An Open Letter to the GDQ community

2015-11-21 04:31:55 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

I want to take the time and make a direct apology for how submissions and registrations have gone for this event. Clearly there were a lot of issues. I take full responsibility for those issues. The entire staff have been awesome, picking up the Slack, to avoid making this an "Awful: Games Done Quick".

Starting shortly after AGDQ, you're going to see a lot more direct communication from us. We'll open discussion to a litany of things. Charity selection. Ways to improve submissions. An elaborate overview of what makes a good run, and how to submit one. Discussion on what the community would like to see happen with GDQ in the future. How scheduling works. A lot of stuff.

We'll take it one topic at a time, incorporating that feedback into future events. Running an event will never be a democracy, but it doesn't mean it has to be a dictatorship. This will ensure that people are heard, and even if we don't agree on everything, you'll know why.

We'll also be starting SGDQ's planning much further ahead. We're currently thinking March as a submissions timeline, in fact (SGDQ2016 dates and locations will be announced very soon).

Maybe it's not enough in some people's eyes. I understand, bridges can take time to rebuild. This is about bringing the speedrunning community together for a great cause. So let's make it the best one we can.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

--

Feel free to leave questions and comments in this thread. However, if it's about AGDQ, I ask that you post those questions in their respective threads, so we can keep things organized.

Thread title:

I want to take the time and make a direct apology for how submissions and registrations have gone for this event. Clearly there were a lot of issues. I take full responsibility for those issues. The entire staff have been awesome, picking up the Slack, to avoid making this an "Awful: Games Done Quick".

Starting shortly after AGDQ, you're going to see a lot more direct communication from us. We'll open discussion to a litany of things. Charity selection. Ways to improve submissions. An elaborate overview of what makes a good run, and how to submit one. Discussion on what the community would like to see happen with GDQ in the future. How scheduling works. A lot of stuff.

We'll take it one topic at a time, incorporating that feedback into future events. Running an event will never be a democracy, but it doesn't mean it has to be a dictatorship. This will ensure that people are heard, and even if we don't agree on everything, you'll know why.

We'll also be starting SGDQ's planning much further ahead. We're currently thinking March as a submissions timeline, in fact (SGDQ2016 dates and locations will be announced very soon).

Maybe it's not enough in some people's eyes. I understand, bridges can take time to rebuild. This is about bringing the speedrunning community together for a great cause. So let's make it the best one we can.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

--

Feel free to leave questions and comments in this thread. However, if it's about AGDQ, I ask that you post those questions in their respective threads, so we can keep things organized.

jymotion

Edit history:

jymotion: 2015-11-21 05:00:39 pm

jymotion: 2015-11-21 05:00:22 pm

2015-11-21 04:39:26 pm

I have comments and questions, but the OP more or less says "sorry, we'll talk about it later", so I'm not sure what would even be appropriate to ask here.

edit - From August:

Quote from Cool Matty:

I wanted to jump on the scheduling and communications complaint, because it's a serious one to us as well.

The rest of GDQ staff was informed about scheduling delays around the same time as we notified the public. We are NOT happy with that situation either, and we have made changes to ensure that this does not happen again. Deadlines were set with the full expectation that they would be met, and we were not aware until the last moment that it was not so. IF a deadline must be broken in the future, we will notify the public ahead of time. Also, we are improving runner communication in the future, including semi-automatic feedback from the submission system, but also doing everything we can to make sure the appropriate staff addresses any problems.

Tough to continue taking such promises seriously.

I have comments and questions, but the OP more or less says "sorry, we'll talk about it later", so I'm not sure what would even be appropriate to ask here.

edit - From August:

[quote="Cool Matty"]I wanted to jump on the scheduling and communications complaint, because it's a serious one to us as well.

The rest of GDQ staff was informed about scheduling delays around the same time as we notified the public. We are NOT happy with that situation either, and we have made changes to ensure that this does not happen again. Deadlines were set with the full expectation that they would be met, and we were not aware until the last moment that it was not so. IF a deadline must be broken in the future, we will notify the public ahead of time. Also, we are improving runner communication in the future, including semi-automatic feedback from the submission system, but also doing everything we can to make sure the appropriate staff addresses any problems.[/quote]
Tough to continue taking such promises seriously.

curmaniac

2015-11-21 04:51:47 pm

Please explain why Mr. Uyama has not addressed the AGD community directly, as he is the owner, and chair of the committee. Thank you.

Cool Matty

2015-11-21 04:55:43 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from curmaniac:

Please explain why Mr. Uyama has not addressed the AGD community directly, as he is the owner, and chair of the committee. Thank you.

He's still very ill and has had little influence on GDQ the past year. He was working on the submissions for a time, but couldn't keep up for scheduling/etc. His work on submissions was an attempt to see how well he was healing up, and unfortunately I think he pushed himself too hard. We're hopeful he'll return by SGDQ, but in the meantime, the rest of the staff & committee has to take on his work.

zewing

Edit history:

zewing: 2015-11-21 05:17:03 pm

2015-11-21 05:16:40 pm

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

I honestly don't have much to say that won't be in the feedback thread post GDQ2016, but I do want to understand why it was worth the risk delaying the start of submissions until October (if this question could be answered, hard to ask a question when it will inadvertently be about the marathon)? This is 2 months later than standard and it only caused a lot more issues than ever imagined.

