Commenting as someone who only got into speedrunning in the last year or so and has only been watching marathons since SGDQ13, but whatever. I'll try providing suggestions that have come to mind while reading through the thread that I haven't yet seen to problems that have already been mentioned.
Overly-long setup times
We all know this was a problem, and it's very easy for romscout and Matty to say that they'll try to be more on top of it come SGDQ. It's already been established that these events don't have the budget for twice the equipment, and a dual-couch setup just won't work. But that doesn't mean that you can't set up more games than just the very next one.
Say you start the event with games 1 and 2 already set to go. Game 1 goes ahead, then there's the setup/takedown phase of game 1. In the same time that the first game's setup is being dismantled enough for that TV/PC to be freed up, the runner/couch crew to take off any mics and get the game out of the console, and get out of the way, game 3 begins setup. As long as the technical requirements for whatever game is being run (CRT, PAL/NTSC, etc.) are well-defined and understood by the runner and organisers, people work quickly and communicate with each other, and games aren't scheduled in such a way that two games that require the same setup where there are only enough supplies for one aren't run back-to-back, in theory this should allow for a fairly quick setup time. In that time, game 2's runner gets mic'd up, has their levels set, the game is started and confirmed to be working and appearing on-stream, and the host has had some time to do the general marathon info/sponsor/bid war/prize callouts and a few donations.
This solution requires everyone to be on their game; considering the air of professionalism that GDQ wants to have now, that's hardly asking much. But when I say "everyone", I mean the runners as well. They'll need to be available to set up their game one run in advance, be expressly clear when submitting their runs about what they need, and not mill about once their run is done. Runners may not be volunteering for any behind-the-scenes work or organising, but they are still volunteering to help with the event by way of running games.
Regarding orientation on day one that some runners missed due to arriving partway through the marathon: just send an orientation infopack to all known (and maybe even potential, i.e. incentive runs, bonus runs) runners by email a couple of weeks before the event, informing them of their responsibilities as runners, how to do things like mic themselves up quickly, not to swear, and so on. Basic info. If a runner screws up on one of these things, they didn't read their copy and should get flagged for it as a less-desirable runner for future events.
No crowd behind the couch
The solution other people have come up with so far of switching from the couch cam to the crowd cam during runs to give the viewers at home a sense of the atmosphere and hype at the venue is a good one; the best time to use it would likely be while a donation is being read, with a slow pan across the crowd (slow pan means hand-controlled, don't use a robocam). Of course, like a lot of things, it would need to be used with intelligence, not just automatically switching cameras as soon as any donation starts, recognising when the couch is actually worth looking at (suspense at a blindfolded run, for example), but it would go a long way towards making things feel as lively as they did in previous GDQs. The matter of actual attendees feeling like they paid several hundred dollars to watch what they could have from the comfort of their own home is something I'll leave to smarter people to solve.
Bonus stream as training
If the bonus stream does live on as a method for tech volunteers to be properly trained, please let it also apply to hosts. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like a lot more new people were hosting than previous events, and the combination of people who clearly aren't as comfortable with public speaking/announcing and the constant recitations of scripted sponsor messages made it really boring to listen to after awhile. Let the hosts of the bonus stream be people who haven't done any/much hosting before, give them the chance to practice some basic radio techniques like the channel callout, the upcoming schedule, ad-libbing, reading donations, screening donations themselves to make judgement calls about what should be read out, when.
At the same time, I'm sure the organisers want to avoid having volunteers working super long shifts, but I think the main stream's hosts should be kept to people who can prove to some degree that they can do more than just read words off a page. The hosts this year who sounded like they had some personality, or actually interacted with the runners, asking them questions about the game, the run, or speedrunning in general, actually made those runs more enjoyable to watch. If that results in fewer people being required to host for longer periods of time or more frequently, that'll suck for them, but the alternative is an event that's putting on airs, wanting to look and sound professional, yet being presented by people who aren't. At the very least, recommend that people who volunteer for hosting seek out their local community radio station and try getting a bit of radio training.
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I think a general problem with the way the GDQs are evolving is the western business mentality that you must always be growing, getting bigger (read: better) with each successive turn. I've seen comments throughout the thread about how things are hard as AGDQ continues to grow, and I keep asking myself "Does it actually need to get bigger?"
Bigger doesn't automatically equate to more money raised, and more money raised does not automatically mean things have to get bigger. Some questions I have just out of curiosity, since I just don't know: was there an attendee cap on the marathon? Are there any plans for one? I assume the hotel changes each year to try and give people who can't afford the travel expenses to one location might be able to make it somewhere else; are there any hotels that have been whitelisted that you could use a second time, knowing that they are capable of handling the load a GDQ brings?
I especially don't think AGDQ or SGDQ need to keep getting bigger currently, since multiple times in the thread I've been seeing comments from staff that show that GDQ's ambitions far outstrip its abilities, particularly the fact that almost every single person involved with running the events is a volunteer, which means putting your faith in an unknown quantity. Punching above your weight can sometimes lead to fun and memorable events, but this event just seemed like things were going wrong left and right in one way or another. With the cleaner stream layout and better knowledge of ways to avoid technical "hiccups" (to be generous), if the event was scaled back a little to something you know you can handle, wire to wire, I think it would be just fine.
