European Speedster Assembly 2014

2014-08-04 01:33:18 am

Here are a couple of things which detracted from my enjoyment of the event:

The organisation of the kitchen space was a mess. It was eventually worked out but it was just made up as it went along leading to frustration, confusion and wasted food. For example when it was decided that all none liquids in the fridge were to be thrown away without notice. That's fine to remove all the pizzas shitting up the fridge but I had actual food like eggs and yogurt in there.

People not cleaning up after themselves. I don't expect everyone to wash all their dishes etc but don't leave your dirty dishes and rubbish on tables. It was attracting insects, is lazy, selfish, dirty and there is no reason for it.

Mass housing in general. Specifically no showers upon arrival I had to wait until the following night to clean up after travelling all day and arriving at a venue with no air conditioning. We then find out the showers there are closed for a wedding on the Saturday, which became the Friday, Satuirday and Sunday. Then just the Friday and Saturday. This left everyone not in the hotel to share a single shower at the venue.

Also, don't take up an entire table with your card game then piss off for 2 hours.

Here are a couple of things which detracted from my enjoyment of the event:

The organisation of the kitchen space was a mess. It was eventually worked out but it was just made up as it went along leading to frustration, confusion and wasted food. For example when it was decided that all none liquids in the fridge were to be thrown away without notice. That's fine to remove all the pizzas shitting up the fridge but I had actual food like eggs and yogurt in there.

People not cleaning up after themselves. I don't expect everyone to wash all their dishes etc but don't leave your dirty dishes and rubbish on tables. It was attracting insects, is lazy, selfish, dirty and there is no reason for it.

Mass housing in general. Specifically no showers upon arrival I had to wait until the following night to clean up after travelling all day and arriving at a venue with no air conditioning. We then find out the showers there are closed for a wedding on the Saturday, which became the Friday, Satuirday and Sunday. Then just the Friday and Saturday. This left everyone not in the hotel to share a single shower at the venue.

Also, don't take up an entire table with your card game then piss off for 2 hours.

Duke Bilgewater

2014-08-04 01:47:27 am

Vulajin's post more or less summed up any thoughts that I had about the marathon. The production quality was great; the layouts, the lightning, the video, and the audio (except for a few runs where the host was louder than the runner(s) and commentators) were what I expect from a speedrunning marathon. My only complaint about the production was that the setups for some games were gruelingly long. Metal Gear Rising, for example, took so long to get started that they just started showing the Yellow stream on Blue while they were waiting. I understand that ESA is a much more laid-back marathon - it's more of a meet-up - but as a viewer, this ended up making me switch to other streams 4 - 5 times throughout the event. Hopefully at the next Ludendi event, there aren't as many setups that take more than 10 minutes.

Speaking of the laid-back atmosphere of ESA, I found that a lot of what was going on on the couch and in the background - from a few people - was disrespectful to the runner and led to the chat shitting the bed, especially on bonus stream. 80% of the time that I saw Curseddolls on stream, she was sitting in the front row or on the couch talking to chat on her phone and not paying attention to the run; during Eternal Darkness, she was on the couch and I had to stop watching the run because I found it really distasteful - even though it seemed that the runner himself didn't mind. I liked the runs where everyone was civil, engaged, and having a good time. There were multiple runs I watched during bonus stream where people were either mic'd or being picked up by a mic when they were just talking amongst themselves. Zoton's run of The Simpsons: Hit & Run was a pretty bad example of this. I don't know if I misread his reactions, but it looked like he was annoyed by people playing around behind him, laughing constantly, and messing with random shit in the room. I do like the more relaxed atmosphere of ESA, but this is distracting and disrespectful, even as a viewer.
Also, I don't agree that swearing is a big issue, especially at a marathon like ESA - which as far as I know isn't directly sponsored by anyone who would take offense to it. I think that the margin of viewers that might be offended by swearing is pretty small, but you never know. I'm pretty guilty of this myself, and I try to watch my mouth - but it's a little difficult in the thick of things.

Overall, I enjoyed ESA, but found myself bored between setups and when runs fell flat. I was glad for there being two streams, it gave me another run to watch when the Blue stream wasn't as entertaining as I would like, and vice versa. There were definitely a lot of weird runs, but whatever - better than people getting their stuff shot down.

More importantly, why the heck wasn't Cruxit supporting more of our bois?

Vulajin's post more or less summed up any thoughts that I had about the marathon. The production quality was great; the layouts, the lightning, the video, and the audio (except for a few runs where the host was louder than the runner(s) and commentators) were what I expect from a speedrunning marathon. My only complaint about the production was that the setups for some games were gruelingly long. Metal Gear Rising, for example, took so long to get started that they just started showing the Yellow stream on Blue while they were waiting. I understand that ESA is a much more laid-back marathon - it's more of a meet-up - but as a viewer, this ended up making me switch to other streams 4 - 5 times throughout the event. Hopefully at the next Ludendi event, there aren't as many setups that take more than 10 minutes.

Speaking of the laid-back atmosphere of ESA, I found that a lot of what was going on on the couch and in the background - from a few people - was disrespectful to the runner and led to the chat shitting the bed, especially on bonus stream. 80% of the time that I saw Curseddolls on stream, she was sitting in the front row or on the couch talking to chat on her phone and not paying attention to the run; during Eternal Darkness, she was on the couch and I had to stop watching the run because I found it really distasteful - even though it seemed that the runner himself didn't mind. I liked the runs where everyone was civil, engaged, and having a good time. There were multiple runs I watched during bonus stream where people were either mic'd or being picked up by a mic when they were just talking amongst themselves. Zoton's run of The Simpsons: Hit & Run was a pretty bad example of this. I don't know if I misread his reactions, but it looked like he was annoyed by people playing around behind him, laughing constantly, and messing with random shit in the room. I do like the more relaxed atmosphere of ESA, but this is distracting and disrespectful, even as a viewer.
Also, I don't agree that swearing is a big issue, especially at a marathon like ESA - which as far as I know isn't directly sponsored by anyone who would take offense to it. I think that the margin of viewers that might be offended by swearing is pretty small, but you never know. I'm pretty guilty of this myself, and I try to watch my mouth - but it's a little difficult in the thick of things.

Overall, I enjoyed ESA, but found myself bored between setups and when runs fell flat. I was glad for there being two streams, it gave me another run to watch when the Blue stream wasn't as entertaining as I would like, and vice versa. There were definitely a lot of weird runs, but whatever - better than people getting their stuff shot down.

More importantly, why the heck wasn't Cruxit supporting more of our bois?

AdamAK

2014-08-04 02:16:06 am

Totally rad

First of all, I absolutely loved the event and am really happy to have attended it. Can't give enough shoutouts to all the organisers and folks who showed up and made this such an amazing event.
A few points worth highlighting:

-- The double stream was a cool idea, and I think a lot of viewers appreciated it, though the Yellow stream didn't get as much publicity as the Blue stream.
-- Stream quality was fantastic. The layout was simple and looked very clean. The intermission videos added a lot of production value as well. In general, the stream looked very clean.
-- People on-site were all great. Unlike at GDQs, Smash Bros players were doing their thing without being really obnoxious and smelly, so huge props for that.
-- PC corner was very cool, and it was nice to have high speed internet access there as well.
-- Breakfast was nice. LotBlind organised it nicely, and I was happy to help with kitchen duty on one of the days.
-- Runners could speak however they liked. I see zero issues with swearing, as long as it's not excessive. Feels a lot more natural than people having to watch their language all the time.
-- Great variety of games. I'm all in favour of having both popular and unknown games on there, since popularity does not make for a better speedrun.
-- A lot of the setup that I would've expected to be tricky ended up being very simple. Example: L4D, which took a very short amount of time to set up, despite being a 4 player PC run.

