The intent of this topic is to publically discuss some of the sketchier parts of the SDA rules and suggest changes and improvements. The overall goal is to streamline the rules, get rid of unwarranted arbitrary restrictions and exceptions and rework legacy rules that are not on par with the current SDA ideology. Although this discussion is officially sanctioned (and I expect this topic to be stickied if there is enough participation) be aware that there is no guarantee that any of the changes agreed upon in here will become part of the rules, nor is there any guarantee that every opinion can be considered fairly and equally. In fact, some of the points to be discussed have been disagreed on for years now and we don't expect to find a solution that will satisfy all participants or even the majority of them.
Take all opinion and comments voiced in this thread to be a very personal stance unless noted otherwise, uncluding posts by staff members. I hope for this discussion to be on topic and as neutral as possible. You are free to disagree with any part of the discussion, but try to refrain from any form of personal attacks. Expect there to be more and harsher moderation than in other parts of the Forum to ensure a productive discussion. We are willing to listen to all of your concerns as long as you stay polite.
List of Topics to discuss:
1.) Treatment of currently published or in-submission runs affected by the proposed rule changes.
Issue: Several runs may be breaking the rules in their proposed new form, several runs may have their timing or categorization affected by the new rules in a significant way. This may interact with previously obsoleted runs as well.
Goal: Finding guidelines for treating affected runs fairly without counteracting the goal of reworking the rules. Finding guidelines for reinstating previously obsoleted runs should the current published run become illegal under the new rules.
2.) Reworking rules and faq text according to the new proposed rules, rewording parts of the rules and faq that are or have in the past been considered to be inaccurate or hard to understand.
3.) Reworking the save penalty for manual saves in games that allow you to save anywhere
Issue: People regularly are confused about both when and why the penalty is applied. Ever since the introduction of the rule there have been people voting for getting rid of it as well as people who think the penalty is too small.
Goal: Discussing the necessaity as well as the benefits and downsides of such a rule. Discussing the saves it should be applied to as well as the size of the penalty. Finding alternative rules that may better achieve the goals of this rule.
4.) Clearly specifying the scripts that are to be allowed.
Issue: Several games still have a grandfather clause of being allowed to use Autohotkey-Scripts that are now officially banned. A couple of runs have used scripts that several people consider to be against the spirit of the site.
Goal: Reaching a consense in how much scripting is to be allowed in runs. Finding a way to distinguish legal and illegal scripting that leaves a low amount of borderline cases.
5.) Dealing with game specific rulings
Issue: Several games have gotten special rules and exceptions for various reasons in the past. Although, due to the variety of games and runs on the site, it is not possible to cover all cases with a set of basic rules, several games have special rules that appear to be unwarranted under the current ideology.
Goal: Getting rid of as many unwarranted game specific rules as possible to integrate them into the basic rules and avoiding arbitrary individual rulings.
a.) Half-Life
b.) Half-Life 2
c.) Portal
d.) If you find any other game with specific ruling that you feel should be removed, post it and I'll add it to this list. This list in no way claims to be comprehensive.
6.) Dealing with very similar categories
Issue: For some games there may be clearly defined seperate categories that are however very similar. For instance in Banjo-Kazooie the any% run requires you to pick up almost as much as a 100% run, and the difference is fairly small for a comparably long game. Similaarly, some games allow for character choice which has a pretty small influence on gameplay. Does it make sense to accept these categories seperately in this case? However, wouldn't this also lead to more semi-arbitrary game specific rulings?
7.) In-Game Timer vs Real Time
Issue: There are people who feel that every run should be timed manually. In-game timers are usually what dedicated communities use to compare their times, which helps making SDA runs comparable to runs done outside SDA. It is currently somewhat well understood what an acurate timer is, but not clearly defined in the rules.
Goal: Find a better definition of acurate timers (in SDA eyes) to avoid misconceptions. Discussing the benefits of using one timing over the other in specific situations.
If you have any other item of discussion that you feel should be on this list, please suggest adding it. As there are a lot of topics to discuss in a single thread, please Always clearly mark what topic you are discussing. This will be a great help in keeping this thread focused.
Last Updated: Jun 6th 13:58 GMT
Take all opinion and comments voiced in this thread to be a very personal stance unless noted otherwise, uncluding posts by staff members. I hope for this discussion to be on topic and as neutral as possible. You are free to disagree with any part of the discussion, but try to refrain from any form of personal attacks. Expect there to be more and harsher moderation than in other parts of the Forum to ensure a productive discussion. We are willing to listen to all of your concerns as long as you stay polite.
List of Topics to discuss:
1.) Treatment of currently published or in-submission runs affected by the proposed rule changes.
Issue: Several runs may be breaking the rules in their proposed new form, several runs may have their timing or categorization affected by the new rules in a significant way. This may interact with previously obsoleted runs as well.
Goal: Finding guidelines for treating affected runs fairly without counteracting the goal of reworking the rules. Finding guidelines for reinstating previously obsoleted runs should the current published run become illegal under the new rules.
2.) Reworking rules and faq text according to the new proposed rules, rewording parts of the rules and faq that are or have in the past been considered to be inaccurate or hard to understand.
3.) Reworking the save penalty for manual saves in games that allow you to save anywhere
Issue: People regularly are confused about both when and why the penalty is applied. Ever since the introduction of the rule there have been people voting for getting rid of it as well as people who think the penalty is too small.
Goal: Discussing the necessaity as well as the benefits and downsides of such a rule. Discussing the saves it should be applied to as well as the size of the penalty. Finding alternative rules that may better achieve the goals of this rule.
4.) Clearly specifying the scripts that are to be allowed.
Issue: Several games still have a grandfather clause of being allowed to use Autohotkey-Scripts that are now officially banned. A couple of runs have used scripts that several people consider to be against the spirit of the site.
Goal: Reaching a consense in how much scripting is to be allowed in runs. Finding a way to distinguish legal and illegal scripting that leaves a low amount of borderline cases.
5.) Dealing with game specific rulings
Issue: Several games have gotten special rules and exceptions for various reasons in the past. Although, due to the variety of games and runs on the site, it is not possible to cover all cases with a set of basic rules, several games have special rules that appear to be unwarranted under the current ideology.
Goal: Getting rid of as many unwarranted game specific rules as possible to integrate them into the basic rules and avoiding arbitrary individual rulings.
a.) Half-Life
b.) Half-Life 2
c.) Portal
d.) If you find any other game with specific ruling that you feel should be removed, post it and I'll add it to this list. This list in no way claims to be comprehensive.
6.) Dealing with very similar categories
Issue: For some games there may be clearly defined seperate categories that are however very similar. For instance in Banjo-Kazooie the any% run requires you to pick up almost as much as a 100% run, and the difference is fairly small for a comparably long game. Similaarly, some games allow for character choice which has a pretty small influence on gameplay. Does it make sense to accept these categories seperately in this case? However, wouldn't this also lead to more semi-arbitrary game specific rulings?
7.) In-Game Timer vs Real Time
Issue: There are people who feel that every run should be timed manually. In-game timers are usually what dedicated communities use to compare their times, which helps making SDA runs comparable to runs done outside SDA. It is currently somewhat well understood what an acurate timer is, but not clearly defined in the rules.
Goal: Find a better definition of acurate timers (in SDA eyes) to avoid misconceptions. Discussing the benefits of using one timing over the other in specific situations.
If you have any other item of discussion that you feel should be on this list, please suggest adding it. As there are a lot of topics to discuss in a single thread, please Always clearly mark what topic you are discussing. This will be a great help in keeping this thread focused.
Last Updated: Jun 6th 13:58 GMT
Thread title: