AGDQ 2017 Feedback Thread

2017-02-13 01:22:55 pm

http://www.twitch.tv/lildingus

20:08 and roughly 40 mins.
It just feels like a lot of commentary is starting to become sterile, again through fear of saying something completely innocent that could lead to a talking to.
Id like to know which runs you are referring to, we can keep this out of here as to not clog up comments via pms if you like.
At the end of the day we are all there to have fun and do what we enjoy, this isnt esports there are no prizes at stake for the runners just fun times to be had.

PvtCb

2017-02-13 01:33:22 pm

This is not the giant

Quote from WanderingMind:

Huge shoutout to World 9 gaming for being cool people.

Echoing this. I have a lot of complaints from this event that staff has made clear they're not going to listen to, but the World 9 people were not one of them. Before registration happened, I spent the night in the practice room and played Monopoly with some of them and we had some good conversations about PCs and what led us to gaming.

Keep hiring these people! They knock it out of the park year after year.

Zandra

2017-02-13 02:40:53 pm

Quote from lildingus:

It just feels like a lot of commentary is starting to become sterile, again through fear of saying something completely innocent that could lead to a talking to.
Id like to know which runs you are referring to, we can keep this out of here as to not clog up comments via pms if you like.
At the end of the day we are all there to have fun and do what we enjoy, this isnt esports there are no prizes at stake for the runners just fun times to be had.

Good idea, I'll take it to DMs for that! And I agree completely - we're all here to have fun and do what we enjoy! And there are tons of ways to enjoy ourselves without preventing others from enjoying themselves too. ^^ Making sure what we say doesn't hurt others is something we get better at over time, and we already do it for a lot of people without even being aware of it.

FanaticDreamer

Edit history:

FanaticDreamer: 2017-02-13 02:43:46 pm

FanaticDreamer: 2017-02-13 02:43:15 pm

2017-02-13 02:42:59 pm

Let's get frisky.

Quote from lildingus:

20:08 and roughly 40 mins.
It just feels like a lot of commentary is starting to become sterile, again through fear of saying something completely innocent that could lead to a talking to.
Id like to know which runs you are referring to, we can keep this out of here as to not clog up comments via pms if you like.
At the end of the day we are all there to have fun and do what we enjoy, this isnt esports there are no prizes at stake for the runners just fun times to be had.

I second this.

I think it shouldn't be so much about policing what the runners/commentators say and more about having a good marathon that's enticing to watch by the vast majority of people. It's fine to censor out really horrible stuff or excessive cursing, but at the end of the day they're a bunch of nerds playing games. And it's not that serious.

In the recent GDQs a lot of the commentary has become kinda...meh because (and I've talked to a few runners / ones I know personally) they're too scared of backlash from staff / being banned from GDQs, or scared of the social media outrage and don't want to open that pandora's box. And funny enough the best runs (like say, Noir's half-life run or Bonesaw's run last year) always get a lot of controversy - but they're also widely considered to be a highlight of the specific GDQ they're at. That's something to think about.

I don't want GDQ compromising the quality of their content / being overly critical of their commentators/marathon runners just because a handful of people would complain about it.

[quote="lildingus"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Y2MfDNEy8 20:08 and roughly 40 mins. 
It just feels like a lot of commentary is starting to become sterile, again through fear of saying something completely innocent that could lead to a talking to.
Id like to know which runs you are referring to, we can keep this out of here as to not clog up comments via pms if you like.
At the end of the day we are all there to have fun and do what we enjoy, this isnt esports there are no prizes at stake for the runners just fun times to be had.

[/quote]

I second this.

I think it shouldn't be so much about policing what the runners/commentators say and more about having a good marathon that's enticing to watch by the vast majority of people. It's fine to censor out really horrible stuff or excessive cursing, but at the end of the day they're a bunch of nerds playing games. And it's not that serious.

In the recent GDQs a lot of the commentary has become kinda...meh because (and I've talked to a few runners / ones I know personally) they're too scared of backlash from staff / being banned from GDQs, or scared of the social media outrage and don't want to open that pandora's box. And funny enough the best runs (like say, Noir's half-life run or Bonesaw's run last year) always get a lot of controversy - but they're also widely considered to be a highlight of the specific GDQ they're at. That's something to think about.

I don't want GDQ compromising the quality of their content / being overly critical of their commentators/marathon runners just because a handful of people would complain about it.

Vandaeron

Edit history:

Vandaeron: 2017-02-13 03:06:19 pm

Vandaeron: 2017-02-13 03:03:43 pm

2017-02-13 02:56:32 pm

The best defense is invincibility.

Quote from FanaticDreamer:

I second this.

I think it shouldn't be so much about policing what the runners/commentators say and more about having a good marathon that's enticing to watch by the vast majority of people. It's fine to censor out really horrible stuff or excessive cursing, but at the end of the day they're a bunch of nerds playing games. And it's not that serious.

In the recent GDQs a lot of the commentary has become kinda...meh because (and I've talked to a few runners / ones I know personally) they're too scared of backlash from staff / being banned from GDQs, or scared of the social media outrage and don't want to open that pandora's box. And funny enough the best runs (like say, Noir's half-life run or Bonesaw's run last year) always get a lot of controversy - but they're also widely considered to be a highlight of the specific GDQ they're at. That's something to think about.

I don't want GDQ compromising the quality of their content / being overly critical of their commentators/marathon runners just because a handful of people would complain about it.

This is basically what I'm getting at. A lot of people are confused/over-wary about what is and isn't acceptable, so instead of trusting a reasonable rule radar, they take an extremely safe one instead. The issue as far as I can tell is simply, people aren't aware of what the guidelines are, even though the official stance is "the information is right there." Which is why I feel the stance shouldn't be "There's the rules over there, go get em" as opposed to "These are the rules."

