AGDQ 2015 Feedback

2015-01-25 02:45:16 pm

Putting bonus stream in front of the marathon is a structural nightmare. Think of what it does to presentation. The GDQ twitch stream already got people going "Huh, AGDQ started already?" when Studio was doing his showcase shows, 3 months before the event. Bonus stream starts, 90% of the audience is like "Wait AGDQ started?" And they get to witness the probably not fully tested stream setup, experience all of the technical difficulties, the not as serious runs, the lower production value, while people need to keep reminding everyone that, no, this isn't the main stream, this is just the bonus stream, that's why it's not perfect yet.

It's just not a good idea.

Countneko

2015-01-25 02:48:21 pm

Quote from Onin:

Putting bonus stream in front of the marathon is a structural nightmare. Think of what it does to presentation. The GDQ twitch stream already got people going "Huh, AGDQ started already?" when Studio was doing his showcase shows, 3 months before the event. Bonus stream starts, 90% of the audience is like "Wait AGDQ started?" And they get to witness the probably not fully tested stream setup, experience all of the technical difficulties, the not as serious runs, the lower production value, while people need to keep reminding everyone that, no, this isn't the main stream, this is just the bonus stream, that's why it's not perfect yet.

It's just not a good idea.

Have to agree here. Bonus stream should be at the end, with the idea stated earlier of using it as training for future marathons. I still also think there aught to be more pre-planned for it, special non-speedgames that would be an interesting watch (such as the DaiOuJou playthrough) if you're dead set against ever putting speedruns on there. Have at least SOME kind of an idea what's going on there in advance, and arrange things with the hotel so it doesn't get cut off early.

[quote="Onin"]Putting bonus stream in front of the marathon is a structural nightmare. Think of what it does to presentation. The GDQ twitch stream already got people going "Huh, AGDQ started already?" when Studio was doing his showcase shows, 3 months before the event. Bonus stream starts, 90% of the audience is like "Wait AGDQ started?" And they get to witness the probably not fully tested stream setup, experience all of the technical difficulties, the not as serious runs, the lower production value, while people need to keep reminding everyone that, no, this isn't the main stream, this is just the bonus stream, that's why it's not perfect yet.

It's just not a good idea.[/quote]

Have to agree here. Bonus stream should be at the end, with the idea stated earlier of using it as training for future marathons. I still also think there aught to be more pre-planned for it, special non-speedgames that would be an interesting watch (such as the DaiOuJou playthrough) if you're dead set against ever putting speedruns on there. Have at least SOME kind of an idea what's going on there in advance, and arrange things with the hotel so it doesn't get cut off early.

Naegleria

(user is banned)

2015-01-25 03:07:25 pm

Not sure if this was brought up, but races of RNG heavy games. The Binding of Isaac race was a shit show since one of the runners finished pretty early and the other REALLLY late. Games that have RNG which can't be mitigated with skill shouldn't be raced, unless it only costs a matter of frames.

Countneko

2015-01-25 03:17:47 pm

Quote from Naegleria:

Not sure if this was brought up, but races of RNG heavy games. The Binding of Isaac race was a shit show since one of the runners finished pretty early and the other REALLLY late. Games that have RNG which can't be mitigated with skill shouldn't be raced, unless it only costs a matter of frames.

RIP SMB3 races?

Naegleria

(user is banned)

2015-01-25 03:27:03 pm

SMB3 any% is a terrible race, RNG hands determine the winner.

Billnye_Fan

2015-01-25 03:28:56 pm

Romscout:
Ok, thank you for clearing up the idea about the main organizers working full time on the marathon. Like I said I was under the impression that the main organizers did not have full time jobs. Now I understand that only Mike is full time. That clears up a lot of the confusion.

As far as conference space costs, the reason I am confused is because of a previous post by Mike stating that offers of $10,000 - $20,000 for the week were being made by the hotels. This was in a reference post of where the Hyatt's prices were $75,000. Now when Mike said the budget from PCF is 1:7 from last year, I am interpreting that for every 7 dollars raised, 1 dollar of that goes towards reinvestment (which is a very good rate).

Also the budget post you are talking about, is that the SGDQ2014 spreadsheet that showed AGDQ2014 and SGDQ2014 revenue and expenses? I saw that one. Since there are no conference room rental costs and no sponsorship/PCF income/reimbursement figures I can only assume that spreadsheet only shows expenses from Games Done Quick LLC. What that spreadsheet does show is that total costs for the year (both marathons) was around $58,000.

No one expects the exact amounts of pay for each person. Just the total amount across everyone would clear up a lot of this confusing. Right now me (and a few others) see $140,000 from pcf, $33,000 from what was in the "bank", and unknown amounts from sponsors while no mention of LARGE increase in costs. Like I already said the expenses for the whole year last year was $58,000 and the impression that the rental of the room was $20,000~. Now this would make sense if the rest was used for wages. However, what really causes the confusion is the talk about attendance fees. You all say that as costs rise the attendance fee will rise. Why? I'm clearly not understanding something correctly. Is the budget from PCF restricted only to wages and building rental? Because to me it looks like either you are charging the attendees for profit or you are not negotiating correctly with pcf and getting taken advantage of.

I want to stress this isn't a witch hunt or anything like that. People understand that in business the largest expense is wages/salary. We also know you need to make a profit so you can purchase your own equipment so pcf doesn't own every thing, but isn't that is what the ad revenue and sponsorship money should be used for? Ad revenue alone from last year was $40,000. How much of a budget will there be for next year? Can some of these ideas that will require some funding be feasible? There are a myriad of ways to help improve the marathon but no one knows what kind of budget there is.

On another note, thank you for clearing up the two week rule as well. It was nice to see ESA's feedback the next day so ideas were fresh. Glad to see this might happen for SGDQ.

Finally, the quote from the ESA thread was from Cool Matty. He is correct. If you try to cater to both the community and the charity, someone will get upset. I hate to say this, but it might be time for some small changes. With GDQs the obvious goal is the charity. I think you need to keep the main marathon stream focused on becoming a professional broadcast. I have a few ideas that have been brought up before but I feel must be said:

1.) Remove the seats behind the couch. Keep the runners + commentary people only. This makes it look more professional. Use a stage/small riser for the runners and try to position them against a wall sort of like you had this year. People behind the couch will always be a distraction. To compensate for the "empty" feeling that this gives off, between games you have a crowd camera you switch to during active time. Allow the open crowd to do whatever they want (within reason) like have signs, cheer loudly, have stuffed animals, etc. whatever. The reason behind this is that you don't have to police the people on stream during majority of the time while you have control over the crowd camera to avoid any thing that slips past the filters. There won't be confusion of who all gets to sit behind the couch. The people who want attention can do their thing in the audience between games and you don't have to worry about it during the run.