Cool Matty

2015-11-21 05:34:16 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from zewing:

I honestly don't have much to say that won't be in the feedback thread post GDQ2016, but I do want to understand why it was worth the risk delaying the start of submissions until October (if this question could be answered, hard to ask a question when it will inadvertently be about the marathon)? This is 2 months later than standard and it only caused a lot more issues than ever imagined.

There's two parts to this.

One, it's always been a personal goal of mine to make sure Mike is able to get back to working GDQ. This is his creation, and I wanted to support him however I could. I decided on that time because I had to make a judgment call on the latest we could postpone for him and still be on track for the event.

Two, it also left me with time to focus on SGDQ planning (which has been in full swing since the end of August), an apartment move, and some AGDQ planning that had been on the backburner.

In hindsight it was obviously a bad idea. The time itself wouldn't have been problematic, but I didn't give us enough leeway to handle issues or to handle if Mike was unable to keep up. Although the submissions itself went fairly quickly (which is when Mike was around), afterwards we had to come to terms with the committee taking over. This is the first time the committee has had to do that, and although we didn't want to have it happen that way, it was necessary in the end.

As an aside, I do want to mention that Mike is still getting better. It's been very slow and difficult for him, and I'm sure anyone who has been sick this long before knows that it can be a real toll on your body and mind. I won't go into his medical details, that's his private business, but doctors did finally realize there's more going on than just mono. However, he still has no real option but to wait it out.

[quote="zewing"]I honestly don't have much to say that won't be in the feedback thread post GDQ2016, but I do want to understand why it was worth the risk delaying the start of submissions until October (if this question could be answered, hard to ask a question when it will inadvertently be about the marathon)?  This is 2 months later than standard and it only caused a lot more issues than ever imagined.[/quote]

There's two parts to this.

One, it's always been a personal goal of mine to make sure Mike is able to get back to working GDQ. This is his creation, and I wanted to support him however I could. I decided on that time because I had to make a judgment call on the latest we could postpone for him and still be on track for the event.

Two, it also left me with time to focus on SGDQ planning (which has been in full swing since the end of August), an apartment move, and some AGDQ planning that had been on the backburner.

In hindsight it was obviously a bad idea. The time itself wouldn't have been problematic, but I didn't give us enough leeway to handle issues or to handle if Mike was unable to keep up. Although the submissions itself went fairly quickly (which is when Mike was around), afterwards we had to come to terms with the committee taking over. This is the first time the committee has had to do that, and although we didn't want to have it happen that way, it was necessary in the end.

As an aside, I do want to mention that Mike is still getting better. It's been very slow and difficult for him, and I'm sure anyone who has been sick this long before knows that it can be a real toll on your body and mind. I won't go into his medical details, that's his private business, but doctors did finally realize there's more going on than just mono. However, he still has no real option but to wait it out.

zewing

2015-11-21 05:40:47 pm

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

Thanks for the response Cool Matty, I can understand completely. Hope mike can get better soon, it's no fun being sick all year (I've been deailng with sickness all year, though not as bad as mike)

Emptyeye

2015-11-21 05:47:56 pm

Talk to the Hand

I'll just take a quick moment to thank you, Matty, for making this topic. I don't really have anything to say that wouldn't go into an AGDQ Feedback topic (I would imagine "Preparation for AGDQ" still goes into a topic such as that), but I do also want to say that I hope Mike makes a full recovery.

Vulajin

2015-11-21 05:55:22 pm

Hello everyone,

It's not customary for me to communicate publicly as a staff member other than to answer questions, but I want to demonstrate that Matt doesn't stand alone here. Games Done Quick is a team operation, and all of us have the same desire: to produce an awesome event that brings the speedrunning community together to raise money for a great cause. Clearly, we are falling short of that goal at present. I take my job helping to run this event seriously, and seeing us repeatedly misstep disappoints me greatly. I do not wish to continue that, and neither does anyone on staff.

I can accurately assess our current situation as "we suck at communicating." I understand that this pisses people off -- it pisses us off too. I also understand that this seems like a tired old refrain that we have repeatedly failed to learn. I can't say any magic words that will engender trust where we have already lost it, but I hope that you'll believe me when I say that we are doing what it takes to change. Matt is not alone in understanding the need for change here. For my part, I intend to help in any way that I can.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our events. I hope that you will continue to hold us to account for our errors, and I hope that you will stick around to watch us correct them.

Hello everyone,

It's not customary for me to communicate publicly as a staff member other than to answer questions, but I want to demonstrate that Matt doesn't stand alone here. Games Done Quick is a team operation, and all of us have the same desire: to produce an awesome event that brings the speedrunning community together to raise money for a great cause. Clearly, we are falling short of that goal at present. I take my job helping to run this event seriously, and seeing us repeatedly misstep disappoints me greatly. I do not wish to continue that, and neither does anyone on staff.