Given the option to go find the rules and read them, people, as shown, regularly will try to guess at what they are and overplay hands, feeling like they're left to their own devices to not push the limits, instead of just... being given the limits.

People apparently have this idea that staff is some kind of thought police that'll come down and eliminate their existence for being anything but completely sterile. I'm 90% sure the rules and enforcement are way more lenient than people think, but people keep ending up in a position of erring on the side of caution to excessive degrees.

[quote="FanaticDreamer"]I second this.

I think it shouldn't be so much about policing what the runners/commentators say and more about having a good marathon that's enticing to watch by the vast majority of people. It's fine to censor out really horrible stuff or excessive cursing, but at the end of the day they're a bunch of nerds playing games. And it's not that serious.

In the recent GDQs a lot of the commentary has become kinda...meh because (and I've talked to a few runners / ones I know personally) they're too scared of backlash from staff / being banned from GDQs, or scared of the social media outrage and don't want to open that pandora's box. And funny enough the best runs (like say, Noir's half-life run or Bonesaw's run last year) always get a lot of controversy - but they're also widely considered to be a highlight of the specific GDQ they're at. That's something to think about.

I don't want GDQ compromising the quality of their content / being overly critical of their commentators/marathon runners just because a handful of people would complain about it.[/quote]
This is basically what I'm getting at.  A lot of people are confused/over-wary about what is and isn't acceptable, so instead of trusting a reasonable rule radar, they take an extremely safe one instead.  The issue as far as I can tell is simply, people aren't aware of what the guidelines are, even though the official stance is "the information is right there."  Which is why I feel the stance shouldn't be "There's the rules over there, go get em" as opposed to "These are the rules."

Given the option to go find the rules and read them, people, as shown, regularly will try to guess at what they are and overplay hands, feeling like they're left to their own devices to not push the limits, instead of just...  being given the limits.

People apparently have this idea that staff is some kind of thought police that'll come down and eliminate their existence for being anything but completely sterile.  I'm 90% sure the rules and enforcement are way more lenient than people think, but people keep ending up in a position of erring on the side of caution to excessive degrees.

flatluigi

2017-02-13 03:19:36 pm

There's a very clear set of rules that are required to read when you sign up and run: https://gamesdonequick.com/rules

It's really worth considering where you've heard of runners being scared to say anything, as all the runners I know have said their experience was super positive and fun. You might be believing the things that people read into instead of what's actually happening.

Vandaeron

2017-02-13 03:41:46 pm

The best defense is invincibility.

When you are presented with a document to read through as part of the signup process for a website, event, online game, etc., do you read it? Or, more broadly, do you think more than a very small fraction of people given that document wouldn't just scroll past, immediately click yes and continue?

Cool Matty

2017-02-13 04:17:56 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from Vandaeron:

When you are presented with a document to read through as part of the signup process for a website, event, online game, etc., do you read it? Or, more broadly, do you think more than a very small fraction of people given that document wouldn't just scroll past, immediately click yes and continue?

There's two things to cover with this:

1.
Like I covered earlier, we'll expose the commentary rules/guidelines in the guides going forward for runners, so that it's even easier to find. This is something we can do, but it's not foolproof.

2.
In the end, ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for breaking them. We can't avoid having a list of rules, and an agreement is the only way to really certify people are going to follow them. Whether they choose to read them or not is beyond our power, we can't FORCE people to read the rules. I think the rules are categorized sensibly and are fairly easy to read, it's not just a bunch of legalese.

We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves, and we ALWAYS encourage runners to talk to staff if they're worried about something in particular. Just keep in mind that second-guessing is not the same as ignorance, so runners/commentators should make an effort to read it.

[quote="Vandaeron"]When you are presented with a document to read through as part of the signup process for a website, event, online game, etc., do you read it?  Or, more broadly, do you think more than a very small fraction of people given that document wouldn't just scroll past, immediately click yes and continue?[/quote]

There's two things to cover with this:

1. 
Like I covered earlier, we'll expose the commentary rules/guidelines in the guides going forward for runners, so that it's even easier to find. This is something we can do, but it's not foolproof.

2. 
In the end, ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for breaking them. We can't avoid having a list of rules, and an agreement is the only way to really certify people are going to follow them. Whether they choose to read them or not is beyond our power, we can't FORCE people to read the rules. I think the rules are categorized sensibly and are fairly easy to read, it's not just a bunch of legalese.

We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves, and we ALWAYS encourage runners to talk to staff if they're worried about something in particular. Just keep in mind that second-guessing is not the same as ignorance, so runners/commentators should make an effort to read it.

BroBuzz

Edit history:

BroBuzz: 2017-02-13 04:46:32 pm

2017-02-13 04:46:09 pm

Quote from Cool Matty:

Quote from Vandaeron:

When you are presented with a document to read through as part of the signup process for a website, event, online game, etc., do you read it? Or, more broadly, do you think more than a very small fraction of people given that document wouldn't just scroll past, immediately click yes and continue?

There's two things to cover with this:

1.
Like I covered earlier, we'll expose the commentary rules/guidelines in the guides going forward for runners, so that it's even easier to find. This is something we can do, but it's not foolproof.

2.
In the end, ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for breaking them. We can't avoid having a list of rules, and an agreement is the only way to really certify people are going to follow them. Whether they choose to read them or not is beyond our power, we can't FORCE people to read the rules. I think the rules are categorized sensibly and are fairly easy to read, it's not just a bunch of legalese.

We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves, and we ALWAYS encourage runners to talk to staff if they're worried about something in particular. Just keep in mind that second-guessing is not the same as ignorance, so runners/commentators should make an effort to read it.