Having said that, there were a few aspects that could be improved in the future.

-- ESA has outgrown Nyeport, and it ended up being pretty crowded there. Hopefully, a larger venue can be found for next year. Downside is that there will be more costs involved in other venues, but it's kinda necessary at this point. It still worked out this year, but if the event gets bigger it'll be pretty rough.

-- Tech crew was overworked. I know both Edenal and Oasiz had a hard time leaving the venue, because they were always asked for. AMVX also spent a lot of time handling audio, from what I noticed. A related issue was that (I had the impression that) most tech volunteers were waiting for orders before stepping in. A solution to this could be to either have a 'manager' who makes sure things get done during setup, or to spent more time training/informing tech crew so that they can easily make independent decisions and set things up easily on their own. The GDQs have a similar issue, where it can take kinda awkwardly long to get people mic'ed up and consoles set up. I'm no expert on the matter, but I'll happily help out with tech next year to make sure the main crew isn't dying from exhaustion. Already tried to get things going/help out during, e.g., SR3 setup, Doom, Quake, etc, but I'm not familiar with the precise setup.

-- It was mentioned before, but given the nature of ESA being a community-focused marathon, I think the charity aspect could be dropped entirely. On the one hand it's cool that it's there, but on the other hand it's weird to hear comments about whether there are new donations when it's not the focus of the marathon.

-- Some of the were layouts confusing for viewers who weren't on-site. An example would be the Vice City bingo, which is a super fun idea, but hard to follow when the bingo sheet isn't on stream. Colour coding for multi-person runs was also a bit odd. It was a nice idea to try out, but I think text references to which player is where would be clearer.

-- Bit more quality control when making the schedule. I'm all for having a really laid-back stream, but if ESA is to represent the speedrunning community, then staying within the estimate more often would be good. Raising the estimates would complement enforcement of a bit more pre-marathon practice.

-- Need to find better water balloons, since the ones we bought hurt like hell when struck by them. Also need to invest more in buckets and other water containers, because Sluip got away from water fights being way too dry, imo.

First of all, I absolutely loved the event and am really happy to have attended it. Can't give enough shoutouts to all the organisers and folks who showed up and made this such an amazing event.
A few points worth highlighting:

-- The double stream was a cool idea, and I think a lot of viewers appreciated it, though the Yellow stream didn't get as much publicity as the Blue stream. 
-- Stream quality was fantastic. The layout was simple and looked very clean. The intermission videos added a lot of production value as well. In general, the stream looked very clean. 
-- People on-site were all great. Unlike at GDQs, Smash Bros players were doing their thing without being really obnoxious and smelly, so huge props for that.
-- PC corner was very cool, and it was nice to have high speed internet access there as well.
-- Breakfast was nice. LotBlind organised it nicely, and I was happy to help with kitchen duty on one of the days.
-- Runners could speak however they liked. I see zero issues with swearing, as long as it's not excessive. Feels a lot more natural than people having to watch their language all the time.
-- Great variety of games. I'm all in favour of having both popular and unknown games on there, since popularity does not make for a better speedrun.
-- A lot of the setup that I would've expected to be tricky ended up being very simple. Example: L4D, which took a very short amount of time to set up, despite being a 4 player PC run.

Having said that, there were a few aspects that could be improved in the future.

-- ESA has outgrown Nyeport, and it ended up being pretty crowded there. Hopefully, a larger venue can be found for next year. Downside is that there will be more costs involved in other venues, but it's kinda necessary at this point. It still worked out this year, but if the event gets bigger it'll be pretty rough.

-- Tech crew was overworked. I know both Edenal and Oasiz had a hard time leaving the venue, because they were always asked for. AMVX also spent a lot of time handling audio, from what I noticed. A related issue was that (I had the impression that) most tech volunteers were waiting for orders before stepping in. A solution to this could be to either have a 'manager' who makes sure things get done during setup, or to spent more time training/informing tech crew so that they can easily make independent decisions and set things up easily on their own. The GDQs have a similar issue, where it can take kinda awkwardly long to get people mic'ed up and consoles set up. I'm no expert on the matter, but I'll happily help out with tech next year to make sure the main crew isn't dying from exhaustion. Already tried to get things going/help out during, e.g., SR3 setup, Doom, Quake, etc, but I'm not familiar with the precise setup.

-- It was mentioned before, but given the nature of ESA being a community-focused marathon, I think the charity aspect could be dropped entirely. On the one hand it's cool that it's there, but on the other hand it's weird to hear comments about whether there are new donations when it's not the focus of the marathon.

-- Some of the were layouts confusing for viewers who weren't on-site. An example would be the Vice City bingo, which is a super fun idea, but hard to follow when the bingo sheet isn't on stream. Colour coding for multi-person runs was also a bit odd. It was a nice idea to try out, but I think text references to which player is where would be clearer.

-- Bit more quality control when making the schedule. I'm all for having a really laid-back stream, but if ESA is to represent the speedrunning community, then staying within the estimate more often would be good. Raising the estimates would complement enforcement of a bit more pre-marathon practice.

-- Need to find better water balloons, since the ones we bought hurt like hell when struck by them. Also need to invest more in buckets and other water containers, because Sluip got away from water fights being way too dry, imo.

Vulajin

Edit history:

Vulajin: 2014-08-04 03:36:02 am

Vulajin: 2014-08-04 02:23:05 am

2014-08-04 02:22:47 am

Since swearing does seem to be coming up in some of the responses, let me provide an example that prompted my earlier comments - this is the Hard Reset run from yellow stream: http://www.twitch.tv/europeanspeedsterassembly/b/553020544?t=20h47m25s

There were a few runs like this, but this was the first that came to mind.

(edit) This was not intended to call out the runner in question, although I know it comes across as that. This was just the first example that came to mind of a run with over-the-top profanity. I originally had some comments prepared for my previous post about the lack of support for some runners (Hard Reset being run on a PC that was not capable of running it properly, when there were apparently machines available which could do so, seems rather unacceptable; and apparently the machine on which Cereth ran Bastion had issues as well), but I figured that would just be picking at stuff I don't have first-hand knowledge of, so it wouldn't be super constructive.

Tompa

2014-08-04 02:39:12 am

One thing regarding the charity... Being the terrible host I am, I really didn't like to keep promoting it to be honest. The idea of keep saying "Please give "us" your money" is not in my liking really. Then again, the "goal" of the marathon was to get donations towards the DWB, so we should obviosuly have been promoting it more. We have been talking about completely dropping donations for next year. These marathons are about people meeting up and having a good time, not so that we could empty people's bank account for a good cause, there are too many of these already and I see no need for it here as well.

General scheduling for the tech crew would be nice, myself is to blame here. I highly dislike being a host, I can't do it properly. The only real reason I did was because there was no one else around who could/wanted to do it. More people and to make a schedule for it is a must next time.

