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

2011-12-15 07:02:32 pm

meh

Hello everyone, new guy here! I just wanted to say that I live in the some city as Svenne (we are close friends and go to the same school etc.) and I think it would be awesome if we could have a marathon here in Sweden. But ofcourse other countries sounds like a lot of fun too. If there is anything I can do to help with this planning and whatnot, let me know ^^

Here's hoping that we will get a European Marathon! ^^

Svenne

2011-12-21 01:35:33 pm

Hehe, so now I really need is a date and for how many days forward! BTW I got Frezy_Man on this if it would be in Skövde and we will be trying to get this through our Video-Game Club in Skövde, much easier to get ahold on sufficent space to have this in and it would be the same place we always hold our Video-Game Convention every year!

Perhaps I should make a Video on "the place" in the future if Skövde will be chosen!

KennyMan666

2011-12-21 01:54:48 pm

Precursor

The date is, most likely, the second week in August. At the very least Friday to Sunday, but obviously we'd like longer than that. We would of course want to be of comparable size to AGDQ.

Svenne

2011-12-21 02:13:27 pm

Quote from KennyMan666:

The date is, most likely, the second week in August. At the very least Friday to Sunday, but obviously we'd like longer than that. We would of course want to be of comparable size to AGDQ.

I mean, AGDQ has 10-11 days planned but only 6 on live streaming so I just would like to know how many days and from day one, perhaps not you know live-streaming day one, you need to get all things together and so forth.

Our Video-Game Club have the annual big meeting at Jan. 10 where we decide who will be seated on the board and then ofc. what we should do in the year ahead. If the other places haven't come far on Jan. 9, we must realize that this might be our only shot for a SDA marathon in Europe if the deadline is last of Jan. 2012.

Chrno

2011-12-21 02:50:17 pm

WOW.

Quote from Svenne:

Quote from KennyMan666:

The date is, most likely, the second week in August. At the very least Friday to Sunday, but obviously we'd like longer than that. We would of course want to be of comparable size to AGDQ.

I mean, AGDQ has 10-11 days planned but only 6 on live streaming so I just would like to know how many days and from day one, perhaps not you know live-streaming day one, you need to get all things together and so forth.

Our Video-Game Club have the annual big meeting at Jan. 10 where we decide who will be seated on the board and then ofc. what we should do in the year ahead. If the other places haven't come far on Jan. 9, we must realize that this might be our only shot for a SDA marathon in Europe if the deadline is last of Jan. 2012.

Ok, i'm gonna go out on a whim here and say that Skövde should be the decided place. I think you totally need to bring that up at the meeting! This is our only shot at ?free? venues and stuff.

KennyMan666

Edit history:

KennyMan666: 2011-12-21 02:51:06 pm

2011-12-21 02:50:31 pm

Precursor

Well, yeah. My issue is still that I think that UK would be a much better location for most people.

Chrno

2011-12-21 02:55:54 pm

WOW.

Quote from KennyMan666:

Well, yeah. My issue is still that I think that UK would be a much better location for most people.

I see what you mean. Maybe we should keep tabs on the two, I still have not heard if people have got replies from UK places.

Svenne

2011-12-21 02:59:14 pm

As I was saying earlier in the thread I want a choice, and with that I mean a real choice!^^

Well, atleast we got Frezy_Man going for us!;D

MrLonghair

2011-12-22 10:52:58 am

Audio-guy. twitchtv:ohgoddamnit

Six days for streaming over 10-11 days sounds sensible to me - you really need time for clean up and wrap up, not to mention setting up, settling in and the ever important running of tests. Gotta make sure everything is there, and once it's time to go home, that everything is with the right people. Not to mention you want the "be there" time to be ahead of time - always - when working with people or there'll be attempts at showing up at the last second not working out well.

And the UK is utterly butterly optimal as a location, but I can definitely see it's tricky to get a spot.

Frezy_man

2012-01-05 09:13:01 pm

bläää

Like Mikes quote I also believe the location is not the most important thing. Its important that someone are willing to organize this thing. Me and Svenne have been discussing this a bit and I think a Speedrun-stream marathon should be working from Skövde. We have 100Mbit connection and enough space to hold hundreds of visitors 50 meters from the trainstation which is along the trainline between Gothenburg and Stockholm. It is very easy to travel to this place.

