European Marathon primary planning thread (opinions on Sweden still wanted) [locked]

Chrno

Edit history:

Chrno: 2011-12-04 04:39:25 pm

2011-12-04 04:39:04 pm

WOW.

Quote from MrLonghair:

I've got some first-hand contacts in the Swedish games industry for possible PR and raffle-material, as well as the media (respectable outlets) for getting word spread, should the need arise.

Svenne

2011-12-05 11:15:44 am

So I'm back, ACED my final exams thingy!

Mikael said: "Really interesting! I look in to it. Have a nice one, Mike!"

I later sent a reply that said: "All that SDA really needs is a place to set up shop and broadcast the marathon for a week and a good broadband speed", lets see what he replys next.

I personally think SDA can get this from Skövde City, could we get something like freja, valhall like we had in the Ludendi convention (Skövdes video-game club), there would be places to put up sufficent beds etc for all runners etc. And there are food places very near, like mcdonald 5-600 feet from it, train station just 100 feet from it.

No one of the SDA Europe people would want a public event in future? I would think that would be nice if SDA could generate that amount of interest in a distaint future. (not near future, distent)

How 'bout you guys, having any luck on your end of Europe?

(Love your connections with the media MrLonghair!)

RoboSparkle

2011-12-10 01:01:40 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Congrats on acing your exams Svenne!

Skövde City certainly sounds promising, I wish I had some more spare time to devote to this, although all of my local stuff will probably be London, which will probably be very expensive for those of you who aren't me...

A public event in the distant future certainly sounds fun, definitely something to keep in mind...

Chrno

Edit history:

Chrno: 2011-12-10 04:55:29 pm

2011-12-10 04:55:01 pm

WOW.

Quote from RoboSparkle:

Congrats on acing your exams Svenne!

Skövde City certainly sounds promising, I wish I had some more spare time to devote to this, although all of my local stuff will probably be London, which will probably be very expensive for those of you who aren't me...

A public event in the distant future certainly sounds fun, definitely something to keep in mind...

A hop on the train from France is not that dear these days, but yes, Sweden is looking more promising than Germany at the moment.

Svenne

2011-12-10 09:23:21 pm

I have now went through the thread and there were talks about Germany/England, how are things on that front? Someone had a date, that it should be in August something so for you other people out there, there is still lots of time to look things over in those places. We should atleast have another place to choose between? Sweden was to expensive and so forth in the threads!

So what are the plans in long-terms?

Do we have a gameplan or something?^^

Perhaps I should ask Frezy if he could help me, I really don't want to disturb him with this before I atleast got something to work with.

What would SDA need to get this done? What would SDA prefure to get for free, if I can get it (a place to be, broadband speed, accomodations etc.). Now I'm talking to the onces who knows what they are talking about, not some mumbojumbo. The people who walks the walk and dont talk the talk when it comes to planning and getting a thing like this done! So I can look up all of these requests with the city and see if we could have it here, not that we should, just long-term planning ahead.

I have now went through the thread and there were talks about Germany/England, how are things on that front? Someone had a date, that it should be in August something so for you other people out there, there is still lots of time to look things over in those places. We should atleast have another place to choose between? Sweden was to expensive and so forth in the threads!

So what are the plans in long-terms?

Do we have a gameplan or something?^^

Perhaps I should ask Frezy if he could help me, I really don't want to disturb him with this before I atleast got something to work with.

What would SDA need to get this done? What would SDA prefure to get for free, if I can get it (a place to be, broadband speed, accomodations etc.). Now I'm talking to the onces who knows what they are talking about, not some mumbojumbo. The people who walks the walk and dont talk the talk when it comes to planning and getting a thing like this done! So I can look up all of these requests with the city and see if we could have it here, not that we should, just long-term planning ahead.

RoboSparkle

Edit history:

RoboSparkle: 2011-12-11 01:16:31 pm

2011-12-11 11:55:48 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from Svenne:

I have now went through the thread and there were talks about Germany/England, how are things on that front?