Doesn't help when the rules are changed a week before the event, way after everyone has registered, and there's no public announcement of them changing.

[quote="Cool Matty"][quote="Vandaeron"]When you are presented with a document to read through as part of the signup process for a website, event, online game, etc., do you read it?  Or, more broadly, do you think more than a very small fraction of people given that document wouldn't just scroll past, immediately click yes and continue?[/quote]

There's two things to cover with this:

1. 
Like I covered earlier, we'll expose the commentary rules/guidelines in the guides going forward for runners, so that it's even easier to find. This is something we can do, but it's not foolproof.

2. 
In the end, ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for breaking them. We can't avoid having a list of rules, and an agreement is the only way to really certify people are going to follow them. Whether they choose to read them or not is beyond our power, we can't FORCE people to read the rules. I think the rules are categorized sensibly and are fairly easy to read, it's not just a bunch of legalese.

We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves, and we ALWAYS encourage runners to talk to staff if they're worried about something in particular. Just keep in mind that second-guessing is not the same as ignorance, so runners/commentators should make an effort to read it.[/quote]
Doesn't help when the rules are changed a week before the event, way after everyone has registered, and there's no public announcement of them changing.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/56Sw27H.png[/img]

FanaticDreamer

2017-02-13 05:08:38 pm

Let's get frisky.

I just want to make it clear that I think, up to this point, GDQ has done a fine enough job as it is and should continue as they are. If anything they could stand to be slightly more lenient - but as it is, they haven't gone overboard or like too restrictive which is nice.

Cool Matty

2017-02-13 05:09:32 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from BroBuzz:

Date of rules

We send a link to the rules to all attendees in the attendance email after any final changes were made. The agreement attendees sign (it's at the top so people are less likely to skim over it) also states that the rules may change prior to the event and to look over them before attending. The harassment list hasn't changed since SGDQ regardless.

I don't see us making any major changes to the rules right now, but if we do, I'll make sure we tweet about it as well.

Emptyeye

2017-02-13 05:30:44 pm

Talk to the Hand

Okay, so some thoughts as a spectator this year.

First off, from what I can tell, staff has really stepped up their game in the past year in terms of the actual organization/scheduling of things "around" the event (Submissions, actually having the schedule out on time, etc). So kudos to everyone involved for that.

"Is a feedback thread needed?" Historically, there were two reasons for the feedback thread coming out several weeks after the event.

1. It gave the staff (And attendees) time to recover.
2. It gave emotions time to cool down on all fronts--if, weeks after the event, someone still felt strongly enough about an issue to post about it in the thread, it was probably at least worth looking into.

#1 appears to be a non-issue nowadays, given how quickly I've seen responses to various things on Reddit. So it effectively comes down to "how much do you value the 'time heals all wounds' aspect of #2?" that determines whether you actually need a thread or not, if the feedback is better than what you get from Reddit/Twitter/E-mail/etc.

Okay, so some thoughts as a spectator this year.

First off, from what I can tell, staff has really stepped up their game in the past year in terms of the actual organization/scheduling of things "around" the event (Submissions, actually having the schedule out on time, etc). So kudos to everyone involved for that.

"Is a feedback thread needed?" Historically, there were two reasons for the feedback thread coming out several weeks after the event.

1. It gave the staff (And attendees) time to recover.
2. It gave emotions time to cool down on all fronts--if, weeks after the event, someone still felt strongly enough about an issue to post about it in the thread, it was probably at least worth looking into.

#1 appears to be a non-issue nowadays, given how quickly I've seen responses to various things on Reddit. So it effectively comes down to "how much do you value the 'time heals all wounds' aspect of #2?" that determines whether you actually need a thread or not, if the feedback is better than what you get from Reddit/Twitter/E-mail/etc.

GhostKingG1

Edit history:

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 08:12:37 pm

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 07:51:25 pm

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 07:49:49 pm

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 07:48:28 pm

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 07:46:37 pm

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 07:44:35 pm

GhostKingG1: 2017-02-13 07:39:44 pm

2017-02-13 07:39:07 pm

Why Hello it is Me

Was an attendee for the first time this year, there was a lot of pros and some cons to talk. The ones I want to address are listed below:

+Putting the stream on in the game room, dining room and guest rooms was very much welcome and I hope to see this return in GDQs to come.

+The schedule was strong. I noticed quite a few "risks" with the schedule and while it's difficult to outline what may have been a risky run to take or not, the fact that this was the fastest AGDQ hit 1 million suggests a strong schedule and I hope that GDQ continues to take more chances with regards to balancing spots for first-time GDQ showings and GDQ staples alike.

+The badges were awesome, well designed and sturdy with our names attached and easy to read. Shout outs to the people who made these!

+World 9 gaming. Nuff said.

~More of a suggestion than anything, but setup for many runs took a pretty substantial amount of time; maybe have some tech staff give a bit of a briefing/discussion with runners who are on deck before setup begins to expedite the process of setup? I couched three runs and it seems each time we didn't really hear or get informed of anything about what we'd have to do to get setup until right after the previous run finished.

~This one isn't to just point fingers and I am specifically addressing overall quality rather than isolated incidents of rather negative slip-ups and specific comments, but some runs definitely could have improved on quality of commentary (on the reverse end there was definitely some spectacular runs in terms of commentary too!). One idea to improve marathon commentary might be to send out an email or a message to attendees of potential commentary suggestions and advice. Obviously nobody *has* to read it and there is no one "right" way to do it, but I feel some potential basic tips might help people, especially if they might be nervous or inexperienced with marathon settings. I don't mean to speak like an authority, it comes to some more naturally than others and I am far from spectacular at commentary myself and I am always looking to improve on that, but that's just my idea for potentially improving the marathon going forward. my bad, I forgot this was in the Event Rules. Nonetheless, if there are ways to improve it they definitely should be explored.

