote from LeonPowPow:

* I feel the couch rules, though I do understand why they developed the way they did, went a bit strict. Or maybe I'm entirely misinformed here after reading the thread and it was just that the runners or couch people themselves suffered from low energy. This is something that was let up noticeably around day 3~ or so and the general opinion on this aspect improved a lot around then from what I saw in chat(s) and discussion boards, but was something in the first two days that was being commented a lot and was the primary reason attributed for the complaints or feelings of the event feeling "less hype" than before. The dwindling engagement and activity levels of the couch area with the runner is, imo, an area where the excitement of past gqs is being lost. I understand that these are made in place due to undesirable elements finding their way onto the couch in past segments (people, plushies, etc.), but I feel that the more stringent ruleset imposed is an issue that could simply be solved by more people exercising their "hey, get off of my couch please" rights as a runner. Again, I made this post before I read the thread and after reading it seems maybe this isn't a rule thing so much as a "maybe people are just 'over' the novelty or possibly even burned out on GDQs 'thing'"

I think this was mostly just a miscommunication. People were free to sit behind the couch, but many felt that they weren't allowed for some reason. Those seats should have been more filled than they were, which would have helped with perceived atmosphere.

e:
the rule was this one:

Quote:

-The couch area is off limits to anyone who is not approved by the runner. This includes the rows immediately behind the couch as well if the runner has extra people he or she wants to have there.

The rule says that people can sit behind the couch as long as they give priority to people who were invited to be there. I guess it was just misread/misreported.

[quote="LeonPowPow"]
* I feel the couch rules, though I do understand why they developed the way they did, went a bit strict. Or maybe I'm entirely misinformed here after reading the thread and it was just that the runners or couch people themselves suffered from low energy. This is something that was let up noticeably around day 3~ or so and the general opinion on this aspect improved a lot around then from what I saw in chat(s) and discussion boards, but was something in the first two days that was being commented a lot and was the primary reason attributed for the complaints or feelings of the event feeling "less hype" than before. The dwindling engagement and activity levels of the couch area with the runner is, imo, an area where the excitement of past gqs is being lost. I understand that these are made in place due to undesirable elements finding their way onto the couch in past segments (people, plushies, etc.), but I feel that the more stringent ruleset imposed is an issue that could simply be solved by more people exercising their "hey, get off of my couch please" rights as a runner. [b]Again, I made this post before I read the thread and after reading it seems maybe this isn't a rule thing so much as a "maybe people are just 'over' the novelty or possibly even burned out on GDQs 'thing'"[/b]
[/quote]

I think this was mostly just a miscommunication. People were free to sit behind the couch, but many felt that they weren't allowed for some reason. Those seats should have been more filled than they were, which would have helped with perceived atmosphere.

e:
the rule was this one:
[quote]
-The couch area is off limits to anyone who is not approved by the runner. This includes the rows immediately behind the couch as well if the runner has extra people he or she wants to have there.
[/quote]

The rule says that people can sit behind the couch as long as they give priority to people who were invited to be there. I guess it was just misread/misreported.

OtakuSRL

Edit history:

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:49:12 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:41:49 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:33:28 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:29:18 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:16:37 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:08:54 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:08:37 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 03:06:47 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:59:59 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:55:46 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:55:10 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:50:05 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:49:43 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:43:44 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:42:34 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:41:59 am

OtakuSRL: 2015-01-24 02:41:32 am

2015-01-24 02:41:13 am

< ^ > < ^ >

I'm just going to post what I think, haven't had much time to go through the other pages. Don't feel obligated to re-address them if they've already been brought up, just stating my thoughts for the whole pool of suggestions or whatever. Smiley

I'll put here what I put at the end before posting it, probably a good idea and disclaimer lol:

Quote:

Overall, amazing event. I didn't list the pros because there are so so many so hopefully only listing the negative things on my mind doesn't make me seem like a complete dick. They definitely outweigh the negative things by a long-shot and I had an amazing time that I will never-ever forget.

- Pinball section and addition was cool. Didn't care much for the speed-pinball-running thing, seemed like 98% of people who gave it a shot had absolutely NO clue what they were doing and I don't think many of the people hit what they wanted at all (or at least triggered that particular event in the first place), let alone in a good time-frame. Although I'm decently good at pinball, I'm not familiar with these machines' rule-sets (and Pinball / Arcade is my other hobby, must be even worse for people who don't do that with their life lol) and it seemed more like the planning and thoughts for this particular addition was towards the people from PAPA running it than towards our community. Yes, we speedrun, but it was like blind racing a game with added pressure, and it was being streamed on another's channel. Possibly mixing the two wasn't such a great idea. I did enjoy the games however I stayed away from playing the machine that was currently under the stream camera if I was playing anything. It felt very forced, I think just setting them there and watching over them once and a while would be a better way to bring them to future GDQ events than timing things that were likely to not be accomplished anyways, but that's just me. Good try on that though, but playing the games casually was a much much more enjoyable experience, even more so that these machines are more score (and other accomplishment) based than trying to get things quickly.

- Size of the hotel was definitely a lot bigger than last year. This was good (it would have been waaaaaay too crowded if we went back to the Crowne Plaza, very) but walking from the Marathon Room to the other rooms and other areas felt a bit like a chore. Not being lazy, it was just a lot of hallways. In the Crowne Plaza for AGDQ 2014, the rooms were a lot more "central". I enjoyed roaming a lot this year (and last year) but it felt like a lot of time was spent walking in silence between rooms than actually being in them and enjoying them. At first I was very disappointed because of the perceived lack of a casual gaming room this year... about an hour or so in I saw the sign and was happy to see those areas were still included and "happening". For a first time attendee who didn't even know they existed in the first place, it might be a bit more confusing in general or they might not have noticed it right away either. Hopefully no stories of a newer person (or older person) not going into those rooms even once because they didn't know they were there, lol. "Runner Room" seemed 100% empty of people a lot, but I did see it used a few times. Perhaps that space can be used better next year, I didn't quite understand the difference between that and the practice room besides maybe a quiet(-er) place to practice. (Without people watching? There were, but I really don't understand what the motive behind that was, it seemed interesting. Took a guess. Please enlighten me! :D)

- Marathon Room was.... different. Felt weird and different watching it a bit from home due to the lack of audience, and when I got there it wasn't too too different. Kind of felt like I was paying to sit in a comfy hotel chair to watch something on a projector that was exactly the same as it was at home. No different layout, nothing different. You could see the runner if you peered between the two projectors, but that was about it. I think the no-goofy-hat rule worked insanely well this year for people on and behind the couch, and I don't think restricting who sat in the rows behind the couch caused this entirely. I think the major audience could handle this as well, and even if they did wear a hat you'd barely be able to see it. If anything, I'd say put it back how it was, and just move the couch section and the two or so rows at about the same distance, and keep the main audience at a further distance. Sort of like if you just shoved the tech station more towards the right (if you were looking at the projectors, facing that way), putting the couch and chairs in the middle, and rotating it once counter-clock wise. You still probably won't be able to see the CRT too well, but I couldn't do that either at AGDQ 2014 and yet the experience felt different. If you tried you could, and maybe that's the point. Obviously more people jumped behind the couch last year than this year, but just restrict that more through verbal rules and maybe a rope (with some distance, as stated) and it shouldn't be an issue. It just felt VERY disconnected, being at home and watching the stream is like watching a music event on your television in your living room, being at AGDQ 2015 and sitting in the audience is like watching it in a movie theater, and watching it with the old layout behind the couch (no matter how far) was like being at the concert. Obviously there's a big jump between the second and third thing, and this was probably the biggest issue I had with the event. I too thought at first "What exactly am I paying for here? I paid quite a lot of money to be here again.", but as the event went on that kind of went away. When you're not running any game and don't have many other plans for the event, watching speedruns is mainly what you come for besides the other things that were around and I don't think that part should be kind of neglected for other things, like worrying about what if somebody wears a hat or has a sign, last year you couldn't identify people in the audience as it was too far back and it was pretty dark in there (to an extent, of course, it was nice) so I never saw an issue with it besides stuffed animals on the couch and the giant Kappa sign, other than that I couldn't point out anything else that caught my attention during that marathon. The stuffed animals thing was more of somebody else's argument after last year, and I really only noticed it more after they said anything.

- As for the hotel itself, it was pretty nice. I think I liked the Crowne Plaza better as some things in this hotel were just broken or odd (that bathroom door for instance, LOL), but it has a very nice cosmetic look and was very comfortable. I think things like the hallways in the upper room areas were still older, this hotel looked overall quite newer but as I said, the little things. I don't know, I'm no hotel critic and it didn't really affect my event otherwise besides the walking thing being a slight nuisance when I wanted to check out the other areas, but it wasn't too too bad. I guess it comes with a bigger hotel size. The staff seemed incredibly nice and was very helpful for the little things that I needed, and their staff seemed very good at what they did. Saw a man filling up the water containers at like 3:30 AM - 4:30 AM, and they never got too empty. Was surprised at that and they definitely had around the clock care and service for their hotel and its guests. The room service thing they put in place where you had to call them was awesome too, glad they understood the sleep schedule thing, hahaha.

- Also, I had an amazing time being on the (last?) bonus stream but I can agree that cutting speedrunning content out of the bonus stream probably wasn't a good decision or a good idea. Cutting it out completely doesn't seem to be a good answer, being on there definitely added something to my experience, and I think everybody who knows a game well (by this I do not mean un-timed Pokemon Stadium, for the record :D) I decided I wanted to do it while I was there, two days earlier, so that's all the practice I did, because bonus was bonus) should have a chance to run their game as getting on the schedule for the main event is honestly quite brutal even if you're just looking to do a trivial speedrun, and even if the run isn't top notch or overly exciting / hyped up, they can use the bonus time and maybe people watching will like it. Definitely opened a huge window for runners in the past, and chopping that out of the future events entirely probably isn't the solution at all. It was un-sure if I could get headphones during my Pokemon Stadium "thing", and the people before me couldn't race because all the tech people who knew how to put another screen region up to a second console had gone home directly after the event was over which seemed kind of silly.

With the couch thing and the bonus stream thing, it's just really beginning to seem like certain things and groups of people "really don't matter anymore and nobody cares" (that sounds deep and depressing, sorry haha) and although I do think there should be different levels of focus on things, that doesn't mean the other things should just absolutely get trashed and should be left to whatever happens happens, like all the tech people going home before the bonus stream and whatnot. I understand the runners and the whole image of the event is important, but people who come just to watch are important as well, and it seems like at certain points that that sort of thing wasn't taken into much consideration on a personal basis. I do understand that the whole event takes a lot of work to setup and I thank everybody immensely for that. I also had to wait for around 45 minutes to get registered even after telling somebody (volunteer) I was looking for somebody to sign me up. Just minor things I guess. Event is good, is just needs to be more smooth and planned better possibly. Just hopefully things in the future won't be as neglected and even though priorities should be around to make the stream great for the 100,000 people watching from home, making sure the "official" runners are comfortable and ready, and the image of the event, distance them from the priority of everybody as a whole way way less. Being *just* an attendee and somebody who participated for a bit on the bonus stream, I just felt very forgotten about and given the cold shoulder at times (even the change of seating for the marathon room almost felt like a metaphor for this), but the implementation of the pinball area and the continuation of the casual gaming room definitely was a major plus side to this and I felt very comfortable at all times attending AGDQ 2015.

Overall, amazing event. I didn't list the pros because there are so so many so hopefully only listing the negative things on my mind doesn't make me seem like a complete dick. They definitely outweigh the negative things by a long-shot and I had an amazing time that I will never forget.

Best regards,
Otaku.

If anything maybe a stage sometime for the couch area? Like a small stage or pedestal, nothing huge as again I don't want to feel super different and less than these people, I remember in past years I thought the speedrunning community was super cool because "you can really just walk up and talk to anybody", there was no separation of people in terms of who they were, we were all there to watch and enjoy speedruns and we all loved speedrunning, and everybody felt "around" more than they did this year, not just like physically either. The priority definitely seems to be on the runners and people watching from home this year, it's a good thing that they're important too and hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks this. I really felt like a community last year, a community of people with a similar interest or whatever. Even the popular speedrunners were still "normal", no giant ego, you could converse with them, take pictures with them, where as in things like professional sports and other larger communities, you don't even get to be within like 50 or 60 feet of the people let alone talk to them face to face and I certainly don't want that to start happening as the event becomes a bigger and bigger deal each year, even though I guess it's more of a personal choice, it's just kind of how it goes as things like this get bigger sometimes, but it doesn't necessarily HAVE TO. As opposed to sports and things, you're still the same as these people for the most part. Passion for speedrunning, gaming, and you don't have to be super buff, look amazing, be rich, have incredible top-tier skill, etc., to be truly involved (going to a baseball game doesn't mean you're in the baseball community, etc.) and be in this community, such as in things like sports and all that jazz. The community aspect still seems good in that way, but it does feel more distanced and more serious (maybe that's the word I was looking for all along) than previous years. But obviously you don't get the same VIP treatment as the sports players, rich people, etc., when you're just a spectator or a "fan" because you're on a different level than these people, but I think having a good, fun, and comfortable experience is something everybody can have, and nobody has giant ridiculous expectations or anything, so it won't be hard for everybody to have a great experience without much bitching, even if things aren't super serious and whatnot. We all pay the same amount on our sign-ups, and we all still love speedrunning enough to attend a GDQ event, so there's that! Same as the whole Twitch-chat-on-sub-only argument, people tend to leave when then don't feel they're part of it anymore, and I don't mean the GDQ chats, I mean when streamers turn on sub-only in generally. They're not very similar, but they're remotely comparable. We are all similar, so don't make us too different, basically. More and more people who aren't as into the community (or are just completely un-aware of it in general) are probably going to begin to show up as things expand and the event itself because more and more popular, it's bound to happen, but that shouldn't change anything either. So what I'm saying is, try to make sure everybody has a similar experience (whether they're running a game or not) and don't make it too different for runners than attendees, or certain groups of people as opposed to another group of people because I think everybody likes it how it is. Anybody get what I am saying, or am I just rambling? Still plan to attend in the future nonetheless, and I love these events and I have a blast every time. Two years ago a younger OtakuSRL was super excited about how the community was like, how everybody was so "there" regardless of popularity (I'm talking about online and in person now) and you could talk to a lot of different people from all over the world, ask them questions about speedrunning and talk about it as you had similar knowledge on the topic, do stuff with them, and see them around often at events. You fit in with everybody (even just watching people stream from home, too) some way or another, which was a cool feeling. I simply just don't want that part to be forced away as things get bigger and bigger with the GDQ events.

TL;DR: I want it to stay more as an event / community gathering where everybody is on the same level and treated the same than have it become a big show that we pay to come watch live on a big screen.

5 am no-sleep rambling disclaimer.