I haven't really been looking because I am not going to have the time to organise anything like this, I think there are some other people looking in Manchester, which has an airport, lots of accomodation and is relatively cheap. However I will have a look and see if I can get a venue local to me as long as I won't end up organising the whole thing, just so we have some other options.

Quote:

Do we have a gameplan or something?^^

Basically we need:

1) A place that we can take over for a week in/around Augustish
EDIT: There are minimum requirements for the broadband speeds as well, so any location that can't provide this is pretty much useless.

That's about it, really. We need as many of those as possible. Then we can choose which one to go for based on cost to hire, broadband speed available, location, accomodation, other amenities, etc. Ultimately this is a numbers game, the first thing we need is lots of possibilities, even if they aren't very good, rather than waiting for that one excellent, free, central location, because we could be here until next year looking for that if we discount everything else.

Quote:

What would SDA need to get this done? What would SDA prefure to get for free, if I can get it (a place to be, broadband speed, accomodations etc.).

In terms of what we want to get for free, anything and everything that can be donated, so not just a place or the internet or accomodation, but food would be good (I think the ACDQ guys are trying to get a deal with Subway for free or subsidised food?). But ultimately we'll add everything up with each potential location and see which of the options we have will be best, have a vote and go from there.

Quote:

So what are the plans in long-terms?

Once we have decided on a venue and dates, then we can go into who will be attending, what equipment we'll need, who'll be bringing it, what games are being run and so on, but most of that stuff is irrelevant without a venue. I think that we are already being too restrictive saying Germany/Sweden/UK right now since technically none of those are currently options until we have a place. If anyone else is living anywhere even vaguely plausible, it would be a good idea to see if there any places nearby that we can potentially hold EGDQ since even if it's not the 'preferred' location, we may find an excellent deal or place and in any case at this stage we are not in a position to be picky about where we hold this thing.

Having said all that (sorry the post went on for so long) it does look like Sweden's our best bet currently, although personally I'd feel better if there were a couple of other options so that we can choose, even if the other choices are rubbish.

[quote="Svenne"]I have now went through the thread and there were talks about Germany/England, how are things on that front? 
[/quote]
I haven't really been looking because I am not going to have the time to organise anything like this, I think there are some other people looking in Manchester, which has an airport, lots of accomodation and is relatively cheap.  However I will have a look and see if I can get a venue local to me as long as I won't end up organising the whole thing, just so we have some other options.

[quote]
Do we have a gameplan or something?^^[/quote]
Basically we need:

1) A place that we can take over for a week in/around Augustish
EDIT: There are minimum requirements for the broadband speeds as well, so any location that can't provide this is pretty much useless.

That's about it, really.  We need as many of those as possible.  Then we can choose which one to go for based on cost to hire, broadband speed available, location, accomodation, other amenities, etc.  Ultimately this is a numbers game, the first thing we need is lots of possibilities, even if they aren't very good, rather than waiting for that one excellent, free, central location, because we could be here until next year looking for that if we discount everything else.

[quote]What would SDA need to get this done? What would SDA prefure to get for free, if I can get it (a place to be, broadband speed, accomodations etc.).[/quote]
In terms of what we want to get for free, anything and everything that can be donated, so not just a place or the internet or accomodation, but food would be good (I think the ACDQ guys are trying to get a deal with Subway for free or subsidised food?). But ultimately we'll add everything up with each potential location and see which of the options we have will be best, have a vote and go from there.

[quote]So what are the plans in long-terms? [/quote]
Once we have decided on a venue and dates, then we can go into who will be attending, what equipment we'll need, who'll be bringing it, what games are being run and so on, but most of that stuff is irrelevant without a venue.  I think that we are already being too restrictive saying Germany/Sweden/UK right now since technically none of those are currently options until we have a place.  If anyone else is living anywhere even vaguely plausible, it would be a good idea to see if there any places nearby that we can potentially hold EGDQ since even if it's not the 'preferred' location, we may find an excellent deal or place and in any case at this stage we are not in a position to be picky about where we hold this thing.