I can accurately assess our current situation as "we suck at communicating." I understand that this pisses people off -- it pisses us off too. I also understand that this seems like a tired old refrain that we have repeatedly failed to learn. I can't say any magic words that will engender trust where we have already lost it, but I hope that you'll believe me when I say that we are doing what it takes to change. Matt is not alone in understanding the need for change here. For my part, I intend to help in any way that I can.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our events. I hope that you will continue to hold us to account for our errors, and I hope that you will stick around to watch us correct them.

ziggirawk

2015-11-21 06:19:32 pm

Clearly the solution is to just stick all staff in an office and have an alarm go off every hour saying "COMMUNICAAAAAAAAAATE." /s

Antilles58

Edit history:

Antilles58: 2015-11-21 06:30:56 pm

2015-11-21 06:24:24 pm

#FailFish

Quote from Emptyeye:

I'll just take a quick moment to thank you, Matty, for making this topic. I don't really have anything to say that wouldn't go into an AGDQ Feedback topic (I would imagine "Preparation for AGDQ" still goes into a topic such as that), but I do also want to say that I hope Mike makes a full recovery.

^

Edit: I guess I can say a bit more. Thank you guys, for what you do. You all inspired me to start speed running/streaming. I've made a lot of friends through this that I never would have expected. It seems like that you guys have grown so fast that it's been hard to keep up - the problem is one of scaling up too quickly.

I know you know this, but I'll say it anyway: don't listen to the hate on Twitter and in these forums. GDQ isn't dead. It's more than just a convention or a place to hang out. It's a place that we can use games - something we love - to try and do some good in this dark world. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be involved in any of this.

Thank you for taking time to show that you are hearing complaints and are going to keep making an effort to change what needs to be - that's already a step in a good direction. I'm looking forward to serving with you again in January.

[quote="Emptyeye"]I'll just take a quick moment to thank you, Matty, for making this topic. I don't really have anything to say that wouldn't go into an AGDQ Feedback topic (I would imagine "Preparation for AGDQ" still goes into a topic such as that), but I do also want to say that I hope Mike makes a full recovery.[/quote]
^

Edit: I guess I can say a bit more.  Thank you guys, for what you do.  You all inspired me to start speed running/streaming.  I've made a lot of friends through this that I never would have expected.  It seems like that you guys have grown so fast that it's been hard to keep up - the problem is one of scaling up too quickly.

I know you know this, but I'll say it anyway: don't listen to the hate on Twitter and in these forums.  GDQ isn't dead.  It's more than just a convention or a place to hang out.  It's a place that we can use games - something we love - to try and do some good in this dark world.  If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be involved in any of this.

Thank you for taking time to show that you are hearing complaints and are going to keep making an effort to change what needs to be - that's already a step in a good direction.  I'm looking forward to serving with you again in January.

Duke Bilgewater

2015-11-21 06:31:52 pm

This is a start, and this discussion isn't something that should be put on the back burner because there's a "good cause" to benefit; that's been the status quo going on two years, and there's an amount of distrust between GDQ and the community that shouldn't be ignored. I hope that after AGDQ, there'll be time for a dialogue between GDQ and the community, so perhaps the separation isn't so distinct - as you say, so it isn't a "dictatorship".While I believe that GDQ will try to rectify the clear issues laid out in this open letter, you're laying out this laundry list of complaints as if it's been compiling this entire time - but this is the first time GDQ has openly promised to improve on these issues after two years of on-again-off-again tension, and that makes it that much more difficult to trust this apology.

I know the term "community" is recklessly thrown around in these discussions, so I'll clarify what community means. Runners who've headlined GDQs have told me that, "GDQ doesn't care about the speedrunning community," or that they, "feel like it's a performance, I have to fight for control of it." The term "incompetence" comes up casually (and independently) in discussions with former GDQ volunteers when talking about their time with the event. I'm not going to connect these statements to any particular person, not only because their privacy should be protected, but because these complaints were so common that they could have been anyone. You hardly have to leave your figurative backyard on the Internet or at GDQs to meet someone who has had their trust in GDQ shaken somehow. At the actual events alone, I can't count how many times, "I think of GDQs as meetups," followed by variations of, "because I can't trust the marathon anymore." This wasn't just when I was with the swampfolk who swarm the SDA forum threads like this, but people who have dedicated serious time and effort to speedrunning, the speedrunning community, and SDA/GDQ marathons. This type of dissatisfaction isn't everywhere, but it's there.
These are symptoms of a community that believes its been dispossessed of its part in these marathons, as the two-pronged cause of charity and establishing a financially secure company has played an inversely larger part. However, I don't know if saying that GDQ is going to start doing something SGDQ was doing two years ago (https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/sgdq_13_charity_choice2.html) and start addressing complaints that have been circulating longer than these last few months is enough to "rebuild those bridges", but it's a start.

I don't mean to disrespect what's gone into GDQ over the years, and I have faith that things will improve - but only when there's an honest and open dialogue about all this.