I'm just going to post what I think, haven't had much time to go through the other pages. Don't feel obligated to re-address them if they've already been brought up, just stating my thoughts for the whole pool of suggestions or whatever. :)

I'll put here what I put at the end before posting it, probably a good idea and disclaimer lol:

[QUOTE][i][b]Overall, amazing event. I didn't list the pros because there are so so many so hopefully only listing the negative things on my mind doesn't make me seem like a complete dick. They definitely outweigh the negative things by a long-shot and I had an amazing time that I will never-ever forget.[/b][/i][/QUOTE]

- Pinball section and addition was cool. Didn't care much for the speed-pinball-running thing, seemed like 98% of people who gave it a shot had absolutely NO clue what they were doing and I don't think many of the people hit what they wanted at all (or at least triggered that particular event in the first place), let alone in a good time-frame. Although I'm decently good at pinball, I'm not familiar with these machines' rule-sets (and Pinball / Arcade is my other hobby, must be even worse for people who don't do that with their life lol) and it seemed more like the planning and thoughts for this particular addition was towards the people from PAPA running it than towards our community. Yes, we speedrun, but it was like blind racing a game with added pressure, and it was being streamed on another's channel. Possibly mixing the two wasn't such a great idea. I did enjoy the games however I stayed away from playing the machine that was currently under the stream camera if I was playing anything. It felt very forced, I think just setting them there and watching over them once and a while would be a better way to bring them to future GDQ events than timing things that were likely to not be accomplished anyways, but that's just me. Good try on that though, but playing the games casually was a much much more enjoyable experience, even more so that these machines are more score (and other accomplishment) based than trying to get things quickly.

- Size of the hotel was definitely a lot bigger than last year. This was good (it would have been waaaaaay too crowded if we went back to the Crowne Plaza, very) but walking from the Marathon Room to the other rooms and other areas felt a bit like a chore. Not being lazy, it was just a lot of hallways. In the Crowne Plaza for AGDQ 2014, the rooms were a lot more "central". I enjoyed roaming a lot this year (and last year) but it felt like a lot of time was spent walking in silence between rooms than actually being in them and enjoying them. At first I was very disappointed because of the perceived lack of a casual gaming room this year... about an hour or so in I saw the sign and was happy to see those areas were still included and "happening". For a first time attendee who didn't even know they existed in the first place, it might be a bit more confusing in general or they might not have noticed it right away either. Hopefully no stories of a newer person (or older person) not going into those rooms even once because they didn't know they were there, lol. "Runner Room" seemed 100% empty of people a lot, but I did see it used a few times. Perhaps that space can be used better next year, I didn't quite understand the difference between that and the practice room besides maybe a quiet(-er) place to practice. (Without people watching? There were, but I really don't understand what the motive behind that was, it seemed interesting. Took a guess. Please enlighten me! :D)

- Marathon Room was.... different. Felt weird and different watching it a bit from home due to the lack of audience, and when I got there it wasn't too too different. Kind of felt like I was paying to sit in a comfy hotel chair to watch something on a projector that was exactly the same as it was at home. No different layout, nothing different. You could see the runner if you peered between the two projectors, but that was about it. I think the no-goofy-hat rule worked insanely well this year for people on and behind the couch, and I don't think restricting who sat in the rows behind the couch caused this entirely. I think the major audience could handle this as well, and even if they did wear a hat you'd barely be able to see it. If anything, I'd say put it back how it was, and just move the couch section and the two or so rows at about the same distance, and keep the main audience at a further distance. Sort of like if you just shoved the tech station more towards the right (if you were looking at the projectors, facing that way), putting the couch and chairs in the middle, and rotating it once counter-clock wise. You still probably won't be able to see the CRT too well, but I couldn't do that either at AGDQ 2014 and yet the experience felt different. If you tried you could, and maybe that's the point. Obviously more people jumped behind the couch last year than this year, but just restrict that more through verbal rules and maybe a rope (with some distance, as stated) and it shouldn't be an issue. It just felt VERY disconnected, being at home and watching the stream is like watching a music event on your television in your living room, being at AGDQ 2015 and sitting in the audience is like watching it in a movie theater, and watching it with the old layout behind the couch (no matter how far) was like being at the concert. Obviously there's a big jump between the second and third thing, and this was probably the biggest issue I had with the event. I too thought at first "What exactly am I paying for here? I paid quite a lot of money to be here again.", but as the event went on that kind of went away. When you're not running any game and don't have many other plans for the event, watching speedruns is mainly what you come for besides the other things that were around and I don't think that part should be kind of neglected for other things, like worrying about what if somebody wears a hat or has a sign, last year you couldn't identify people in the audience as it was too far back and it was pretty dark in there (to an extent, of course, it was nice) so I never saw an issue with it besides stuffed animals on the couch and the giant Kappa sign, other than that I couldn't point out anything else that caught my attention during that marathon. The stuffed animals thing was more of somebody else's argument after last year, and I really only noticed it more after they said anything.

- As for the hotel itself, it was pretty nice. I think I liked the Crowne Plaza better as some things in this hotel were just broken or odd (that bathroom door for instance, LOL), but it has a very nice cosmetic look and was very comfortable. I think things like the hallways in the upper room areas were still older, this hotel looked overall quite newer but as I said, the little things. I don't know, I'm no hotel critic and it didn't really affect my event otherwise besides the walking thing being a slight nuisance when I wanted to check out the other areas, but it wasn't too too bad. I guess it comes with a bigger hotel size. The staff seemed incredibly nice and was very helpful for the little things that I needed, and their staff seemed very good at what they did. Saw a man filling up the water containers at like 3:30 AM - 4:30 AM, and they never got too empty. Was surprised at that and they definitely had around the clock care and service for their hotel and its guests. The room service thing they put in place where you had to call them was awesome too, glad they understood the sleep schedule thing, hahaha.

- Also, I had an amazing time being on the (last?) bonus stream but I can agree that cutting speedrunning content out of the bonus stream probably wasn't a good decision or a good idea. Cutting it out completely doesn't seem to be a good answer, being on there definitely added something to my experience, and I think everybody who knows a game well (by this I do not mean un-timed Pokemon Stadium, for the record :D) I decided I wanted to do it while I was there, two days earlier, so that's all the practice I did, because bonus was bonus) should have a chance to run their game as getting on the schedule for the main event is honestly quite brutal even if you're just looking to do a trivial speedrun, and even if the run isn't top notch or overly exciting / hyped up, they can use the bonus time and maybe people watching will like it. Definitely opened a huge window for runners in the past, and chopping that out of the future events entirely probably isn't the solution at all. It was un-sure if I could get headphones during my Pokemon Stadium "thing", and the people before me couldn't race because all the tech people who knew how to put another screen region up to a second console had gone home directly after the event was over which seemed kind of silly.

[b]With the couch thing and the bonus stream thing, it's just really beginning to seem like certain things and groups of people "really don't matter anymore and nobody cares" (that sounds deep and depressing, sorry haha) and although I do think there should be different levels of focus on things, that doesn't mean the other things should just absolutely get trashed and should be left to whatever happens happens, like all the tech people going home before the bonus stream and whatnot. I understand the runners and the whole image of the event is important, but people who come just to watch are important as well, and it seems like at certain points that that sort of thing wasn't taken into much consideration on a personal basis. I do understand that the whole event takes a lot of work to setup and I thank everybody immensely for that. I also had to wait for around 45 minutes to get registered even after telling somebody (volunteer) I was looking for somebody to sign me up. Just minor things I guess. Event is good, is just needs to be more smooth and planned better possibly. Just hopefully things in the future won't be as neglected and even though priorities should be around to make the stream great for the 100,000 people watching from home, making sure the "official" runners are comfortable and ready, and the image of the event, distance them from the priority of everybody as a whole way way less. Being *just* an attendee and somebody who participated for a bit on the bonus stream, I just felt very forgotten about and given the cold shoulder at times (even the change of seating for the marathon room almost felt like a metaphor for this), but the implementation of the pinball area and the continuation of the casual gaming room definitely was a major plus side to this and I felt very comfortable at all times attending AGDQ 2015.[/b]

[i][b]Overall, amazing event. I didn't list the pros because there are so so many so hopefully only listing the negative things on my mind doesn't make me seem like a complete dick. They definitely outweigh the negative things by a long-shot and I had an amazing time that I will never forget.[/b][/i]

Best regards,
Otaku.

[b]If anything maybe a stage sometime for the couch area? Like a small stage or pedestal, nothing huge as again I don't want to feel super different and less than these people, I remember in past years I thought the speedrunning community was super cool because "you can really just walk up and talk to anybody", there was no separation of people in terms of who they were, we were all there to watch and enjoy speedruns and we all loved speedrunning, and everybody felt "around" more than they did this year, not just like physically either. The priority definitely seems to be on the runners and people watching from home this year, it's a good thing that they're important too and hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks this. I really felt like a community last year, a community of people with a similar interest or whatever. Even the popular speedrunners were still "normal", no giant ego, you could converse with them, take pictures with them, where as in things like professional sports and other larger communities, you don't even get to be within like 50 or 60 feet of the people let alone talk to them face to face and I certainly don't want that to start happening as the event becomes a bigger and bigger deal each year, even though I guess it's more of a personal choice, it's just kind of how it goes as things like this get bigger sometimes, but it doesn't necessarily HAVE TO. As opposed to sports and things, you're still the same as these people for the most part. Passion for speedrunning, gaming, and you don't have to be super buff, look amazing, be rich, have incredible top-tier skill, etc., to be truly involved (going to a baseball game doesn't mean you're in the baseball community, etc.) and be in this community, such as in things like sports and all that jazz. The community aspect still seems good in that way, but it does feel more distanced and more serious (maybe that's the word I was looking for all along) than previous years.[/b] But obviously you don't get the same VIP treatment as the sports players, rich people, etc., when you're just a spectator or a "fan" because you're on a different level than these people, but I think having a good, fun, and comfortable experience is something everybody can have, and nobody has giant ridiculous expectations or anything, so it won't be hard for everybody to have a great experience without much bitching, even if things aren't super serious and whatnot. We all pay the same amount on our sign-ups, and we all still love speedrunning enough to attend a GDQ event, so there's that! Same as the whole Twitch-chat-on-sub-only argument, people tend to leave when then don't feel they're part of it anymore, and I don't mean the GDQ chats, I mean when streamers turn on sub-only in generally. They're not very similar, but they're remotely comparable. We are all similar, so don't make us too different, basically. More and more people who aren't as into the community (or are just completely un-aware of it in general) are probably going to begin to show up as things expand and the event itself because more and more popular, it's bound to happen, but that shouldn't change anything either. So what I'm saying is, try to make sure everybody has a similar experience (whether they're running a game or not) and don't make it too different for runners than attendees, or certain groups of people as opposed to another group of people because I think everybody likes it how it is. Anybody get what I am saying, or am I just rambling? Still plan to attend in the future nonetheless, and I love these events and I have a blast every time. Two years ago a younger OtakuSRL was super excited about how the community was like, how everybody was so "there" regardless of popularity (I'm talking about online and in person now) and you could talk to a lot of different people from all over the world, ask them questions about speedrunning and talk about it as you had similar knowledge on the topic, do stuff with them, and see them around often at events. You fit in with everybody (even just watching people stream from home, too) some way or another, which was a cool feeling. I simply just don't want that part to be forced away as things get bigger and bigger with the GDQ events.

TL;DR: I want it to stay more as an event / community gathering where everybody is on the same level and treated the same than have it become a big show that we pay to come watch live on a big screen.

5 am no-sleep rambling disclaimer.

Ghoul02

Edit history:

Ghoul02: 2015-01-24 03:57:10 am

Ghoul02: 2015-01-24 03:04:15 am

Ghoul02: 2015-01-24 03:03:57 am

2015-01-24 03:00:38 am

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

Disclaimer: I had a blast at the event and loved every second of it. This seems like a lot, but in reality, this is incredibly small relative to how awesome of a time I had. I really feel these will help, even if not all of these can be implemented.

Layouts looked fantastic. A huge step up from the past, where they largely looked far less professional. Seriously, zero issues with the look of the stream.

I do think that we need to get commentators names up on the layout somewhere. Asking for a role call every 20 minutes just isn’t always feasible, and commentators often deserve recognition as much as the runners do. Usually, they’re perfectly capable of doing the run themselves and step down in favor of the better runner; not giving them some kind of recognition on stream just doesn’t sit all that well. It can be a rotation with the donations incentives and sponsors, but there’s no excuse to have to tell people later who the commentators are.

That’ll also help with my next point. Races.

If you can, have a 3 minute sizzle reel before the race. Show the runners doing cool things if they have a stream. Explain WHY the casual viewer should care that we have a 4 way DKC2 race or a 4 way Castlevania 4 race. These games were very heavily contested in the 6 months between SGDQ and AGDQ. Show it. Give us some perspective on runners, if at all possible. Give the audience a reason to care, somebody to cheer for etc.

More races need full on dedicated commentators, if not all. If you’re doing a race, get somebody else that knows the run that can sit off to the side while you’re playing and say what needs to be said about the run. Best received races of all time are probably the 4 way Super Metroid race and the Ninja Gaiden relay; in part because the commentary did a masterful job of explaining tricks, focusing the viewer’s eyes etc. You need an impartial viewer that understands this; it’d be like having a fighting game player do commentary in the middle of his fight for a stream that understands nothing about it. It doesn’t work without it. If the community is small and they can’t teach somebody willing the run, that doesn’t need to be a race, find some way to determine who’s doing the solo run, or split it like the Kingdom Hearts community.

Tying into that, do more post race interviews. Let the runners know ahead of time that if they win, they’ll sit down with an experienced host, talk about the experience, how they felt about the run, etc. It’s a great way of showcasing that yes, we play like robots, but we are humans and we genuinely enjoy this. You interview Payton Manning after a game, it’s totally easy to do here and gives the audience a connection with the runner for future GDQs.
Leading into my next point, find things to do during setup that aren’t point a camera at something, be it a computer monitor or the crowd. Those are good in small bursts, but they get old very, very quickly. Give us runner interviews. Have a prize for the first person to donate and correctly get the correct answer in a game of Clue (minimum donation of 10 dollars or something large enough where people don’t do it an insane amount but you have some.) and have that up on stream on occasion.

My personal favorite idea is to let runners record videos to show. With the Tiny Build Ads, we showed that we can play short videos between runs with no issues. Get runners to show tricks from runs as “party tricks” and break them down step by step so that people at home can feel like they’re trying. Have HDL show how to do a clip in Sonic 3. Let Zoast record a video of a quick kill in Super Metroid. Have ZFG break down a superslide. Find little things to showcase the community; show highlights from the world record run of FF9 that was set a few months before the event (with runner permission). We had a new record in OOT any% that was super significant, show a highlight from that. Let runners record 1 minute ads saying “Hi, I’m Ghoul02, and this is what you’ll miss if you don’t see the Catherine run coming up at 8AM Eastern Time”. Let runners collaborate if they want multiples in one reel. I guarantee you, there are enough people with video editing experience that would love for the opportunity to showcase their runs and why you should watch before the run ever comes up.