2.) Keep Bonus Stream, but change it a bit. This idea piggybacks off moltov's and other's ideas as well. Bonus stream is a great way to train people in learning the tech. The idea I have for bonus stream is a bit different. For starters, as you all know this year AGDQ had a side pinball stream. It was ran by a few people and went well. How about having "bonus" be a side stream all week? It would not be a 24/7 stream. It would be a normal 10am-Midnight~ official understream that people can do runs on. Treat it like the old bonus stream from the early years. If there are no runs available you can always show a few TAS's or something until someone wants to do a run. However, with as many people there I'm sure the time would be filled easily. This would mainly help train new volunteers on tech. It would keep the main stream professional while the side bonus could have the more exotic games that wouldn't necessarily be well received for the main stream. Most runners stream now anyways so it would be very simple to run. Overall, I think it would be positive to at least consider this idea.

Romscout:
Ok, thank you for clearing up the idea about the main organizers working full time on the marathon. Like I said I was under the impression that the main organizers did not have full time jobs. Now I understand that only Mike is full time. That clears up a lot of the confusion.

As far as conference space costs, the reason I am confused is because of a previous post by Mike stating that offers of $10,000 - $20,000 for the week were being made by the hotels. This was in a reference post of where the Hyatt's prices were $75,000. Now when Mike said the budget from PCF is 1:7 from last year, I am interpreting that for every 7 dollars raised, 1 dollar of that goes towards reinvestment (which is a very good rate).

Also the budget post you are talking about, is that the SGDQ2014 spreadsheet that showed AGDQ2014 and SGDQ2014 revenue and expenses? I saw that one. Since there are no conference room rental costs and no sponsorship/PCF income/reimbursement figures I can only assume that spreadsheet only shows expenses from Games Done Quick LLC. What that spreadsheet does show is that total costs for the year (both marathons) was around $58,000.

No one expects the exact amounts of pay for each person. Just the total amount across everyone would clear up a lot of this confusing. Right now me (and a few others) see $140,000 from pcf, $33,000 from what was in the "bank", and unknown amounts from sponsors while no mention of LARGE increase in costs. Like I already said the expenses for the whole year last year was $58,000 and the impression that the rental of the room was $20,000~. Now this would make sense if the rest was used for wages. However, what really causes the confusion is the talk about attendance fees. You all say that as costs rise the attendance fee will rise. Why? I'm clearly not understanding something correctly. Is the budget from PCF restricted only to wages and building rental?  Because to me it looks like either you are charging the attendees for profit or you are not negotiating correctly with pcf and getting taken advantage of.

I want to stress this isn't a witch hunt or anything like that. People understand that in business the largest expense is wages/salary. We also know you need to make a profit so you can purchase your own equipment so pcf doesn't own every thing, but isn't that is what the ad revenue and sponsorship money should be used for? Ad revenue alone from last year was $40,000. How much of a budget will there be for next year? Can some of these ideas that will require some funding be feasible? There are a myriad of ways to help improve the marathon but no one knows what kind of budget there is.

On another note, thank you for clearing up the two week rule as well. It was nice to see ESA's feedback the next day so ideas were fresh. Glad to see this might happen for SGDQ.

Finally, the quote from the ESA thread was from Cool Matty. He is correct. If you try to cater to both the community and the charity, someone will get upset. I hate to say this, but it might be time for some small changes. With GDQs the obvious goal is the charity. I think you need to keep the main marathon stream focused on becoming a professional broadcast. I have a few ideas that have been brought up before but I feel must be said:

1.) [b]Remove the seats behind the couch[/b]. Keep the runners + commentary people only. This makes it look more professional. Use a stage/small riser for the runners and try to position them against a wall sort of like you had this year. People behind the couch will always be a distraction.  To compensate for the "empty" feeling that this gives off, between games you have a crowd camera you switch to during active time. Allow the open crowd to do whatever they want (within reason) like have signs, cheer loudly, have stuffed animals, etc. whatever. The reason behind this is that you don't have to police the people on stream during majority of the time while you have control over the crowd camera to avoid any thing that slips past the filters. There won't be confusion of who all gets to sit behind the couch. The people who want attention can do their thing in the audience between games and you don't have to worry about it during the run.

2.) [b]Keep Bonus Stream, but change it a bit[/b]. This idea piggybacks off moltov's and other's ideas as well. Bonus stream is a great way to train people in learning the tech. The idea I have for bonus stream is a bit different. For starters, as you all know this year AGDQ had a side pinball stream. It was ran by a few people and went well. How about having "bonus" be a side stream all week? It would not be a 24/7 stream. It would be a normal 10am-Midnight~ official understream that people can do runs on. Treat it like the old bonus stream from the early years. If there are no runs available you can always show a few TAS's or something until someone wants to do a run. However, with as many people there I'm sure the time would be filled easily. This would mainly help train new volunteers on tech. It would keep the main stream professional while the side bonus could have the more exotic games that wouldn't necessarily be well received for the main stream. Most runners stream now anyways so it would be very simple to run. Overall, I think it would be positive to at least consider this idea.

Countneko

2015-01-25 03:55:12 pm

Quote from Billnye_Fan:

2.) Keep Bonus Stream, but change it a bit. This idea piggybacks off moltov's and other's ideas as well. Bonus stream is a great way to train people in learning the tech. The idea I have for bonus stream is a bit different. For starters, as you all know this year AGDQ had a side pinball stream. It was ran by a few people and went well. How about having "bonus" be a side stream all week? It would not be a 24/7 stream. It would be a normal 10am-Midnight~ official understream that people can do runs on.

I want bonus stream to stay as much as anyone, but there's no way it'd be a whole week long considering how long they'd have to keep all the equipment set up just for that.

TheTempleKnight

2015-01-25 05:44:24 pm

A couple of things to start out... I want to make sure everyone realizes how much we appreciate them and their time in organizing this event. This thread is very negative, but I think that is required for the event to get better. The tech crew especially is getting so much flak, and I think they are handling it extremely well with a lot of transparency, which is appreciated as well. I will hit on a few repeated things first. I don't expect a response, I just feel seeing it multiple times will help pinpoint the bigger needs of the event, from my perspective.

-- I don't know much of the behind the scenes, but just now reading about this dedicated 'Prize' team actually floored me. I am not sure all of what they are responsible for, but as stated previously... Prizes and the hype they didn't get was so sad. There was so much time plugging sponsors, but almost no air time for stuff people donated to the event to be given away. I did hear about the perlers MechaRichter made and I am glad I did, because other that those and the pinball machine, I never heard anything about prizes. Even the PS4 was largely ignored.. Ya, there were a couple pictures here and there but that space on the stream seemed mostly dedicated to pumping up the ego of Twitch and their "swag' package. Oh boy... More air time is needed to the prizes and the people who donated them. I don't care if it's a $1 perler Mecha made at home or a $2000 pinball machine. Those people, ALL OF THEM, need to be given the props they deserve and the prizes themselves need to be better advertised.

