it wasn't a ground loop, it was just because they all plugged them into the battery backup side of a single ups and overloaded it. obviously that's not their fault since it was actually 489382989 different power strips plugged into the battery backup side. it's something better coordination while setting up next year will solve.
SDA Forum
A recommendation for an alternative from Webcammax could be VHmulticam (though i dont think theres an official download for it anymore...I actually still HAVE it on my computer and plan on backing it up). Its worked great for me in all multicam situations.
Also since I didnt actually go to this (I plan on going next year) I'm unaware if people actually DID this, but if you and several other people live near eachother and one person plans on driving maybe carpool? Saving money on Airfare and gas is always a good thing!
Other then that anything I noticed has already been mention'd (except maybe a few more mods, the chat got...horrible at times, though that will always happen, just having more mods could potentially cut it down)
Also since I didnt actually go to this (I plan on going next year) I'm unaware if people actually DID this, but if you and several other people live near eachother and one person plans on driving maybe carpool? Saving money on Airfare and gas is always a good thing!
Other then that anything I noticed has already been mention'd (except maybe a few more mods, the chat got...horrible at times, though that will always happen, just having more mods could potentially cut it down)
Now a hit show on the CW
Quote:
Yes, Nate and Lag.Com were great at setting up the stream and handling tech duties, I don't think anyone can deny that, but if they told more people how the cables and computers were setup, then we wouldn't have needed to kill their sleep for races and such. A lot of us have experience streaming, so if they told at least 5 people how the cables were setup, then we wouldn't need to rely on them so much.
An extension of this: more people need to know how to manage donations, display pictures of the prizes (may not be necessary if we have links ahead of time), etc. I think that if the majority of us arrive a day early like we did this year, then we should take 10 minutes that first night to go over this with everyone in the room. Yes, some people arrive later during the marathon, but this should at least insure that we don't have any points where no one is awake who can handle donations. Hopefully our donation management interface will be automated enough next time that people don't dread the donation station as much.
Quote:
GROW A VOICE IF YOUR COMMENTATING or RUNNING A GAME. I know some people are naturally quiet but we dont all need to hear M T I's OVERPOWERING voice whenever the runner wants to speak. Its OK. Its your game. Talk about it! TROLL THE CHAT! THEY LOVE IT {see mike blowing on the mic}.
Not everyone can be SMK during their run. I have no problem commentating when I'm not playing, but I get really focused when I'm actually playing and have difficulty even responding to people. The key, as EmptyEye pointed out, is for these people to make this clear ahead of time so that the commentators know to step their game up during these runs. Also, if you're not near the mic and want to say something about the game, make sure you speak up!
Other points that I don't think have been addressed yet:
Every game should have a prize. We had a TON this year, and I think we can all agree that the quality and quantity of our prizes are largely responsible for our huge earnings (well, that and Poxnor), but there were still a few games that were left out. Surprise surprise - donations slowed down a TON during these games. Even if we can't have a prize that's themed for every game (I realize this would be a ton of work for out artists), we could spread out some of the prizes from the games that had multiple ones.
Speaking of our artists, Aitamen, Mercury, and anyone else who is able to take commissions should have their names and emails/websites posted somewhere on the marathon site.
Having a second television already setup beforehand with its own capture card and stream should not only save a little time during setup for races, but should also alleviate a lot of the stream lag.
Quote:
I'd like to hear from people who were there about how much of a toll a five-day marathon took on everyone. Even notwithstanding the fact that it ran so far over, people generally seemed pretty blitzed by the end of the thing, or at least that's the impression I gathered both from watching and from talking to people after the fact. Maybe it should be limited to four days in any case, just for sanity's sake?
I felt like a zombie by the end, but I wouldn't trade even a minute of the time I spent at the marathon - I had an absolute blast. I think that shooting for around 100 hours is about perfect, less for the sake of those attending, but rather because a lot of viewers started to lose interest by Monday. If anyone who attends feels like 100 hours is too much, then they simply don't have to come for the full marathon. Come for however many days you're comfortable with, and we can make sure to schedule the games they're running during that time.