You can still have the occasional “let’s throw a camera on the audience so that people can enjoy that a bit.” But if you have some sort of variety, people won’t get tired of it, you won’t have as many complaints of “oh boy, cringe, they’re doing that *again*”. It’s what killed GDQ Monitor, and it will kill Meme cam

Break up blocks. We don’t need 7 consecutive hours of Megaman, that’s telling me “You can tune out now,” as somebody that never played them as a kid. I see a blue man running to the right and killing 8 robots then a boss rush. I will watch Megaman runs, if there’s something cool before and after, and usually I’ll enjoy them a fair bit. Similar note, breaking up all of the 2D sonics would be great. Yes, they’re all different. They’re all fantastic speedgames. But to a casual viewer, they see a blue man running fast, and not enough differences between them. We had 3 3D sonics and 4 2d sonics if I remember correctly. Pair them up. Give us 3 mini sonic blocks where it’s “Sonic 2 and Sonic Adventure 2”, “Sonic 3 and Sonic Generations”. There’s a connecting theme, but the games are totally different to watch, which means people won’t tune out after a while. When you’re hearing burnout on F-Zero games, that’s a sign that blocks are too long and there are too many. If you can make a Flicky transition between games, that’s good enough, call it a block and move on.

If you do put games back to back from the same series, they do not have to be in order of release. “Let’s follow up Kaizo with NSMBWii” is a terrible idea for the latter. It’ll never get a time to shine and really, the run would probably be received fairly well if it doesn’t follow the craziness of Kaizo. Yes, something has to follow Kaizo. Make it something totally different. Put a puzzle game there. A shooter. Something that the audience sees as so different there are no comparisons. You see this a lot; how does Megaman X3 follow up a 4 way race of Megaman X without feeling like a letdown, especially after 5 other Megaman games.

As a newby tech volunteer, I really didn’t get a great orientation of the equipment. Maybe I missed something I was supposed to be at and it was totally my fault. But I felt like I didn’t have a chance to learn, which made me afraid to make mistakes and lean way too heavily on the senior tech. Again, this may have been a personal flaw, in which case I apologize.

Next, food and especially laundry would be really nice to have nearby. The hotel really tried to accommodate us for food, which, major props, but it just wasn’t quite enough. Most of us won’t rent a car for a week if we’re traveling. The laundry allows people to pack lighter, which means they don’t have to decide between checking a bag or smelling terrible, which is a lose lose situation. It’s a way of keeping costs down for attendees and allow more easy attendance.

The no casual smash in the casual room is just bad. I get it, you don’t want it to be overrun with Smash where people can’t get to TVs. I get that and if it gets to that, then you give the warning and send us to the tournament room. But when you’re sitting, talking with people you’ve never met before in a casual setting and, hey, you both are okay at Smash 64 and that’s a good way to continue to connect with the people and the event, that shouldn’t be shut down. Same for the obviously casual 8 way smash on the large TV. Maybe the TV shouldn’t have been moved, but that needs a sizable TV to work and the TV was perfect for it. Thanks for allowing it to be moved, even if it shouldn’t have. I know a lot of attendees had a blast with it. It’s a way for people to connect in a casual and unassuming way, no different than the Rock Bands and Mario Partys would. It also sets a horrible precedent when you see other fighting games getting played and not sent to the tournament room as well. Either enforce it universally or find a way that makes it work without making people angry.

I think that’s about it. Again, had a blast, venue was great, and it was really cool to do a little of everything as a volunteer, which, given the opportunity, I’d love to do again. Thanks for reading; I realize this is a lot, but I tried to give specific examples of what and why I think these things should be changed, as well as a potential how.

Edit: A few more things I forgot

Please stop having bidding wars where it's the game's community vs the GDQ audience. Sonic Adventure 2, every SA2 runner wanted Hero Story, not Dark. Sonic Heroes, every runner wanted Team Rose by DSS, to the point where Werster is telling his stream to not donate for him. Fire Emblem, every speedrunner of the series says that Radiant Dawn is the far better run and watch. Kingdom Hearts, every runner said "We want KH2FM to be run because it's the better run." It's borderline ludicrous. Usually, there is a better option, but if you asked a lot of people in these communities, they'd tell you; their preference isn't even close. Get the game in on its own merits, find ways to make donations happen after. This is incredibly frustrating as a speedrunner and a fan because, yes, GDQ schedules are insanely competitive. But at some point, give the game and the game's community the best opportunity to represent themselves. If Path of Radiance isn't as good a speedgame and is received worse than Radiant Dawn would have been, and that keeps FE out of future marathons, that's simply unfair because they had to either pay for it themselves (essentially buying a game into the GDQ), or they got screwed because the casual speedrun audience is going to go with their favorite game casually (which in my case, was Path of Radiance).

On donation incentives; it'd be awesome to have combinations of bidding wars with goals. For example, Tetris: there was a "which hand does Colourthief use" bidding war. By itself, it's a really cool idea. However, since people are a-holes, they're probably going to want to make it as hard as possible, so they'd bet on Colourthief being right handed. In this case, why not make it "This won't happen unless you reach X000 dollars, but you also get feedback into what happens when said goal is met.

Disclaimer: I had a blast at the event and loved every second of it. This seems like a lot, but in reality, this is incredibly small relative to how awesome of a time I had.  I really feel these will help, even if not all of these can be implemented.

[hidden]Layouts looked fantastic. A huge step up from the past, where they largely looked far less professional. Seriously, zero issues with the look of the stream.

I do think that we need to get commentators names up on the layout somewhere. Asking for a role call every 20 minutes just isn’t always feasible, and commentators often deserve recognition as much as the runners do. Usually, they’re perfectly capable of doing the run themselves and step down in favor of the better runner; not giving them some kind of recognition on stream just doesn’t sit all that well. It can be a rotation with the donations incentives and sponsors, but there’s no excuse to have to tell people later who the commentators are.

That’ll also help with my next point. Races.

If you can, have a 3 minute sizzle reel before the race. Show the runners doing cool things if they have a stream. Explain WHY the casual viewer should care that we have a 4 way DKC2 race or a 4 way Castlevania 4 race. These games were very heavily contested in the 6 months between SGDQ and AGDQ. Show it. Give us some perspective on runners, if at all possible. Give the audience a reason to care, somebody to cheer for etc.

More races need full on dedicated commentators, if not all. If you’re doing a race, get somebody else that knows the run that can sit off to the side while you’re playing and say what needs to be said about the run. Best received races of all time are probably the 4 way Super Metroid race and the Ninja Gaiden relay; in part because the commentary did a masterful job of explaining tricks, focusing the viewer’s eyes etc. You need an impartial viewer that understands this; it’d be like having a fighting game player do commentary in the middle of his fight for a stream that understands nothing about it. It doesn’t work without it. If the community is small and they can’t teach somebody willing the run, that doesn’t need to be a race, find some way to determine who’s doing the solo run, or split it like the Kingdom Hearts community.

Tying into that, do more post race interviews. Let the runners know ahead of time that if they win, they’ll sit down with an experienced host, talk about the experience, how they felt about the run, etc. It’s a great way of showcasing that yes, we play like robots, but we are humans and we genuinely enjoy this. You interview Payton Manning after a game, it’s totally easy to do here and gives the audience a connection with the runner for future GDQs.
Leading into my next point, find things to do during setup that aren’t point a camera at something, be it a computer monitor or the crowd. Those are good in small bursts, but they get old very, very quickly. Give us runner interviews. Have a prize for the first person to donate and correctly get the correct answer in a game of Clue (minimum donation of 10 dollars or something large enough where people don’t do it an insane amount but you have some.) and have that up on stream on occasion.

My personal favorite idea is to let runners record videos to show. With the Tiny Build Ads, we showed that we can play short videos between runs with no issues. Get runners to show tricks from runs as “party tricks” and break them down step by step so that people at home can feel like they’re trying. Have HDL show how to do a clip in Sonic 3. Let Zoast record a video of a quick kill in Super Metroid. Have ZFG break down a superslide.  Find little things to showcase the community; show highlights from the world record run of FF9 that was set a few months before the event (with runner permission). We had a new record in OOT any% that was super significant, show a highlight from that. Let runners record 1 minute ads saying “Hi, I’m Ghoul02, and this is what you’ll miss if you don’t see the Catherine run coming up at 8AM Eastern Time”. Let runners collaborate if they want multiples in one reel. I guarantee you, there are enough people with video editing experience that would love for the opportunity to showcase their runs and why you should watch before the run ever comes up.

You can still have the occasional “let’s throw a camera on the audience so that people can enjoy that a bit.” But if you have some sort of variety, people won’t get tired of it, you won’t have as many complaints of “oh boy, cringe, they’re doing that *again*”. It’s what killed GDQ Monitor, and it will kill Meme cam

Break up blocks. We don’t need 7 consecutive hours of Megaman, that’s telling me “You can tune out now,” as somebody that never played them as a kid. I see a blue man running to the right and killing 8 robots then a boss rush. I will watch Megaman runs, if there’s something cool before and after, and usually I’ll enjoy them a fair bit. Similar note, breaking up all of the 2D sonics would be great. Yes, they’re all different. They’re all fantastic speedgames. But to a casual viewer, they see a blue man running fast, and not enough differences between them. We had 3 3D sonics and 4 2d sonics if I remember correctly. Pair them up. Give us 3 mini sonic blocks where it’s “Sonic 2 and Sonic Adventure 2”, “Sonic 3 and Sonic Generations”. There’s a connecting theme, but the games are totally different to watch, which means people won’t tune out after a while. When you’re hearing burnout on F-Zero games, that’s a sign that blocks are too long and there are too many. If you can make a Flicky transition between games, that’s good enough, call it a block and move on.

If you do put games back to back from the same series, they do not have to be in order of release. “Let’s follow up Kaizo with NSMBWii” is a terrible idea for the latter. It’ll never get a time to shine and really, the run would probably be received fairly well if it doesn’t follow the craziness of Kaizo. Yes, something has to follow Kaizo. Make it something totally different. Put a puzzle game there. A shooter. Something that the audience sees as so different there are no comparisons. You see this a lot; how does Megaman X3 follow up a 4 way race of Megaman X without feeling like a letdown, especially after 5 other Megaman games.

As a newby tech volunteer, I really didn’t get a great orientation of the equipment. Maybe I missed something I was supposed to be at and it was totally my fault. But I felt like I didn’t have a chance to learn, which made me afraid to make mistakes and lean way too heavily on the senior tech. Again, this may have been a personal flaw, in which case I apologize.

Next, food and especially laundry would be really nice to have nearby. The hotel really tried to accommodate us for food, which, major props, but it just wasn’t quite enough. Most of us won’t rent a car for a week if we’re traveling. The laundry allows people to pack lighter, which means they don’t have to decide between checking a bag or smelling terrible, which is a lose lose situation. It’s a way of keeping costs down for attendees and allow more easy attendance.

The no casual smash in the casual room is just bad. I get it, you don’t want it to be overrun with Smash where people can’t get to TVs. I get that and if it gets to that, then you give the warning and send us to the tournament room. But when you’re sitting, talking with people you’ve never met before in a casual setting and, hey, you both are okay at Smash 64 and that’s a good way to continue to connect with the people and the event, that shouldn’t be shut down. Same for the obviously casual 8 way smash on the large TV. Maybe the TV shouldn’t have been moved, but that needs a sizable TV to work and the TV was perfect for it. Thanks for allowing it to be moved, even if it shouldn’t have. I know a lot of attendees had a blast with it. It’s a way for people to connect in a casual and unassuming way, no different than the Rock Bands and Mario Partys would. It also sets a horrible precedent when you see other fighting games getting played and not sent to the tournament room as well. Either enforce it universally or find a way that makes it work without making people angry. [/hidden]
I think that’s about it. Again, had a blast, venue was great, and it was really cool to do a little of everything as a volunteer, which, given the opportunity, I’d love to do again. Thanks for reading; I realize this is a lot, but I tried to give specific examples of what and why I think these things should be changed, as well as a potential how.

Edit: A few more things I forgot

[hidden]Please stop having bidding wars where it's the game's community vs the GDQ audience. Sonic Adventure 2, every SA2 runner wanted Hero Story, not Dark. Sonic Heroes, every runner wanted Team Rose by DSS, to the point where Werster is telling his stream to not donate for him. Fire Emblem, every speedrunner of the series says that Radiant Dawn is the far better run and watch. Kingdom Hearts, every runner said "We want KH2FM to be run because it's the better run." It's borderline ludicrous. Usually, there is a better option, but if you asked a lot of people in these communities, they'd tell you; their preference isn't even close. Get the game in on its own merits, find ways to make donations happen after. This is incredibly frustrating as a speedrunner and a fan because, yes, GDQ schedules are insanely competitive. But at some point, give the game and the game's community the best opportunity to represent themselves. If Path of Radiance isn't as good a speedgame and is received worse than Radiant Dawn would have been, and that keeps FE out of future marathons, that's simply unfair because they had to either pay for it themselves (essentially buying a game into the GDQ), or they got screwed because the casual speedrun audience is going to go with their favorite game casually (which in my case, was Path of Radiance).

On donation incentives; it'd be awesome to have combinations of bidding wars with goals. For example, Tetris: there was a "which hand does Colourthief use" bidding war. By itself, it's a really cool idea. However, since people are a-holes, they're probably going to want to make it as hard as possible, so they'd bet on Colourthief being right handed. In this case, why not make it "This won't happen unless you reach X000 dollars, but you also get feedback into what happens when said goal is met.[/hidden]

Zero|DPX

2015-01-24 03:17:30 am

I think just about all my feedback has been mentioned so consider this my way of "+1"ing various comments.

+ Stream layouts were much improved!
+ Game selection seemed as strong as past GDQs (i.e. strong).
+ Camera looking around audience for people doing goofy things between runs was amusing. Would have loved to see that from the beginning of the marathon.
+ Music between runs was good. Would love to hear a larger variety over the course of the marathon, e.g. (as someone suggested) music related to the upcoming game (though this would require much more planning).
+ Some great commentary, e.g. DKC:TF, the Ninja Gaiden race, or even the hilarious developer snarkiness for Battleblock. Commentary makes or breaks how enjoyable a run is to someone not intimately familiar with the game. Definitely continue to emphasize its importance in the future.
+ Blocks like ninja block that linked a variety of different games on different platforms with a common theme worked really well.
+ Even as an off-site viewer this year it was clear that in Mike's absence a ton of people stepped up and did a lot of hard work. Props to you all. Nothing in the list of possible improvements below can be ascribed to "staff and volunteers were lazy".