-- There has been some talk of the hosts and how they overplugged the sponsors and what not... A semi new twist I haven't read in here yet but playing off that same idea a little... Have hosts been censored at all? In events past, I loved the sometimes random little remarks or funny one-liner that many hosts (Bob being my favorite, among many others) would provide. This year, outside of a couple examples (Vulajin during FFVII comes to mind quickly) it seemed like they are all were afraid / told not to make a comment that wasn't either A) A donation or B) reading the same exact sponsor plug for the 50,000th time. They were just so much more robotic, overall, than any other of these countless events I have watched, and I was so disappointed by this. I realize and fully understand that there may be multiple reasons for this -- exhaustion, maybe no connection or interest to the runner / game at ALL, etc. But I hope this can change, regardless of the reason why it happened.

-- I loved bonus stream. If for reasons out of anyones control it has to die, so be it... but I do want to comment on how horribly shit-tastic of a 'solution' was given for this event. No speed games? Seriously? Are you guys kidding? I don't know much about all this 'salt' at other events regarding bonus... But that's what bonus is about, for me, as a viewer. I loved watching runs of games nobody talks about with streamers nobody talks about. You find so many gems, so many diamonds in the rough. On top of that, it always seems like a No Holds Barred or Unfiltered portion of the event which brings so much awesomeness to the table. What you guys did to bonus this year... to me, wasn't you looking for a solution, it was you intentionally cutting its balls off and giving everyone an excuse to cut it. As I mentioned before, if that's what needs to happen, fine.... But don't embarrass yourselves next time... Just be up front and candid.

-- My number one biggest thing, and an issue I don't believe that has shown up in 10 pages so far ( I may have mindlessly and unknowingly skipped it ). Runners need to be somewhat engaging or need an engaging couch to carry them. The runner controls the hype, the excitement, the fun of the event. More so this year than in years past, so many runners seemed 'out of it' and just trying to get through their run... The best runners and overall best moments of this GDQ were with engaging and fun runners/couches that didn't let anything affect them from not only playing their game, but giving people a good show.

With that said, I think more time needs to go into actually selecting the runners and games that get selected for the marathon. What I mean by that is that there should be a premium placed on personality and commentating. A few small theoretical examples.

A) You have two runners submitting the same game. One has WR and is more 'skilled' while the other might be a few minutes behind WR pace but provides better commentary and more energy... Runner 2 should be chosen 10x out of 10 in that situation. I realize this is a speed running event, and I don't want to undermine that. But we are trying to raise money here, and you will never convince me even a small majority of the hundreds of thousands of viewers you get are super involved with speed running. Viewers need and want to be entertained. They need reasons to get excited and keep watching the stream beyond "I played this game as a kid and loved it".

B) The same situation exists when you are picking between multiple runners and multiple games... Just going with the most popular game or going with the the more skilled runner (again the difference here being different games/cats) shouldn't always win out. Too many times while I watch actual runner streams do I hear things like "Oh ya, my game didn't make it because somebody else is better at the game" or "I don't think I got in because they think my game sucks" or any other reason when you guys are stuffing our faces with 10 FZero games in a row or 25 Mario games in a row... Better commentators and people with ACTUAL PERSONALITY should triumph every single decision... great commentators can take what you guys think is a 'boring' game to show on stream and make it a thing.. make it exciting. And even with the most marathon safe and popular game, a bad commentator can ruin the entire experience.

This, above all else, led to what many have described as the ban on fun or whatever... The boring and dead atmosphere of the event happened because you guys kinda failed to give us a reason to get excited. You didn't give us the runners we needed to see.

Finally, to piggy back off that thought.. I want to give some shout outs to people / runners / commentators for made this event awesome. I am sorry if I don't know everybody, their names, or even how to properly spell them... I am largely going off memory here, and please don't get salty over me leaving somebody out.. I probably watched 75% of the entire marathon, barely sleeping during it.. But I still missed some good commentators and couches, so the list won't ab all-inclusive.

1) Blechy -- Personality and commentary through the roof. This guy was amazing... Every single run or broadcast he was part of was entertaining, engaging, and exciting... regardless of how popular or well known the game was. A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++.

2) Witwix -- I don't think anyone is really surprised to see him here so I am going to keep the praise to a minimum... I have watched him play Boshy for countless hours. That run he had was pretty disgusting, in a bad way, in my opinion. From what I see of him, that was beneath sub-standard. HOWEVER... Witwix himself is amazing. It didn't matter that the run was shit, it was still a GREAT run not because of the time but because Witwix made it great. Need more runners who can do this....

3) GameJ06 -- What a beast... Boshy was a few runs earlier, and it seemed that a lot of excitement and hype died with it. But this guy right here.. Big Jon BROUGHT THE PARTY BACK. He livened up the room, the stream, and chat. What an amazing person...I can't even put into words how much he lifted the mood and atmosphere of the event during his run. Like... Amazing.

4) The Kingdom Hearts Runners / Couch-- These guys represented their game and community better than anyone during the event... Not only that, but they did it at like 4 am my time and KILLED IT. Runners so often get down at graveyard shifts and stuff (which is understandable), but not these guys... Spike, BB, Bizkit, Riz, etc etc... Absolutely top notch fellas. Seriously, you made it worth staying up through the graveyard shift. It was one of the best runs and moments of the entire marathon and it happened that early... It pisses me off going into any of those guys' streams now and hearing how Kingdom Hearts had been black balled for so long. Get these guys back again and again... because they KNOW what the people want, and deliver not only great runs with great explanations... but with great personalities as well.

5) PJ (and Mecharichter) -- No offense to any other runner that dedicated their time and money to go up on stream for either commentating or playing... But PJ is the best. By far, he deserves the theoretical 'MVP' award of AGDQ 2015. He was everywhere doing everything. Every time I turned on the stream, it seemed like PJ was getting ready to either play or commentate. A lot like Blechy, he made every single run, every single game entertaining, engaging, and FUN. Things would slow down a little, get stale or boring.. and BOOM here comes PJ again and again to carry the entire weight of the event on his shoulders. I don't mean to overstate his contributions or understate the contributions of others... but damn it, i was impressed by this guy. Mecha was the same way, but he wasn't on stream as often as PJ was (at least when I watched) and they were often together anyway. AMAZING. AMAZING. I vote to change AGDQ to PJ Does Games Quick, because he saved a lot of your asses.

Other Quick Hitters -- Adam AK, Cojosao, Dram, (and I am sure some i forgot)

Best part of those guys I just listed... Other than Spike and Witwix.... I wasn't following any of them. To me, 10 of these 12 names were brand new to me as far as speed running goes. They all got follows... Not because they set World records or because they posted amazing times for their game... but because they were ENTERTAINING, ENGAGING, and FUN.