Because of incidents that happened, I would say that drunk people should stay as far away from the venues as possible until they are sober. Seriously.

The venue, as mentioned, is too small for the amount of people we were. The goal for next year is likely to rent all of the House of Culture + Nyeport (Which we don't pay anything for anyway). Nothing is decided yet thoguh, we'll see how it goes.

And honestly, WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PICK UP YOUR OWN TRASH?! People make way too much of a mess constantly. It's not that hard to remember to throw a piece of paper, pizzabox, your can, your whatever in one of our many trash bags. You can't keep saying "I forgot", as you can't forget every single time. Take care of your things!!

When people borrow equipment/games. Please ask first and then put it back where it was taken once you are done. This should really be common sense, but way too many just grab what they see if they want to play a game or if they need a power cable. People lose too much stuff for no reason because of this. Think before acting, please.

One thing regarding the charity... Being the terrible host I am, I really didn't like to keep promoting it to be honest. The idea of keep saying "Please give "us" your money" is not in my liking really. Then again, the "goal" of the marathon was to get donations towards the DWB, so we should obviosuly have been promoting it more. We have been talking about completely dropping donations for next year. These marathons are about people meeting up and having a good time, not so that we could empty people's bank account for a good cause, there are too many of these already and I see no need for it here as well.

General scheduling for the tech crew would be nice, myself is to blame here. I highly dislike being a host, I can't do it properly. The only real reason I did was because there was no one else around who could/wanted to do it. More people and to make a schedule for it is a must next time.

Because of incidents that happened, I would say that drunk people should stay as far away from the venues as possible until they are sober. Seriously.

The venue, as mentioned, is too small for the amount of people we were. The goal for next year is likely to rent all of the House of Culture + Nyeport (Which we don't pay anything for anyway). Nothing is decided yet thoguh, we'll see how it goes.

And honestly, WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PICK UP YOUR OWN TRASH?! People make way too much of a mess constantly. It's not that hard to remember to throw a piece of paper, pizzabox, your can, your whatever in one of our many trash bags. You can't keep saying "I forgot", as you can't forget every single time. Take care of your things!!

When people borrow equipment/games. Please ask first and then put it back where it was taken once you are done. This should really be common sense, but way too many just grab what they see if they want to play a game or if they need a power cable. People lose too much stuff for no reason because of this. Think before acting, please.

winkl0r

Edit history:

winkl0r: 2014-08-04 02:45:20 am

2014-08-04 02:44:21 am

Quote from Vulajin:

Since swearing does seem to be coming up in some of the responses, let me provide an example that prompted my earlier comments - this is the Hard Reset run from yellow stream: http://www.twitch.tv/europeanspeedsterassembly/b/553020544?t=20h47m25s

There were a few runs like this, but this was the first that came to mind.

Hiho,

here is the runner of the game.
I was pretty much fucked uped at that time. My game was delayed by more than two hours and I was already very tired from the event.

Also the gaming PC was changed a few hours before my run with hardware which isn't capable of running Hard Reset on low with at least 30FPS.
Imagine how frustating it is when you practice weeks and months just to find out that is was practically a waste of time. A lot of people waited for Hard Reset and stayed up late just to watch a Dia show.
The amount of swearing during my run was absolutly OK!

Now go and play some first person shooter with 15-25FPS the most time without giving a single fuck.

[quote="Vulajin"]Since swearing does seem to be coming up in some of the responses, let me provide an example that prompted my earlier comments - this is the Hard Reset run from yellow stream: http://www.twitch.tv/europeanspeedsterassembly/b/553020544?t=20h47m25s

There were a few runs like this, but this was the first that came to mind.[/quote]

Hiho,

here is the runner of the game.
I was pretty much fucked uped at that time. My game was delayed by more than two hours and I was already very tired from the event.

Also the gaming PC was changed a few hours before my run with hardware which isn't capable of running Hard Reset on low with at least 30FPS.
Imagine how frustating it is when you practice weeks and months just to find out that is was practically a waste of time. A lot of people waited for Hard Reset and stayed up late just to watch a Dia show. 
The amount of swearing during my run was absolutly OK!

Now go and play some first person shooter with 15-25FPS the most time without giving a single fuck.

Cool Matty

Edit history:

Cool Matty: 2014-08-04 04:13:46 am

Cool Matty: 2014-08-04 04:12:33 am

2014-08-04 04:05:17 am

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

My thoughts:

Layouts:
-Artwork was great, no complaints
-The basic SD/HD layouts were fine
-The race layouts were confusing. Color coding is a cute idea but its execution was not really well thought out. The glow effect was nearly impossible to see on various screens. Simply aligning names would have gone a long way.
-Either go full tilt with the Twitter stuff or drop it. Having the same "fuck you in the ass" tweet up there for a bunch of runs was really unprofessional too IMO.
-Some of the more custom layouts used both cameras when they really weren't needed. Ended up showing an empty room or the exact same crowd from a slightly different angle. Second camera should be reserved only for races where you can't get all the runners in the main shot.
-The run transition video was cool and all, but watch out for the tech aspect. Every time it did that "shattered glass" effect, the video was destroyed. Particle effects like that should be avoided. It even made Twitch barf a couple times.
-The ESA logo video needed to be played way less often. Save it either for between blocks, or just at the start of the event.

Tech:
-First thing I noticed... what was with the constant TV swapping? That was painful just to watch. If there was a lack of TVs, definitely make that a priority next year. If they weren't, uhm, set up the TVs and leave them there Tongue

-Audio quality was okay, balancing wasn't. The room again appeared to have no mic, at least for good portions of the event. This made for some extremely awkward silent clapping. Various times the game audio or the host overpowered the runner's mic (this will require constant monitoring, yes it sucks but that's life).
-Video quality for the games was usually great, but I saw a few instances where the deinterlacing was wrong or that it wasn't doing 60fps for some reason. I'm not sure what the setup process was, but scenes should be already set up for these situations.
-Speaking of scenes, Xsplit didn't seem to do you guys any favors. The off-screen editing seemed to result in constant graphical glitches during scene transitions (such as the video stopping). This was REALLY bad during a few early runs. Also, I heard the limited scenes available was a limitation. You should really consider OBS next time, especially since there's a good chance the rewrite will be completed by then with features to match Xsplit.
-Setup times in general really, really need to be locked down. Ridiculous stuff like SWAT4 needs to be planned more ahead of time. Runners should assist in this. I don't know if ESA had a thread for this, but PC runners should have a thread to allow them to communicate potential pain points before the event. This allows better planning and preparation ahead of time.
-If the budget is there, it might be time to move on from webcams. They were quite blurry, and the blown out picture during the day, combined with the slow shutter speed at night really looked bad in comparison to the rest of the production values. If the budget's lacking, then I understand. Just keep it in mind.

Runs:
-Runner commentary needs to be a big value target next time. There were too many instances of complete dead air where no one was talking. One particular instance that stuck out to me was the FF7 YuffieWarp run. I didn't know the trick at all, and the run is extremely WTF. The low runner volume combined with few details on the actual trick made it a lot less fun to watch than it could have been. Remember runners, good commentary can save a bad run, bad commentary can ruin a good run.