- Audience lacked a mic or was mixed very low so that it sounded onstream as if there was little audience enthusiasm. Being able to hear cheering or clapping more might improve the tone.
- People in chairs behind couch who were visibly asleep (or kept falling asleep and then jerking awake). Having people there is cool, but please suggest people who sit there be sure to be awake and interested in the run.
- It's cool that runners pick the couch, but as a viewer it's much more interesting if the folks on the couch at least occasionally say something, explain a trick, or interact with the runner. Many runs did this of course but there are always quite a few where the entire couch are statues the whole run, and when watching it feels weirdly like people either don't want to be there or have no idea how to contribute. Folks picked for the couch need to be a team with the runner in making the run great.
- Yelling "HOOIIIIPE" every 3 seconds is anti-hype. People mean well and are trying to get the room amped up, just... don't do it by hammering something into the ground. At AGDQ 2014 I tried to get the room to cheer or clap for every donation over $350 or so, which I think helped a little. And even just yelling something other than "hype" every time ("yeah!"/"woo!") helps.
- Twitch chat is toxic. Go sub-only the whole marathon -- when it was (briefly) done there was still plenty of posting and people were subbing like crazy (= more money raised). r9k all the time except maybe at the very end of a run when people want to post D e e R F o r C e or something.
- Noise gate on host mic was too aggressive. Push-to-talk or at least a lower gate setting would help.
- The host/couch not hearing each other was obvious and led to some problems. Perhaps a couple small monitor speakers?
- Sponsor plugs were very frequent, and because hosts never deviated from script, felt even duller than necessary. More upcoming incentives, pimping prizes, and reading donations compared to sponsor plugs; and perhaps encourage hosts to ad lib a bit when plugging things.
- As has already been mentioned, perhaps setup times could be improved by having two different couch/TV areas and setting up one while the other was running? I realize this is a serious logistical challenge.
- Blocks like Mega Man block were almost too much of the same thing at once. While the looser thematic blocks worked for me, each year it feels like some of the "all the games from this series" blocks go pretty long and could maybe be broken up a bit.
- When behind schedule, setup blocks should be used as opportunities to get back on track instead of always being used for bonus games so that no catching up is ever possible. Not sure how to do this if bonus games remain donation goals -- maybe unlock games from a pool and they'll be slotted in as there's time, or maybe just have fewer of the bonus games be donation unlocks and more simply be in or out based on time pressure.

* Idea for content to play during setup times: have someone with a video camera on-site doing little one-minute interviews with runners, some shots of the audience reacting to cool moments, or little brief stories about some of the non-stream content, e.g. the Track And Field 2000 stuff, Smash Brothers tourneys, etc. Think simple, low-key versions of the sorts of "color" content you get during events like the Olympics or X-Games or whatever, which just give a fuller picture of the event as a whole beyond the couch. (This would likely require its own whole dedicated team to film and edit such things, though.)

Again, I want to emphasize that a lot of people did a great job on this, and even though I wasn't there in person this year I enjoyed the heck out of it. Hope the above is useful in making future GDQs even better.

I think just about all my feedback has been mentioned so consider this my way of "+1"ing various comments.

+ Stream layouts were much improved!
+ Game selection seemed as strong as past GDQs (i.e. strong).
+ Camera looking around audience for people doing goofy things between runs was amusing.  Would have loved to see that from the beginning of the marathon.
+ Music between runs was good.  Would love to hear a larger variety over the course of the marathon, e.g. (as someone suggested) music related to the upcoming game (though this would require much more planning).
+ Some great commentary, e.g. DKC:TF, the Ninja Gaiden race, or even the hilarious developer snarkiness for Battleblock.  Commentary makes or breaks how enjoyable a run is to someone not intimately familiar with the game.  Definitely continue to emphasize its importance in the future.
+ Blocks like ninja block that linked a variety of different games on different platforms with a common theme worked really well.
+ Even as an off-site viewer this year it was clear that in Mike's absence a ton of people stepped up and did a lot of hard work.  Props to you all.  Nothing in the list of possible improvements below can be ascribed to "staff and volunteers were lazy".

- Audience lacked a mic or was mixed very low so that it sounded onstream as if there was little audience enthusiasm.  Being able to hear cheering or clapping more might improve the tone.
- People in chairs behind couch who were visibly asleep (or kept falling asleep and then jerking awake).  Having people there is cool, but please suggest people who sit there be sure to be awake and interested in the run.
- It's cool that runners pick the couch, but as a viewer it's much more interesting if the folks on the couch at least occasionally say something, explain a trick, or interact with the runner.  Many runs did this of course but there are always quite a few where the entire couch are statues the whole run, and when watching it feels weirdly like people either don't want to be there or have no idea how to contribute.  Folks picked for the couch need to be a team with the runner in making the run great.
- Yelling "HOOIIIIPE" every 3 seconds is anti-hype.  People mean well and are trying to get the room amped up, just... don't do it by hammering something into the ground.  At AGDQ 2014 I tried to get the room to cheer or clap for every donation over $350 or so, which I think helped a little.  And even just yelling something other than "hype" every time ("yeah!"/"woo!") helps.
- Twitch chat is toxic.  Go sub-only the whole marathon -- when it was (briefly) done there was still plenty of posting and people were subbing like crazy (= more money raised).  r9k all the time except maybe at the very end of a run when people want to post D e e R F o r C e or something.
- Noise gate on host mic was too aggressive.  Push-to-talk or at least a lower gate setting would help.
- The host/couch not hearing each other was obvious and led to some problems.  Perhaps a couple small monitor speakers?
- Sponsor plugs were very frequent, and because hosts never deviated from script, felt even duller than necessary.  More upcoming incentives, pimping prizes, and reading donations compared to sponsor plugs; and perhaps encourage hosts to ad lib a bit when plugging things.
- As has already been mentioned, perhaps setup times could be improved by having two different couch/TV areas and setting up one while the other was running?  I realize this is a serious logistical challenge.
- Blocks like Mega Man block were almost too much of the same thing at once.  While the looser thematic blocks worked for me, each year it feels like some of the "all the games from this series" blocks go pretty long and could maybe be broken up a bit.
- When behind schedule, setup blocks should be used as opportunities to get back on track instead of always being used for bonus games so that no catching up is ever possible.  Not sure how to do this if bonus games remain donation goals -- maybe unlock games from a pool and they'll be slotted in as there's time, or maybe just have fewer of the bonus games be donation unlocks and more simply be in or out based on time pressure.

* Idea for content to play during setup times: have someone with a video camera on-site doing little one-minute interviews with runners, some shots of the audience reacting to cool moments, or little brief stories about some of the non-stream content, e.g. the Track And Field 2000 stuff, Smash Brothers tourneys, etc.  Think simple, low-key versions of the sorts of "color" content you get during events like the Olympics or X-Games or whatever, which just give a fuller picture of the event as a whole beyond the couch.  (This would likely require its own whole dedicated team to film and edit such things, though.)

Again, I want to emphasize that a lot of people did a great job on this, and even though I wasn't there in person this year I enjoyed the heck out of it.  Hope the above is useful in making future GDQs even better.

Mystery

Edit history:

Mystery: 2015-01-24 03:36:47 am

2015-01-24 03:36:21 am

Quote from Zero|DPX:

- Audience lacked a mic or was mixed very low so that it sounded onstream as if there was little audience enthusiasm. Being able to hear cheering or clapping more might improve the tone.

I will just add that there are people, like me, who find clapping and cheering annoying. I mean, it's fine if there are a few people doing it, but you have to consider that there are so many in the streaming room now that any clapping or cheering instantly becomes very loud and annoying. Also people, remember that you're MICed! Please don't shout into the mics. And yeah, the hype was kind of annoying too.

Though I have a few other things I may touch on later, I really want to say thanks for a great marathon! Watching it now after it was streamed, there are no really big issues that stands out for me. Again, I found that the stream (so far; I haven't yet watched everything) has been awesome. So thanks to all runners and staff for making a great event!

Onin

2015-01-24 03:40:28 am

On the topic of Isaac:

Remember the last time Isaac was run in a GDQ. It was slow. It wasn't very well 'routed'. And he died to Isaac (which was kinda hilarious, but for a run, bad).
No doubt the runners have become significantly better in the past year, but with a game like this the chance of bad RNG making a run look awful is always existent. If you made it a seeded race, what are the odds of BOTH runners having bad RNG and the entire thing being slow and boring? With the setup this year, we got one really great run that showcases what Isaac speedrunning is all about, and sadly one trainwreck.

Maybe resetting could be encouraged. Maybe mercy-killing is the right thing to do. But keeping the seeds separate isn't just following the community standard, it's also a method to increase the chance of an impressive and successful run.

Speaking of mercy-killing. If I remember correctly, last AGDQ was often ahead of schedule. This year, behind schedule at every point, by up to three hours. What will be done to rectify this next year?

On the topic of Isaac:

Remember the last time Isaac was run in a GDQ. It was slow. It wasn't very well 'routed'. And he died to Isaac (which was kinda hilarious, but for a run, bad).
No doubt the runners have become significantly better in the past year, but with a game like this the chance of bad RNG making a run look awful is always existent. If you made it a seeded race, what are the odds of BOTH runners having bad RNG and the entire thing being slow and boring? With the setup this year, we got one really great run that showcases what Isaac speedrunning is all about, and sadly one trainwreck.

Maybe resetting could be encouraged. Maybe mercy-killing is the right thing to do. But keeping the seeds separate isn't just following the community standard, it's also a method to increase the chance of an impressive and successful run.

Speaking of mercy-killing. If I remember correctly, last AGDQ was often ahead of schedule. This year, behind schedule at every point, by up to three hours. What will be done to rectify this next year?

EvenSteven02

Edit history:

EvenSteven02: 2015-01-24 03:52:53 am

EvenSteven02: 2015-01-24 03:47:54 am

EvenSteven02: 2015-01-24 03:46:51 am

EvenSteven02: 2015-01-24 03:45:58 am

2015-01-24 03:44:01 am

Stay frosty my friends!

Quote:

We totally understand that sometimes, the chat isn't the most "tame" place to hang out in. Despite that, we aren't considering sub-only chats at the moment because sub-only would ultimately lead to decreased viewership.

GDQs gained their popularity through their wonderful presentations, runs, and runners. The hype was made real through the actions of the organizers and the speedrunners, whether we are talking about the Doo Doo Doo crew from SGDQ 2013 or the Final Fantasy IX reenactments from AGDQ 2013.

If there are people who absolutely must watch the marathon while participating in a chat, they should be able to either pay for the subscription, join a poverty/hosted channel chat, or go and post garbage on someone else's chat. GDQs should be about speedrunning and the cause, not concerned with arbitrarily doubling viewership numbers each AGDQ. If we put on the best show we can, then the audience will come.

We helped raise more than $1 million with a lot less than 100,000 concurrent viewers.

TL;DR The real fans will stay and support the cause. Haters gonna hate.

[quote]We totally understand that sometimes, the chat isn't the most "tame" place to hang out in.  Despite that, we aren't considering sub-only chats at the moment because sub-only would ultimately lead to decreased viewership.[/quote]

GDQs gained their popularity through their wonderful presentations, runs, and runners. The hype was made real through the actions of the organizers and the speedrunners, whether we are talking about the Doo Doo Doo crew from SGDQ 2013 or the Final Fantasy IX reenactments from AGDQ 2013.

If there are people who absolutely must watch the marathon while participating in a chat, they should be able to either pay for the subscription, join a poverty/hosted channel chat, or go and post garbage on someone else's chat. GDQs should be about speedrunning and the cause, not concerned with arbitrarily doubling viewership numbers each AGDQ. If we put on the best show we can, then the audience will come.

We helped raise more than $1 million with a lot less than 100,000 concurrent viewers.

TL;DR The real fans will stay and support the cause. Haters gonna hate.

TreuloseTomate

2015-01-24 03:57:41 am

Stream Layout
Great improvement except for races. I can understand that sponsor logos need to be on stream, but they take up too much space. The game windows are significantly smaller than last year.
AGDQ 2014: http://i.imgur.com/ptQPqky.jpg
AGDQ 2015: http://i.imgur.com/3u1aKzn.jpg

Races in general
As a viewer only (not a speedrunner) I personally don't like races that much, especially if it's more than 2 runners. The Super Metroid race at AGDQ 2014 was special because of the commentary, but even then I'm not sure what to focus my attention on. As an alternative I suggest to have more co-op runs like SMB3 and SoM last year. One of the runners for SoM couldn't make it last year, and I'd love to see a proper 3 player co-op run.

I don't have much else to add. For me this has been the best GDQ so far.

soothingplumtea

2015-01-24 04:28:37 am

My only real issue with the event was the complete lack of food options during certain times. After pizza places stopped delivering at 11 PM there was pretty much no way to get food until the free breakfast opened up at 6 AM. It was nice at SGDQ last year having a Taco Bell within walking distance to eat at when nothing else was open.

incarnate1

Edit history:

incarnate1: 2015-01-24 06:04:59 am

2015-01-24 06:04:15 am

I'm going to miss the bonus stream, I felt it gave a lot of unknown speedrunners and unknown games some exposure; and honestly, it felt like it had more heart than the mainstream which feels very PC and over regulated - so I'm sad to see it go.

ButtersBB

2015-01-24 06:41:19 am

Oh yeah, there is one thing I wanted to mention regarding the chairs behind the couch. While it was good to have people behind the couch in order to have some sort of crowd visible, it was a terrible view. If the couch was full, you could barely see any of the screen if you decided to support the run by sitting behind the couch. This kinda made sitting behind the couch unappealing, and also likely contributed to people behind the couch sometimes seeming to be "un-hype."

CyberBotX

2015-01-24 06:47:46 am

Insane Killer Robot

I don't really have a lot of time at the moment to go into much detail about things, but I've skimmed over the thread. A lot of things that people brought up I had heard were discussed on-site just after the event, but I'll leave it up to those on staff to address those (if they haven't already, which some of them have), especially since I can't recall everything offhand.

The only real concern I have is the announcer-like commentary that went on during the Ninja Gaiden relay race. While it is a really awesome thing, the problem is that it is hard, if not impossible, to hear the commentary if you are at the event. If you are sitting in the audience, you can only really hear them if you are close to them. For people like me who were at the donation station at the time, I couldn't hear them at all most of the time. I do understand that the reason for this was to prevent feedback and I believe also to not distract the runners as much, but if there is some way for us at the event to hear the commentary just like those at home could, that would be a big improvement to that type of commentary.

I don't really have a lot of time at the moment to go into much detail about things, but I've skimmed over the thread. A lot of things that people brought up I had heard were discussed on-site just after the event, but I'll leave it up to those on staff to address those (if they haven't already, which some of them have), especially since I can't recall everything offhand.

The only real concern I have is the announcer-like commentary that went on during the Ninja Gaiden relay race. While it is a really awesome thing, the problem is that it is hard, if not impossible, to hear the commentary if you are at the event. If you are sitting in the audience, you can only really hear them if you are close to them. For people like me who were at the donation station at the time, I couldn't hear them at all most of the time. I do understand that the reason for this was to prevent feedback and I believe also to not distract the runners as much, but if there is some way for us at the event to hear the commentary just like those at home could, that would be a big improvement to that type of commentary.

AMVX

2015-01-24 06:54:17 am

www.twitch.tv/amvx

Mine will be a long response, so read at your own peril. This is coming from someone who was not at the marathon, but was in frequent contact with people there, updated with pictures video, and the stream itself. I'll try breaking this down into as easy sections as possible. For the record, I work in the broadcasting industry and am a trained technician for broadcasting.