Keep that in mind when organizing and selecting runners in the future... Please. The future of the event may rely on it.

A couple of things to start out... I want to make sure everyone realizes how much we appreciate them and their time in organizing this event. This thread is very negative, but I think that is required for the event to get better. The tech crew especially is getting so much flak, and I think they are handling it extremely well with a lot of transparency, which is appreciated as well. I will hit on a few repeated things first. I don't expect a response, I just feel seeing it multiple times will help pinpoint the bigger needs of the event, from my perspective.

-- I don't know much of the behind the scenes, but just now reading about this dedicated 'Prize' team actually floored me. I am not sure all of what they are responsible for, but as stated previously... Prizes and the hype they didn't get was so sad. There was so much time plugging sponsors, but almost no air time for stuff people donated to the event to be given away. I did hear about the perlers MechaRichter made and I am glad I did, because other that those and the pinball machine, I never heard anything about prizes. Even the PS4 was largely ignored.. Ya, there were a couple pictures here and there but that space on the stream seemed mostly dedicated to pumping up the ego of Twitch and their "swag' package. Oh boy... More air time is needed to the prizes and the people who donated them. I don't care if it's a $1 perler Mecha made at home or a $2000 pinball machine. Those people, ALL OF THEM, need to be given the props they deserve and the prizes themselves need to be better advertised.

-- There has been some talk of the hosts and how they overplugged the sponsors and what not... A semi new twist I haven't read in here yet but playing off that same idea a little... Have hosts been censored at all? In events past, I loved the sometimes random little remarks or funny one-liner that many hosts (Bob being my favorite, among many others) would provide. This year, outside of a couple examples (Vulajin during FFVII comes to mind quickly) it seemed like they are all were afraid / told not to make a comment that wasn't either A) A donation or B) reading the same exact sponsor plug for the 50,000th time. They were just so much more robotic, overall, than any other of these countless events I have watched, and I was so disappointed by this. I realize and fully understand that there may be multiple reasons for this -- exhaustion, maybe no connection or interest to the runner / game at ALL, etc. But I hope this can change, regardless of the reason why it happened.

-- I loved bonus stream. If for reasons out of anyones control it has to die, so be it... but I do want to comment on how horribly shit-tastic of a 'solution' was given for this event. No speed games? Seriously? Are you guys kidding? I don't know much about all this 'salt' at other events regarding bonus... But that's what bonus is about, for me, as a viewer. I loved watching runs of games nobody talks about with streamers nobody talks about. You find so many gems, so many diamonds in the rough. On top of that, it always seems like a No Holds Barred or Unfiltered portion of the event which brings so much awesomeness to the table. What you guys did to bonus this year... to me, wasn't you looking for a solution, it was you intentionally cutting its balls off and giving everyone an excuse to cut it. As I mentioned before, if that's what needs to happen, fine.... But don't embarrass yourselves next time... Just be up front and candid.

-- My number one biggest thing, and an issue I don't believe that has shown up in 10 pages so far ( I may have mindlessly and unknowingly skipped it ). Runners need to be somewhat engaging or need an engaging couch to carry them. The runner controls the hype, the excitement, the fun of the event. More so this year than in years past, so many runners seemed 'out of it' and just trying to get through their run... The best runners and overall best moments of this GDQ were with engaging and fun runners/couches that didn't let anything affect them from not only playing their game, but giving people a good show.

With that said, I think more time needs to go into actually selecting the runners and games that get selected for the marathon. What I mean by that is that there should be a premium placed on personality and commentating. A few small theoretical examples.

A) You have two runners submitting the same game. One has WR and is more 'skilled' while the other might be a few minutes behind WR pace but provides better commentary and more energy... Runner 2 should be chosen 10x out of 10 in that situation. I realize this is a speed running event, and I don't want to undermine that. But we are trying to raise money here, and you will never convince me even a small majority of the hundreds of thousands of viewers you get are super involved with speed running. Viewers need and want to be entertained. They need reasons to get excited and keep watching the stream beyond "I played this game as a kid and loved it".

B) The same situation exists when you are picking between multiple runners and multiple games... Just going with the most popular game or going with the the more skilled runner (again the difference here being different games/cats) shouldn't always win out. Too many times while I watch actual runner streams do I hear things like "Oh ya, my game didn't make it because somebody else is better at the game" or "I don't think I got in because they think my game sucks" or any other reason when you guys are stuffing our faces with 10 FZero games in a row or 25 Mario games in a row... Better commentators and people with ACTUAL PERSONALITY should triumph every single decision... great commentators can take what you guys think is a 'boring' game to show on stream and make it a thing.. make it exciting. And even with the most marathon safe and popular game, a bad commentator can ruin the entire experience.

This, above all else, led to what many have described as the ban on fun or whatever... The boring and dead atmosphere of the event happened because you guys kinda failed to give us a reason to get excited. You didn't give us the runners we needed to see.

Finally, to piggy back off that thought.. I want to give some shout outs to people / runners / commentators for made this event awesome. I am sorry if I don't know everybody, their names, or even how to properly spell them... I am largely going off memory here, and please don't get salty over me leaving somebody out.. I probably watched 75% of the entire marathon, barely sleeping during it.. But I still missed some good commentators and couches, so the list won't ab all-inclusive.

1) Blechy -- Personality and commentary through the roof. This guy was amazing... Every single run or broadcast he was part of was entertaining, engaging, and exciting... regardless of how popular or well known the game was. A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++.

2) Witwix -- I don't think anyone is really surprised to see him here so I am going to keep the praise to a minimum... I have watched him play Boshy for countless hours. That run he had was pretty disgusting, in a bad way, in my opinion. From what I see of him, that was beneath sub-standard. HOWEVER... Witwix himself is amazing. It didn't  matter that the run was shit, it was still a GREAT run not because of the time but because Witwix made it great. Need more runners who can do this....

3) GameJ06 -- What a beast... Boshy was a few runs earlier, and it seemed that a lot of excitement and hype died with it. But this guy right here.. Big Jon BROUGHT THE PARTY BACK. He livened up the room, the stream, and chat. What an amazing person...I can't even put into words how much he lifted the mood and atmosphere of the event during his run. Like... Amazing.

4) The Kingdom Hearts Runners / Couch-- These guys represented their game and community better than anyone during the event... Not only that, but they did it at like 4 am my time and KILLED IT. Runners so often get down at graveyard shifts and stuff (which is understandable), but not these guys... Spike, BB, Bizkit, Riz, etc etc... Absolutely top notch fellas. Seriously, you made it worth staying up through the graveyard shift. It was one of the best runs and moments of the entire marathon and it happened that early... It pisses me off going into any of those guys' streams now and hearing how Kingdom Hearts had been black balled for so long. Get these guys back again and again... because they KNOW what the people want, and deliver not only great runs with great explanations... but with great personalities as well.