-The breakfast was pretty darn bad. I wouldn't bring this up because it's more on the hotel and people mentioned it already, except a lot of people were getting sickness particularly pertaining to the digestive system so there is concern there. It might not have anything to do with breakfast too, but regardless next time I hope for some improvement regarding on-site breakfast.

-Sound in the stream room was a mixed bag. Some runs were difficult to hear, others like the Mighty No. 9 run I had to move to the back of the stream room because it was so loud, even though the stream audio sounded fine.

-Board game room was tiny and I don't think it's a good idea to place it next to the quiet practice room when the two are only separated by a partition and board games at these events tend to be louder and more energetic. Most people ended up just moving to the upstairs dining rooms and the lights to those often went out after midnight.

I might add more but I'm blanking on things right now.

Was an attendee for the first time this year, there was a lot of pros and some cons to talk. The ones I want to address are listed below:

+Putting the stream on in the game room, dining room and guest rooms was very much welcome and I hope to see this return in GDQs to come.

+The schedule was strong. I noticed quite a few "risks" with the schedule and while it's difficult to outline what may have been a risky run to take or not, the fact that this was the fastest AGDQ hit 1 million suggests a strong schedule and I hope that GDQ continues to take more chances with regards to balancing spots for first-time GDQ showings and GDQ staples alike.

+The badges were awesome, well designed and sturdy with our names attached and easy to read. Shout outs to the people who made these!

+World 9 gaming. Nuff said.

~More of a suggestion than anything, but setup for many runs took a pretty substantial amount of time; maybe have some tech staff give a bit of a briefing/discussion with runners who are on deck before setup begins to expedite the process of setup? I couched three runs and it seems each time we didn't really hear or get informed of anything about what we'd have to do to get setup until right after the previous run finished.

~This one isn't to just point fingers and I am specifically addressing overall quality rather than isolated incidents of rather negative slip-ups and specific comments, but some runs definitely could have improved on quality of commentary (on the reverse end there was definitely some spectacular runs in terms of commentary too!). [s]One idea to improve marathon commentary might be to send out an email or a message to attendees of potential commentary suggestions and advice. Obviously nobody *has* to read it and there is no one "right" way to do it, but I feel some potential basic tips might help people, especially if they might be nervous or inexperienced with marathon settings. I don't mean to speak like an authority, it comes to some more naturally than others and I am far from spectacular at commentary myself and I am always looking to improve on that, but that's just my idea for potentially improving the marathon going forward.[/s] my bad, I forgot this was in the Event Rules. Nonetheless, if there are ways to improve it they definitely should be explored.

-The breakfast was pretty darn bad. I wouldn't bring this up because it's more on the hotel and people mentioned it already, except a lot of people were getting sickness particularly pertaining to the digestive system so there is concern there. It might not have anything to do with breakfast too, but regardless next time I hope for some improvement regarding on-site breakfast.

-Sound in the stream room was a mixed bag. Some runs were difficult to hear, others like the Mighty No. 9 run I had to move to the back of the stream room because it was so loud, even though the stream audio sounded fine.

-Board game room was tiny and I don't think it's a good idea to place it next to the quiet practice room when the two are only separated by a partition and board games at these events tend to be louder and more energetic. Most people ended up just moving to the upstairs dining rooms and the lights to those often went out after midnight.

I might add more but I'm blanking on things right now.

Z-Saber

Edit history:

Z-Saber: 2017-02-13 07:46:38 pm

2017-02-13 07:44:33 pm

Some thoughts as a first-time runner/attendee, and someone who is generally new to these events.

Overall, the experience was great. I had no issues with the hotel or gaming rooms, and most people were nice and approachable. It was very easy for a newcomer to get assimilated. Would definitely attend another event regardless of whether or not I get to run a game.

Coming in, I was worried that some of my commentary would be inappropriate, as I had planned the run to be a bit over-the-top, but speaking with a producer beforehand cleared everything up and gave me the go-ahead (from what I was told, no political or sexual remarks). If anyone has any concerns about their commentary content, I definitely recommend making a list and going over them with a staff member before their run.

As far as improvements, my biggest concern would be the handling of the interviewing schedule. I was supposed to have an interview, as I received a message about it weeks before the event, but that was the only form of communication I received. I had to ask someone from staff on-site about it, which was the only way I was able to figure out who was interviewing me and when. Perhaps send a timetable/Google Doc link to all runners who are slated to have an interview during the event and include names of who to contact if they have questions about it, making it an easy process for even newcomers.

Some thoughts as a first-time runner/attendee, and someone who is generally new to these events.

Overall, the experience was great. I had no issues with the hotel or gaming rooms, and most people were nice and approachable. It was very easy for a newcomer to get assimilated. Would definitely attend another event regardless of whether or not I get to run a game.

Coming in, I was worried that some of my commentary would be inappropriate, as I had planned the run to be a bit over-the-top, but speaking with a producer beforehand cleared everything up and gave me the go-ahead (from what I was told, no political or sexual remarks). If anyone has any concerns about their commentary content, I definitely recommend making a list and going over them with a staff member before their run.

As far as improvements, my biggest concern would be the handling of the interviewing schedule. I was supposed to have an interview, as I received a message about it weeks before the event, but that was the only form of communication I received. I had to ask someone from staff on-site about it, which was the only way I was able to figure out who was interviewing me and when. Perhaps send a timetable/Google Doc link to all runners who are slated to have an interview during the event and include names of who to contact if they have questions about it, making it an easy process for even newcomers.

darkman78

2017-02-14 09:26:47 am

Quote from Z-Saber:

As far as improvements, my biggest concern would be the handling of the interviewing schedule. I was supposed to have an interview, as I received a message about it weeks before the event, but that was the only form of communication I received. I had to ask someone from staff on-site about it, which was the only way I was able to figure out who was interviewing me and when. Perhaps send a timetable/Google Doc link to all runners who are slated to have an interview during the event and include names of who to contact if they have questions about it, making it an easy process for even newcomers.