Having said all that (sorry the post went on for so long) it does look like Sweden's our best bet currently, although personally I'd feel better if there were a couple of other options so that we can choose, even if the other choices are rubbish.

Svenne

2011-12-11 12:58:24 pm

RoboSparkle, thank you!;D

I guess the same information now applys to everyone els looking for a place to hold this in Europe as well, so mighty greatful!

Flying Fox

2011-12-11 03:00:55 pm

I know this is late, but I only found this topic because I was talking about the marathon with Mercury and she showed me this topic. I know I'm not well-known on here or have been here for very long, but I always wanted to go to a marathon but couldn't due to money problems. Since it'll be in europe I'll be able to come. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I'll be able to do S3&K co-op with mike89 but we'll be discussing more about that next year. If there is anything I can do to help or whatever with the marathon I'd be happy to Smiley

Tiberius

2011-12-11 03:07:55 pm

Make it so.

Quote from Flying Fox:

I know this is late, but I only found this topic because I was talking about the marathon with Mercury and she showed me this topic. I know I'm not well-known on here or have been here for very long, but I always wanted to go to a marathon but couldn't due to money problems. Since it'll be in europe I'll be able to come. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I'll be able to do S3&K co-op with mike89 but we'll be discussing more about that next year. If there is anything I can do to help or whatever with the marathon I'd be happy to Smiley

You're known (and idolised for your ILs thumbsup

) by some of us, don't worry haha. Although I would be quite sad if you two completely took over the only game I would currently be able to run for this marathon...

As a planning update, I've been continuing to ask around in Durham but there are problems, mainly due to the IT service blocking certain sites/features. One of these being the vast majority of streaming sites. I'm in casual negotiations with them about whether it would be possible to remove this restriction though. So not much progress but progress nonetheless. Most people I've talked to seem really keen on the idea.

[quote="Flying Fox"]I know this is late, but I only found this topic because I was talking about the marathon with Mercury and she showed me this topic. I know I'm not well-known on here or have been here for very long, but I always wanted to go to a marathon but couldn't due to money problems. Since it'll be in europe I'll be able to come. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I'll be able to do S3&K co-op with mike89 but we'll be discussing more about that next year. If there is anything I can do to help or whatever with the marathon I'd be happy to :)[/quote]

You're known (and idolised for your ILs :thumbsup: ) by some of us, don't worry haha. Although I would be quite sad if you two completely took over the only game I would currently be able to run for this marathon...

As a planning update, I've been continuing to ask around in Durham but there are problems, mainly due to the IT service blocking certain sites/features. One of these being the vast majority of streaming sites. I'm in casual negotiations with them about whether it would be possible to remove this restriction though. So not much progress but progress nonetheless. Most people I've talked to seem really keen on the idea.

RoboSparkle

2011-12-11 03:16:15 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from Flying Fox:

I know this is late, but I only found this topic because I was talking about the marathon with Mercury and she showed me this topic. I know I'm not well-known on here or have been here for very long, but I always wanted to go to a marathon but couldn't due to money problems. Since it'll be in europe I'll be able to come. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I'll be able to do S3&K co-op with mike89 but we'll be discussing more about that next year. If there is anything I can do to help or whatever with the marathon I'd be happy to Smiley

You aren't late at all, not by a long way! We're actually a while from even discussing games I think but a co-op S3&K run sounds great (if you're worried about losing it Tiberius then you and I could race them, I think the Tails role should be simple enough for me in that one)

When you say the vast majority of streaming sites are banned, does that mean we can work around that by being careful about the services we use, or that streaming games will basically be impossible? I can't claim to know anything about this stuff really, so sorry if the questions sound daft...