This is a start, and this discussion isn't something that should be put on the back burner because there's a "good cause" to benefit; that's been the status quo going on two years, and there's an amount of distrust between GDQ and the community that shouldn't be ignored. I hope that after AGDQ, there'll be time for a dialogue between GDQ and the community, so perhaps the separation isn't so distinct - as you say, so it isn't a "dictatorship".While I believe that GDQ will try to rectify the clear issues laid out in this open letter, you're laying out this laundry list of complaints as if it's been compiling this entire time - but this is the first time GDQ has openly promised to improve on these issues after two years of on-again-off-again tension, and that makes it that much more difficult to trust this apology.

I know the term "community" is recklessly thrown around in these discussions, so I'll clarify what community means. Runners who've headlined GDQs have told me that, "GDQ doesn't care about the speedrunning community," or that they, "feel like it's a performance, I have to fight for control of it." The term "incompetence" comes up casually (and independently) in discussions with former GDQ volunteers when talking about their time with the event. I'm not going to connect these statements to any particular person, not only because their privacy should be protected, but because these complaints were so common that they could have been anyone. You hardly have to leave your figurative backyard on the Internet or at GDQs to meet someone who has had their trust in GDQ shaken somehow. At the actual events alone, I can't count how many times, "I think of GDQs as meetups," followed by variations of, "because I can't trust the marathon anymore." This wasn't just when I was with the swampfolk who swarm the SDA forum threads like this, but people who have dedicated serious time and effort to speedrunning, the speedrunning community, and SDA/GDQ marathons. This type of dissatisfaction isn't everywhere, but it's there.
These are symptoms of a community that believes its been dispossessed of its part in these marathons, as the two-pronged cause of charity and establishing a financially secure company has played an inversely larger part. However, I don't know if saying that GDQ is going to start doing something SGDQ was doing two years ago (https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/sgdq_13_charity_choice2.html) and start addressing complaints that have been circulating longer than these last few months is enough to "rebuild those bridges", but it's a start.

I don't mean to disrespect what's gone into GDQ over the years, and I have faith that things will improve - but only when there's an honest and open dialogue about all this.

Lenophis

2015-11-21 06:34:53 pm

0-10

Quote from Cool Matty:

Maybe it's not enough in some people's eyes.

Only time will tell. It will largely depend on how far you as a group are willing to go.

Quote:

I understand, bridges can take time to rebuild. This is about bringing the speedrunning community together for a great cause.

I want to believe this, but I can't. I have little reason to believe enough change will happen for this to be an "all-encompassing event," ever. For reference, you guys try being a black sheep. Lemme know how that works for you. (It doesn't end well.)

sneaky

2015-11-21 07:13:36 pm

I think part of the problem is some staff are being paid for this event. Granted this is a large event, but if you're being paid for something we would expect more transparency, better communications, and everything being done in timely manner. I understand before it was a volunteer only, but now people are being paid for helping with the event and we should expect better. From what I can tell things have progressively gotten worse as the GDQ's have gone on(once money started trading hands). We understand this is a big event but people are being paid to help with this event and things should have got better instead and not worse.

TheMG2

2015-11-21 07:25:43 pm

That's nice and all but what the hell is this about https://twitter.com/romscoutSDA/status/668245071779639296

lurk

2015-11-21 07:52:47 pm

I'm sorry, but I don't expect anything to come from this open letter. You have already seen (likely) 95% of the criticism that will come up in such a discussion, and you'll find all the reasons and excuses as to why nothing is going to change significantly. It's why I did not post in the last feedback thread for SGDQ15 - I feel that it's pointless.

And it's really a shame that I (and likely others) feel this way because I like the idea of GDQ events, and have enjoyed each event I have attended.

BroBuzz

Edit history:

BroBuzz: 2015-11-21 08:47:23 pm

BroBuzz: 2015-11-21 08:33:49 pm

2015-11-21 08:32:20 pm

I'm glad there's going to be more open discussion the future, but it's sad this is only just now starting to happen because of the botched submissions. These sort of issues have been going on for years in the community's eyes and have been seldom addressed. And like Duke said, it's created a lot of friction and distrust between large sections of the community and GDQs. A lot of these issues boil down to a lack of basic communication and transparency. For instance, Mike Uyama is the Owner and Event Director of GDQs and practically dropped off the face of the earth after AGDQ15, with only vague comments of being sick with mono thrown around in one-off forum posts by staff. So people naturally wondered what happened to Uyama. And up until now, there's been little to no communication in regards to staff actually addressing this concern outside of, again, vague forum posts buried deep in feedback/discussion threads. I understanding respecting someone's privacy, but considering Uyama is the Owner/Event Director of GDQs, there needs to be more transparency. A basic statement from the staff saying "Uyama has health issue X and won't be the event director for this marathon because of it. Please respect his privacy." would have easily sufficed.

And that was just a quick example. There's been numerous other issues throughout the years that have been mishandled in similar ways, just look at any GDQ feedback thread from the few years and pick your topic. And while I hope things improve with GDQs, I'm not banking on it.