I cannot comment on things that were at the event (e.g. practice rooms, toilets, location), but instead I'm going to focus on what I felt as a viewer and technical things. I also won't be commenting on the selection of games or races for the most part, because that is solely the discretion of the creators of the marathon of what they chose for their content.

PROS

* The 'highlight' package from the year previous. Personally, I would have consensed it into a half hour shorter package, and cut some lot of the 'incidents' and just go for the real high-excitement and insensity stuff. I also would have advised using either a) a clean capture of sources without overlays or b) edited the overalls so it didn't have the old #AGDQ2014 Twitter tag for.

* The layout was a massive improvement of years previous. Sure, there are always small revisions to be had, ESA last year had the same issue. But I felt that the layout overall for this was improved tenfold and was quite happy with how it looked on varying qualities of the stream. Much positive notes here. My only real though at the moment is take the top bar (http://i.imgur.com/3u1aKzn.jpg) and put both the #AGDQ2015 and GDQ logo on the bottom bar. Plenty of space for it, and it would give you a little bit more room to work with in terms of capture space for games.

* The overall branding of the GDQ system has been improved. Especially now that it is its own entity, I think that helps establish it as a great way to make it its own distinct entity. This allows for the GDQ's not only to work with other parts of the community, but stand as a brand on its own.

* The support from sponsors. The fact that you can say you have these people supporting you says a lot. Now, there is an element of this that is a con, but especially if you can get those sponsor to drive your streams, it only helps it as an annual event.

* The chat support. This time out, it was already on the chat event server before AGDQ went live. I didn't notice any downtime or issues in chat. The IRC was reasonably moderated and was a nice change. The main stream was, well, as chats are and a little unruly at times, but was well moderated whenever I saw it. I don't know if this happened, but regarding sub mode, it would be easier to leave main chat, and set up a seperate sub channel for sub only mode, since teams can do that now.

SOME COMMENT RESPONSES

Quote from NiL8r:

Being on host and trying to get tech station to see you was, well, frustrating to put it mildly.

I know literally nothing about what it would take to set this up, but is it possible to set up some kind of closed instant message system solely for use between volunteer stations, or all staff pc's/notebooks? That way, for example, if someone on head donation PC hears about an issue from a mod, they can immediately message tech crew, and let host know at the same time.

You could use something as simple as Spark, Pidgin, Skype...even right down to ICQ, MSN or Google Talk. There are so many ways to do it on a temp basis, even without having a program that costs money. There are some network systems as well that have instant messengers built into them (some double that with email) but they're not as ideal for a temp set up for only a week. I think the response given before was a good answer.

Quote from Cool Matty:

PJ:
The PC situation was a mess and it mostly boiled down to something that happened before the event. SOMEONE did a god awful job building a couple of the PCs and we spent /hours/ trying to fix them. Others were also messed up in various ways. I don't know who had a hand in it, but that was legitimately the most infuriating thing for me to find out during the event.

As for some of your issues (particularly the slow internet and swapped PCs), please let me know when this stuff happens. If I knew PCs were getting swapped, heads would have rolled. If I knew that the internet was slow, I would have got you a direct 50mb line. Again, this sort of loops back to the first post, that sometimes there are problems we can fix, but we don't find out about them until after the event.

Also, even if it happens during the run, let me know about stuff that went wrong during a run! People seem to just shrug and move on, but if we actually find out about it, we can make sure it's not an issue for future runners at the event.

Personally, I feel since you were the one responsible for the tech, that was on you. Putting the blame to 'someone' else doesn't cut it, when you should have been across these computers before the event, and not checking them the few days before, let alone 'during' the event.

In a similar scenario with the Internet, if you are responsible as the guy in charge of the tech, why would you not have a dedicated line in the first place, where possible? I understand that things can change throughout the week, but we're talking about something that is very important to a stable stream. Not jumping at you here, but I would like to hear more about this situation if you get the chance.

Swapped PCs is something that shouldn't have been happening, absolutely.

Quote from Untouch:

Setup time was 27% of the marathon.

That's all I need to say.

Note: Not estimates, these numbers were given by SDA.

I feel that 27% was more likely the total time that games were not run, not necessarily all set up time. That being said, that is a relatively high number, yet without previous years to compare it with it's not exactly a fair figure to grab out.

Quote from CosmykTheDolfyn:

Just a small thing: It would help to have 1 or 2 more people in tech at all times. I found myself lifting and moving equipment around because the tech guy needed help. I wasn't scheduled for that; in fact I was sitting on the couch getting ready to commentate the upcoming run. The lack of people for actually working on the equipment meant that the set up was only seconds shy of 30 minutes for a 26 minute run. ....

I also agree that there was too many plugs/too few donations comments read. Obviously we need both, but there could have been a better balance. The sponsors were already visible on stream, I'd figure hosts could have talked about them about 20% less just due to that. Of course, I don't know all the details with all the sponsors so that may not have been a possibility.

That is something that is a rostering and staffing issue, which I feel if it was a problem that you saw at the event, you should have flagged it with the organisers there and then, and they may have been able to chase people down. Similarly, the person on tech should have noticed and got in contact with the GDQ organiser for the volunteers.

Quote from Cool Matty:

#2: It will always be video game music, particularly chiptune because it's less likely (although I acknowledge it still happens) to get flagged for VODs. For the same reason, I will not give people the option to choose their own music. Finally, managing song plays for each runner would be a tremendous amount of effort required for our tech staff and that's not fair to them. It's best to have something that is automatic and requires extremely little fiddling, so tech can focus on getting the next game up.

#4: Agreed, but we don't want to simply just push Twitch VODs over to YouTube. We want to maintain a level of quality that is high, so we want to use local recordings. I want to make this happen for SGDQ. That said, we have a LOT of planning, research and preparation to figure out the best way to do this with the least amount of volunteer effort.

I believe this is the best response that can be given. Letting people choose their own music just adds to much work for the time on stream, making sure it's a) stream appropriate and b) getting it all arranged. Auto recording and auto pushing to YT is another thing that not that easy, and Matty is right in the fact you don't want VODs going over directly.

Quote from TruthBomber:

Event Management
With the amount of money that goes into this event, and the viewership and profile it has, I think it is high time there are some A/V and event management professionals...

-Mic levels being atrociously varied....getting a boom mic to mic up the couch. Especially given that the couch was seperated from the main viewing area by big screens that help to inhibit noise, I think it is worth having someone vetting mic volume actively (label the EQ) or to have the boom mic running to avoid having to mic up every commentator.

-Colour temperature on different screens/capture sources being varied. This is probably not as pressing an issue for many people as it is to me, but its a production & polish issue that would only take a small amount of time to resolve.

-Camera position ended up being unsatisfactory for the large assortment of races...

...

-dead air. There was a considerable amount of dead air, and the time between runs was underutilised. You could have sizzle reels that aren't purely for advertising. In touching on the point I raised above, AGDQ does not exist without the runners who travel there, pay to attend, and give their time to not only run & commentate at the event, but also the time given to practicing their runs to be able to attend. Interviews with runners, glitch showoffs (prerecorded or live), things like the Track & Field 100m competition, previews of runs that have donation incentives. I understand that GDQ is essentially a business now and so it is run with profits (for charity) and the sponsors in mind, but the way that was handled this year lost viewer interest and I think left a lot of people disillusioned with the spirit of this years AGDQ.

* Mic levels for a vast portion of the event were terrible. Simple as that. Even the opening speech, there was no windsock ont the microphone, so there was a lot of popping in the microphone, the crowd blew the levels to distortion city - despite the fact I saw there would be gates to kill that for the most part - and no one then corrected the level in DKC:TF. Countless times people's microphone's were in the wrong position, or switched off, or the fader down, or too high gain, or the gate set too high/low, or improper usage of that type of microphone. This is not something that is rocket science, and more importantly it doesn't just fall to the tech staff. Nearly all of the runners stream themselves, and should have a basic understand to NOT YELL INTO A MICROPHONE or try to speak into a headset mic that is three feet away. The donation reader's gate was set incorrectly, and their actual microphone...I dunno what was happening for portions of it, but it sounded like they were on the other side of the desk from it. It was horrible.

* Camera position and colour temperature. I have been informed that these were the same cameras as what you used last year. Then my first reponse is, what happened between this year and last year that reduced the quality so much. The actual resolution of this year was much lower compared to last year, and the focus on them was out as well. I can't comment as per what brand these cameras are, or how they were being captured, but I would love to find out. Because in all honesty, scrap them for next time. Get some proper broadcast cameras (even if you rent them from a local place) and get them SDI into a proper capture card. Cause these security things that are remote controlled are not designed for this stuff, and they look like shit. You want people to take a broadcast seriously, then you get broadcast cameras. This will also help fix things like the colour balance in the process, instead of it being stuck on auto.

Quote from Cool Matty:

We can't afford professionals for the length of our event, and unfortunately the few volunteer people with any audio/video experience are generally from theatre backgrounds.

I have been told by various talented A/V people that a shotgun mic (such as a boom) would not work at all. Keep in mind the runners are having game audio blasted in their face, which is a problem no traditional broadcast station has.

UraniumAnchor says that the color temperature issue varies by source type and capture card. I know personally that these issues can break themselves on their own, even after they've been fixed. We have to simplify our setup for volunteers, and adjusting this for every run where it is necessary would increase the probability of something going wrong. Particularly since the area where those settings exist involves other dangerous options that can break the stream layout or crash a capture card entirely.

You can't afford professionals? I call a level of bullshit on that. Apart from people like myself who have put up their hand in the past, only to get ignored, PCF certain can afford a couple of grand to get a local group in for at least part of the job. It doesn't cost a hundred thousand for a few AV guys, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the people that have offered are 'generally from theatre' background. Most of the best technicians I know are from that kind of background, cause they know lighting, live sound and live visuals.

Those A/V people are right, if you're talking about having a shotgun mic pointed at the couch. It's a bad move for multiple reasons.

UA is right as far as the temps go - in regards to games and certain sources. Cards will vary, and especially with the wide array of sources it doesn't help. If these events were all PC based, or all one console type, then it would be an easy fix. But because the techs here have to deal with different types of consoles (e.g. PAL vs. NTSC) and the different inputs, ages and such of the sources, it's not just as easy as punching in a new number and hoping it doesn't crash the software. Some times you can't fix these things without resetting the capture card, which then kills the other cards for (e.g.) a driver reason and....it goes on.

Quote from Cool Matty:

Quote from flatluigi:

Apologies if this is off-base, but I feel there should be at least one more competent tech person there so UA can actually sleep at some point - or at least a dedicated person or two who can be super focused on monitoring how things are coming across on stream. Those issues were fairly few and far between, but stuff like the Transistor run being muted for the first 10 minutes just shouldn't have happened and the Risk of Rain run should've had some allowances made for how unreadable the gameplay was on stream. I was also really surprised to see that the computer setups were still on Windows 8, as I thought that was the cause of a lot of issues in previous marathons.

Finally something super subjective: not having a crowd mic was a mistake and (for the first day at least) the marathon just didn't have the feel of being a big thing despite it being the biggest GDQ yet! Music interludes were a good (if late) addition, as was messing around with the crowd cam. There was also super harsh gating on the mics, leaving the setup times in dead silence (instead of hearing minor crowd noise).

I believe there should have been an experienced tech person on station at all times in addition to newbie tech. Honestly, sometimes mistakes happen (no one was actually listening when they should have been during Transistor), but I do know newbie techs felt they weren't being allowed enough control. I do want to work on that so that it's not effectively one person running the show up there.

The crowd mic always existed, but the issue was it was turned extremely low at the beginning of the marathon due to fear of feedback. I personally worked on this mid-marathon, but we were running out of time to fix less important things like that before the event. It'll definitely come back next GDQ.

There should be a couple of competent tech people - however it's not always as easy as that to find them. If you find one person one year, they may not be able to make it to the event next year. It's something that is ideal, but at this stage not something that is always as easy as it appears.

That Transistor run shouldn't have started until they knew it was ready and good to go. That was embarrassing, especially when the runner said "I'll let you guys listen to the music" just for silence to be there instead.

Gating on microphones is something that is difficult to get right at live events like this, but especially for crowd and ambience during the break it was painful to not hear. As for the response of 'low, because fear of feedback' - not a good enough answer. If you position the microphone and speakers correctly then there is minimal chance of feedback, and that also goes into the part where it should have been set up and tested well before the stream started. That is something that is important and 'running out of time' is not a good enough answer. Because I wouldn't be putting that too low on the priority list, so it makes me wonder how many other issues were present in the final moments before going live. And that concerns me.

Quote from Cool Matty:

SETUP ISSUES:

Many of the issues with setup were trying to accommodate special-case setups for games. And worse still, is these setups would be made and then left for future staff to discover and undo during graveyard. Overall, surprisingly, communication was the biggest downfall this GDQ.

For SGDQ, we are going to have a schematic for ALL hardware and cabling, and we will stick to that as closely as possible. Any revisions will be noted so staff later in the day can catch up on anything that went wrong.

If the sea of cables that I saw pictures of is any way of your 'schematic' - good fucking luck. I would get fired if I left a set up in that state, and the fact is it causes a host of other issues apart from looking like shit. If you don't isolate cables properly then you can end up with interference (which is what it sounded like during the Mario Kart: Wii scenario) over-heating issues and risk of damaging the shielding in the cables.

The fact that you want a set of plans is fantastic. Great. But if you handed me plans, and then I walked over to find that pile of cables, I wouldn't be impressed by any means.

Quote from Cool Matty:

Finally, some of the setup time was due to runners not communicating, or not taking care of their particular setups. In the future, we will be less willing to accommodate special setup changes that we are not informed of prior to the event. If you know you need a particular type of TV for instance, and you're waiting until your run is being set up, that is unacceptable. That creates delays in the marathon, and impacts other runners.

To be clear, for unforeseen issues, bugs and things that the runners aren't aware of, we'll always do what we can. I just want runners to take charge in other situations, such as needing specific TVs, or a PAL game. It hurts the marathon and other runners when a runner arrives unprepared.

Then what about the statements I have heard that there weren't any PAL suitable TVs, despite known PAL games being on the card? Sure, if a runner drops it on you at the last moment, you can't do too much about it. But it seems to me that a) some runners we're there with due time before their run to allow for ease of set up and b) some basic systems that should have been in place to ease transitions were never utilised.

I mean, you had a switcher in your main rack, so video switching on the computer side would have been less, and you have a separate audio mixer to handle all the audio inputs - so there should only be one program output to the stream PC for audio. Not looking for clarification here, but it's just worth mentioning that if there is notice, it goes both ways. Communication, like you say, is key.

Quote from final fight cd:

why can't there be TWO dedicated "couches?" as one is running a game, the other is getting setup for the next. that way, there actually might be a seamless transition between runs. it seemed the viewer count dropped by 20-30K when a run finished, which i'm sure can be mainly attributed to the expected LLOONNGG setup for the next run.

Quote from Cool Matty:

This isn't a logistical possibility. It would require significantly more equipment, more staff, and there is only one streaming computer. We couldn't check if they were set up beforehand, so time saved would be minimal.