I have bnothing planned for summer this year and have been trying to decide what to do. I think organizing a marathon in the middle of August would be perfect. Then I have all summer to organize for it. And we have a couple of guys in this area that I know gladly would like to have this event and be a part of it. Svenne, Tompa and a bunch of other guys from the Area.

I believe I have good experience for an event like this. I have seen the marathon twice and been a part of it. I have been hosting 10-15 smaller videogame events before. Last time we where about 100 people. I love working with organizations and that is also what I am doing right now on the university.

We have all networks possible to arrenge this thing. We have a videogame community/club. We have TVs, consoles, places to host people and good communities we can get use of.

I have been planning to start a commercial E-sport company in the future and I have been thinking about doing stream-shows that trying to sell commercials. I hope and think that could be a good oppertunity to create even better event in the future so I will try to figure out a good solution to combine that business idea with showing speedruns, promoting SDA, and prevent cancer. But I will present that idea with more in deep details later when we come to that point.

However. I have pretty much decide to give this thing a shot so probably we will come up with more information soon. I think a date should be decided as fast as possible. I am very busy during January, Februari, March (We are awaiting baby nr. 2 in March). But I think I can pull of enough time to get this ball going and the details will probably have to wait until June.
I think a five days marathon event could be a good first time event. Good chance of being shorter then that. We can also combine this with another event around before and after if there is interests for it.

What Do you Guys think about this idea? middle of August and Skövde, Sweden?

Quote from mikwuyma:

Okay, it's been brought to me that we've been going about this marathon the wrong way, and I have to agree.

The last marathons worked because we had people motivated to organize them (me, Essentia) even if the location wasn't super convenient. The DC area is fairly convenient, but Utah isn't exactly cheap to fly to, nor does it have great public transportation. Yet Utah worked just fine for Summer Games Done Quick, because Essentia was willing to host everyone and organize.

The problem with the current approach is that no one is really taking up the helm to organize the event, and you need someone motivated to organize the event and help arrange the logistics. To be honest, I think the location should just be something near the organizer that has good internet and can hold a bunch of people, if not a lot of people are coming it could even be someone's house. Anyway, what this marathon needs is not a location per se, but someone willing to put in the work to organize and arrange the event.

Like Mikes quote I also believe the location is not the most important thing. Its important that someone are willing to organize this thing. Me and Svenne have been discussing this a bit and I think a Speedrun-stream marathon should be working from Skövde. We have 100Mbit connection and enough space to hold hundreds of visitors 50 meters from the trainstation which is along the trainline between Gothenburg and Stockholm. It is very easy to travel to this place.

I have bnothing planned for summer this year and have been trying to decide what to do. I think organizing a marathon in the middle of August would be perfect. Then I have all summer to organize for it. And we have a couple of guys in this area that I know gladly would like to have this event and be a part of it. Svenne, Tompa and a bunch of other guys from the Area.

I believe I have good experience for an event like this. I have seen the marathon twice and been a part of it. I have been hosting 10-15 smaller videogame events before. Last time we where about 100 people. I love working with organizations and that is also what I am doing right now on the university.

We have all networks possible to arrenge this thing. We have a videogame community/club. We have TVs, consoles, places to host people and good communities we can get use of.

I have been planning to start a commercial E-sport company in the future and I have been thinking about doing stream-shows that trying to sell commercials. I hope and think that could be a good oppertunity to create even better event in the future so I will try to figure out a good solution to combine that business idea with showing speedruns, promoting SDA, and prevent cancer. But I will present that idea with more in deep details later when we come to that point.

However. I have pretty much decide to give this thing a shot so probably we will come up with more information soon. I think a date should be decided as fast as possible. I am very busy during January, Februari, March (We are awaiting baby nr. 2 in March). But I think I can pull of enough time to get this ball going and the details will probably have to wait until June.
I think a five days marathon event could be a good first time event. Good chance of being shorter then that. We can also combine this with another event around before and after if there is interests for it.

What Do you Guys think about this idea? middle of August and Skövde, Sweden?

[quote="mikwuyma"]Okay, it's been brought to me that we've been going about this marathon the wrong way, and I have to agree.

The last marathons worked because we had people motivated to organize them (me, Essentia) even if the location wasn't super convenient. The DC area is fairly convenient, but Utah isn't exactly cheap to fly to, nor does it have great public transportation. Yet Utah worked just fine for Summer Games Done Quick, because Essentia was willing to host everyone and organize. 
 