Event:
-Pick the charity, or the community. Trying to balance both is ruining it for everyone. You didn't get nearly as much money as you should have for this size and length of event. If compared to C4L it's really considered a failure for donations. And because it's a charity being represented, the swearing and ridiculousness was inappropriate. If you want to have it just for the community, that's fine, but do that alone. It'll give you a lot more freedom to have fun and be more adult-oriented. You'll probably pull more viewers simply by having a more clearly defined goal here.

Two Stream Setup:
-I think this really made it clear why we didn't want this for GDQ for the time being. You have to have a LOT of tech staff to pull this off, literally double (or more!). Since it sounds like you were already pulled very thin, next time you should probably let volunteer signups define the life or death of the second stream. If there's not enough volunteers, don't do it. Tech guys shouldn't be forced into 24+ hour shifts, ever. It's not fair for them, and no one does a good job when they're that tired.

Edit:
Phone-warriors!
Name and shame these people. It REALLY pissed me off seeing some of these people on the stream all day, every day with their phones. You're there to watch the run, not to post your latest Tumblr masterpiece. We had problems with it at GDQ too, and it's going to be a rude awakening for them come AGDQ. I recommend the same strict enforcement for ESA. You guys are all about having fun and the community and these folks are literally the cancer that is killing ESA, to be all dramatic and over-exaggerating about it. I suppose you guys are trying not to be strict to keep the fun atmosphere, but I think this is one rule you guys can really enforce and no one will blink an eye in protest.

All in all I think production values definitely went up this year and the tech staff really worked hard. That was clearly evident and I applaud them for doing their best. I think ESA now needs to focus on the rest of the event to bring it in line. The hype could be much greater next year!

My thoughts:

Layouts:
-Artwork was great, no complaints
-The basic SD/HD layouts were fine
-The race layouts were confusing. Color coding is a cute idea but its execution was not really well thought out. The glow effect was nearly impossible to see on various screens. Simply aligning names would have gone a long way.
-Either go full tilt with the Twitter stuff or drop it. Having the same "fuck you in the ass" tweet up there for a bunch of runs was really unprofessional too IMO.
-Some of the more custom layouts used both cameras when they really weren't needed. Ended up showing an empty room or the exact same crowd from a slightly different angle. Second camera should be reserved only for races where you can't get all the runners in the main shot.
-The run transition video was cool and all, but watch out for the tech aspect. Every time it did that "shattered glass" effect, the video was destroyed. Particle effects like that should be avoided. It even made Twitch barf a couple times.
-The ESA logo video needed to be played way less often. Save it either for between blocks, or just at the start of the event.

Tech:
-First thing I noticed... what was with the constant TV swapping? That was painful just to watch. If there was a lack of TVs, definitely make that a priority next year. If they weren't, uhm, set up the TVs and leave them there :P
-Audio quality was okay, balancing wasn't. The room again appeared to have no mic, at least for good portions of the event. This made for some extremely awkward silent clapping. Various times the game audio or the host overpowered the runner's mic (this will require constant monitoring, yes it sucks but that's life). 
-Video quality for the games was usually great, but I saw a few instances where the deinterlacing was wrong or that it wasn't doing 60fps for some reason. I'm not sure what the setup process was, but scenes should be already set up for these situations. 
-Speaking of scenes, Xsplit didn't seem to do you guys any favors. The off-screen editing seemed to result in constant graphical glitches during scene transitions (such as the video stopping). This was REALLY bad during a few early runs. Also, I heard the limited scenes available was a limitation. You should really consider OBS next time, especially since there's a good chance the rewrite will be completed by then with features to match Xsplit.
-Setup times in general really, really need to be locked down. Ridiculous stuff like SWAT4 needs to be planned more ahead of time. Runners should assist in this. I don't know if ESA had a thread for this, but PC runners should have a thread to allow them to communicate potential pain points before the event. This allows better planning and preparation ahead of time. 
-If the budget is there, it might be time to move on from webcams. They were quite blurry, and the blown out picture during the day, combined with the slow shutter speed at night really looked bad in comparison to the rest of the production values. If the budget's lacking, then I understand. Just keep it in mind.

Runs:
-Runner commentary needs to be a big value target next time. There were too many instances of complete dead air where no one was talking. One particular instance that stuck out to me was the FF7 YuffieWarp run. I didn't know the trick at all, and the run is extremely WTF. The low runner volume combined with few details on the actual trick made it a lot less fun to watch than it could have been. Remember runners, good commentary can save a bad run, bad commentary can ruin a good run.

Event:
-Pick the charity, or the community. Trying to balance both is ruining it for everyone. You didn't get nearly as much money as you should have for this size and length of event. If compared to C4L it's really considered a failure for donations. And because it's a charity being represented, the swearing and ridiculousness was inappropriate. If you want to have it just for the community, that's fine, but do that alone. It'll give you a lot more freedom to have fun and be more adult-oriented. You'll probably pull more viewers simply by having a more clearly defined goal here.

Two Stream Setup:
-I think this really made it clear why we didn't want this for GDQ for the time being. You have to have a LOT of tech staff to pull this off, literally double (or more!). Since it sounds like you were already pulled very thin, next time you should probably let volunteer signups define the life or death of the second stream. If there's not enough volunteers, don't do it. Tech guys shouldn't be forced into 24+ hour shifts, ever. It's not fair for them, and no one does a good job when they're that tired.

Edit:
Phone-warriors!
Name and shame these people. It REALLY pissed me off seeing some of these people on the stream all day, every day with their phones. You're there to watch the run, not to post your latest Tumblr masterpiece. We had problems with it at GDQ too, and it's going to be a rude awakening for them come AGDQ. I recommend the same strict enforcement for ESA. You guys are all about having fun and the community and these folks are literally the cancer that is killing ESA, to be all dramatic and over-exaggerating about it. I suppose you guys are trying not to be strict to keep the fun atmosphere, but I think this is one rule you guys can really enforce and no one will blink an eye in protest.

All in all I think production values definitely went up this year and the tech staff really worked hard. That was clearly evident and I applaud them for doing their best. I think ESA now needs to focus on the rest of the event to bring it in line. The hype could be much greater next year!

Greenalink

2014-08-04 04:29:43 am

DS Dictator

Quote:

Phone warriors

Fortunately the FAKESA wi-fi wasn't reachable in the blue stream room. I do remember using a mobile phone but mainly only during the downtimes. If I actually did use it during someones run (I notably remember booting up Sonic 2 quickly during Timp's Sonic 2 run to have a laugh after the end of the run). I deeply apologise right now.

Quote:

Ridiculous stuff like SWAT4 needs to be planned more ahead of time.

I remember being told by Adam that the method originally worked a few days before the run, but in the hours/minutes before the actual run, something wasn't right. Someone may have tweaked the settings on OBS and it was one of the two(?) runs that was done in the lounge and not the Blue/Yellow stream rooms. The SWAT setup team may give out more detail than me about the situation as it was ~2am over there.

Chrno

Edit history:

Chrno: 2014-08-04 05:09:53 am

Chrno: 2014-08-04 04:59:11 am

Chrno: 2014-08-04 04:59:00 am

2014-08-04 04:58:18 am

WOW.

I don't have a lot to say, I'm still here now actually, but I will say for me the whole event has been a success, I have had a really good time. I feel like the only person that actually likes Hervder. Here's a few comments/discussion pointers I've had in my head though:

- Better organization of both the online schedule and stream names would be cool next time, I know during my runs my twitch name was wrong 2.5/3 of the time and my actual runner name was also spelt wrong too. I'm personally not someone who has a big problem with that, mistakes happen, but people might in the future.