As much as I want to see this happen, the answer is well valid. Maybe people suggest this, but it means you need double of a lot of equipment.

CONS

* Donation comments - some of these where cringe-worthy when read out, but still better they get read out. I do feel that the donation reader should use sound judgement of what should an shouldn't be read. There were a couple of VERY inappropriate comments read out, and a couple that apparently were not read out due to one or two bad words. Just self-edit that comment slightly, if the rest of it is good. The best measure here is common sense.

To add to that - Every. Single. Break. - we heard the same pre-written thing regarding the sponsors and PCF. It didn't help that a lot of the donation readers weren't that great public speakers/projecting their voice, so it came across as this bored robot who was just there to read a script. And it made every single break absolutely horrible to listen to, cause you knew someone was about to drone on in their most monotonous voice. By the end of the event I almost felt I could recite the paragraph alongside the reader I heard it that much. I don't mind sponsors, they are important, but word variation and some emotion in the voices people. It's a fun charity event, not a summer work camp.

* Set-ups - Too long, too quiet, to disorganised. This is a communication thing, runners being there on time with equipment and the techs being aware of what is coming up in the schedule. Too many issues were had here, and I've heard a lot of things (both good and bad) relating to the topics. I prefer the concept of 'no news is good news' - audiences shouldn't even need to think about the setup and tech side of things, but focus on the content.

* Overall Tech - In the second half of the event, it got much better. Things were being a little smoother, and a little cleaner overall. Less issues straight out.

But what that says to me is that leading into the marathon it wasn't prepared properly, and from the feedback I heard during the event, and what I saw, it was clear as day that was a clusterfuck for the most part. Cabling was a mess, audio clearly wasn't tested properly, Internet issues...

FINAL THOUGHTS

Do I think it was better than last year? Overall, no. I think it was a sidestep. It wasn't worse, because it improved on many elements, but it also went backwards in others.

Did I enjoy it? About 25% of the whole marathon I actually enjoyed watching. Most of it otherwise was just, "here's a game, wee, it's being done quick, now give PCF money".

Did I donate? No. I didn't. I'm putting this in my comment, because of two reasons. 1) I feel that the financials of this GDQ are very grey in terms of how it is all being spent, how much runners are paying to go to the event, and how much PCF is 'paying' staff to hold this event. To be honest, if I was paying staff to run this event, I would be expecting better overall quality. 2) PCF's work is solely about the USA. I do not reside in the USA and feel that of all the charities that could be chosen for an international audience, I would rather support one that does more work internationally, and sees more funds actually going to the work they promote, instead of internal costs.

It's become more about a charity gathering funds by holding a speedrunning marathon, than speedrunners holding a marathon for fun to raise money for charity.

I don't want to derail this thread about the whole/charity discussion that has been had before, I felt it worth mentioning. I said it last year, that this year would be a big determing factor about the continued long-term success of this marathon.

I would like to thank Mike, Romscout, Matty, UA and all the other staffers for holding the event because you cracked ~1.5 million, and that is no small task. I look forward to seeing what happens with SGDQ and both marathons next year.

Mine will be a long response, so read at your own peril. This is coming from someone who was not at the marathon, but was in frequent contact with people there, updated with pictures video, and the stream itself. I'll try breaking this down into as easy sections as possible. For the record, I work in the broadcasting industry and am a trained technician for broadcasting.

I cannot comment on things that were at the event (e.g. practice rooms, toilets, location), but instead I'm going to focus on what I felt as a viewer and technical things. I also won't be commenting on the selection of games or races for the most part, because that is solely the discretion of the creators of the marathon of what they chose for their content.

[b]PROS[/b]

[hidden]

* The 'highlight' package from the year previous. Personally, I would have consensed it into a half hour shorter package, and cut some lot of the 'incidents' and just go for the real high-excitement and insensity stuff. I also would have advised using either a) a clean capture of sources without overlays or b) edited the overalls so it didn't have the old #AGDQ2014 Twitter tag for.

* The layout was a [i]massive[/i] improvement of years previous. Sure, there are always small revisions to be had, ESA last year had the same issue. But I felt that the layout overall for this was improved tenfold and was quite happy with how it looked on varying qualities of the stream. Much positive notes here. My only real though at the moment is take the top bar (http://i.imgur.com/3u1aKzn.jpg) and put both the #AGDQ2015 and GDQ logo on the bottom bar. Plenty of space for it, and it would give you a little bit more room to work with in terms of capture space for games.

* The overall branding of the GDQ system has been improved. Especially now that it is its own entity, I think that helps establish it as a great way to make it its own distinct entity. This allows for the GDQ's not only to work with other parts of the community, but stand as a brand on its own.

* The support from sponsors. The fact that you can say you have these people supporting you says a lot. Now, there is an element of this that is a con, but especially if you can get those sponsor to drive your streams, it only helps it as an annual event.

* The chat support. This time out, it was already on the chat event server before AGDQ went live. I didn't notice any downtime or issues in chat. The IRC was reasonably moderated and was a nice change. The main stream was, well, as chats are and a little unruly at times, but was well moderated whenever I saw it. I don't know if this happened, but regarding sub mode, it would be easier to leave main chat, and set up a seperate sub channel for sub only mode, since teams can do that now.[/hidden]

[b]SOME COMMENT RESPONSES[/b]
[hidden][quote="NiL8r"]Being on host and trying to get tech station to see you was, well, frustrating to put it mildly.

I know literally nothing about what it would take to set this up, but is it possible to set up some kind of closed instant message system solely for use between volunteer stations, or all staff pc's/notebooks?  That way, for example, if someone on head donation PC hears about an issue from a mod, they can immediately message tech crew, and let host know at the same time.[/quote]

You could use something as simple as Spark, Pidgin, Skype...even right down to ICQ, MSN or Google Talk. There are so many ways to do it on a temp basis, even without having a program that costs money. There are some network systems as well that have instant messengers built into them (some double that with email) but they're not as ideal for a temp set up for only a week. I think the response given before was a good answer.

[quote="Cool Matty"]PJ:
The PC situation was a mess and it mostly boiled down to something that happened before the event. SOMEONE did a god awful job building a couple of the PCs and we spent /hours/ trying to fix them. Others were also messed up in various ways. I don't know who had a hand in it, but that was legitimately the most infuriating thing for me to find out during the event.

As for some of your issues (particularly the slow internet and swapped PCs), please let me know when this stuff happens. If I knew PCs were getting swapped, heads would have rolled. If I knew that the internet was slow, I would have got you a direct 50mb line. Again, this sort of loops back to the first post, that sometimes there are problems we can fix, but we don't find out about them until after the event.

Also, even if it happens during the run, let me know about stuff that went wrong during a run! People seem to just shrug and move on, but if we actually find out about it, we can make sure it's not an issue for future runners at the event.[/quote]

Personally, I feel since you were the one responsible for the tech, that was on you. Putting the blame to 'someone' else doesn't cut it, when you should have been across these computers before the event, and not checking them the few days before, let alone 'during' the event.

In a similar scenario with the Internet, if you are responsible as the guy in charge of the tech, why would you not have a dedicated line in the first place, where possible? I understand that things can change throughout the week, but we're talking about something that is very important to a stable stream. Not jumping at you here, but I would like to hear more about this situation if you get the chance.

Swapped PCs is something that shouldn't have been happening, absolutely.

[quote="Untouch"]Setup time was 27% of the marathon.

That's all I need to say.

Note: Not estimates, these numbers were given by SDA.[/quote]

I feel that 27% was more likely the total time that games were not run, not necessarily all set up time. That being said, that is a relatively high number, yet without previous years to compare it with it's not exactly a fair figure to grab out.

[quote="CosmykTheDolfyn"]Just a small thing: It would help to have 1 or 2 more people in tech at all times.  I found myself lifting and moving equipment around because the tech guy needed help.  I wasn't scheduled for that; in fact I was sitting on the couch getting ready to commentate the upcoming run.  The lack of people for actually working on the equipment meant that the set up was only seconds shy of 30 minutes for a 26 minute run. ....

I also agree that there was too many plugs/too few donations comments read.  Obviously we need both, but there could have been a better balance.  The sponsors were already visible on stream, I'd figure hosts could have talked about them about 20% less just due to that.  Of course, I don't know all the details with all the sponsors so that may not have been a possibility.[/quote]

That is something that is a rostering and staffing issue, which I feel if it was a problem that you saw at the event, you should have flagged it with the organisers there and then, and they may have been able to chase people down. Similarly, the person on tech should have noticed and got in contact with the GDQ organiser for the volunteers.

[quote="Cool Matty"]
#2: It will always be video game music, particularly chiptune because it's less likely (although I acknowledge it still happens) to get flagged for VODs. For the same reason, I will not give people the option to choose their own music. Finally, managing song plays for each runner would be a tremendous amount of effort required for our tech staff and that's not fair to them. It's best to have something that is automatic and requires extremely little fiddling, so tech can focus on getting the next game up.

#4: Agreed, but we don't want to simply just push Twitch VODs over to YouTube. We want to maintain a level of quality that is high, so we want to use local recordings. I want to make this happen for SGDQ. That said, we have a LOT of planning, research and preparation to figure out the best way to do this with the least amount of volunteer effort.[/quote]

I believe this is the best response that can be given. Letting people choose their own music just adds to much work for the time on stream, making sure it's a) stream appropriate and b) getting it all arranged. Auto recording and auto pushing to YT is another thing that not that easy, and Matty is right in the fact you don't want VODs going over directly.

[quote="TruthBomber"][b]Event Management[/b]
With the amount of money that goes into this event, and the viewership and profile it has, I think it is high time there are some A/V and event management professionals...

-Mic levels being atrociously varied....getting a boom mic to mic up the couch.  Especially given that the couch was seperated from the main viewing area by big screens that help to inhibit noise, I think it is worth having someone vetting mic volume actively (label the EQ) or to have the boom mic running to avoid having to mic up every commentator.

-Colour temperature on different screens/capture sources being varied.  This is probably not as pressing an issue for many people as it is to me, but its a production & polish issue that would only take a small amount of time to resolve.

-Camera position ended up being unsatisfactory for the large assortment of races...

...

-dead air.  There was a considerable amount of dead air, and the time between runs was underutilised.  You could have sizzle reels that aren't purely for advertising.  In touching on the point I raised above, AGDQ does not exist without the runners who travel there, pay to attend, and give their time to not only run & commentate at the event, but also the time given to practicing their runs to be able to attend.  Interviews with runners, glitch showoffs (prerecorded or live), things like the Track & Field 100m competition, previews of runs that have donation incentives.  I understand that GDQ is essentially a business now and so it is run with profits (for charity) and the sponsors in mind, but the way that was handled this year lost viewer interest and I think left a lot of people disillusioned with the spirit of this years AGDQ.[/quote]

* Mic levels for a vast portion of the event were terrible. Simple as that. Even the opening speech, there was no windsock ont the microphone, so there was a lot of popping in the microphone, the crowd blew the levels to distortion city - despite the fact I saw there would be gates to kill that for the most part - and no one then corrected the level in DKC:TF. Countless times people's microphone's were in the wrong position, or switched off, or the fader down, or too high gain, or the gate set too high/low, or improper usage of that type of microphone. This is not something that is rocket science, and more importantly it doesn't just fall to the tech staff. Nearly all of the runners stream themselves, and should have a basic understand to NOT YELL INTO A MICROPHONE or try to speak into a headset mic that is three feet away. The donation reader's gate was set incorrectly, and their actual microphone...I dunno what was happening for portions of it, but it sounded like they were on the other side of the desk from it. It was horrible.

* Camera position and colour temperature. I have been informed that these were the same cameras as what you used last year. Then my first reponse is, what happened between this year and last year that reduced the quality so much. The actual resolution of this year was much lower compared to last year, and the focus on them was out as well. I can't comment as per what brand these cameras are, or how they were being captured, but I would love to find out. Because in all honesty, scrap them for next time. Get some proper broadcast cameras (even if you rent them from a local place) and get them SDI into a proper capture card. Cause these security things that are remote controlled are not designed for this stuff, and they look like shit. You want people to take a broadcast seriously, then you get broadcast cameras. This will also help fix things like the colour balance in the process, instead of it being stuck on auto.

[quote="Cool Matty"]We can't afford professionals for the length of our event, and unfortunately the few volunteer people with any audio/video experience are generally from theatre backgrounds.

I have been told by various talented A/V people that a shotgun mic (such as a boom) would not work at all. Keep in mind the runners are having game audio blasted in their face, which is a problem no traditional broadcast station has.

UraniumAnchor says that the color temperature issue varies by source type and capture card. I know personally that these issues can break themselves on their own, even after they've been fixed. We have to simplify our setup for volunteers, and adjusting this for every run where it is necessary would increase the probability of something going wrong. Particularly since the area where those settings exist involves other dangerous options that can break the stream layout or crash a capture card entirely.[/quote]

You can't afford professionals? I call a level of bullshit on that. Apart from people like myself who have put up their hand in the past, only to get ignored, PCF certain can afford a couple of grand to get a local group in for at least part of the job. It doesn't cost a hundred thousand for a few AV guys, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the people that have offered are 'generally from theatre' background. Most of the best technicians I know are from that kind of background, cause they know lighting, live sound and live visuals.

Those A/V people are right, if you're talking about having a shotgun mic pointed at the couch. It's a bad move for multiple reasons.

UA is right as far as the temps go - in regards to games and certain sources. Cards will vary, and especially with the wide array of sources it doesn't help. If these events were all PC based, or all one console type, then it would be an easy fix. But because the techs here have to deal with different types of consoles (e.g. PAL vs. NTSC) and the different inputs, ages and such of the sources, it's not just as easy as punching in a new number and hoping it doesn't crash the software. Some times you can't fix these things without resetting the capture card, which then kills the other cards for (e.g.) a driver reason and....it goes on.
 
[quote="Cool Matty"][quote="flatluigi"]
Apologies if this is off-base, but I feel there should be at least one more competent tech person there so UA can actually sleep at some point - or at least a dedicated person or two who can be super focused on monitoring how things are coming across on stream. Those issues were fairly few and far between, but stuff like the Transistor run being muted for the first 10 minutes just shouldn't have happened and the Risk of Rain run should've had some allowances made for how unreadable the gameplay was on stream. I was also really surprised to see that the computer setups were still on Windows 8, as I thought that was the cause of a lot of issues in previous marathons.

Finally something super subjective: not having a crowd mic was a mistake and (for the first day at least) the marathon just didn't have the feel of being a big thing despite it being the biggest GDQ yet! Music interludes were a good (if late) addition, as was messing around with the crowd cam. There was also super harsh gating on the mics, leaving the setup times in dead silence (instead of hearing minor crowd noise). 
[/quote]

I believe there should have been an experienced tech person on station at all times in addition to newbie tech. Honestly, sometimes mistakes happen (no one was actually listening when they should have been during Transistor), but I do know newbie techs felt they weren't being allowed enough control. I do want to work on that so that it's not effectively one person running the show up there.