I'm glad there's going to be more open discussion the future, but it's sad this is only just now starting to happen because of the botched submissions. These sort of issues have been going on for years in the community's eyes and have been seldom addressed. And like Duke said, it's created a lot of friction and distrust between large sections of the community and GDQs. A lot of these issues boil down to a lack of basic communication and transparency. For instance, Mike Uyama is the Owner and Event Director of GDQs and practically dropped off the face of the earth after AGDQ15, with only vague comments of being sick with mono thrown around in one-off forum posts by staff. So people naturally wondered what happened to Uyama. And up until now, there's been little to no communication in regards to staff actually addressing this concern outside of, again, vague forum posts buried deep in feedback/discussion threads. I understanding respecting someone's privacy, but considering Uyama is the Owner/Event Director of GDQs, there needs to be more transparency. A basic statement from the staff saying "Uyama has health issue X and won't be the event director for this marathon because of it. Please respect his privacy." would have easily sufficed.

And that was just a quick example. There's been numerous other issues throughout the years that have been mishandled in similar ways, just look at any GDQ feedback thread from the few years and pick your topic. And while I hope things improve with GDQs, I'm not banking on it.

ziggirawk

2015-11-21 08:37:08 pm

Let's just go ahead and violate HIPAA cus why not. What even is patient privacy?

PJ

2015-11-21 08:40:14 pm

Is PJ

Quote from BroBuzz:

I'm glad there's going to be more open discussion the future, but it's sad this is only just now starting to happen because of the botched submissions. These sort of issues have been going on for years in the community's eyes and have been seldom addressed. And like Duke said, it's created a lot of friction and distrust between large sections of the community and GDQs. A lot of these issues boil down to a lack of basic communication and transparency. For instance, Mike Uyama is the Owner and Event Director of GDQs and practically dropped off the face of the earth after AGDQ15, with only vague comments of being sick with mono thrown around in one-off forum posts by staff. Mono only lasts for 2 months at worst, so people naturally wondered what happened to Uyama. And up until now, there's been little to no communication in regards to staff actually addressing this concern outside of, again, vague forum posts buried deep in feedback/discussion threads. I understanding respecting someone's privacy, but considering Uyama is the Owner/Event Director of GDQs, there needs to be more transparency. A basic statement from the staff saying "Uyama has health issue X and won't be the event director for this marathon because of it. Please respect his privacy." would have easily sufficed.

And that was just a quick example. There's been numerous other issues throughout the years that have been mishandled in similar ways, just look at any GDQ feedback thread from the few years and pick your topic. And while I hope things improve with GDQs, I'm not banking on it.

Claiming mono lasts 2 months at worst is absolutely laughable.

[quote="BroBuzz"]I'm glad there's going to be more open discussion the future, but it's sad this is only just now starting to happen because of the botched submissions. These sort of issues have been going on for years in the community's eyes and have been seldom addressed. And like Duke said, it's created a lot of friction and distrust between large sections of the community and GDQs. A lot of these issues boil down to a lack of basic communication and transparency. For instance, Mike Uyama is the Owner and Event Director of GDQs and practically dropped off the face of the earth after AGDQ15, with only vague comments of being sick with mono thrown around in one-off forum posts by staff. Mono only lasts for 2 months at worst, so people naturally wondered what happened to Uyama. And up until now, there's been little to no communication in regards to staff actually addressing this concern outside of, again, vague forum posts buried deep in feedback/discussion threads. I understanding respecting someone's privacy, but considering Uyama is the Owner/Event Director of GDQs, there needs to be more transparency. A basic statement from the staff saying "Uyama has health issue X and won't be the event director for this marathon because of it. Please respect his privacy." would have easily sufficed.

And that was just a quick example. There's been numerous other issues throughout the years that have been mishandled in similar ways, just look at any GDQ feedback thread from the few years and pick your topic. And while I hope things improve with GDQs, I'm not banking on it.[/quote]

Claiming mono lasts 2 months at worst is absolutely laughable.

BroBuzz

2015-11-21 08:49:25 pm

Quote from PJ:

Claiming mono lasts 2 months at worst is absolutely laughable.

Yeah looked into it a bit more and you're right, my bad. Point still stands regardless.

Rakuen

Edit history:

Rakuen: 2015-11-21 09:04:19 pm

Rakuen: 2015-11-21 09:04:11 pm

Rakuen: 2015-11-21 09:03:33 pm

Rakuen: 2015-11-21 09:03:13 pm

2015-11-21 09:03:02 pm

Weegee Time

So what I'm reading here is... words. Where's the action plan?

Here's something relatively low impact that you could do right now. Discuss with the staff and come up with an initial list of subject areas. It doesn't have to cover the whole universe of subjects up front, but it should be robust. Prioritize the list in order of importance, and keep in mind that what you all think isn't important won't necessarily align with the community, which is the whole reason you're doing this. If in doubt, open up a poll and prioritize that way, and that may even better because it gives the community some agency in the preliminary work. Then make a post saying what the proposed order of topics is, and that the first one will be discussed on X date.

Finally, DO NOT MISS THAT DATE!