- I was discussing with oasiz about the fact that setup times, to me at least, felt a lot longer than other marathons even knowing we had better equipment this time around. I would had hoped the extra expenditure would had reduced setup times, but alas it didn't. I would ask the ESA committee what their plans for next year would be concerning this. I heard about a lot of scaling problems (with the scaler, duh), what can be done next time to prevent these?

- I wouldn't argue against a shift from a charity marathon to just a general meetup marathon, but might that not just detract from the idea of having marathon in the first place? Would this really increase 'hype' or interest in the event?

- For me at least, the two stream setup worked perfect. To be honest, I found the Yellow stream more engaging than the Blue stream because of the much more varied content.

- Don't know if it's too much to ask, but next year it would be really cool to have a chill/sitting room that wasn't either next to a lan party, a kitchen, or a bunch of tvs blaring SM64 or Smash. A quiet room if would will. By the end of the week I was kinda burnt out with video games and just wanted somewhere to watch a film or something more relaxed. I understand that space in not a key selling point of the Nyeport center, but maybe this is something to consider for next year?

I don't have a lot to say, I'm still here now actually, but I will say for me the whole event has been a success, I have had a really good time. I feel like the only person that actually likes Hervder. Here's a few comments/discussion pointers I've had in my head though:

- Better organization of both the online schedule and stream names would be cool next time, I know during my runs my twitch name was wrong 2.5/3 of the time and my actual runner name was also spelt wrong too. I'm personally not someone who has a big problem with that, mistakes happen, but people might in the future.

- I was discussing with oasiz about the fact that setup times, to me at least, felt a lot longer than other marathons even knowing we had better equipment this time around. I would had hoped the extra expenditure would had reduced setup times, but alas it didn't. I would ask the ESA committee what their plans for next year would be concerning this. I heard about a lot of scaling problems (with the scaler, duh), what can be done next time to prevent these?

- I wouldn't argue against a shift from a charity marathon to just a general meetup marathon, but might that not just detract from the idea of having  marathon in the first place? Would this really increase 'hype' or interest in the event?

- For me at least, the two stream setup worked perfect. To be honest, I found the Yellow stream more engaging than the Blue stream because of the much more varied content.

- Don't know if it's too much to ask, but next year it would be really cool to have a chill/sitting room that wasn't either next to a lan party, a kitchen, or a bunch of tvs blaring SM64 or Smash. A quiet room if would will. By the end of the week I was kinda burnt out with video games and just wanted somewhere to watch a film or something more relaxed. I understand that space in not a key selling point of the Nyeport center, but maybe this is something to consider for next year?

AdamAK

Edit history:

AdamAK: 2014-08-04 05:02:50 am

2014-08-04 05:00:39 am

Totally rad

Regarding SWAT4, it was all tested several days in advance on all the actual PCs that would be used for the run, and it all worked just fine. A few days later, when we were setting up for the actual run, the video capture did not seem to refresh correctly on one or two PCs, which caused a bit of a hassle. In retrospect, it probably would've been better to just go with 8 player views or so, but I think one of the purposes of having a 10p co-op PC run on there was to prove that it's very doable to have such a run in a marathon. Streaming PC seemed to be having some issues at the same time, from what I understood. It crashed when playing the SWAT4 intro video, didn't it?

Using RTMP for multi-PC runs is absolutely fantastic, and I hope this option will be used extensively again in the coming years, even if it had some bugs for SWAT4.

j4sp3rr

2014-08-04 07:54:01 am

Quote from Duke Bilgewater:

My only complaint about the production was that the setups for some games were gruelingly long. Metal Gear Rising, for example, took so long to get started that they just started showing the Yellow stream on Blue while they were waiting. I understand that ESA is a much more laid-back marathon - it's more of a meet-up - but as a viewer, this ended up making me switch to other streams 4 - 5 times throughout the event. Hopefully at the next Ludendi event, there aren't as many setups that take more than 10 minutes.

ho, ho, ho, hold your horses there. We restreamed yellow not because our setup was that long, that one was long done, we restreamed yellow because we were too far ahead of schedule then, and we didn't want to ruin peoples day by starting runs too early. There were definitely a couple of setups that took alot longer than needed, but that surely wasn't one of them.

twitch viewer liquidsnake

2014-08-04 08:20:18 am

I echo the normal comments about the marathon for esa about the pros and cons but modding was really a mixed bag , whenever tompa, curseddolls and others were modding there was no issues with the chat and when this mod named Efreeti came in he started throwing the banhammer for reasons that other mods were ok before, when questioned he would say to drop it or face ban again . At one time he was acting like a white knight in armor banning anyone would say anything about the runner or anyone on stream. I know the twitch chats are stored please check and don't allow people with short temper to mod. It really broke the relaxed chat of esa whenever he was modding.
people were asked to complain about his modding to other mods via pm.

Props to tompa handling the twitch chat awesome.
loved the two streams as a viewer kept both open via the esa site double streams and double chat fun.

Really shocked with the low viewership last time esa had way more viewers maybe scheduling opening games with famous runners such as adam ak would have spread the popularity more ?

I echo the normal comments about the marathon for esa about the pros and cons but modding was really a mixed bag , whenever tompa, curseddolls and others were modding there was no issues with the chat and when this mod named Efreeti came in he started throwing the banhammer for reasons that other mods were ok before, when questioned he would say to drop it or face ban again . At one time he was acting like a white knight in armor banning anyone would say anything about the runner or anyone on stream. I know the twitch chats are stored please check and don't allow people with short temper to mod. It really broke the relaxed chat of esa whenever he was modding.
people were asked to complain about his modding to other mods via pm.

Props to tompa handling the twitch chat awesome.
loved the two streams as a viewer kept both open via the esa site double streams and double chat fun.

Really shocked with the low viewership last time esa had way more viewers maybe scheduling opening games with famous runners such as adam ak would have spread the popularity more ?

LeFrozer

2014-08-04 08:31:56 am

So for my first marathon, I had a blast as an attendee. At first, I was really not comfortable for some reason (probably because I'm pretty new to the community in general) but then it was much much better.

Positives:

- The people around here seemed to be really nice overall. The atmosphere was really relaxing and there was always something to do here.
- Layout for 1-player / 2-player races. I didn't see the the other layouts so I can't commentate on the other ones. It definitely was more professional than the GDQ's.
- Two streams were really good. It gives some games more exposure. Also some non-speedrun related stuff was also pretty cool (TAS Block for example).
- Those hype videos were really neat. However I wouldn't use that for really short runs.
- I had a run on the yellow and the blue stream (or bonus stream) and it was really comfortable for me as a runner in both rooms. Also the chat experience was really good overall Smiley

Negatives:

- Sometimes, the rooms have been dirty sometimes, also it's a very bad idea to put open trash bags in the middle of the room. It will stink sooner or later.
- I feel that this event wasn't as hyped as other event's (Again, it's my first one as well so I don't know a lot about it). I think working on PR for the next year, is probably a good idea.