5) PJ (and Mecharichter) -- No offense to any other runner that dedicated their time and money to go up on stream for either commentating or playing... But PJ is the best. By far, he deserves the theoretical 'MVP' award of AGDQ 2015. He was everywhere doing everything. Every time I turned on the stream, it seemed like PJ was getting ready to either play or commentate. A lot like Blechy, he made every single run, every single game entertaining, engaging, and FUN. Things would slow down a little, get stale or boring.. and BOOM here comes PJ again and again to carry the entire weight of the event on his shoulders. I don't mean to overstate his contributions or understate the contributions of others... but damn it, i was impressed by this guy.  Mecha was the same way, but he wasn't on stream as often as PJ was (at least when I watched) and they were often together anyway. AMAZING. AMAZING. I vote to change AGDQ to PJ Does Games Quick, because he saved a lot of your asses.

Other Quick Hitters -- Adam AK, Cojosao, Dram, (and I am sure some i forgot)

Best part of those guys I just listed... Other than Spike and Witwix.... I wasn't following any of them. To me, 10 of these 12 names were brand new to me as far as speed running goes. They all got follows... Not because they set World records or because they posted amazing times for their game... but because they were ENTERTAINING, ENGAGING, and FUN.

Keep that in mind when organizing and selecting runners in the future... Please. The future of the event may rely on it.

Darkwing Duck

Edit history:

Darkwing Duck: 2015-01-25 06:24:31 pm

Darkwing Duck: 2015-01-25 06:24:14 pm

Darkwing Duck: 2015-01-25 06:24:03 pm

2015-01-25 06:22:33 pm

Highly Evolved

And you just insulted every single speedrunner, and speedrunning in general, across the entirety of the hobby by flat out saying that since you're boring, you can't contribute to raising money for charity. I hope any of your ideas will NEVER be implemented, TempleKnight.

And this comes from someone who generally gets positive reviews to how he presents himself and his games at GDQ events.

Everyone should have a chance if he or she is good (or the best) at a game that GDQ deems worthy of inclusion at a GDQ event, not the other way around.

Reiska

2015-01-25 06:33:03 pm

Quote from dangodofthunder:

Quote:

Mike and I have been primarily in charge of all prize-related tasks for the last couple of years, but we recognize that we have not been putting the amount of effort and passion that all of the prize donors and winners deserve into this because we have to focus on so much else. We made the decision to have a dedicated prize team on staff because of this, and we will do our best to ensure that prize submissions, showcases during the marathon, and shipments after the marathon will be much smoother from now on.

We know the events would not be anywhere near as successful as they are today without the awesome prizes made and donated by the community, so we are making sure to give you the attention you deserve from now on. I apologize for how lackluster we may have been with handling some of the prizes before, but the prize coordinators will definitely make sure that this won't be an issue again. The current prize coordinators are EvenSteven02 and Sent, but we may add more people to the team should the need arise.

I understand that you guys are being stretched in a number of ways, and adding more folks to the staff may be of assistance, but my donated prize was amongst a small handful of prizes that got completely overlooked. It's also alarming that I still have no idea how to reach out to Jeremy10 who won the Nerf Stryfe that I donated.

My theory for my upgraded nerf blaster was that no one had any idea at all how to explain or relay the fact that this gift was a prize package. It isn't intuitive to a gamer audience like a PS4 or a Perler or a Plushie. I spoke to Evensteven02 mentioning this issue. Sure, it's a bit of explanation to go over how it isn't a nerf blaster that's been bought off the shelf from Walmart, and how it's quite a bit more powerful and fun to work with. I totally understand that. But if all of those were the case, why was my gift accepted at all? I did offer to send the blaster and the high voltage batteries to AGDQ for a demonstration firing, and while I understand that it isn't realistic or even feasible with the chaos and long logistical tail that AGDQ has, that would have gone a long way to explain exactly what I was donating (The modified blaster is roughly 45% more powerful than its counterpart).

I would have found it less insulting for my gift to be rejected for being too hard to explain or not gaming related than for it to be accepted and simply be a line item on the donation prize to make it seem longer, despite no attention or talk being given to it all during the GDQ stream. Especially considering that there are individuals who modify the same blaster and resell it for 75 dollars plus shipping. From what I've heard, AGDQ 2015 was extremely desperate for donation prizes of any sort, but if we donate a prize, it at least deserves a mention on stream, and ideally that mention on the stream would occur during that actual donation window. I am almost certain that my donation prize, which was of relatively high value compared to others, drove absolutely no donations this year. And with that being the case, what was the point of me donating?

If it's any consolation, now that you mention your prize, I do remember hearing about it, and I mostly only listened to AGDQ this year, not actually watched it (the stream was running and audible 100% of the time when I was wake, but I only specifically watched the games that interested me), so it must have been mentioned at least once.

[quote="dangodofthunder"][quote]Mike and I have been primarily in charge of all prize-related tasks for the last couple of years, but we recognize that we have not been putting the amount of effort and passion that all of the prize donors and winners deserve into this because we have to focus on so much else. We made the decision to have a dedicated prize team on staff because of this, and we will do our best to ensure that prize submissions, showcases during the marathon, and shipments after the marathon will be much smoother from now on.

We know the events would not be anywhere near as successful as they are today without the awesome prizes made and donated by the community, so we are making sure to give you the attention you deserve from now on. I apologize for how lackluster we may have been with handling some of the prizes before, but the prize coordinators will definitely make sure that this won't be an issue again. The current prize coordinators are EvenSteven02 and Sent, but we may add more people to the team should the need arise.[/quote]

I understand that you guys are being stretched in a number of ways, and adding more folks to the staff may be of assistance, but my donated prize was amongst a small handful of prizes that got completely overlooked. It's also alarming that I still have no idea how to reach out to Jeremy10 who won the Nerf Stryfe that I donated.

My theory for my upgraded nerf blaster was that no one had any idea at all how to explain or relay the fact that this gift was a prize package. It isn't intuitive to a gamer audience like a PS4 or a Perler or a Plushie. I spoke to Evensteven02 mentioning this issue. Sure, it's a bit of explanation to go over how it isn't a nerf blaster that's been bought off the shelf from Walmart, and how it's quite a bit more powerful and fun to work with. I totally understand that. But if all of those were the case, why was my gift accepted at all? I did offer to send the blaster and the high voltage batteries to AGDQ for a demonstration firing, and while I understand that it isn't realistic or even feasible with the chaos and long logistical tail that AGDQ has, that would have gone a long way to explain exactly what I was donating (The modified blaster is roughly 45% more powerful than its counterpart).