Apologies, you should have been informed in that DM when you were being interviewed. Must have been an oversight on one of us to inform you of the time slot, but it wasn't intentional.

VB_srl

2017-02-14 10:06:00 pm

My main criticism that hasn't been brought up already is that the capture of windowed PC games (Not Another Needle Game and Undertale were the two I saw, there may have been others) looked very blurred and low quality compared to what they should have been. This has never been a problem in GDQs to my knowledge.

That being said I loved the event overall Smiley

Cool Matty

2017-02-14 10:21:55 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from VB_srl:

My main criticism that hasn't been brought up already is that the capture of windowed PC games (Not Another Needle Game and Undertale were the two I saw, there may have been others) looked very blurred and low quality compared to what they should have been. This has never been a problem in GDQs to my knowledge.

That being said I loved the event overall Smiley

If I remember correctly, I think this was because of an OBS bug in the scaling. We're definitely going to do what we can to avoid it next time. Tech crew can comment more.

redpracticeninja

Edit history:

redpracticeninja: 2017-02-15 02:06:52 pm

redpracticeninja: 2017-02-15 02:06:20 pm

redpracticeninja: 2017-02-15 02:06:01 pm

2017-02-15 01:58:24 pm

Owner of World 9 Gaming...kupo!

Hey all, co-owner of World 9 here. Thanks for all the kind words, this was our 5th time supporting GDQ and it's truly a joy and honor to be a part of such an amazing event. We had a record 650+ items checked out over the week by 284 people. Shout outs to our most frequent repeat customer, Sami Cetin, who checked out a SNES 13 times in 5 days. We were busy and that's great, very pleased to see the practice room get so much use.

However, that brings me to a comment lildingus brought up about crowding in the practice room. This was the first time we have seen the room be SO packed for so much of the week and we agree, it has become an issue. I think part of the problem is there are some people who are honestly unaware of the difference between the practice and casual rooms, or at least not aware of the rules of the practice room. This could be alleviated by better signage. I may post some signs on the TVs next event reminding people that the practice room is A) only for SPEEDRUNNING, no casual play and B) Runners have first priority for TVs.

lildingus was not the only mention I heard of runners being asked to give up their TVs and that is absolutely not ok. I know there was also one day where a 20+ person Sunshine race set up in the room which is just way too big of a race to fit in there, it should have been in the casual room. Unfortunately me and my core staff were out to dinner when this went down.

Bottom line, may need to step up enforcement next event but I don't want to go too far and make it a no-fun zone. There are a lot of important functions the practice room serves for attendees but it has to be there for runners first.

Oh, and I don't think anyone brought it up but I know some people were disappointed there ended up not being any TVs available on Sunday after the marathon ended. In retrospect I should have left at least a row of TVs powered up because I know some people would have used them. Our truck had to be on the road by noon that day so we were focused on packing up, but next event I'll try and keep some on.

Hey all, co-owner of World 9 here. Thanks for all the kind words, this was our 5th time supporting GDQ and it's truly a joy and honor to be a part of such an amazing event. We had a record 650+ items checked out over the week by 284 people. Shout outs to our most frequent repeat customer, Sami Cetin, who checked out a SNES 13 times in 5 days. We were busy and that's great, very pleased to see the practice room get so much use.

However, that brings me to a comment lildingus brought up about crowding in the practice room. This was the first time we have seen the room be SO packed for so much of the week and we agree, it has become an issue. I think part of the problem is there are some people who are honestly unaware of the difference between the practice and casual rooms, or at least not aware of the rules of the practice room. This could be alleviated by better signage. I may post some signs on the TVs next event reminding people that the practice room is A) only for SPEEDRUNNING, no casual play and B) Runners have first priority for TVs.

lildingus was not the only mention I heard of runners being asked to give up their TVs and that is absolutely not ok. I know there was also one day where a 20+ person Sunshine race set up in the room which is just way too big of a race to fit in there, it should have been in the casual room. Unfortunately me and my core staff were out to dinner when this went down.

Bottom line, may need to step up enforcement next event but I don't want to go too far and make it a no-fun zone. There are a lot of important functions the practice room serves for attendees but it has to be there for runners first.

Oh, and I don't think anyone brought it up but I know some people were disappointed there ended up not being any TVs available on Sunday after the marathon ended. In retrospect I should have left at least a row of TVs powered up because I know some people would have used them. Our truck had to be on the road by noon that day so we were focused on packing up, but next event I'll try and keep some on.

Hyphen-ated

2017-02-15 01:59:44 pm

Quote from Cool Matty:

We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves

Hi, I think it would be a good idea for the rules to explicitly ban all political/religious/etc expression. Currently they ban "topics of conversation", but I don't think wearing a piece of clothing with a divisive message is usually considered "conversation".

Z-Saber

2017-02-15 05:37:42 pm

Quote from darkman78:

Quote from Z-Saber:

As far as improvements, my biggest concern would be the handling of the interviewing schedule. I was supposed to have an interview, as I received a message about it weeks before the event, but that was the only form of communication I received. I had to ask someone from staff on-site about it, which was the only way I was able to figure out who was interviewing me and when. Perhaps send a timetable/Google Doc link to all runners who are slated to have an interview during the event and include names of who to contact if they have questions about it, making it an easy process for even newcomers.