I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere before, but I feel it should be posted anyway; to solve the issues of not being able to keep up with the chat (or at least some of the issues) you could have seperate chat groups for different topics. For example, you could have a 'general' tab where you could talk about the stream, a 'challenge' tab to post your donation challenges, a 'query' tab where you could ask runners or commentators questions about the game or the marathon, an 'off-topic' tab where you could just talk about random games, and any more that are neccessary. You could have a few mods on each chat and keep everything much more organised.
For the length of the marathon, I know I would want to spend as much time there as possible, it's something that you wouldn't really get to do much and I would want to get as much out of it as I could. I think especially for people not from America it would be quite a special occasion, and making it shorter might make them not think it was worth going to America; this is definitely the case for me, along with cost and travel.
For the length of the marathon, I know I would want to spend as much time there as possible, it's something that you wouldn't really get to do much and I would want to get as much out of it as I could. I think especially for people not from America it would be quite a special occasion, and making it shorter might make them not think it was worth going to America; this is definitely the case for me, along with cost and travel.
Not a walrus
While that is an interesting idea I think it might be too difficult to set up to make it usable for the viewers and most people probably wouldn't follow it anyway.
As far as challenges in general though, we can just have people message the bot in the chat if we don't want to try to set up a separate page. Speaking of which, how do the other two sites (justin and livestream) handle chatrooms? Are they IRC like ustream or something proprietary?
Nthing what seems like the general consensus that 100-ish hours is a good length, I'd say half the reason people were so exhausted was because of the completely fucked up room situation. I'm pretty sure the idea was that people would be sleeping at different times so there would always be a bed available and I can say that this was almost never true. Of the six nights I was there I only got a bed for two of them, and at least one of those was only because TJP is way too nice for his own good.
As far as challenges in general though, we can just have people message the bot in the chat if we don't want to try to set up a separate page. Speaking of which, how do the other two sites (justin and livestream) handle chatrooms? Are they IRC like ustream or something proprietary?
Nthing what seems like the general consensus that 100-ish hours is a good length, I'd say half the reason people were so exhausted was because of the completely fucked up room situation. I'm pretty sure the idea was that people would be sleeping at different times so there would always be a bed available and I can say that this was almost never true. Of the six nights I was there I only got a bed for two of them, and at least one of those was only because TJP is way too nice for his own good.
Moo! Flap! Hug!
Quote from mikwuyma:
In-kind donations - The kind folks at the Prevent Cancer Foundation
During our lunch with PCF, Linda mentioned that we can get in-kind donations (i.e. anything that isn't money) such as furniture or food to be used for our marathon. The example she gave us is that Subway donated 500 dollars for a race for the cure jogging marathon PCF hosted.
During our lunch with PCF, Linda mentioned that we can get in-kind donations (i.e. anything that isn't money) such as furniture or food to be used for our marathon. The example she gave us is that Subway donated 500 dollars for a race for the cure jogging marathon PCF hosted.
Quote from Tigger77:
also a Idee from my dad : IF we have at the next Marathon also this free wall behind us we can ask some game companies for donations an stick ther banner on that wall don't know how realistik this is but if not we can atleast make a banner from the chearaty (PCF) on that wall or a SDA Banner
These two ideas go beautifully together. It's easy to entice companies to make in-kind donations when they get to have their logo hung somewhere thanking them as a sponsor.
Weegee Time
Quote from nate:
it wasn't a ground loop, it was just because they all plugged them into the battery backup side of a single ups and overloaded it. obviously that's not their fault since it was actually 489382989 different power strips plugged into the battery backup side. it's something better coordination while setting up next year will solve.
Huh, didn't know it would make the same noise. :/
train kept rollin
How about dedicated consoles that are all hooked up and never leave the marathon room. They only get touched to change games and turn on/off.
Although an exception might need to be made for consoles with hard drives.
EDIT: Also I honestly would like more days for the marathon, maybe a full week.
Although an exception might need to be made for consoles with hard drives.
EDIT: Also I honestly would like more days for the marathon, maybe a full week.
Haters gonna hate
As for people suggesting challenges on the fly, the best thing to track that would probably just be a forum thread. It'd be easy to read, and easy to moderate. It would probably have to be heavily moderated though.