- Probably my biggest complaint is, that some guys in the practice room were using a lot of TVs just for one game. I know that they were practicing sometimes, but if you play a completely different game NOT on the marathon and there were like 5+ people around those TV's. It's really hard to say something like: "Sorry, I have to practice and I need a TV. Can I take it?" Imagine how some people can become mad at you for just asking politely. The only chance I ever had to practice was at the beginning of the event and in the "dead hours" (7-11 a.m.), which really sucked sometimes. I don't think it will be fixed in future marathons, but at least I can mention it.

About the "cursing": I didn't feel that there was much cursing during the stream (or at least those times, where I was actually watching a run). I think it's fine, if you don't say fuck at least every minute. I don't know why some guys are so offended about that. I mean bad things can happen, right?

I'm gonna write some more, if I had more time / thoughts. And since I'm still around, I'm gonna give my feedback directly. But anyways, it was a really good event overall and I consider, going there next year.

So for my first marathon, I had a blast as an attendee. At first, I was really not comfortable for some reason (probably because I'm pretty new to the community in general) but then it was much much better.

Positives:

- The people around here seemed to be really nice overall. The atmosphere was really relaxing and there was always something to do here.
- Layout for 1-player / 2-player races. I didn't see the the other layouts so I can't commentate on the other ones. It definitely was more professional than the GDQ's.
- Two streams were really good. It gives some games more exposure. Also some non-speedrun related stuff was also pretty cool (TAS Block for example).
- Those hype videos were really neat. However I wouldn't use that for really short runs.
- I had a run on the yellow and the blue stream (or bonus stream) and it was really comfortable for me as a runner in both rooms. Also the chat experience was really good overall :)

Negatives:

- Sometimes, the rooms have been dirty sometimes, also it's a very bad idea to put open trash bags in the middle of the room. It will stink sooner or later.
- I feel that this event wasn't as hyped as other event's (Again, it's my first one as well so I don't know a lot about it). I think working on PR for the next year, is probably a good idea.

- Probably my biggest complaint is, that some guys in the practice room were using a lot of TVs just for one game. I know that they were practicing sometimes, but if you play a completely different game NOT on the marathon and there were like 5+ people around those TV's. It's really hard to say something like: "Sorry, I have to practice and I need a TV. Can I take it?" Imagine how some people can become mad at you for just asking politely. The only chance I ever had to practice was at the beginning of the event and in the "dead hours" (7-11 a.m.), which really sucked sometimes. I don't think it will be fixed in future marathons, but at least I can mention it.

About the "cursing": I didn't feel that there was much cursing during the stream (or at least those times, where I was actually watching a run). I think it's fine, if you don't say fuck at least every minute. I don't know why some guys are so offended about that. I mean bad things can happen, right?

I'm gonna write some more, if I had more time / thoughts. And since I'm still around, I'm gonna give my feedback directly. But anyways, it was a really good event overall and I consider, going there next year.

flicky

Edit history:

flicky: 2014-08-04 08:50:23 am

flicky: 2014-08-04 08:50:06 am

2014-08-04 08:49:45 am

$15 per rant/allegory

Hey guys, just to say all of us who were working here in an official capacity are going to be responding to the feedback in a few days and not immediately.

Thanks so much for the feedback so far, there's a lot of stuff here we wanted to change ourselves, a few things we were on the fence about and have been swayed towards and a few that we never even considered before now.

Please keep it coming, we are actively reading it and expect to see an official response soontm.

(attendees here are welcome to continue posting and responding)

burningsoup

2014-08-04 08:55:55 am

Don't have much to say that hasn't already been said.

- Really good layout, clean and professional. The color coding for races could have been a bit more obvious, though--my eyes sometimes had difficulty differentiating the yellow and white "auras" since they were pretty faint.
- Not sure if you defined your expectations for people in the stream rooms, but that probably wouldn't be a bad thing in the future. It was kind of distracting when people would just stand in the doorway for 30 seconds then walk away. Then there were the people who walked in front of the TV during the DKCR run... granted, they should have known better, but they shouldn't have been allowed up that close to begin with.
- I share the sentiment about boosting the charity and cutting down on the cursing. Or scrap the charity and curse all you like.
- The schedule. I know you don't have any control over how long runs are going to take, but it would be nice to keep the schedule more up to date. Having two streams worked out well when you ran ahead of schedule because you could just restream the other. But when you ran behind the schedule just sort of fell apart. Prettier to look at than the GDQ schedule, but maybe not as efficient.
- Loved the amount of races, especially the ones with 3-4 people. I know they're hard to pull off, but trust me, the entertainment value is worth it. Hope to see more of that!

Overall, very good work! You guys should be proud!

Don't have much to say that hasn't already been said.

- Really good layout, clean and professional. The color coding for races could have been a bit more obvious, though--my eyes sometimes had difficulty differentiating the yellow and white "auras" since they were pretty faint.
- Not sure if you defined your expectations for people in the stream rooms, but that probably wouldn't be a bad thing in the future. It was kind of distracting when people would just stand in the doorway for 30 seconds then walk away. Then there were the people who walked in front of the TV during the DKCR run... granted, they should have known better, but they shouldn't have been allowed up that close to begin with.
- I share the sentiment about boosting the charity and cutting down on the cursing. Or scrap the charity and curse all you like.
- The schedule. I know you don't have any control over how long runs are going to take, but it would be nice to keep the schedule more up to date. Having two streams worked out well when you ran ahead of schedule because you could just restream the other. But when you ran behind the schedule just sort of fell apart. Prettier to look at than the GDQ schedule, but maybe not as efficient.
- Loved the amount of races, especially the ones with 3-4 people. I know they're hard to pull off, but trust me, the entertainment value is worth it. Hope to see more of that!

Overall, very good work! You guys should be proud!

Svenne

Edit history:

Svenne: 2014-08-04 11:13:17 am

Svenne: 2014-08-04 11:12:43 am

2014-08-04 11:11:32 am

Smörgåsbord

I will submit more when I come to think about it! Smiley

Donation-reading

I was alone on the donation reading during Timesplitters: Future Perfect and the Vice City Bingo because there was no-one around so I just stepped in. Same happened two other nights so a schedule for donation reading would be great next year. So people don't have to pull long shifts on tech and donations. I rather help with that then go around and looking important and stuff. Wink

Donations

I want to drop the charity for next year because we had alot of prizes but no-one beside me and tompa pushed them pretty much, like at all. And ofc. giving a company that donated over 1K in euro's in online prizes a shout-out was not important enough but x-split and dreamhack was so yeah. Not a huge fan of that shit tbh

dxtr

2014-08-04 11:58:02 am

Speedrunner

I really don't have anything to complain about.

Since I know everyone on crew did their best to bring one of the best quality marathons ever. Sure, there is always something that couldve been better and so on. But everything complement each other to the best.

And im sorry for the power outage. Grin

RamblingJosh

2014-08-04 12:07:20 pm

Many words! Handle it!

It's hard to know what to say because it feels like there was such a lack of focus, and what's fine and what is not changes based on your goals. This identity crisis obviously hurt the marathon. It's not like you can't have a good time and also raise money, it just felt like the two were at odds at ESA. I think Zeldathon is a decent example of merging the two (though obviously it is a very different beast). More than anything else, I think better defined goals is the #1 priority here, and making sure everyone in the room and everyone watching the stream knows what those goals are.