Apologies, you should have been informed in that DM when you were being interviewed. Must have been an oversight on one of us to inform you of the time slot, but it wasn't intentional.

The only message I got was as follows:

Quote:

"If you are receiving this, it is because we the GDQ interviewers have selected you as a candidate for an interview live on stream at AGDQ. The interview could pertain to your run, your hobbies outside of speedrunning, or anything really. We're aiming to get to know you better outside of your actual commentary during your run. I need to know if you are interested and willing to do an interview, so please reply as soon as possible. Interviews will take place sometime around your scheduled run (could be a game or two before your run, could be a game or two after).

The game we are interviewing you for is listed below. Thanks!"

It sounded like they were still deciding who was going to be interviewed at the time I got this, but I never received any follow-up afterwards.

[quote="darkman78"][quote="Z-Saber"]
As far as improvements, my biggest concern would be the handling of the interviewing schedule. I was supposed to have an interview, as I received a message about it weeks before the event, but that was the only form of communication I received. I had to ask someone from staff on-site about it, which was the only way I was able to figure out who was interviewing me and when. Perhaps send a timetable/Google Doc link to all runners who are slated to have an interview during the event and include names of who to contact if they have questions about it, making it an easy process for even newcomers. [/quote]

Apologies, you should have been informed in that DM when you were being interviewed. Must have been an oversight on one of us to inform you of the time slot, but it wasn't intentional.[/quote]
The only message I got was as follows:

[quote]"If you are receiving this, it is because we the GDQ interviewers have selected you as a candidate for an interview live on stream at AGDQ. The interview could pertain to your run, your hobbies outside of speedrunning, or anything really. We're aiming to get to know you better outside of your actual commentary during your run.  I need to know if you are interested and willing to do an interview, so please reply as soon as possible. Interviews will take place sometime around your scheduled run (could be a game or two before your run, could be a game or two after).

The game we are interviewing you for is listed below. Thanks!"[/quote]

It sounded like they were still deciding who was going to be interviewed at the time I got this, but I never received any follow-up afterwards.

darkman78

Edit history:

darkman78: 2017-02-16 12:49:05 am

darkman78: 2017-02-16 12:46:55 am

2017-02-16 12:45:51 am

We had the time down at that point, so it was simply a mistake in the message contents.

dwangoAC

2017-02-17 01:02:07 pm

Keeper of TASBot

Quote from Hyphen-ated:

Quote from Cool Matty:

We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves

Hi, I think it would be a good idea for the rules to explicitly ban all political/religious/etc expression. Currently they ban "topics of conversation", but I don't think wearing a piece of clothing with a divisive message is usually considered "conversation".

I would have a bit of challenge with the "ban all... religious expression" description without a bit more clarification around it. I've worn a geeky but sneakily Christian T-Shirt during the TASBot block at nearly every event ("Hii saved Me", "Love your enemies" with Pacman facing a ghost and a scripture reference, "Never fly Solo" in a Millennium Falcon-like ship with the same, etc.). It's there as an easter egg for viewers who identify with those ideals and many people have thanked me for doing it. Having said that, I would absolutely have a problem with any display that denounced or otherwise insulted any religion, faith, or creed. I believe messages that promote treating each other well regardless of religious backdrop are beneficial unlike divisive political messages displayed with the intent of fueling controversy, but I digress. I appreciate that the rules page is written as carefully as it is now.

This was my 6th GDQ event as a runner. It's kind of a amazing how the event has changed over the years and I have to tip my hat to the organizers for how mature the events have become. Sure, there are always challenges here and there (I'll mention a couple below) but this was by far the smoothest event I've been to yet. My hat goes off to Lange for helping us coordinate the extremely ambitious TASBot block for this event. He was there behind the scenes ahead of time and helped resolve some content selection issues that came up before they became big problems. I'd also like to thank CoolMatty for helping with several pre and post-GDQ aspects, especially around helping me clean up a mess I made surrounding the TASBot block. I severely mishandled content attribution, I did a poor job with my own personal time-management and priorities at the event which negatively impacted others on the TASBot team, and I did not give my immediate family the attention they deserved. I publicly apologized in the TASVideos AGDQ 2017 planning and feedback thread and I have opted to skip organizing a TASBot block for the next AGDQ event to focus on healing. I wanted to say here that I've been very thankful for the support and understanding from the staff and others.

I do see some potential growth in pre-GDQ communication for out-of-the-ordinary things - it was very hard for several of us with more complex situations to reach staff as they were all very busy and it may be helpful to provide a clearer communication path for escalating issues that aren't covered under existing methods such as the runner requirements thread. There are a few E-Mail addresses people can contact but for odd reasons I'm aware of several cases where responses were very slow or weren't quite routed to someone who could make an informed decision. Most everything now goes pretty smoothly thanks to the good submission process and the improved bulk messaging to keep people updated on deadlines but it's always the weird and disruptive stuff that's the hardest to work with. I'd like to specifically praise ONOGMuffins as she was very responsive and helpful when we needed it for the TASBot team's weird badge needs and everything we needed for our part was ultimately fully handled.

I would like to see improvements in the audio team as we were fully ready for the TASBot block and sitting on the couch just waiting for them to get audio routed even though we had worked with them ahead of time on what to expect and they had plenty of time to do their setup during the post-run interview but you've already addressed the audio team issue. Everyone I met on the audio team was nice and and I hope they continue to improve their skills.

I have no problems with PCF per-se but I do have a soft spot for DWB because of the highly critical need they fill. Jan at PCF has been great to chat with and it was great having her at this event. I'm fine with keeping the existing charities for the two events and I do not see a need to change either of them at this time.