I would have found it less insulting for my gift to be rejected for being too hard to explain or not gaming related than for it to be accepted and simply be a line item on the donation prize to make it seem longer, despite no attention or talk being given to it all during the GDQ stream. Especially considering that there are individuals who modify the same blaster and resell it for 75 dollars plus shipping. From what I've heard, AGDQ 2015 was extremely desperate for donation prizes of any sort, but if we donate a prize, it at least deserves a mention on stream, and ideally that mention on the stream would occur during that actual donation window. I am almost certain that my donation prize, which was of relatively high value compared to others, drove absolutely no donations this year. And with that being the case, what was the point of me donating?[/quote]

If it's any consolation, now that you mention your prize, I do remember hearing about it, and I mostly only listened to AGDQ this year, not actually watched it (the stream was running and audible 100% of the time when I was wake, but I only specifically watched the games that interested me), so it must have been mentioned at least once.

TheTempleKnight

Edit history:

TheTempleKnight: 2015-01-25 06:52:10 pm

2015-01-25 06:48:30 pm

My apologies that I was a bit abrasive and heavy handed, and also that I wasn't clear enough as you are very confused. I most certainly did not say that you can't contribute if you are boring. Your 'all or nothing' mentality and general over exaggeration hurts you and others more than anything I said, Darkwing. Making assumptions and putting words into peoples mouths gives you the black eye you think I am placing upon you and others.

It's unrealistic to think and or expect every single runner over the course of 6-7 days to be absolute top notch in the commentary department. It won't happen, never will. And I don't expect it to. There will be 'boring' people no matter what. It's unavoidable. The fastest guys in a certain game already get attention.. Maybe not a ton, and maybe not as much as they deserve. But guys further down the list get even less than that... I want those guys, who may not be the fastest, but have a lot to provide to this event to get some attention as well.

It's a speed running event, your fast people are going to be there, they always will be. But there is so much more talent that is being left out of these events, because of an elitist mentality that needs to go away. There are A LOT of people that have things to offer, beyond just going really fast. Don't let your ego get in the way of seeing the truth.

EDIT: And let us not forget.. 'boring' or 'fun' is pretty subjective. My vision of that can be much different than what other people think is fun or boring.

My apologies that I was a bit abrasive and heavy handed, and also that I wasn't clear enough as you are very confused. I most certainly did not say that you can't contribute if you are boring. Your 'all or nothing' mentality and general over exaggeration hurts you and others more than anything I said, Darkwing. Making assumptions and putting words into peoples mouths gives you the black eye you think I am placing upon you and others.

It's unrealistic to think and or expect every single runner over the course of 6-7 days to be absolute top notch in the commentary department. It won't happen, never will. And I don't expect it to. There will be 'boring' people no matter what. It's unavoidable. The fastest guys in a certain game already get attention.. Maybe not a ton, and maybe not as much as they deserve. But guys further down the list get even less than that... I want those guys, who may not be the fastest, but have a lot to provide to this event to get some attention as well.

It's a speed running event, your fast people are going to be there, they always will be. But there is so much more talent that is being left out of these events, because of an elitist mentality that needs to go away. There are A LOT of people that have things to offer, beyond just going really fast. Don't let your ego get in the way of seeing the truth.

EDIT: And let us not forget.. 'boring' or 'fun' is pretty subjective. My vision of that can be much different than what other people think is fun or boring.

NiL8r

2015-01-25 06:59:41 pm

I'll point out a few runs in particular that jump to mind:
A Link To The Past from SGDQ13
Super Mario Bros 2 US from SGDQ14

Both had runners with very little commentary, but both were regarded extremely highly. Why? Because they had the best runners playing the game.

If we ditched the top runners in favor of lower quality runs with better commentary, we lose the point of this being a speedrunning marathon.

CosmykTheDolfyn

2015-01-25 07:04:18 pm

NowOwnsAFreaking Plane

TempleKnight, I'm not sure I've ever felt my blood boil while reading a post. But it happened today. Everyone who is good at a run gets a chance. That's just it. "Boring" commentary can really be cleaned up by a good couch crew also. For example, I greatly enjoyed Mega Man X3 at AGDQ by ThatAin'tFalco. The commentary was right on point and enjoyable while being informative with very little input by the runner with a good couch. And Nil8r came up with great points also.
This is speedrunning, not play throughs with fun commentary.

Cronikeys

2015-01-25 07:13:28 pm

Quote from romscout:

We have opened up choices for the community multiple times before, with the most recent being before SGDQ 2013. We certainly listen to community concerns about the charities we fundraise for and keep them in mind as we move forward and grow.

Cool. I hope an official discussion thread is eventually made for that topic, because I believe a lot of people are interested in re-assessing which charity is chosen. I'll bring it up again after SGDQ or before AGDQ2016 planning begins if one isn't made.

Reiska

2015-01-25 07:13:59 pm

To be entirely fair, ALttP and SMB2 are both popular games that most of the audience is extremely familiar with. The runs of those games can pretty much speak for themselves. Not every game has that luxury.

I'd say a good general rule of thumb probably is that the less mainstream the game's appeal is, the more the quality of commentary is going to matter for the run's entertainment value.

Crow!

2015-01-25 07:18:52 pm

What's that gemma?

I was really looking forward to the TAS block, but I was ultimately disappointed because it didn't feature any speed runs.

Don't get me wrong, I like hacking consoles, and "Pokemon plays Twitch" was a clever angle. But for the TAS block to make sense, it should start off with a couple of flashy tool assisted speedruns, then follow up with the wild and crazy afterward.

superrobin

2015-01-25 07:22:27 pm

Stop banning fun and banning plushies. Also show the audience and remove the un-hype, and please be more explicit + transparent about how much of what were donating is put towards you staff. So we can see if its worth it. Thanks

BaronHaynes

2015-01-25 07:28:35 pm

Strange days, incredible days

Quote from romscout:

Quote from BaronHaynes:

One other thing regarding subs: Currently, there's no real incentive to subscribe to the channel. You're not going to talk in this thing, no one is going to see what you have to say, and the room is never in sub-only. This is partly a Twitch problem, I think it'd help tremendously to be able to turn on sub-only locally and talk in a functional chat with other subscribers, but the site doesn't have that functionality. This could be a good middle ground if it was ever a thing. But at the moment, there's no reason to subscribe apart from a handful of emotes vs. just making a $5 donation.

One thing that can be done to help with making a subscription desirable is to reassess the emotes we have or add new ones that people would want to use a lot more. The general chat policy is a bit of a bigger issue here, of course, so I'll go ahead and address that.

During this last AGDQ, we never went to a sub-only chat. We are open to changing this policy, but do not want to make the jump to a full sub-only chat for the entire marathon yet. Doing this could have very negative effects on the community. We may instead try an approach where we attempt to have chat be less negative first, then go to sub-only for a set amount of time when we experience high volumes of bad spam/negativity.