The problem with the current approach is that no one is really taking up the helm to organize the event, and you need someone motivated to organize the event and help arrange the logistics. To be honest, I think the location should just be something near the organizer that has good internet and can hold a bunch of people, if not a lot of people are coming it could even be someone's house. Anyway, what this marathon needs is not a location per se, but someone willing to put in the work to organize and arrange the event.[/quote]

Tompa

2012-01-05 11:44:27 pm

Hi Frez! It will work perfectly for me at least and I'll gladly help out with planning and such as much as I can.

Chrno

Edit history:

Chrno: 2012-01-06 03:53:06 am

2012-01-06 03:52:58 am

WOW.

Sounds great Frezy, I hope I can help as much as possible!

KennyMan666

2012-01-06 08:14:31 am

Precursor

Well, yeah. Skövde is perfect for me, I'm just an hour away by train. And I might have a car at that point, or if there's others in the area we can road trip. I can easily come over for a day to prospect the place and plan stuff out with you guys sometime during the year. In fact, I kinda want to do that. After all, I'm the one who wanted this to happen.

I still have a few worries about having it in Sweden, but most of them are probably actually not anything to worry about. Still, I'd like to hear from more of the European runners about it. There were some legitimate points brought up early in the thread, so I'm going to repost them here, just so we can look over them again.

Quote from Flicky:

Deciding on country should probably come down to where the main organiser is close to. Running an event that you're not able to get to and from easily is a pain, especially if you need last minute supplies from home. It also helps to have someone know the area.

As for Sweden, that place is expensive to get to for quite a few countries and expensive once you're there. Not to mention you guys don't use the euro which would mean a lot of lost money for visitors who require exchanging money. One of the pros is that it's a very bilingual country.

Bare in mind: , cost and ease of travel.

Language Barriers
English is our collective language so for people to get about we'll need a place that you can get by with English in. England is obvious, but Sweden and Netherlands have very high percentage of fluent English speakers. Germany is good, but France, Italy, Spain etc aren't. This could be important for food runs and any issues at the venue.

Cost
Now some places in Europe are cheap and some aren't Switzerland and the Nordic countries are some of the most expensive in Europe (even more so that England) and could severely hinder people's plans to travel. We're nearly all poor students or minimum wagers here so cost will be important to consider. Also note that some countries have currencies that require exchanging. A country that uses the Euro would be ideal if we have a equal split of visitors from all over europe as it's very easy to get good rates for and a majority of people already have it.

Travel
Some places in Sweden (everywhere but Stockholm) are a pain to get to for most people. I live in the land of cheap air travel but others don't. My friend when flying from Gothenburg to Milan found it cheap to get a return flight to London and a return from London to Milan that to get a return from Gothenburg to Milan. Countries in central Europe are very easy for people to drive to and from. Which could improve the likelihood of people deciding to attend.

There's also many other things like internet and whatnot. My vote is for Germany or the Netherlands or something like that.

The reason DC works well as a location for America is that it's in a well populated area of the country and it's damn easy to get to for most people (comparatively). I know Summer games was a smaller event but you can see how much harder it is to get to Utah that DC.

(if you're going to be checking plane ticket prices, you'd want to go to Gothenburg, airport is named Landvetter)

Well, yeah. Skövde is perfect for me, I'm just an hour away by train. And I might have a car at that point, or if there's others in the area we can road trip. I can easily come over for a day to prospect the place and plan stuff out with you guys sometime during the year. In fact, I kinda want to do that. After all, I'm the one who wanted this to happen.

I still have a few worries about having it in Sweden, but most of them are probably actually not anything to worry about. Still, I'd like to hear from more of the European runners about it. There were some legitimate points brought up early in the thread, so I'm going to repost them here, just so we can look over them again.

[spoiler][quote="Flicky"]Deciding on country should probably come down to where the main organiser is close to. Running an event that you're not able to get to and from easily is a pain, especially if you need last minute supplies from home. It also helps to have someone know the area.

As for Sweden, that place is expensive to get to for quite a few countries and expensive once you're there. Not to mention you guys don't use the euro which would mean a lot of lost money for visitors who require exchanging money. One of the pros is that it's a very bilingual country.

Bare in mind: , cost and ease of travel.