The hotel was OK and we can probably get one more year out of it well enough but I'm surprised no one else has brought up the elephant in the room: we're at capacity and registration filled up crazy fast for AGDQ 2017. The in-person event cannot grow beyond what we have now in the space we have. The registration cap was met with such suddenness that several people were caught off guard which resulted in quite a number of notable unfortunate circumstances best not discussed here. If we stay at the same cap we need to make sure to communicate up front that registration *will* fill suddenly, using even stronger wording than the already direct messaging that was in place for this event. I realize that moving to a larger venue is a massive topic on its on and is outside the scope of an AGDQ 2017 feedback thread so I'll leave that for another time.

That's plenty enough from me. Thanks for your thoughts!

[quote="Hyphen-ated"][quote="Cool Matty"]We very carefully thought out what is contained in the rules page, so that it would leave as little up to interpretation as possible. We don't want runners to feel like they're second-guessing themselves[/quote]
Hi, I think it would be a good idea for the rules to explicitly ban all political/religious/etc expression. Currently they ban "topics of conversation", but I don't think wearing a piece of clothing with a divisive message is usually considered "conversation".[/quote]I would have a bit of challenge with the "ban all... religious expression" description without a bit more clarification around it.  I've worn a geeky but sneakily Christian T-Shirt during the TASBot block at nearly every event ("Hii saved Me", "Love your enemies" with Pacman facing a ghost and a scripture reference, "Never fly Solo" in a Millennium Falcon-like ship with the same, etc.).  It's there as an easter egg for viewers who identify with those ideals and many people have thanked me for doing it.  Having said that, I would absolutely have a problem with any display that denounced or otherwise insulted any religion, faith, or creed.   I believe messages that promote treating each other well regardless of religious backdrop are beneficial unlike divisive political messages displayed with the intent of fueling controversy, but I digress.  I appreciate that the rules page is written as carefully as it is now.

This was my 6th GDQ event as a runner.  It's kind of a amazing how the event has changed over the years and I have to tip my hat to the organizers for how mature the events have become.  Sure, there are always challenges here and there (I'll mention a couple below) but this was by far the smoothest event I've been to yet.  My hat goes off to Lange for helping us coordinate the extremely ambitious TASBot block for this event.  He was there behind the scenes ahead of time and helped resolve some content selection issues that came up before they became big problems.  I'd also like to thank CoolMatty for helping with several pre and post-GDQ aspects, especially around helping me clean up a mess I made surrounding the TASBot block. I severely mishandled content attribution, I did a poor job with my own personal time-management and priorities at the event which negatively impacted others on the TASBot team, and I did not give my immediate family the attention they deserved. I publicly [url=http://tasvideos.org/forum/p/447398#447398]apologized[/url] in the [url=http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17018]TASVideos AGDQ 2017 planning and feedback thread[/url] and I have opted to skip organizing a TASBot block for the next AGDQ event to focus on healing.  I wanted to say here that I've been very thankful for the support and understanding from the staff and others.

I do see some potential growth in pre-GDQ communication for out-of-the-ordinary things - it was very hard for several of us with more complex situations to reach staff as they were all very busy and it may be helpful to provide a clearer communication path for escalating issues that aren't covered under existing methods such as the runner requirements thread.  There are a few E-Mail addresses people can contact but for odd reasons I'm aware of several cases where responses were very slow or weren't quite routed to someone who could make an informed decision.  Most everything now goes pretty smoothly thanks to the good submission process and the improved bulk messaging to keep people updated on deadlines but it's always the weird and disruptive stuff that's the hardest to work with.  I'd like to specifically praise ONOGMuffins as she was very responsive and helpful when we needed it for the TASBot team's weird badge needs and everything we needed for our part was ultimately fully handled.

I would like to see improvements in the audio team as we were fully ready for the TASBot block and sitting on the couch just waiting for them to get audio routed even though we had worked with them ahead of time on what to expect and they had plenty of time to do their setup during the post-run interview but you've already addressed the audio team issue.  Everyone I met on the audio team was nice and and I hope they continue to improve their skills.

I have no problems with PCF per-se but I do have a soft spot for DWB because of the highly critical need they fill.  Jan at PCF has been great to chat with and it was great having her at this event.  I'm fine with keeping the existing charities for the two events and I do not see a need to change either of them at this time.

The hotel was OK and we can probably get one more year out of it well enough but I'm surprised no one else has brought up the elephant in the room: we're at capacity and registration filled up crazy fast for AGDQ 2017.  The in-person event cannot grow beyond what we have now in the space we have.  The registration cap was met with such suddenness that several people were caught off guard which resulted in quite a number of notable unfortunate circumstances best not discussed here.  If we stay at the same cap we need to make sure to communicate up front that registration *will* fill suddenly, using even stronger wording than the already direct messaging that was in place for this event.  I realize that moving to a larger venue is a massive topic on its on and is outside the scope of an AGDQ 2017 feedback thread so I'll leave that for another time.

That's plenty enough from me.  Thanks for your thoughts!

z1mb0bw4y

2017-02-17 03:36:33 pm

Gets the cake.

I just mostly wanted to reiterate a couple of things that have probably been said already. As an attendee, I had an absolute blast this time despite getting sick, and I think GDQs have been on a solid up and up over the past two years. My complaints are relatively minor: Yes the board game room was small, but it didn't really impact anyone much, and the breakfast was pretty trash and also at a time that not everyone took advantage of. I think next time it'd be worth dropping breakfast and investing that money elsewhere, or saving it altogether.