Here are some things that come to mind:

Layouts: I'm not as big a fan as some others. It was very dark, and it felt like space wasn't used as well as it could have been. I liked the color coding, but it has to be done in addition to arranging the other elements, not in place of it. I also felt like the elements on screen were not self explanatory to someone who hasn't watched a marathon before. It's really clean but I didn't find it very attractive.

Hosts: I felt like their role was kind of moot. Donations were not very hype, and even when there were big ones it seemed like the audience didn't really react. It's good to get the community interaction in the form of donation comments, but I don't think it was worth all the times when there were no donations to read, host was asking stream to donate, or pushing piddly little donation incentives. I also don't like seeing the host in this format (as you could on yellow) it feels like I'm piercing the veil or something. For this type of marathon I think it works better if the host is just someone who is in on the fun with everyone else.

Videos: It was pretty cool seeing these, but i felt like it got kind of old, partly because of poor implementation. They would often cut off people who were talking on stream. Things need to be snappy when the video ends, otherwise the hype falls flat. Staring at a looping video is not a good way to fill setup time, it makes me feel really disconnected from the marathon.

PR: I feel like nobody outside of the community knew this was happening, and all the incidental people who jumped on board from say, twitch main page, were left floundering. I don't think I once heard reference of the main website, where to go to donate, what the donation totals were, the fact that another stream existed, or what ESA even is. As others have said, mentioning MSF was pretty spotty too, though some hosts seemed to think it was more important than others. Also, more role calls please.

Dual Stream: I'm really glad that this experiment was done, and I think that for ESA, it worked. It was cool to see so many people/runs getting a chance to strut their stuff and have a good time, and it was cool swapping between streams. However I would say that if the goal is to have a high quality stream and raise money, I think a single stream is still the ideal. Keeping everything in one place is just easier to manage, easier to promote, easier to consume, easier to hype, easier to fill time, etc.

Chat Interaction: I'm not really sure how deep this went. It seemed like there was a monitor with chat on it on blue stream? At times I felt like interacting with chat was a good way to draw people in during runs that were low on commentary or really late at night. Other times it felt like people were more interested in chat than what was going on in front of them. In the context of ESA I kind of like the former, whereas I think the latter is definitely not ok. In the end of the day this is a speedrun not an AMA. That said, AMARuns on yellow could be interesting.

It's hard to know what to say because it feels like there was such a lack of focus, and what's fine and what is not changes based on your goals. This identity crisis obviously hurt the marathon. It's not like you can't have a good time and also raise money, it just felt like the two were at odds at ESA. I think Zeldathon is a decent example of merging the two (though obviously it is a very different beast). More than anything else, I think better defined goals is the #1 priority here, and making sure everyone in the room and everyone watching the stream knows what those goals are.

Here are some things that come to mind:

Layouts: I'm not as big a fan as some others. It was very dark, and it felt like space wasn't used as well as it could have been. I liked the color coding, but it has to be done in addition to arranging the other elements, not in place of it. I also felt like the elements on screen were not self explanatory to someone who hasn't watched a marathon before. It's really clean but I didn't find it very attractive.

Hosts: I felt like their role was kind of moot. Donations were not very hype, and even when there were big ones it seemed like the audience didn't really react. It's good to get the community interaction in the form of donation comments, but I don't think it was worth all the times when there were no donations to read, host was asking stream to donate, or pushing piddly little donation incentives. I also don't like seeing the host in this format (as you could on yellow) it feels like I'm piercing the veil or something. For this type of marathon I think it works better if the host is just someone who is in on the fun with everyone else.

Videos: It was pretty cool seeing these, but i felt like it got kind of old, partly because of poor implementation. They would often cut off people who were talking on stream. Things need to be snappy when the video ends, otherwise the hype falls flat. Staring at a looping video is not a good way to fill setup time, it makes me feel really disconnected from the marathon.

PR: I feel like nobody outside of the community knew this was happening, and all the incidental people who jumped on board from say, twitch main page, were left floundering. I don't think I once heard reference of the main website, where to go to donate, what the donation totals were, the fact that another stream existed, or what ESA even is. As others have said, mentioning MSF was pretty spotty too, though some hosts seemed to think it was more important than others. Also, more role calls please.

Dual Stream: I'm really glad that this experiment was done, and I think that for ESA, it worked. It was cool to see so many people/runs getting a chance to strut their stuff and have a good time, and it was cool swapping between streams. However I would say that if the goal is to have a high quality stream and raise money, I think a single stream is still the ideal. Keeping everything in one place is just easier to manage, easier to promote, easier to consume, easier to hype, easier to fill time, etc.

Chat Interaction: I'm not really sure how deep this went. It seemed like there was a monitor with chat on it on blue stream? At times I felt like interacting with chat was a good way to draw people in during runs that were low on commentary or really late at night. Other times it felt like people were more interested in chat than what was going on in front of them. In the context of ESA I kind of like the former, whereas I think the latter is definitely not ok. In the end of the day this is a speedrun not an AMA. That said, AMARuns on yellow could be interesting.

Untouch

2014-08-04 12:32:36 pm

My only problem was that some setups took way too long.

TheMG2

2014-08-04 12:45:19 pm

Sometimes it seemed like rather than the time between runs was not just setup, but the time between runs was also "The run is supposed to be scheduled at this time, therefore we will wait for this time." Is this the case at all? From comments above, it sounds like this is the case, but I'd like confirmation before giving more feedback.

Greenalink

Edit history:

Greenalink: 2014-08-04 12:55:20 pm

2014-08-04 12:54:46 pm

DS Dictator

One of the rules during ESA is that none of the runs will be played before the intended time.
For example, my New Super Mario Bros 2 run is 3pm in the UK. It can be shown at 4pm if there is a delay on schedule due to sloppy play from previous games but it can't be shown at 2:30pm, even if the previous games were godlike. So a restream from the other stream was the solution. Imagine if people were coming in especially to see that one game only to find out it was aired way earlier than the original time.

TheMG2

2014-08-04 01:05:48 pm

OK, and waiting works for people who want to see specific runs. But if you're like me and might check out more than just games you know, you're probably going to get bored during the wait.

I noticed this on like first day when there was no other stream to restream, and so for the rest of the marathon, I only watched the runs for games I already know. You really need to make sure there is at least something going on if you are going to wait.

Also the eye-tracker thing during the F-Zero X run was really distracting, please don't bring it back. I could not concentrate at all on the run. My focus goes from "The game and the runner" to "a random circle thats on the screen for some reason".

curseddolls

2014-08-04 03:02:59 pm

When it comes to dead rooms I think the easiest way to prevent this is to remove the projector screens used in kitchen area and practise area.
These two screens made people able to watch it even if they where not at the current stream.
Removing those two makes so people HAVE to go to the room and watch instead of watch it while doing something else.
Yes i know you can also then watch trough laptops etc but it will still not effect as much as those two screens are.

My own biggest concern and complaint if I can call it like that is how disgusting the kitchen area was.
I can not fathom how an area can get so dirty and full of crap when the people at the event is well enough
over their years to be able to understand that if you eat/use/drink anything you also REMOVE it after you are done with it.

There was so many times where I was litteraly disgusted by all the crap over the kitchen area and everywhere else may I add.
Then you might reply with a "if you felt so bad about it you could have done something about it your self".
But NO no one else should have to take care about someone elses shit.
I'm sorry but no.. The moment someone else removes shit another person has left behind trigger others to think
that doing whatever you want all over the place is acceptable since other people will clean up after you.