And hey, if you notice something that could be discussed presently and would benefit the upcoming event... maybe it wouldn't hurt to start talking now.

TonyOgbot

2015-11-21 09:10:48 pm

I could lay out a laundry list of things that have troubled me with the way AGDQ has been handled this time around, but I feel that if things are actually going to change, you (being the GDQ staff team as a whole) will take the time to listen to these frustrations in a more appropriate setting.

I do have one question that I would like answered though: How soon are we talking on SGDQ date and location? Being a local to the area of the last event, and planning a speedrunning marathon with some of the local boys around that time of year leads to a lot of butt puckering, and I know that we would definitely appreciate news on this as soon as possible.

Cool Matty

2015-11-21 10:11:37 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from sneaky:

I think part of the problem is some staff are being paid for this event. Granted this is a large event, but if you're being paid for something we would expect more transparency, better communications, and everything being done in timely manner. I understand before it was a volunteer only, but now people are being paid for helping with the event and we should expect better. From what I can tell things have progressively gotten worse as the GDQ's have gone on(once money started trading hands). We understand this is a big event but people are being paid to help with this event and things should have got better instead and not worse.

Nope, I hear you loud and clear. People expect more out of the paid positions. I think that falls a lot on the leaders, including myself, the past few events, and just poor leadership. I haven't been addressing things like I should have, as I was thrown into the event pretty haphazardly, without any real indication on what was needed and where I stood. But I've slowly acclimated to it, and now, I want this statement to stand as a marker for when things begin to change. Hopefully, you won't have to believe in the improvements, you'll see them yourself.

Quote from TheMG2:

That's nice and all but what the hell is this about https://twitter.com/romscoutSDA/status/668245071779639296

Drew was upset at the event going south. We've talked it over privately, and we're on good terms. For all involved, we also came to the mutual agreement to not discuss it further. So with that, him nor I will be willing to expand further on that.

Quote from lurk:

I'm sorry, but I don't expect anything to come from this open letter. You have already seen (likely) 95% of the criticism that will come up in such a discussion, and you'll find all the reasons and excuses as to why nothing is going to change significantly. It's why I did not post in the last feedback thread for SGDQ15 - I feel that it's pointless.

And it's really a shame that I (and likely others) feel this way because I like the idea of GDQ events, and have enjoyed each event I have attended.

Honestly, it's not about criticism. You're totally right. We've heard enough of that. When I start these discussions after AGDQ, I'm not interested in just hearing criticisms again. I'm looking for changes to be made.

And while I'm talking about changes: yes, we can make changes right now. But discussions about large, sweeping changes just doesn't make sense this close to AGDQ. That's the only reason for the delay. After AGDQ will be the slowest period for me, so it'll be the best time for me to hold these discussions with the community and our staff. I'll be heading them off, but our staff will be adding their perspectives in as well.

Quote from BroBuzz:

I'm glad there's going to be more open discussion the future, but it's sad this is only just now starting to happen because of the botched submissions. These sort of issues have been going on for years in the community's eyes and have been seldom addressed. And like Duke said, it's created a lot of friction and distrust between large sections of the community and GDQs. A lot of these issues boil down to a lack of basic communication and transparency. For instance, Mike Uyama is the Owner and Event Director of GDQs and practically dropped off the face of the earth after AGDQ15, with only vague comments of being sick with mono thrown around in one-off forum posts by staff. So people naturally wondered what happened to Uyama. And up until now, there's been little to no communication in regards to staff actually addressing this concern outside of, again, vague forum posts buried deep in feedback/discussion threads. I understanding respecting someone's privacy, but considering Uyama is the Owner/Event Director of GDQs, there needs to be more transparency. A basic statement from the staff saying "Uyama has health issue X and won't be the event director for this marathon because of it. Please respect his privacy." would have easily sufficed.

And that was just a quick example. There's been numerous other issues throughout the years that have been mishandled in similar ways, just look at any GDQ feedback thread from the few years and pick your topic. And while I hope things improve with GDQs, I'm not banking on it.

We should have been more clear about how his responsibilities have changed. Honestly, some of this stems from myself being unsure of whether I needed to take them on or not. It's clear as day now, especially in hindsight though, and this is part of that step to take control until Mike can finally make it back.

Quote from Rakuen:

So what I'm reading here is... words. Where's the action plan?

Here's something relatively low impact that you could do right now. Discuss with the staff and come up with an initial list of subject areas. It doesn't have to cover the whole universe of subjects up front, but it should be robust. Prioritize the list in order of importance, and keep in mind that what you all think isn't important won't necessarily align with the community, which is the whole reason you're doing this. If in doubt, open up a poll and prioritize that way, and that may even better because it gives the community some agency in the preliminary work. Then make a post saying what the proposed order of topics is, and that the first one will be discussed on X date.

Finally, DO NOT MISS THAT DATE!

And hey, if you notice something that could be discussed presently and would benefit the upcoming event... maybe it wouldn't hurt to start talking now.