Also whoever said that you should use headsets for mics was absolutely on the money. Nobody cares that the runner will be wearing a piece of plastic on their head, especially when they're going to be looking at the game being run 90% of the time.
Overly-long setup times
We all know this was a problem, and it's very easy for romscout and Matty to say that they'll try to be more on top of it come SGDQ. It's already been established that these events don't have the budget for twice the equipment, and a dual-couch setup just won't work. But that doesn't mean that you can't set up more games than just the very next one.
Say you start the event with games 1 and 2 already set to go. Game 1 goes ahead, then there's the setup/takedown phase of game 1. In the same time that the first game's setup is being dismantled enough for that TV/PC to be freed up, the runner/couch crew to take off any mics and get the game out of the console, and get out of the way, game 3 begins setup. As long as the technical requirements for whatever game is being run (CRT, PAL/NTSC, etc.) are well-defined and understood by the runner and organisers, people work quickly and communicate with each other, and games aren't scheduled in such a way that two games that require the same setup where there are only enough supplies for one aren't run back-to-back, in theory this should allow for a fairly quick setup time. In that time, game 2's runner gets mic'd up, has their levels set, the game is started and confirmed to be working and appearing on-stream, and the host has had some time to do the general marathon info/sponsor/bid war/prize callouts and a few donations.
This solution requires everyone to be on their game; considering the air of professionalism that GDQ wants to have now, that's hardly asking much. But when I say "everyone", I mean the runners as well. They'll need to be available to set up their game one run in advance, be expressly clear when submitting their runs about what they need, and not mill about once their run is done. Runners may not be volunteering for any behind-the-scenes work or organising, but they are still volunteering to help with the event by way of running games.
Regarding orientation on day one that some runners missed due to arriving partway through the marathon: just send an orientation infopack to all known (and maybe even potential, i.e. incentive runs, bonus runs) runners by email a couple of weeks before the event, informing them of their responsibilities as runners, how to do things like mic themselves up quickly, not to swear, and so on. Basic info. If a runner screws up on one of these things, they didn't read their copy and should get flagged for it as a less-desirable runner for future events.
No crowd behind the couch
The solution other people have come up with so far of switching from the couch cam to the crowd cam during runs to give the viewers at home a sense of the atmosphere and hype at the venue is a good one; the best time to use it would likely be while a donation is being read, with a slow pan across the crowd (slow pan means hand-controlled, don't use a robocam). Of course, like a lot of things, it would need to be used with intelligence, not just automatically switching cameras as soon as any donation starts, recognising when the couch is actually worth looking at (suspense at a blindfolded run, for example), but it would go a long way towards making things feel as lively as they did in previous GDQs. The matter of actual attendees feeling like they paid several hundred dollars to watch what they could have from the comfort of their own home is something I'll leave to smarter people to solve.
Bonus stream as training
If the bonus stream does live on as a method for tech volunteers to be properly trained, please let it also apply to hosts. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like a lot more new people were hosting than previous events, and the combination of people who clearly aren't as comfortable with public speaking/announcing and the constant recitations of scripted sponsor messages made it really boring to listen to after awhile. Let the hosts of the bonus stream be people who haven't done any/much hosting before, give them the chance to practice some basic radio techniques like the channel callout, the upcoming schedule, ad-libbing, reading donations, screening donations themselves to make judgement calls about what should be read out, when.
At the same time, I'm sure the organisers want to avoid having volunteers working super long shifts, but I think the main stream's hosts should be kept to people who can prove to some degree that they can do more than just read words off a page. The hosts this year who sounded like they had some personality, or actually interacted with the runners, asking them questions about the game, the run, or speedrunning in general, actually made those runs more enjoyable to watch. If that results in fewer people being required to host for longer periods of time or more frequently, that'll suck for them, but the alternative is an event that's putting on airs, wanting to look and sound professional, yet being presented by people who aren't. At the very least, recommend that people who volunteer for hosting seek out their local community radio station and try getting a bit of radio training.
-
I think a general problem with the way the GDQs are evolving is the western business mentality that you must always be growing, getting bigger (read: better) with each successive turn. I've seen comments throughout the thread about how things are hard as AGDQ continues to grow, and I keep asking myself "Does it actually need to get bigger?"
Bigger doesn't automatically equate to more money raised, and more money raised does not automatically mean things have to get bigger. Some questions I have just out of curiosity, since I just don't know: was there an attendee cap on the marathon? Are there any plans for one? I assume the hotel changes each year to try and give people who can't afford the travel expenses to one location might be able to make it somewhere else; are there any hotels that have been whitelisted that you could use a second time, knowing that they are capable of handling the load a GDQ brings?
I especially don't think AGDQ or SGDQ need to keep getting bigger currently, since multiple times in the thread I've been seeing comments from staff that show that GDQ's ambitions far outstrip its abilities, particularly the fact that almost every single person involved with running the events is a volunteer, which means putting your faith in an unknown quantity. Punching above your weight can sometimes lead to fun and memorable events, but this event just seemed like things were going wrong left and right in one way or another. With the cleaner stream layout and better knowledge of ways to avoid technical "hiccups" (to be generous), if the event was scaled back a little to something you know you can handle, wire to wire, I think it would be just fine.
Also whoever said that you should use headsets for mics was absolutely on the money. Nobody cares that the runner will be wearing a piece of plastic on their head, especially when they're going to be looking at the game being run 90% of the time.