This was suggested after SGDQ as well but not implemented -- I definitely think it's worth trying. I've seen good hosts and good commentary redirect a bad chat to feel more engaged in the event, instead of just shit-talking people on camera (there's always a bit of that, but it gets really bad lately). Mods could probably do this as well, I've seen Brossentia turn around a chat before (to an extent). So I think it's possible to encourage a better atmosphere beyond just putting up a paywall.

I also think part of the problem is the either/or nature of sub-only. If it was possible to subscribe to the chat and turn on sub-only locally, you could create a more functional chat atmosphere and give an incentive for subscribing beyond just emotes. The one time sub-only was enabled, there was a flood of new subscribers and chat quality improved immensely. I strongly considered subscribing as well but figured it wouldn't be worth it, since it wasn't likely to stay on for long. Sub-only could have benefits beyond just being punishment for a bad chat, if it wasn't an exclusionary thing and subscribers could access it on their own.

I understand the desire to not go full-time sub-only, but I think more should be tried beyond just bots in that case. Thanks for responding on this.

[quote="romscout"][quote="BaronHaynes"]One other thing regarding subs: Currently, there's no real incentive to subscribe to the channel. You're not going to talk in this thing, no one is going to see what you have to say, and the room is never in sub-only. This is partly a Twitch problem, I think it'd help tremendously to be able to turn on sub-only locally and talk in a functional chat with other subscribers, but the site doesn't have that functionality. This could be a good middle ground if it was ever a thing. But at the moment, there's no reason to subscribe apart from a handful of emotes vs. just making a $5 donation.[/quote]

One thing that can be done to help with making a subscription desirable is to reassess the emotes we have or add new ones that people would want to use a lot more. The general chat policy is a bit of a bigger issue here, of course, so I'll go ahead and address that.

During this last AGDQ, we never went to a sub-only chat. We are open to changing this policy, but do not want to make the jump to a full sub-only chat for the entire marathon yet. Doing this could have very negative effects on the community. We may instead try an approach where we attempt to have chat be less negative first, then go to sub-only for a set amount of time when we experience high volumes of bad spam/negativity.[/quote]
This was suggested after SGDQ as well but not implemented -- I definitely think it's worth trying. I've seen good hosts and good commentary redirect a bad chat to feel more engaged in the event, instead of just shit-talking people on camera (there's always a bit of that, but it gets really bad lately). Mods could probably do this as well, I've seen Brossentia turn around a chat before (to an extent). So I think it's possible to encourage a better atmosphere beyond just putting up a paywall.

I also think part of the problem is the either/or nature of sub-only. If it was possible to subscribe to the chat and turn on sub-only locally, you could create a more functional chat atmosphere and give an incentive for subscribing beyond just emotes. The one time sub-only was enabled, there was a flood of new subscribers and chat quality improved immensely. I strongly considered subscribing as well but figured it wouldn't be worth it, since it wasn't likely to stay on for long. Sub-only could have benefits beyond just being punishment for a bad chat, if it wasn't an exclusionary thing and subscribers could access it on their own.

I understand the desire to not go full-time sub-only, but I think more should be tried beyond just bots in that case. Thanks for responding on this.

sumichu

2015-01-25 07:47:04 pm

ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Quote from TheTempleKnight:

It's unrealistic to think and or expect every single runner over the course of 6-7 days to be absolute top notch in the commentary department. It won't happen, never will. And I don't expect it to. There will be 'boring' people no matter what. It's unavoidable. The fastest guys in a certain game already get attention.. Maybe not a ton, and maybe not as much as they deserve. But guys further down the list get even less than that... I want those guys, who may not be the fastest, but have a lot to provide to this event to get some attention as well.

It's a speed running event, your fast people are going to be there, they always will be. But there is so much more talent that is being left out of these events, because of an elitist mentality that needs to go away. There are A LOT of people that have things to offer, beyond just going really fast. Don't let your ego get in the way of seeing the truth.

EDIT: And let us not forget.. 'boring' or 'fun' is pretty subjective. My vision of that can be much different than what other people think is fun or boring.

I think an issue with this is that it betrays the fact that GDQs are, in their simplest form, speedrunning marathons. In a perfect situation, we would like a game's community to come together to form a composed team of the best possible run and good commentary, supported by a host that fills in the gaps. You don't need to have the best time to contribute to the marathon with couch commentary, and we will be looking into additional ways to get the commentators credit while encouraging roll calls and host shoutouts.

[quote="TheTempleKnight"]
It's unrealistic to think and or expect every single runner over the course of 6-7 days to be absolute top notch in the commentary department. It won't happen, never will. And I don't expect it to. There will be 'boring' people no matter what. It's unavoidable. The fastest guys in a certain game already get attention.. Maybe not a ton, and maybe not as much as they deserve. But guys further down the list get even less than that... I want those guys, who may not be the fastest, but have a lot to provide to this event to get some attention as well.

It's a speed running event, your fast people are going to be there, they always will be. But there is so much more talent that is being left out of these events, because of an elitist mentality that needs to go away. There are A LOT of people that have things to offer, beyond just going really fast. Don't let your ego get in the way of seeing the truth.

EDIT: And let us not forget.. 'boring' or 'fun' is pretty subjective. My vision of that can be much different than what other people think is fun or boring. [/quote]

I think an issue with this is that it betrays the fact that GDQs are, in their simplest form, speedrunning marathons.  In a perfect situation, we would like a game's community to come together to form a composed team of the best possible run and good commentary, supported by a host that fills in the gaps.  You don't need to have the best time to contribute to the marathon with couch commentary, and we will be looking into additional ways to get the commentators credit while encouraging roll calls and host shoutouts.

dangodofthunder

2015-01-25 08:15:56 pm

Reiska, it does help. I did not hear it during any of the portions I listened to, nor did I hear it while re-watching the segments that it was up for bidding for. So while I'm concerned that it wasn't during any of those phases, it's better than never at all.

Melodia

2015-01-25 08:24:15 pm

This is very specific but I think it needs to be brought up -- two years in a row now one of the racers died in Super Metroid.
I think mandatory safety saves in that game should be had from now on.

(In fact in this case my own enthusiasm went waaaaaaaaaaay down when the death happened, but I watch SM all the time,. granted),

doicm

2015-01-25 09:01:33 pm

Quote from TheTempleKnight:

A) You have two runners submitting the same game. One has WR and is more 'skilled' while the other might be a few minutes behind WR pace but provides better commentary and more energy... Runner 2 should be chosen 10x out of 10 in that situation. I realize this is a speed running event, and I don't want to undermine that. But we are trying to raise money here, and you will never convince me even a small majority of the hundreds of thousands of viewers you get are super involved with speed running. Viewers need and want to be entertained. They need reasons to get excited and keep watching the stream beyond "I played this game as a kid and loved it".