I think the list of stuff I mentioned in the first post is honestly a good list to start with. I won't commit to a specific date until after AGDQ, because I have no idea what might happen (my leg doesn't tend to do well after an event, it could take me a week or two to really feel up to it). Once we're all settled back in though, I will absolutely give firm dates on what we're doing.

Quote from TonyOgbot:

I could lay out a laundry list of things that have troubled me with the way AGDQ has been handled this time around, but I feel that if things are actually going to change, you (being the GDQ staff team as a whole) will take the time to listen to these frustrations in a more appropriate setting.

I do have one question that I would like answered though: How soon are we talking on SGDQ date and location? Being a local to the area of the last event, and planning a speedrunning marathon with some of the local boys around that time of year leads to a lot of butt puckering, and I know that we would definitely appreciate news on this as soon as possible.

Are you the event manager? Either way, whoever is, have them email me at mattmerkle@gamesdonequick.com and I can help them. We actually know both, but we don't reveal that information until we cover any contingencies and have all the ancillary things covered. Got a lot on my plate for this week, but I might have an announcement ready by next.

[quote="sneaky"]I think part of the problem is some staff are being paid for this event. Granted this is a large event, but if you're being paid for something we would expect more transparency, better communications, and everything being done in timely manner. I understand before it was a volunteer only, but now people are being paid for helping with the event and we should expect better. From what I can tell things have progressively gotten worse as the GDQ's have gone on(once money started trading hands). We understand this is a big event but people are being paid to help with this event and things should have got better instead and not worse.[/quote]

Nope, I hear you loud and clear. People expect more out of the paid positions. I think that falls a lot on the leaders, including myself, the past few events, and just poor leadership. I haven't been addressing things like I should have, as I was thrown into the event pretty haphazardly, without any real indication on what was needed and where I stood. But I've slowly acclimated to it, and now, I want this statement to stand as a marker for when things begin to change. Hopefully, you won't have to believe in the improvements, you'll see them yourself.

[quote="TheMG2"]That's nice and all but what the hell is this about https://twitter.com/romscoutSDA/status/668245071779639296[/quote]

Drew was upset at the event going south. We've talked it over privately, and we're on good terms. For all involved, we also came to the mutual agreement to not discuss it further. So with that, him nor I will be willing to expand further on that.

[quote="lurk"]I'm sorry, but I don't expect anything to come from this open letter. You have already seen (likely) 95% of the criticism that will come up in such a discussion, and you'll find all the reasons and excuses as to why nothing is going to change significantly. It's why I did not post in the last feedback thread for SGDQ15 - I feel that it's pointless.

And it's really a shame that I (and likely others) feel this way because I like the idea of GDQ events, and have enjoyed each event I have attended.[/quote]

Honestly, it's not about criticism. You're totally right. We've heard enough of that. When I start these discussions after AGDQ, I'm not interested in just hearing criticisms again. I'm looking for changes to be made.

And while I'm talking about changes: yes, we can make changes right now. But discussions about large, sweeping changes just doesn't make sense this close to AGDQ. That's the only reason for the delay. After AGDQ will be the slowest period for me, so it'll be the best time for me to hold these discussions with the community and our staff. I'll be heading them off, but our staff will be adding their perspectives in as well.

[quote="BroBuzz"]I'm glad there's going to be more open discussion the future, but it's sad this is only just now starting to happen because of the botched submissions. These sort of issues have been going on for years in the community's eyes and have been seldom addressed. And like Duke said, it's created a lot of friction and distrust between large sections of the community and GDQs. A lot of these issues boil down to a lack of basic communication and transparency. For instance, Mike Uyama is the Owner and Event Director of GDQs and practically dropped off the face of the earth after AGDQ15, with only vague comments of being sick with mono thrown around in one-off forum posts by staff. So people naturally wondered what happened to Uyama. And up until now, there's been little to no communication in regards to staff actually addressing this concern outside of, again, vague forum posts buried deep in feedback/discussion threads. I understanding respecting someone's privacy, but considering Uyama is the Owner/Event Director of GDQs, there needs to be more transparency. A basic statement from the staff saying "Uyama has health issue X and won't be the event director for this marathon because of it. Please respect his privacy." would have easily sufficed.

And that was just a quick example. There's been numerous other issues throughout the years that have been mishandled in similar ways, just look at any GDQ feedback thread from the few years and pick your topic. And while I hope things improve with GDQs, I'm not banking on it.[/quote]

We should have been more clear about how his responsibilities have changed. Honestly, some of this stems from myself being unsure of whether I needed to take them on or not. It's clear as day now, especially in hindsight though, and this is part of that step to take control until Mike can finally make it back.

[quote="Rakuen"]So what I'm reading here is... words.  Where's the action plan?

Here's something relatively low impact that you could do right now.  Discuss with the staff and come up with an initial list of subject areas.  It doesn't have to cover the whole universe of subjects up front, but it should be robust.  Prioritize the list in order of importance, and keep in mind that what you all think isn't important won't necessarily align with [i]the community[/i], which is the whole reason you're doing this.  If in doubt, open up a poll and prioritize that way, and that may even better because it gives the community some agency in the preliminary work.  Then make a post saying what the proposed order of topics is, and that the first one will be discussed on X date.