[quote="Flying Fox"]I know this is late, but I only found this topic because I was talking about the marathon with Mercury and she showed me this topic. I know I'm not well-known on here or have been here for very long, but I always wanted to go to a marathon but couldn't due to money problems. Since it'll be in europe I'll be able to come. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I'll be able to do S3&K co-op with mike89 but we'll be discussing more about that next year. If there is anything I can do to help or whatever with the marathon I'd be happy to :)[/quote]

You aren't late at all, not by a long way!  We're actually a while from even discussing games I think but a co-op S3&K run sounds great (if you're worried about losing it Tiberius then you and I could race them, I think the Tails role should be simple enough for me in that one)

When you say the vast majority of streaming sites are banned, does that mean we can work around that by being careful about the services we use, or that streaming games will basically be impossible? I can't claim to know anything about this stuff really, so sorry if the questions sound daft...

Flying Fox

2011-12-11 03:23:31 pm

Quote from RoboSparkle:

You aren't late at all, not by a long way! We're actually a while from even discussing games I think but a co-op S3&K run sounds great (if you're worried about losing it Tiberius then you and I could race them, I think the Tails role should be simple enough for me in that one)

That does sound very attempting Tongue

Tiberius

2011-12-11 03:32:06 pm

Make it so.

Quote from RoboSparkle:

When you say the vast majority of streaming sites are banned, does that mean we can work around that by being careful about the services we use, or that streaming games will basically be impossible? I can't claim to know anything about this stuff really, so sorry if the questions sound daft...

Not daft at all, they have an odd system where they basically ban things they dont approve of/understand properly until someone makes a request to unban the service, at which point they look into the reasons then decide. For example they have a serious problem with letting you connect to any external servers so things like Steam were out of bounds for a long long time until a petition was made.

Basically if I can prove to them that it wont harm the system in any way and that it's for a great cause then they should unblock it, at least just for us. Hopefully that wont take too long!

Quote from RoboSparkle:

We're actually a while from even discussing games I think but a co-op S3&K run sounds great (if you're worried about losing it Tiberius then you and I could race them, I think the Tails role should be simple enough for me in that one)

Now that I like the sound of! Has a co-op race ever even been attempted by SDA before?

[quote="RoboSparkle"]
When you say the vast majority of streaming sites are banned, does that mean we can work around that by being careful about the services we use, or that streaming games will basically be impossible? I can't claim to know anything about this stuff really, so sorry if the questions sound daft...[/quote]

Not daft at all, they have an odd system where they basically ban things they dont approve of/understand properly until someone makes a request to unban the service, at which point they look into the reasons then decide. For example they have a serious problem with letting you connect to any external servers so things like Steam were out of bounds for a long long time until a petition was made.

Basically if I can prove to them that it wont harm the system in any way and that it's for a great cause then they should unblock it, at least just for us. Hopefully that wont take too long!

[quote="RoboSparkle"]We're actually a while from even discussing games I think but a co-op S3&K run sounds great (if you're worried about losing it Tiberius then you and I could race them, I think the Tails role should be simple enough for me in that one)[/quote]

Now that I like the sound of! Has a co-op race ever even been attempted by SDA before?

Chrno

2011-12-11 03:38:44 pm

WOW.

Do YMCA places in the UK have an internet connection? They could be useful - they have dorms and everything.

Chrno

2011-12-11 03:39:13 pm

WOW.

Do YMCA places in the UK have an internet connection? They could be useful - they have dorms and everything.

RoboSparkle

2011-12-11 03:40:43 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from Tiberius:

Basically if I can prove to them that it wont harm the system in any way and that it's for a great cause then they should unblock it, at least just for us. Hopefully that wont take too long!

Well, show them the highlights and bloopers of AGDQ 2011, SDA defeated Cancer, and this year's AGDQ and hopefully that should help our cause!

Quote:

Quote from RoboSparkle:

We're actually a while from even discussing games I think but a co-op S3&K run sounds great (if you're worried about losing it Tiberius then you and I could race them, I think the Tails role should be simple enough for me in that one)

Now that I like the sound of! Has a co-op race ever even been attempted by SDA before?