B) The same situation exists when you are picking between multiple runners and multiple games... Just going with the most popular game or going with the the more skilled runner (again the difference here being different games/cats) shouldn't always win out. Too many times while I watch actual runner streams do I hear things like "Oh ya, my game didn't make it because somebody else is better at the game" or "I don't think I got in because they think my game sucks" or any other reason when you guys are stuffing our faces with 10 FZero games in a row or 25 Mario games in a row... Better commentators and people with ACTUAL PERSONALITY should triumph every single decision... great commentators can take what you guys think is a 'boring' game to show on stream and make it a thing.. make it exciting. And even with the most marathon safe and popular game, a bad commentator can ruin the entire experience.

This, above all else, led to what many have described as the ban on fun or whatever... The boring and dead atmosphere of the event happened because you guys kinda failed to give us a reason to get excited. You didn't give us the runners we needed to see.

Regarding point a (and I understand it's a subjective view based on the organizers' decisions about what is good and bad commentary), the faster time should win. If runner B, the one with the slower time but more entertaining commentary should run, then he/she can improve their time and try to match/beat the other runner. Otherwise, they can join runner A on the couch and provide the entertaining commentary to fill the role. Either way, it's a win/win, and the fastest time will prevail. It would show the highest level of commitment on both parties (being runners A and B) to the game.

Regarding point b.....I guess it depends on who submits and who doesn't (consider the Let's Players who submitted Minecraft and how little presence they have in the speedrunning world, but how much personality they have). I wonder if that did have a factor in the submission process this last GDQ. A majority of us may just be relatively camera shy when it comes to bigger events like this. I have no clue. Just a food for thought.

[quote="TheTempleKnight"]A) You have two runners submitting the same game. One has WR and is more 'skilled' while the other might be a few minutes behind WR pace but provides better commentary and more energy... Runner 2 should be chosen 10x out of 10 in that situation. I realize this is a speed running event, and I don't want to undermine that. But we are trying to raise money here, and you will never convince me even a small majority of the hundreds of thousands of viewers you get are super involved with speed running. Viewers need and want to be entertained. They need reasons to get excited and keep watching the stream beyond "I played this game as a kid and loved it".

B) The same situation exists when you are picking between multiple runners and multiple games... Just going with the most popular game or going with the the more skilled runner (again the difference here being different games/cats) shouldn't always win out. Too many times while I watch actual runner streams do I hear things like "Oh ya, my game didn't make it because somebody else is better at the game" or "I don't think I got in because they think my game sucks" or any other reason when you guys are stuffing our faces with 10 FZero games in a row or 25 Mario games in a row... Better commentators and people with ACTUAL PERSONALITY should triumph every single decision... great commentators can take what you guys think is a 'boring' game to show on stream and make it a thing.. make it exciting. And even with the most marathon safe and popular game, a bad commentator can ruin the entire experience.

This, above all else, led to what many have described as the ban on fun or whatever... The boring and dead atmosphere of the event happened because you guys kinda failed to give us a reason to get excited. You didn't give us the runners we needed to see. [/quote]

Regarding point a (and I understand it's a subjective view based on the organizers' decisions about what is good and bad commentary), the faster time should win. If runner B, the one with the slower time but more entertaining commentary should run, then he/she can improve their time and try to match/beat the other runner. Otherwise, they can join runner A on the couch and provide the entertaining commentary to fill the role. Either way, it's a win/win, and the fastest time will prevail. It would show the highest level of commitment on both parties (being runners A and B) to the game.

Regarding point b.....I guess it depends on who submits and who doesn't (consider the Let's Players who submitted Minecraft and how little presence they have in the speedrunning world, but how much personality they have). I wonder if that did have a factor in the submission process this last GDQ. A majority of us may just be relatively camera shy when it comes to bigger events like this. I have no clue. Just a food for thought.

ButtersBB

2015-01-25 09:11:50 pm

Did someone seriously try to argue for the fastest runner to not be picked over a slower runner with better commentary skills?

GDQs have always followed a fundamental principle: If you can't slam with the best, jam with the rest. As well they SHOULD.

Naegleria

(user is banned)

2015-01-25 09:37:37 pm

The orientation held on day 1 didnt really do its job. It tried to teach the runners how to use the mics, equipment, etc. But not everybody is there day one. Some runners are only at the event for a short time. Doing a 1 minute orientation shortly before their run (or every block of games) would probably be a better idea.

Studio

2015-01-25 11:13:00 pm

Quote from Melodia:

This is very specific but I think it needs to be brought up -- two years in a row now one of the racers died in Super Metroid.
I think mandatory safety saves in that game should be had from now on.

(In fact in this case my own enthusiasm went waaaaaaaaaaay down when the death happened, but I watch SM all the time,. granted),

In SM races there's an issue where a runner's death usually means they're no longer competitive in the race. If Garrison and EpiclyEpic had safety saved they still would have been significantly behind their competition due to how tight the run is. This means that Super Metroid races will never really benefit from a safety save or backup saves. Once a runner dies they're not competitive in a race. It's heartbreaking to see, but it just goes to show how much work the SM community has put into optimizing that run.

However, I would love to see a backup cart similar to Zoast's low% run at SGDQ 2014. He never went for save points, but he did have back up saves on a separate cart (possibly two carts) just in case something did go terribly wrong. For a solo run this would be the best solution keep up the hype and not waste time on safety saves. It's a bit of a rough solution, but that's also true of safety saves. Fortunately SM has a great save system, just with less than accessible save points. I also wouldn't mind having that cart around as a race safety measure in case all racers die, there's a power outage, etc.

I checked with an SM runner to see how they felt, and it seemed like a natural, solid solution.

[quote="Melodia"]This is very specific but I think it needs to be brought up -- two years in a row now one of the racers died in Super Metroid. 
I think mandatory safety saves in that game should be had from now on.

(In fact in this case my own enthusiasm went waaaaaaaaaaay down when the death happened, but I watch SM all the time,. granted),[/quote]

In SM races there's an issue where a runner's death usually means they're no longer competitive in the race. If Garrison and EpiclyEpic had safety saved they still would have been significantly behind their competition due to how tight the run is. This means that Super Metroid races will never really benefit from a safety save or backup saves. Once a runner dies they're not competitive in a race. It's heartbreaking to see, but it just goes to show how much work the SM community has put into optimizing that run.

However, I would love to see a backup cart similar to Zoast's low% run at SGDQ 2014. He never went for save points, but he did have back up saves on a separate cart (possibly two carts) just in case something did go terribly wrong. For a solo run this would be the best solution keep up the hype and not waste time on safety saves. It's a bit of a rough solution, but that's also true of safety saves. Fortunately SM has a great save system, just with less than accessible save points. I also wouldn't mind having that cart around as a race safety measure in case all racers die, there's a power outage, etc.

I checked with an SM runner to see how they felt, and it seemed like a natural, solid solution.