[b]Language Barriers[/b]
English is our collective language so for people to get about we'll need a place that you can get by with English in. England is obvious, but Sweden and Netherlands have very high percentage of fluent English speakers. Germany is good, but France, Italy, Spain etc aren't. This could be important for food runs and any issues at the venue.

[b]Cost[/b]
Now some places in Europe are cheap and some aren't Switzerland and the Nordic countries are some of the most expensive in Europe (even more so that England) and could severely hinder people's plans to travel. We're nearly all poor students or minimum wagers here so cost will be important to consider. Also note that some countries have currencies that require exchanging. A country that uses the Euro would be ideal if we have a equal split of visitors from all over europe as it's very easy to get good rates for and a majority of people already have it.

[b]Travel[/b]
Some places in Sweden (everywhere but Stockholm) are a pain to get to for most people. I live in the land of cheap air travel but others don't. My friend when flying from Gothenburg to Milan found it cheap to get a return flight to London and a return from London to Milan that to get a return from Gothenburg to Milan. Countries in central Europe are very easy for people to drive to and from. Which could improve the likelihood of people deciding to attend.

There's also many other things like internet and whatnot. My vote is for Germany or the Netherlands or something like that.

The reason DC works well as a location for America is that it's in a well populated area of the country and it's damn easy to get to for most people (comparatively). I know Summer games was a smaller event but you can see how much harder it is to get to Utah that DC.[/quote][/spoiler]

(if you're going to be checking plane ticket prices, you'd want to go to Gothenburg, airport is named Landvetter)

moooh

Edit history:

moooh: 2012-01-06 09:01:09 am

2012-01-06 08:56:29 am

Exoray

Details in June for something in August is way way too late. We've come pretty far over the past few years when it comes to organizing these marathons and to be able to equal or come close to the quality of our latest marathons (not talking about gameplay quality) things will have to be started sooner than that.
Not having details until that late will also make tickets for flights/trains be more expensive and you just risk having a shortage of people able to go.

Great to hear that you're having another kid Frezy! Based on what happened with your SDA precense last time though, I'd estimate that there's a high chance that you won't be able to find all that time you expect to have during the spring and summer for planning something like this. I'm not saying I'm doubting you'd be able to plan it, just that there's a substantial risk that things will just fall through the cracks.

KennyMan666

Edit history:

KennyMan666: 2012-01-06 10:11:06 pm

2012-01-06 09:41:22 am

Precursor

Oh, yeah, June is far too late. Detail planning needs to start pretty immediately after we have 100% confirmed the locale. Also, we're looking at the second week of August for the marathon to happen and nothing else.

Chokehold

2012-01-06 02:42:30 pm

When in doubt, use explosives.

Personally, I'm looking forward to see this thing happen.

Living in Stockholm right now so Skövde wouldn't be all that much of a pain to get to for me.
Then again, it's the thing about contributing something to the marathon at all.
For what it's worth, I would love to do pretty much anything to help you guys out with it and to make it happen.

Hopefully I'll have the Okami NG+ run finished by then.

IrregularJinny

2012-01-07 01:21:30 pm

Infinite Combo

I'd like to be a part of this as well as Frezy old me earlier that me and him sHould race MMX haha, I can pitch in on TVs Smiley

Frezyman

2012-01-07 01:38:05 pm

Depends on how you define "details" but yes we need to start pretty much right now and earlier would have been better. But I am sure of that we have a good chance of succeeding in creating a good marathon.
Creating a schedule, fix the dates, covering all basic information and organize a bunch of people to start working on their area of responsibility will have to be done now, at least within a month.

I think organizing a smaller event with live-streaming earlier during the summer would be a good practice before the marathon. It´s so many things that have to work smooth and it would be a great oppertunity to try everything out.
It would be great if anyone who want to be a part och this project to offer what task you would prefer to have.

Chrno

2012-01-07 02:14:05 pm

WOW.

Quote from Svenne:

SO this last Frezyman is not the real Frezy_man! (Trolls in here!?)

Obviously I will do everything I can do to help to make this happen and be as awesome as AGDQ!

I think it's the real one Wink

dxtr

2012-01-07 02:29:45 pm

Speedrunner

I love to see that we have some progression on this. I can without a doubt join in and contribute with whatever you want me to do. Been organizing a couple of computer-events myself, and some other stuff to (Zombie Walks to mention one). Since Svenne and Frezy has the most knowledge of places to be in Skövde. I leave that to them.