The crowd mic always existed, but the issue was it was turned extremely low at the beginning of the marathon due to fear of feedback. I personally worked on this mid-marathon, but we were running out of time to fix less important things like that before the event. It'll definitely come back next GDQ.[/quote]

There should be a couple of competent tech people - however it's not always as easy as that to find them. If you find one person one year, they may not be able to make it to the event next year. It's something that is ideal, but at this stage not something that is always as easy as it appears.

That Transistor run shouldn't have started until they knew it was ready and good to go. That was embarrassing, especially when the runner said "I'll let you guys listen to the music" just for silence to be there instead.

Gating on microphones is something that is difficult to get right at live events like this, but especially for crowd and ambience during the break it was painful to not hear. As for the response of 'low, because fear of feedback' - not a good enough answer. If you position the microphone and speakers correctly then there is minimal chance of feedback, and that also goes into the part where it should have been set up and tested well before the stream started. That is something that is important and 'running out of time' is not a good enough answer. Because I wouldn't be putting that too low on the priority list, so it makes me wonder how many other issues were present in the final moments before going live. And that concerns me.

[quote="Cool Matty"][b]SETUP ISSUES:[/b]

Many of the issues with setup were trying to accommodate special-case setups for games. And worse still, is these setups would be made and then left for future staff to discover and undo during graveyard. Overall, surprisingly, communication was the biggest downfall this GDQ.

For SGDQ, we are going to have a schematic for ALL hardware and cabling, and we will stick to that as closely as possible. Any revisions will be noted so staff later in the day can catch up on anything that went wrong.[/quote]

If the sea of cables that I saw pictures of is any way of your 'schematic' - good fucking luck. I would get fired if I left a set up in that state, and the fact is it causes a host of other issues apart from looking like shit. If you don't isolate cables properly then you can end up with interference (which is what it sounded like during the Mario Kart: Wii scenario) over-heating issues and risk of damaging the shielding in the cables.

The fact that you want a set of plans is fantastic. Great. But if you handed me plans, and then I walked over to find that pile of cables, I wouldn't be impressed by any means.

[quote="Cool Matty"]Finally, some of the setup time was due to runners not communicating, or not taking care of their particular setups. In the future, we will be less willing to accommodate special setup changes that we are not informed of prior to the event. If you know you need a particular type of TV for instance, and you're waiting until your run is being set up, that is unacceptable. That creates delays in the marathon, and impacts other runners.

[b]To be clear, for unforeseen issues, bugs and things that the runners aren't aware of, we'll always do what we can.[/b] I just want runners to take charge in other situations, such as needing specific TVs, or a PAL game. It hurts the marathon and other runners when a runner arrives unprepared.[/quote]

Then what about the statements I have heard that there weren't any PAL suitable TVs, despite known PAL games being on the card? Sure, if a runner drops it on you at the last moment, you can't do too much about it. But it seems to me that a) some runners we're there with due time before their run to allow for ease of set up and b) some basic systems that should have been in place to ease transitions were never utilised.

I mean, you had a switcher in your main rack, so video switching on the computer side would have been less, and you have a separate audio mixer to handle all the audio inputs - so there should only be one program output to the stream PC for audio. Not looking for clarification here, but it's just worth mentioning that if there is notice, it goes both ways. Communication, like you say, is key.

[quote="final fight cd"]why can't there be TWO dedicated "couches?"  as one is running a game, the other is getting setup for the next.  that way, there actually might be a seamless transition between runs.  it seemed the viewer count dropped by 20-30K when a run finished, which i'm sure can be mainly attributed to the expected LLOONNGG setup for the next run.

[/quote]

[quote="Cool Matty"]This isn't a logistical possibility. It would require significantly more equipment, more staff, and there is only one streaming computer. We couldn't check if they were set up beforehand, so time saved would be minimal.[/quote]

As much as I want to see this happen, the answer is well valid. Maybe people suggest this, but it means you need double of a lot of equipment.[/hidden]

[b]CONS[/b]

[hidden]* [b]Donation comments[/b] - some of these where cringe-worthy when read out, but still better they get read out. I do feel that the donation reader should use sound judgement of what should an shouldn't be read. There were a couple of VERY inappropriate comments read out, and a couple that apparently were not read out due to one or two bad words. Just self-edit that comment slightly, if the rest of it is good. The best measure here is common sense.

To add to that - Every. Single. Break. - we heard the same pre-written thing regarding the sponsors and PCF. It didn't help that a lot of the donation readers weren't that great public speakers/projecting their voice, so it came across as this bored robot who was just there to read a script. And it made every single break absolutely horrible to listen to, cause you knew someone was about to drone on in their most monotonous voice. By the end of the event I almost felt I could recite the paragraph alongside the reader I heard it that much. I don't mind sponsors, they are important, but word variation and some emotion in the voices people. It's a fun charity event, not a summer work camp.

* [b]Set-ups[/b] - Too long, too quiet, to disorganised. This is a communication thing, runners being there on time with equipment and the techs being aware of what is coming up in the schedule. Too many issues were had here, and I've heard a lot of things (both good and bad) relating to the topics. I prefer the concept of 'no news is good news' - audiences shouldn't even need to think about the setup and tech side of things, but focus on the content.

* [b]Overall Tech[/b] - In the second half of the event, it got much better. Things were being a little smoother, and a little cleaner overall. Less issues straight out.

But what that says to me is that leading into the marathon it wasn't prepared properly, and from the feedback I heard during the event, and what I saw, it was clear as day that was a clusterfuck for the most part. Cabling was a mess, audio clearly wasn't tested properly, Internet issues...[/hidden]

[b]FINAL THOUGHTS[/b]

[hidden]Do I think it was better than last year? Overall, no. I think it was a sidestep. It wasn't worse, because it improved on many elements, but it also went backwards in others.

Did I enjoy it? About 25% of the whole marathon I actually enjoyed watching. Most of it otherwise was just, "here's a game, wee, it's being done quick, now give PCF money".

Did I donate? No. I didn't. I'm putting this in my comment, because of two reasons. 1) I feel that the financials of this GDQ are very grey in terms of how it is all being spent, how much runners are paying to go to the event, and how much PCF is 'paying' staff to hold this event. To be honest, if I was paying staff to run this event, I would be expecting better overall quality. 2) PCF's work is solely about the USA. I do not reside in the USA and feel that of all the charities that could be chosen for an international audience, I would rather support one that does more work internationally, and sees more funds actually going to the work they promote, instead of internal costs.

It's become more about a charity gathering funds by holding a speedrunning marathon, than speedrunners holding a marathon for fun to raise money for charity.

I don't want to derail this thread about the whole/charity discussion that has been had before, I felt it worth mentioning. I said it last year, that this year would be a big determing factor about the continued long-term success of this marathon.

I would like to thank Mike, Romscout, Matty, UA and all the other staffers for holding the event because you cracked ~1.5 million, and that is no small task. I look forward to seeing what happens with SGDQ and both marathons next year.[/hidden]

Cool Matty

2015-01-24 07:01:05 am

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Since it's still coming up, by people like OtakuSRL:

Sticking the couch between the projectors isn't possible. There's too much runner equipment alone that would ruin this. In addition, it would be a worse experience for all involved (speakers too close to runners, much less chairs for everyone, more running around for tech, cramped area for runners and consoles, etc).

Also, it's not that I don't care about the attendees. I spent a significant amount of time doing layouts and setup for the event. Probably more work than I did for the online viewers. But this is just a physical reality of how large we actually are. So far, all the suggestions are things I have already tried using my layout system. If you move it from where it is now, you're going to sacrifice something. Either a large chunk of chairs, or the view is obscured for stream, or runners suddenly have no room for the stuff they need, or even worse.

All in all, just be aware I'm not shooting you all down out of a lack of compassion. It's just time to accept that we're too big to do the things we used to do, and too small to do what larger events do. It's the teenager phase.

Since it's still coming up, by people like OtakuSRL:

Sticking the couch between the projectors isn't possible. There's too much runner equipment alone that would ruin this. In addition, it would be a worse experience for all involved (speakers too close to runners, much less chairs for everyone, more running around for tech, cramped area for runners and consoles, etc).

Also, it's not that I don't care about the attendees. I spent a significant amount of time doing layouts and setup for the event. Probably more work than I did for the online viewers. But this is just a physical reality of how large we actually are. So far, all the suggestions are things I have already tried using my layout system. If you move it from where it is now, you're going to sacrifice something. Either a large chunk of chairs, or the view is obscured for stream, or runners suddenly have no room for the stuff they need, or even worse.

All in all, just be aware I'm not shooting you all down out of a lack of compassion. It's just time to accept that we're too big to do the things we used to do, and too small to do what larger events do. It's the teenager phase.

kariohki

2015-01-24 07:25:38 am

waifus are laifu

RE: Bad donation comments being read - I don't know about any obviously bad ones, but I know there were a few VERY sneaky degrading comments that slipped in. One coming to mind was the "12 Frenchmen died from the cancer already this year" one; in these kind of "convention" situations, people aren't really watching the news like they probably would be during their daily life. I had happened to read about the actual event on twitter and alert the staff so it could be filtered in the future. It definitely shouldn't just be up to the donation screener, the host should be scanning through before reading, especially if there's downtime.

About what ButtersBB said about games appearing in the schedule that weren't on the bonus/incentive list, Big Rigs was as much of a surprise to the social media crew as it probably was to people looking at schedules and such. I never heard announced on stream that the incentive had been added, or that Alex Navarro had even been contacted about it.
Kid Chameleon, idk.

RE: Bad donation comments being read - I don't know about any obviously bad ones, but I know there were a few VERY sneaky degrading comments that slipped in. One coming to mind was the "12 Frenchmen died from the cancer already this year" one; in these kind of "convention" situations, people aren't really watching the news like they probably would be during their daily life. I had happened to read about the actual event on twitter and alert the staff so it could be filtered in the future. It definitely shouldn't just be up to the donation screener, the host should be scanning through before reading, especially if there's downtime.

About what ButtersBB said about games appearing in the schedule that weren't on the bonus/incentive list, Big Rigs was as much of a surprise to the social media crew as it probably was to people looking at schedules and such. I never heard announced on stream that the incentive had been added, or that Alex Navarro had even been contacted about it.
Kid Chameleon, idk.

Cool Matty

Edit history:

Cool Matty: 2015-01-24 07:52:14 am

Cool Matty: 2015-01-24 07:29:26 am

2015-01-24 07:27:52 am

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from AMVX:

Personally, I feel since you were the one responsible for the tech, that was on you. Putting the blame to 'someone' else doesn't cut it, when you should have been across these computers before the event, and not checking them the few days before, let alone 'during' the event.

We had volunteers come in before the event specifically for this purpose. Edit: blah blah I delegated. Mike was originally going to build them, that didn't happen because he was too sick. I had too much to do so I relied on the others. I'm not pushing blame, but that's what happened.

Quote:

In a similar scenario with the Internet, if you are responsible as the guy in charge of the tech, why would you not have a dedicated line in the first place, where possible? I understand that things can change throughout the week, but we're talking about something that is very important to a stable stream. Not jumping at you here, but I would like to hear more about this situation if you get the chance.

We did have a dedicated line (we always do), but the practice room was in an entirely different area, outside of even wifi range. I had set them up for faster internet on the first day, but I have no idea how it suddenly "slowed". Again, I wasn't even informed this happened on the practice PCs.

Quote:

You can't afford professionals? I call a level of bullshit on that. Apart from people like myself who have put up their hand in the past, only to get ignored, PCF certain can afford a couple of grand to get a local group in for at least part of the job. It doesn't cost a hundred thousand for a few AV guys, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the people that have offered are 'generally from theatre' background. Most of the best technicians I know are from that kind of background, cause they know lighting, live sound and live visuals.

No, like seriously, the guys with that background, when I ask them, don't really have anything to help with from their field. I'm not rejecting them, I asked them. They just don't have the experience you're suggesting (especially ones that were effectively stage crew, not really tech). I appreciate all they do, but I honestly don't get many offers from people with true experience in the field. Especially ones that intend to follow through.

I don't know when you got ignored but I don't turn down people who request to help. I don't know who you even talked to, but if you show up, I will make use of your expertise. I've said this before as well to others. That said, you have to apply as a volunteer, or I'm not even going to know you're there.

[quote="AMVX"]

Personally, I feel since you were the one responsible for the tech, that was on you. Putting the blame to 'someone' else doesn't cut it, when you should have been across these computers before the event, and not checking them the few days before, let alone 'during' the event.[/quote]

We had volunteers come in before the event specifically for this purpose. Edit: blah blah I delegated. Mike was originally going to build them, that didn't happen because he was too sick. I had too much to do so I relied on the others. I'm not pushing blame, but that's what happened.

[quote]
In a similar scenario with the Internet, if you are responsible as the guy in charge of the tech, why would you not have a dedicated line in the first place, where possible? I understand that things can change throughout the week, but we're talking about something that is very important to a stable stream. Not jumping at you here, but I would like to hear more about this situation if you get the chance.
[/quote]

We did have a dedicated line (we always do), but the practice room was in an entirely different area, outside of even wifi range. I had set them up for faster internet on the first day, but I have no idea how it suddenly "slowed". Again, I wasn't even informed this happened on the practice PCs.

[quote]
You can't afford professionals? I call a level of bullshit on that. Apart from people like myself who have put up their hand in the past, only to get ignored, PCF certain can afford a couple of grand to get a local group in for at least part of the job. It doesn't cost a hundred thousand for a few AV guys, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the people that have offered are 'generally from theatre' background. Most of the best technicians I know are from that kind of background, cause they know lighting, live sound and live visuals.
[/quote]

No, like seriously, the guys with that background, when I ask them, don't really have anything to help with from their field. I'm not rejecting them, I asked them. They just don't have the experience you're suggesting (especially ones that were effectively stage crew, not really tech). I appreciate all they do, but I honestly don't get many offers from people with true experience in the field. Especially ones that intend to follow through.

I don't know when you got ignored but I don't turn down people who request to help. I don't know who you even talked to, but if you show up, I will make use of your expertise. I've said this before as well to others. That said, you have to apply as a volunteer, or I'm not even going to know you're there.

__sdfg

2015-01-24 07:46:59 am

D:

Quote from your_name_here:

I think this was mostly just a miscommunication. People were free to sit behind the couch, but many felt that they weren't allowed for some reason. Those seats should have been more filled than they were, which would have helped with perceived atmosphere.

e:
the rule was this one:

Quote:

-The couch area is off limits to anyone who is not approved by the runner. This includes the rows immediately behind the couch as well if the runner has extra people he or she wants to have there.

The rule says that people can sit behind the couch as long as they give priority to people who were invited to be there. I guess it was just misread/misreported.

It was suggested during the on-site orientation that you needed some justification for sitting in the area behind the couch, like being involved with running the game or being friends of the runner. It's possible/likely that this was only supposed to refer to the first row behind the couch, or that I misinterpreted it completely, but anyway, I recall being told at the event that there was a stricter policy than what the rule you quoted suggests.