I thought we where at an event with people above 15+ years old not 5 years old.
Clean up after your self?!

Also what I would like to see for next year is REAL disposable trash cans, those really big green ones?!
It is not hygienically to have open trash bags in the summer heat in the middle of a kitchen area.

That would basically be my only inputs to this board.

curseddolls

When it comes to dead rooms I think the easiest way to prevent this is to remove the projector screens used in kitchen area and practise area.
These two screens made people able to watch it even if they where not at the current stream.
Removing those two makes so people HAVE to go to the room and watch instead of watch it while doing something else.
Yes i know you can also then watch trough laptops etc but it will still not effect as much as those two screens are.

My own biggest concern and complaint if I can call it like that is how disgusting the kitchen area was.
I can not fathom how an area can get so dirty and full of crap when the people at the event is well enough
over their years to be able to understand that if you eat/use/drink anything you also REMOVE it after you are done with it.

There was so many times where I was litteraly disgusted by all the crap over the kitchen area and everywhere else may I add. 
Then you might reply with a "if you felt so bad about it you could have done something about it your self".
But [b]NO[/b] no one else should have to take care about someone elses shit.
I'm sorry but no.. The moment someone else removes shit another person has left behind trigger others to think
that doing whatever you want all over the place is acceptable since other people will clean up after you.

I thought we where at an event with people above 15+ years old not 5 years old.
Clean up after your self?!

Also what I would like to see for next year is REAL disposable trash cans, those really big green ones?!
 It is not hygienically to have open trash bags in the summer heat in the middle of a kitchen area.

That would basically be my only inputs to this board.

curseddolls

Cool Matty

2014-08-04 03:16:21 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from curseddolls:

When it comes to dead rooms I think the easiest way to prevent this is to remove the projector screens used in kitchen area and practise area.
These two screens made people able to watch it even if they where not at the current stream.
Removing those two makes so people HAVE to go to the room and watch instead of watch it while doing something else.
Yes i know you can also then watch trough laptops etc but it will still not effect as much as those two screens are.

I'd like to point out that this sounds like a really terrible idea that is likely to promote more phone-warriors than anything. Last thing an event wants is more people "watching" the stream in the stream room while actually eating, being on their phone, browsing 4chan, whatever.

In addition, I don't actually think it'd cause many people to watch in the stream room, it'd just cause more people to try and stream it on their devices, killing the wifi. At GDQs, there wasn't some epidemic of people not watching in the marathon room, and I can't imagine it being that way at ESA either.

[quote="curseddolls"]When it comes to dead rooms I think the easiest way to prevent this is to remove the projector screens used in kitchen area and practise area.
These two screens made people able to watch it even if they where not at the current stream.
Removing those two makes so people HAVE to go to the room and watch instead of watch it while doing something else.
Yes i know you can also then watch trough laptops etc but it will still not effect as much as those two screens are.
[/quote]

I'd like to point out that this sounds like a really terrible idea that is likely to promote more phone-warriors than anything. Last thing an event wants is more people "watching" the stream in the stream room while actually eating, being on their phone, browsing 4chan, whatever.

In addition, I don't actually think it'd cause many people to watch in the stream room, it'd just cause more people to try and stream it on their devices, killing the wifi. At GDQs, there wasn't some epidemic of people not watching in the marathon room, and I can't imagine it being that way at ESA either.

Zzzlol94

2014-08-04 03:48:58 pm

So I'll put in some feedback about being there.
A lot of stuff was happening most of the time everywhere, so streaming rooms were quite empty during less popular runs/graveyard period. Too bad because the runners really deserve more than having their run only viewed by 1 or 2 of tech crew at location. Many were watching the streams on the PCs around and about, in the kitchen room and at the projector in the practice room and just outside yellow stream, which it suffered a little from. Probably should only have that when it's actually crowded. But other than that, there's not that much to do about that I guess. The breakfast was quite good, Polarbröd is the best. Practice room was stacked, layout could've been optimized a little bit more, but other than that, yeah it was quite hot as it got no proper ventilation. A break room would be really nice too, just to relax without the noise.

So the tech stuff could be even better, it always can. Not going to give the feedback here.

I can't really speak up for a lot of actually watching it, but the layouts were awesome. The 3/4-way races could've been better, the coloring was a nice thing, although the placement should've been top two and bottom two names should've covered top two and bottom two game feeds and being slightly to the left/right accordingly. 3-way should just be reworked, it maybe relied on the colors too much, again, slightly moving each name to the left/right to separate them more would be better.
Having two streams was working well, although the yellow stream room was a bit small. For tech, it wasn't that great. A lot of walking back and forth for some in the tech crew. I did audio checks via the twitch channel and that sounded really good.
The webcams became an issue for viewing and was a tech nightmare. That should be stepped up a hunch, the framerate and video quality didn't match the production value of everything else.
The donations should be dropped, it really becomes more of an add-on. Reading comments and having incentives can be done differently and cleverly.
The volunteering spreadsheet shouldn't be done like that and it came too late.

All in all it was quite a great and fun event for being there the first time, there's no room for it to grow even further, having about 100 people for the mass housing was just enough to not make it ridiculously filled. If the event is going to grow further to maybe 300 attendees then something has to be done, Nyeport is just not big enough for that, at least with the rooms we had accessible. Even with 200 it was packed with people during the day. I'll add more as it comes on my mind.

So I'll put in some feedback about being there.
A lot of stuff was happening most of the time everywhere, so streaming rooms were quite empty during less popular runs/graveyard period. Too bad because the runners really deserve more than having their run only viewed by 1 or 2 of tech crew at location. Many were watching the streams on the PCs around and about, in the kitchen room and at the projector in the practice room and just outside yellow stream, which it suffered a little from. Probably should only have that when it's actually crowded. But other than that, there's not that much to do about that I guess. The breakfast was quite good, Polarbröd is the best. Practice room was stacked, layout could've been optimized a little bit more, but other than that, yeah it was quite hot as it got no proper ventilation. A break room would be really nice too, just to relax without the noise.

So the tech stuff could be even better, it always can. Not going to give the feedback here.

I can't really speak up for a lot of actually watching it, but the layouts were awesome. The 3/4-way races could've been better, the coloring was a nice thing, although the placement should've been top two and bottom two names should've covered top two and bottom two game feeds and being slightly to the left/right accordingly. 3-way should just be reworked, it maybe relied on the colors too much, again, slightly moving each name to the left/right to separate them more would be better.
Having two streams was working well, although the yellow stream room was a bit small. For tech, it wasn't that great. A lot of walking back and forth for some in the tech crew. I did audio checks via the twitch channel and that sounded really good.
The webcams became an issue for viewing and was a tech nightmare. That should be stepped up a hunch, the framerate and video quality didn't match the production value of everything else.
The donations should be dropped, it really becomes more of an add-on. Reading comments and having incentives can be done differently and cleverly. 
The volunteering spreadsheet shouldn't be done like that and it came too late.

All in all it was quite a great and fun event for being there the first time, there's no room for it to grow even further, having about 100 people for the mass housing was just enough to not make it ridiculously filled. If the event is going to grow further to maybe 300 attendees then something has to be done, Nyeport is just not big enough for that, at least with the rooms we had accessible. Even with 200 it was packed with people during the day. I'll add more as it comes on my mind.