But anything else, name it. I have a good collection of NTSC games on the NES. Bring some equipment maybe? Collecting information which game(s) everybody is willing to participate with. etc etc etc.

Im all yours.

Chrno

2012-01-07 03:19:46 pm

WOW.

Sounds like things are getting on their feet. I can help with promotion and scheduling (We need about a team of 3 to do this).

Tiberius

2012-01-07 06:29:54 pm

Make it so.

I would also like to offer up my help in any way I possibly can Smiley

Chokehold

Edit history:

Chokehold: 2012-01-07 10:03:23 pm

2012-01-07 07:04:43 pm

When in doubt, use explosives.

I'm sticking with my previous statement by saying that I want to offer my help in anything that you might need. Smiley

As it turns out that a couple of people in here have previous experience with setting up and hosting such and such events, perhaps a listing of what might be needed for an event like this could be provided?
That is, outside of speedrunning. Like providing streaming hardware, bring their TV's or consoles, promotion, you get the drill.
My two cents are that it helps people decide on what they want to do and report on what they can do. Some of us can potentially help out in ways we probably can't think about off the top of our heads.

KenDeep

2012-01-08 03:55:07 am

Running: RnF,Kof98, ALIEN HOMINID???

I can help with graphical stuff, like banners, drawings, and quite possibly even prizes in form of drawings. That way I can assure to be of help even if I should not be able to participate in the event itself.

Frezy_man

2012-01-08 11:58:11 am

bläää

Yep, Frezyman was me..

about prices in Sweden. Its a lot cheaper then Norway. I would say it is at the UK, Germany or France level in most parts. The tax for food was split by half from new year, which doesn´t hurt for visitors. So Uyama doesn´t have to worry (oh well, the beers is still expensive but not even close to the norwegian prices)

Quote from Svenne:

Probably the best way to prove to all the non-believers

Totally agree. It´s very important to show that we takes things seriously before the maraton starts if we should be able to complete a succesful marathon in the level of the AGDQ. Our ambitions should be to create an even better event, even if it would be tough to succeed the first time, that should be our ambition.

Quote from Svenne:

And it's not like Frezy have to do everything alone, which seems to be some peoples view of this... He can rely on other people who will stand up and make this work! And as he said, all the help we can get would be appreciated!;D

definitely, we have to be a hughe amount of people. 10-20 people involved organizing minimum. 50 people would be more fare for this project. But on beforehand I know we have enough people that will help. a couple of new users for me have already shown up offering help which is great. Looking forward to co-op with everyone. There is a lots of things to do.

I will take some job and time before we have right people on right areas though, so be a little patient. It was just a few days ago that I anounced that the EU marathon will be in Skövde. And we haven´t even heard all reactions yet. Much of the people that can help this marathon is busy enough with AGDQ right now so it might take a few weeks before this ball will start rolling more seriously. It is some discussions behind the scenes that have to be done too.

Yep, Frezyman was me..

about prices in Sweden. Its a lot cheaper then Norway. I would say it is at the UK, Germany or France level in most parts. The tax for food was split by half from new year, which doesn´t hurt for visitors. So Uyama doesn´t have to worry (oh well, the beers is still expensive but not even close to the norwegian prices)

[quote="Svenne"]
Probably the best way to prove to all the non-believers
[/quote]
Totally agree. It´s very important to show that we takes things seriously before the maraton starts if we should be able to complete a succesful marathon in the level of the AGDQ. Our ambitions should be to create an even better event, even if it would be tough to succeed the first time, that should be our ambition.

[quote="Svenne"]
And it's not like Frezy have to do everything alone, which seems to be some peoples view of this... He can rely on other people who will stand up and make this work! And as he said, all the help we can get would be appreciated!;D
[/quote]
definitely, we have to be a hughe amount of people. 10-20 people involved organizing minimum. 50 people would be more fare for this project. But on beforehand I know we have enough people that will help. a couple of new users for me have already shown up offering help which is great. Looking forward to co-op with everyone. There is a lots of things to do.

I will take some job and time before we have right people on right areas though, so be a little patient. It was just a few days ago that I anounced that the EU marathon will be in Skövde. And we haven´t even heard all reactions yet. Much of the people that can help this marathon  is busy enough with AGDQ right now so it might take a few weeks before this ball will start rolling more seriously. It is some discussions behind the scenes that have to be done too.