Actually, IIRC, there were three (?) rows of chairs behind the couch, so every row could count as one of the, "rows immediately behind the couch." Maybe the situation could be improved by adding a few more rows and telling people that they are free to sit there as long as the runner doesn't need to first couple rows for his/her friends and they don't do anything that would disqualify them from being on camera. This could lead to there being more empty rows in back, but at least with how the cameras were set up, I don't remember that area looking empty on stream unless it was literally empty, so I think making people feel less discouraged from sitting there would help.

[quote="your_name_here"]I think this was mostly just a miscommunication. People were free to sit behind the couch, but many felt that they weren't allowed for some reason. Those seats should have been more filled than they were, which would have helped with perceived atmosphere.

e:
the rule was this one:
[quote]
-The couch area is off limits to anyone who is not approved by the runner. This includes the rows immediately behind the couch as well if the runner has extra people he or she wants to have there.
[/quote]

The rule says that people can sit behind the couch as long as they give priority to people who were invited to be there. I guess it was just misread/misreported.[/quote]
It was suggested during the on-site orientation that you needed some justification for sitting in the area behind the couch, like being involved with running the game or being friends of the runner.  It's possible/likely that this was only supposed to refer to the first row behind the couch, or that I misinterpreted it completely, but anyway, I recall being told at the event that there was a stricter policy than what the rule you quoted suggests.

Actually, IIRC, there were three (?) rows of chairs behind the couch, so every row could count as one of the, "rows immediately behind the couch."  Maybe the situation could be improved by adding a few more rows and telling people that they are free to sit there as long as the runner doesn't need to first couple rows for his/her friends and they don't do anything that would disqualify them from being on camera.  This could lead to there being more empty rows in back, but at least with how the cameras were set up, I don't remember that area looking empty on stream unless it was [i]literally[/i] empty, so I think making people feel less discouraged from sitting there would help.

AMVX

2015-01-24 08:17:43 am

www.twitch.tv/amvx

Quote from Cool Matty:

We had volunteers come in before the event specifically for this purpose. I have a LOT personally that I have to do, and I do not live in the area. I was spending time running around making sure the equipment arrived, making sure the stream machine was ready, making sure the website went live, etc. At some point you have to delegate, and I am way past being able to have my hand in everything. We have a tremendous amount of extra tech than you see at ESA for example.

I would be finding someone else for the website then. I understand that not one person can be doing everything, but if you're telling me that you left everything up to volunteers and only showed up the day before, then that is still no excuse. As someone who is getting paid for the event to work and go smoothly, you're the one held accountable regardless of what happens to the site, since you're the one listed as being in charge of the tech, not the website. And no, they are not the same thing.

Not to mention that ESA last year ran two streams, not just one. So please let me know how much 'extra' tech there truly is? I help run three OB trucks and two broadcast studios. I am well aware of how much tech you would need for these marathons, and it's a matter of working together with the crew. If something goes wrong, the head technician cops the flak for it first.

Quote:

Edit: blah blah I delegated. Mike was originally going to build them, that didn't happen because he was too sick. I had too much to do so I relied on the others. I'm not pushing blame, but that's what happened.

It doesn't matter who built them, or who was going to. I acknowledge that you're accepting the responsibility. I'm just making it clear that even if you are relying on others to do elements of the build, set-up or usage of the equipment, you are the one that the buck stops with. You're the paid staffer, and as such, it's not down to 'volunteers set X up'. It's the fact 'I need to make sure it's working properly because it's my job'. Part of that job is properly managing everything within time and budgets.

Quote:

We did have a dedicated line (we always do), but the practice room was in an entirely different area, outside of even wifi range. I had set them up for faster internet on the first day, but I have no idea how it suddenly "slowed". Again, I wasn't even informed this happened on the practice PCs.

Ah, thanks for this. I didn't realise it was the practice room. That is a completely different scenario then. I retract my statements.

Quote:

No, like seriously, the guys with that background, when I ask them, don't really have anything to help with from their field. I'm not rejecting them, I asked them. They just don't have the experience you're suggesting (especially ones that were effectively stage crew, not really tech). I appreciate all they do, but I honestly don't get many offers from people with true experience in the field. Especially ones that intend to follow through.

I don't know when you got ignored but I don't turn down people who request to help. I don't know who you even talked to, but if you show up, I will make use of your expertise. I've said this before as well to others.

Not all of them will be competent to the level of people I have met, I acknowledge that part. I offered last year, shortly after last AGDQ in an email, and never received a response. As mentioned before, I wasn't at this AGDQ, nor was I even in the same continent, so I can't comment on people that were there, who volunteered and their skill set.

[quote="Cool Matty"]We had volunteers come in before the event specifically for this purpose. I have a LOT personally that I have to do, and I do not live in the area. I was spending time running around making sure the equipment arrived, making sure the stream machine was ready, making sure the website went live, etc. At some point you have to delegate, and I am way past being able to have my hand in everything. We have a tremendous amount of extra tech than you see at ESA for example.[/quote]
I would be finding someone else for the website then. I understand that not one person can be doing everything, but if you're telling me that you left everything up to volunteers and only showed up the day before, then that is still no excuse. As someone who is getting paid for the event to work and go smoothly, you're the one held accountable regardless of what happens to the site, since you're the one listed as being in charge of the tech, not the website. And no, they are not the same thing.

Not to mention that ESA last year ran two streams, not just one. So please let me know how much 'extra' tech there truly is? I help run three OB trucks and two broadcast studios. I am well aware of how much tech you would need for these marathons, and it's a matter of working together with the crew. If something goes wrong, the head technician cops the flak for it first.

[quote]Edit: blah blah I delegated. Mike was originally going to build them, that didn't happen because he was too sick. I had too much to do so I relied on the others. I'm not pushing blame, but that's what happened.[/quote]
It doesn't matter who built them, or who was going to. I acknowledge that you're accepting the responsibility. I'm just making it clear that even if you are relying on others to do elements of the build, set-up or usage of the equipment, you are the one that the buck stops with. You're the paid staffer, and as such, it's not down to 'volunteers set X up'. It's the fact 'I need to make sure it's working properly because it's my job'. Part of that job is properly managing everything within time and budgets.

[quote]We did have a dedicated line (we always do), but the practice room was in an entirely different area, outside of even wifi range. I had set them up for faster internet on the first day, but I have no idea how it suddenly "slowed". Again, I wasn't even informed this happened on the practice PCs.[/quote]
Ah, thanks for this. I didn't realise it was the practice room. That is a completely different scenario then. I retract my statements.

[quote]No, like seriously, the guys with that background, when I ask them, don't really have anything to help with from their field. I'm not rejecting them, I asked them. They just don't have the experience you're suggesting (especially ones that were effectively stage crew, not really tech). I appreciate all they do, but I honestly don't get many offers from people with true experience in the field. Especially ones that intend to follow through.

I don't know when you got ignored but I don't turn down people who request to help. I don't know who you even talked to, but if you show up, I will make use of your expertise. I've said this before as well to others.[/quote]
Not all of them will be competent to the level of people I have met, I acknowledge that part. I offered last year, shortly after last AGDQ in an email, and never received a response. As mentioned before, I wasn't at this AGDQ, nor was I even in the same continent, so I can't comment on people that were there, who volunteered and their skill set.

Cool Matty

Edit history:

Cool Matty: 2015-01-24 08:33:33 am

Cool Matty: 2015-01-24 08:31:29 am

2015-01-24 08:30:33 am

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from AMVX:

I would be finding someone else for the website then. I understand that not one person can be doing everything, but if you're telling me that you left everything up to volunteers and only showed up the day before, then that is still no excuse. As someone who is getting paid for the event to work and go smoothly, you're the one held accountable regardless of what happens to the site, since you're the one listed as being in charge of the tech, not the website. And no, they are not the same thing.

If anything it'd be the other way around. I get paid for what I do off-site: equipment purchasing, layouts, website and hosting management, etc. I don't get paid for my time on-site (on purpose, my decision). For this reason I am training others in doing what I used to do on site in order to keep this from happening again. I realized quite quickly for the first time I wouldn't have a chance to deal with everything myself. I don't have the luxury of being able to train every volunteer for every task days before the event either, unlike a regular business. I was still on site before the rest of the staff though, 3 days ahead of time.

[quote="AMVX"]
I would be finding someone else for the website then. I understand that not one person can be doing everything, but if you're telling me that you left everything up to volunteers and only showed up the day before, then that is still no excuse. As someone who is getting paid for the event to work and go smoothly, you're the one held accountable regardless of what happens to the site, since you're the one listed as being in charge of the tech, not the website. And no, they are not the same thing.[/quote]

If anything it'd be the other way around. I get paid for what I do off-site: equipment purchasing, layouts, website and hosting management, etc. I don't get paid for my time on-site (on purpose, my decision). For this reason I am training others in doing what I used to do on site in order to keep this from happening again. I realized quite quickly for the first time I wouldn't have a chance to deal with everything myself. I don't have the luxury of being able to train every volunteer for every task days before the event either, unlike a regular business. I was still on site before the rest of the staff though, 3 days ahead of time.

Efreeti

2015-01-24 08:32:10 am

They/them

Just saying, if people want a sub-only-like chat experience, come to the IRC chat (#sdamarathon on Quakenet, was joinable by the gamesdonequick.com frontpage IRC applet).

My own points:
-Layouts looked great, just needs space efficiency tweaking. Whitespace looks good, but some of the game windows were a tad small.
-Communication from us chat mods to on-site crew was fantastic. Keep it up.

May add more later.

Quote from CBenni:

Our main IRC chat mods were Efreeti, Efreeti, Efreeti and Toothache... pretty much.

Dude. Dude. Fair enough I put a lot of hours in (perhaps too many) but I feel Toothache was at least as present as I was. I definitely don't deserve more mention than him. Or you.

AMVX

Edit history:

AMVX: 2015-01-24 09:09:40 am

AMVX: 2015-01-24 08:56:05 am

AMVX: 2015-01-24 08:56:00 am

2015-01-24 08:55:21 am

www.twitch.tv/amvx

Quote from Cool Matty:

Quote from AMVX:

I would be finding someone else for the website then. I understand that not one person can be doing everything, but if you're telling me that you left everything up to volunteers and only showed up the day before, then that is still no excuse. As someone who is getting paid for the event to work and go smoothly, you're the one held accountable regardless of what happens to the site, since you're the one listed as being in charge of the tech, not the website. And no, they are not the same thing.

If anything it'd be the other way around. I get paid for what I do off-site: equipment purchasing, layouts, website and hosting management, etc. I don't get paid for my time on-site (on purpose, my decision). For this reason I am training others in doing what I used to do on site in order to keep this from happening again. I realized quite quickly for the first time I wouldn't have a chance to deal with everything myself. I don't have the luxury of being able to train every volunteer for every task days before the event either, unlike a regular business. I was still on site before the rest of the staff though, 3 days ahead of time.

I appreciate you taking the time to speak about these things Matty Smiley

I mention all this because as per the previous staffing post, you were listed as 'all things tech', and in the post ages ago you were production manager and tech advisor. So, as far as job descriptions go, you're the closest to 'Head Tech' as there is.

Chris Hanel was listed for the layouts, so I would have thought he was responsible for the overlays.

Others like Raelcun, ONOGMuffins, Romscout were mentioned as helping manage things like volunteers, and stream rooms, but that would more be a personnel type management, or donations, not equipment.

UraniumAnchor is also listed as 'on-site stream management', which dictates some on site-work, but likely cover the website and donation tracker as well, since that is part of the stream.

So is it fair to now say that there is no actual on-site 'head tech' despite titles being handed out, and you're relying on volunteers to run everything? Because if you're saying that you were there three days before the event, knowing that Mike wasn't going to be there, how is a single stream set-up not accomplished and tested?

Also, and now this is a different topic, how is Mike doing? Because last GDQ he got the GDQFlu at the end there, and this time out he was sick enough to not be able to communicate himself nearing two months in advance of the event. I hope, and I'm sure everyone here agrees with me on this, that he is doing alright, because that is some serious illness to keep you out of action for that long.
EDIT: Was just told by someone what he was down with, and that's not fun. All the best Mike! Get well soon!

[quote="Cool Matty"][quote="AMVX"]
I would be finding someone else for the website then. I understand that not one person can be doing everything, but if you're telling me that you left everything up to volunteers and only showed up the day before, then that is still no excuse. As someone who is getting paid for the event to work and go smoothly, you're the one held accountable regardless of what happens to the site, since you're the one listed as being in charge of the tech, not the website. And no, they are not the same thing.[/quote]
If anything it'd be the other way around. I get paid for what I do off-site: equipment purchasing, layouts, website and hosting management, etc. I don't get paid for my time on-site (on purpose, my decision). For this reason I am training others in doing what I used to do on site in order to keep this from happening again. I realized quite quickly for the first time I wouldn't have a chance to deal with everything myself. I don't have the luxury of being able to train every volunteer for every task days before the event either, unlike a regular business. I was still on site before the rest of the staff though, 3 days ahead of time.

[/quote]

I appreciate you taking the time to speak about these things Matty :)

I mention all this because as per the previous staffing post, you were listed as 'all things tech', and in the post ages ago you were production manager and tech advisor. So, as far as job descriptions go, you're the closest to 'Head Tech' as there is.

Chris Hanel was listed for the layouts, so I would have thought he was responsible for the overlays.

Others like Raelcun, ONOGMuffins, Romscout were mentioned as helping manage things like volunteers, and stream rooms, but that would more be a personnel type management, or donations, not equipment.

UraniumAnchor is also listed as 'on-site stream management', which dictates some on site-work, but likely cover the website and donation tracker as well, since that is part of the stream.

So is it fair to now say that there is no actual on-site 'head tech' despite titles being handed out, and you're relying on volunteers to run everything? Because if you're saying that you were there three days before the event, knowing that Mike wasn't going to be there, how is a single stream set-up not accomplished and tested?

Also, and now this is a different topic, how is Mike doing? Because last GDQ he got the GDQFlu at the end there, and this time out he was sick enough to not be able to communicate himself nearing two months in advance of the event. I hope, and I'm sure everyone here agrees with me on this, that he is doing alright, because that is some serious illness to keep you out of action for that long.
EDIT: Was just told by someone what he was down with, and that's not fun. All the best Mike! Get well soon!

your_name_here

2015-01-24 09:12:56 am

Quote from AMVX:

Donation comments - some of these where cringe-worthy when read out, but still better they get read out. I do feel that the donation reader should use sound judgement of what should an shouldn't be read. There were a couple of VERY inappropriate comments read out, and a couple that apparently were not read out due to one or two bad words. Just self-edit that comment slightly, if the rest of it is good. The best measure here is common sense.

Having the host filter comments on their own hasn't been very successful in the past. The donation filterers ought to assume that the host won't read the comment before reading it aloud, which is sometimes what happens. Though, sometimes the bad word is "FrankerZ," and it wouldn't exactly be devastating to have it read, and maybe the rules should be a bit more lax wrt the occasional twitch memes.