The arcade was great as always, at least the machines I cared about. Please please please please please never drop Tokyo Attack. Please.
The hotel TVs showing the marathon was AMAZING, especially since I got sick and quarantined myself in my room for a couple of days. I really hope this is a feature at every GDQ in the future, because it's much nicer than you'd initially think to have the stream running constantly in your room while you're playing melee or chilling with buds.
Speaking of the stream, the layout was F A N T A S T I C. The past couple of GDQs have been amazing in this department and I just want you to know that people like me really appreciate it.
Additionally, other than some audio issues, everything looked and sounded pretty good. Granted I was watching near the middle of the week mostly, so it's possible there were issues at the start or when I wasn't watching, but in general it was very good.
While I didn't utilize it much, the PC room being so close to everything was great, but some of the PCs were not great and the internet, at least when I tried it, was borderline dial-up levels of bad. Maybe this got fixed, maybe it didn't, either way I still appreciated how close this was to the other rooms.

I also feel like the staff handled any onstream mishaps in a reasonable and timely manner. Won't say anything more about that.

I think that's about it for my thoughts on the event. Overall I think the GDQs are on the up and up as a whole, and raising 2.2 million is insane. I know the staff gets a lot of shit from internet trolls and conspiracy theorists, but I just want to remind you guys that there are a LOT of people that appreciate what you do. Thanks for another great event!

I just mostly wanted to reiterate a couple of things that have probably been said already. As an attendee, I had an absolute blast this time despite getting sick, and I think GDQs have been on a solid up and up over the past two years. My complaints are relatively minor: Yes the board game room was small, but it didn't really impact anyone much, and the breakfast was pretty trash and also at a time that not everyone took advantage of. I think next time it'd be worth dropping breakfast and investing that money elsewhere, or saving it altogether.

The arcade was great as always, at least the machines I cared about. Please please please please please never drop Tokyo Attack. Please.
The hotel TVs showing the marathon was AMAZING, especially since I got sick and quarantined myself in my room for a couple of days. I really hope this is a feature at every GDQ in the future, because it's much nicer than you'd initially think to have the stream running constantly in your room while you're playing melee or chilling with buds.
Speaking of the stream, the layout was F A N T A S T I C. The past couple of GDQs have been amazing in this department and I just want you to know that people like me really appreciate it.
Additionally, other than some audio issues, everything looked and sounded pretty good. Granted I was watching near the middle of the week mostly, so it's possible there were issues at the start or when I wasn't watching, but in general it was very good. 
While I didn't utilize it much, the PC room being so close to everything was great, but some of the PCs were not great and the internet, at least when I tried it, was borderline dial-up levels of bad. Maybe this got fixed, maybe it didn't, either way I still appreciated how close this was to the other rooms.

I also feel like the staff handled any onstream mishaps in a reasonable and timely manner. Won't say anything more about that.

I think that's about it for my thoughts on the event. Overall I think the GDQs are on the up and up as a whole, and raising 2.2 million is insane. I know the staff gets a lot of shit from internet trolls and conspiracy theorists, but I just want to remind you guys that there are a LOT of people that appreciate what you do. Thanks for another great event!

Hyphen-ated

2017-02-18 12:25:02 am

Quote from dwangoAC:

I've worn a geeky but sneakily Christian T-Shirt during the TASBot block at nearly every event

Here is the relevant clause in the rules document:

Quote:

Avoid topics of conversation that are polarizing or controversial in nature. This includes but is not limited to things such as politics, religion, or other “hot button” topics that are innately divisive.

Solely judging by the words currently written in the rules, a Christian T-shirt should be just as forbidden as a Trump hat. If Christian T-shirts are supposed to be okay, the rules should specify that and clarify how they're different from Trump hats.

LotBlind

Edit history:

LotBlind: 2017-02-18 09:33:01 am

2017-02-18 09:17:32 am

Fantastic quality in overlays etc. this year! I'm truly amazed.

I feel the way runs are listed in the schedule should be improved on: it's difficult to quickly scan what games are being played (or who's running them) because all the text is too homogenous. Maybe just offsetting the game names by one indent would help. I can't exactly remember what it looks like now, but I don't think it gave the run's category either? I know something was missing.

I noticed one perhaps slightly poor choice of game this year: Speedrunners From Hell looked incredibly dull (and you know I'm happy to watch almost anything) and I suspect it was chosen because it says "speedrunner" in the title? Tongue

I know the committee can't spend forever on each game... To be exact about what I mean: the game has super-cheap mechanics letting you spawn endless platforms underneath you and many levels abuse this like, well, hell. It has completely trivial movement (hold a button down), super-easy platforming for a large part, one arcing projectile you can use to do some trick shots, and I generally felt the devs didn't have a clue what makes a game good for speedrunning. The great majority of FPS games I've seen (with the possible exception of realistic shooters) are more interesting. Not a comment on the runner though, or on the game as a casual 1st person puzzler.

Fantastic quality in overlays etc. this year! I'm truly amazed.

I feel the way runs are listed in the schedule should be improved on: it's difficult to quickly scan what games are being played (or who's running them) because all the text is too homogenous. Maybe just offsetting the game names by one indent would help. I can't exactly remember what it looks like now, but I don't think it gave the run's category either? I know something was missing.

I noticed one perhaps slightly poor choice of game this year: Speedrunners From Hell looked incredibly dull (and you know I'm happy to watch almost anything) and I suspect it was chosen because it says "speedrunner" in the title? :P I know the committee can't spend forever on each game... To be exact about what I mean: the game has super-cheap mechanics letting you spawn endless platforms underneath you and many levels abuse this like, well, hell. It has completely trivial movement (hold a button down), super-easy platforming for a large part, one arcing projectile you can use to do some trick shots, and I generally felt the devs didn't have a clue what makes a game good for speedrunning. The great majority of FPS games I've seen (with the possible exception of realistic shooters) are more interesting. Not a comment on the runner though, or on the game as a casual 1st person puzzler.