I don't know but I think that co-ops runs in general are very rare so probably not. It certainly is an interesting one though...

RoboSparkle

2011-12-11 03:47:44 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from Chrno:

Do YMCA places in the UK have an internet connection? They could be useful - they have dorms and everything.

They usually have internet access. I think it depends on the building itself as to whether the speed/restrictions will make it viable for us, but it's certainly not a bad idea!

KennyMan666

Edit history:

KennyMan666: 2011-12-11 04:30:09 pm

2011-12-11 04:29:39 pm

Precursor

While I'd love to have a locale decided on before the end of the year, I'm not counting on that happening what with the holidays starting soon. Thus, January 31st is going to be the absolute final deadline for having a locale 100% confirmed, and that's already like two months later than I wanted. But that's partly my own fault, I got caught up in the Germany hype. While Skövde is only 1.5-2 hours from me by train, if given a choice of equally good locales in Skövde and UK, I'd toss my vote in for the UK. Sweden is just about the least central place in Europe, and while the UK isn't that much better off in central-ness (totally a word), I guess we have more people for which travel to UK is better than travel to Sweden.

Speaking of Germany, whatever happened to that? Did you Germans keep searching for proper locales? Asked any universities?

Tigger77

2011-12-12 06:05:35 am

I survived MIKE-Fest 1

As I said I don't have time until after AGDQ2 then I will look into location to make an proposal .
IF I find nothing and we don't have any other options I will host this at my house (Would need a Internet upgrade so it may cost you a little )

Svenne

2011-12-12 06:36:26 am

Okay, I will book a time with the City after the holidays, I feel I'm atleast gonna be finished with my SMB2pal run by then so I atleast got something to show for!^^ But I'm only human, can take more time:P

So, I have sorted things out with PJ about SDA-stuff so now I feel I want to do this again!;D

But I would like another choice as well, would love to go wherever in Europe.

Tigger77

2011-12-12 11:12:31 am

I survived MIKE-Fest 1

Good to hear your still on this svenne

RoboSparkle

2011-12-12 11:25:15 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from Svenne:

I would like another choice as well, would love to go wherever in Europe.

I'm glad your lead is moving forwards, I think Tiberius may be making headway with Durham, but we'll have to wait and see what his contact says about the internet restrictions, meanwhile I've got a couple of local YMCAs that might prove viable, just waiting for replies to emails. And then we might have Germany/wherever other people are working on. Hopefully we'll have a whole bunch of options soon!

Chrno

2011-12-12 11:48:41 am

WOW.

Quote from RoboSparkle:

Quote from Svenne:

I would like another choice as well, would love to go wherever in Europe.

I'm glad your lead is moving forwards, I think Tiberius may be making headway with Durham, but we'll have to wait and see what his contact says about the internet restrictions, meanwhile I've got a couple of local YMCAs that might prove viable, just waiting for replies to emails. And then we might have Germany/wherever other people are working on. Hopefully we'll have a whole bunch of options soon!

Sounds great! Emailed a few up here in the north but no reply as of yet.

KenDeep

2011-12-12 03:15:51 pm

Running: RnF,Kof98, ALIEN HOMINID???

Not that much luck here in germany. I still look into things, but I doubt I can do any good here since I'm still a pupil, not a student. Maybe someone else from germany has better chances?

Toothache

2011-12-13 02:37:33 am

Let the music play!

E-mails are a bad idea, I'm quickly finding. You'll have faster results actually calling the places

ozzy88

2011-12-14 06:14:37 am

@Tiberius Sounds like you are close to getting us somewhere, but do you have any info regarding the internet speeds for that venue? Seems like a huge waste of your time if it's upload is garbage and cannot be upgraded.

@Tigger77 Seems like a good back-up plan but where are people going to sleep around your area? Is there any good options you already know of?

@Svenne Feels good that your interest in the marathon has been reignited. Hoping that meeting will work out for you Smiley

@Tootache Yes! That is excellent advise (I think). E-mails tend to get piled up and forgotten in busy places.