Finally, [b][i][u][size="16"]DO NOT MISS THAT DATE![/size][/u][/i][/b]

And hey, if you notice something that could be discussed presently and would benefit the upcoming event... maybe it wouldn't hurt to start talking now.[/quote]

I think the list of stuff I mentioned in the first post is honestly a good list to start with. I won't commit to a specific date until after AGDQ, because I have no idea what might happen (my leg doesn't tend to do well after an event, it could take me a week or two to really feel up to it). Once we're all settled back in though, I will absolutely give firm dates on what we're doing.

[quote="TonyOgbot"]I could lay out a laundry list of things that have troubled me with the way AGDQ has been handled this time around, but I feel that if things are actually going to change, you (being the GDQ staff team as a whole) will take the time to listen to these frustrations in a more appropriate setting.

I do have one question that I would like answered though: How soon are we talking on SGDQ date and location? Being a local to the area of the last event, and planning a speedrunning marathon with some of the local boys around that time of year leads to a lot of butt puckering, and I know that we would definitely appreciate news on this as soon as possible.[/quote]

Are you the event manager? Either way, whoever is, have them email me at mattmerkle@gamesdonequick.com and I can help them. We actually know both, but we don't reveal that information until we cover any contingencies and have all the ancillary things covered. Got a lot on my plate for this week, but I might have an announcement ready by next.

Rakuen

2015-11-21 11:05:26 pm

Weegee Time

Quote from CoolMatty:

Quote from Rakuen:

So what I'm reading here is... words. Where's the action plan?

Here's something relatively low impact that you could do right now. Discuss with the staff and come up with an initial list of subject areas. It doesn't have to cover the whole universe of subjects up front, but it should be robust. Prioritize the list in order of importance, and keep in mind that what you all think isn't important won't necessarily align with the community, which is the whole reason you're doing this. If in doubt, open up a poll and prioritize that way, and that may even better because it gives the community some agency in the preliminary work. Then make a post saying what the proposed order of topics is, and that the first one will be discussed on X date.

Finally, DO NOT MISS THAT DATE!

And hey, if you notice something that could be discussed presently and would benefit the upcoming event... maybe it wouldn't hurt to start talking now.

I think the list of stuff I mentioned in the first post is honestly a good list to start with. I won't commit to a specific date until after AGDQ, because I have no idea what might happen (my leg doesn't tend to do well after an event, it could take me a week or two to really feel up to it). Once we're all settled back in though, I will absolutely give firm dates on what we're doing.

Fair enough on the subject list, but I still think it's very important to come up with a date before AGDQ. There are people here who lack confidence in one or more aspects of the event, and this feeling has built up over months if not years. Actions are going to be far more meaningful at this point. Putting some skin in the game will clearly communicate how staff members are committed to making the dialogue happen.

That doesn't mean the first thread needs to post days after the event. I've done staff work in the past for some events and I know people need a bit of recovery time. If a safe date for the team is 3 or 4 weeks after the marathon, then so be it, it's still a date.

[quote="CoolMatty"][quote="Rakuen"]So what I'm reading here is... words.  Where's the action plan?

Here's something relatively low impact that you could do right now.  Discuss with the staff and come up with an initial list of subject areas.  It doesn't have to cover the whole universe of subjects up front, but it should be robust.  Prioritize the list in order of importance, and keep in mind that what you all think isn't important won't necessarily align with [i]the community[/i], which is the whole reason you're doing this.  If in doubt, open up a poll and prioritize that way, and that may even better because it gives the community some agency in the preliminary work.  Then make a post saying what the proposed order of topics is, and that the first one will be discussed on X date.

Finally, [b][i][u][size="16"]DO NOT MISS THAT DATE![/size][/u][/i][/b]

And hey, if you notice something that could be discussed presently and would benefit the upcoming event... maybe it wouldn't hurt to start talking now.[/quote]
I think the list of stuff I mentioned in the first post is honestly a good list to start with. I won't commit to a specific date until after AGDQ, because I have no idea what might happen (my leg doesn't tend to do well after an event, it could take me a week or two to really feel up to it). Once we're all settled back in though, I will absolutely give firm dates on what we're doing.[/quote]
Fair enough on the subject list, but I still think it's [b]very[/b] important to come up with a date [i]before[/i] AGDQ.  There are people here who lack confidence in one or more aspects of the event, and this feeling has built up over months if not years.  Actions are going to be far more meaningful at this point.  Putting some skin in the game will clearly communicate how staff members are [b]committed[/b] to making the dialogue happen.

That doesn't mean the first thread needs to post days after the event.  I've done staff work in the past for some events and I know people need a bit of recovery time.  If a safe date for the team is 3 or 4 weeks after the marathon, then so be it, it's [i]still[/i] a date.

zastbat

2015-11-22 09:06:10 am

Lord Of The Beards

Ive got something you can do right now to improve communication. Stop using personal twitter accounts to post important information and start using the GDQ account. Not everyone follows those personal accounts and more runners probably follow the GamesDoneQuick twitter.