Really I'm thinking link a page in the chat topic that has tabs for prizes, bids for names/routes/characters/etc., and one for challenges. In the challenges tab put the ones propose by the runners ahead of time and have a link to the forum thread there saying "Suggest your own." It'd be easy to use for both us and the viewers and kill a couple birds with one stone.
Really I'm thinking link a page in the chat topic that has tabs for prizes, bids for names/routes/characters/etc., and one for challenges. In the challenges tab put the ones propose by the runners ahead of time and have a link to the forum thread there saying "Suggest your own." It'd be easy to use for both us and the viewers and kill a couple birds with one stone.
Quote from UraniumAnchor:
Speaking of which, how do the other two sites (justin and livestream) handle chatrooms? Are they IRC like ustream or something proprietary?
Justin.tv uses IRC, but it's locked down. Only those who are whitelisted can access the network using an external client, and they're fairly restrictive with who they whitelist to begin with.
I don't really have anything useful to contribute to this topic, but I'd like to reply to this:
Sorry, but I really don't like this idea at all. As far as I can tell, whenever a normally quiet (or at least not OVERPOWERING) runner hits that volume, it just tends to make that person look like a jerk. The whole room shuts up and it's just like "man, loosen up." So basically I think the suggestion shouldn't be for the runner to speak up, but for the rest of the room to shut the heck up.
Emptyeye's version of this is pretty good, but there's still a problem when the runner has to team up with a loud person just to do battle with the commentator/room. All I think it would really take to fix this situation is just for the commentator to be a little more aware of whether the runner is saying something important. :/
Actually, one other thing, I still like joking about the idea of a "Serious Time" (TM) wall light. Press a button to turn the thing on, so people know immediately when to shut up. No room to compete with and people who just walked into the room know what's up.
Quote from RaneofSOTN:
GROW A VOICE IF YOUR COMMENTATING or RUNNING A GAME. I know some people are naturally quiet but we dont all need to hear M T I's OVERPOWERING voice whenever the runner wants to speak. Its OK. Its your game. Talk about it! TROLL THE CHAT! THEY LOVE IT {see mike blowing on the mic}.
Sorry, but I really don't like this idea at all. As far as I can tell, whenever a normally quiet (or at least not OVERPOWERING) runner hits that volume, it just tends to make that person look like a jerk. The whole room shuts up and it's just like "man, loosen up." So basically I think the suggestion shouldn't be for the runner to speak up, but for the rest of the room to shut the heck up.
Emptyeye's version of this is pretty good, but there's still a problem when the runner has to team up with a loud person just to do battle with the commentator/room. All I think it would really take to fix this situation is just for the commentator to be a little more aware of whether the runner is saying something important. :/
Actually, one other thing, I still like joking about the idea of a "Serious Time" (TM) wall light. Press a button to turn the thing on, so people know immediately when to shut up. No room to compete with and people who just walked into the room know what's up.
gamelogs.org
honestly i don't see why every single donation needs to be read out loud. this is really distracting and annoying and doesn't really serve much purpose. seems like most people just want want to hear game commentary.
of course i can understand donating and wanting to hear your comment read, so my suggestion is to limit reading donations to those with a comment attached, and then maybe only if it's over $5. that way, people who actually care about that sort of stuff will get their contribution acknowledged, but random viewers just tuning in won't have to hear "AND _____ DONATED TWO DOLLARS!!!" every other minute. also runners/commentators will have more time to commentate.
beyond that, saying "thanks to everyone who donated during this game" at the end of each run seems like more than enough. can always read other donations in between games too.
of course i can understand donating and wanting to hear your comment read, so my suggestion is to limit reading donations to those with a comment attached, and then maybe only if it's over $5. that way, people who actually care about that sort of stuff will get their contribution acknowledged, but random viewers just tuning in won't have to hear "AND _____ DONATED TWO DOLLARS!!!" every other minute. also runners/commentators will have more time to commentate.
beyond that, saying "thanks to everyone who donated during this game" at the end of each run seems like more than enough. can always read other donations in between games too.
My feelings on The Demon Rush
About donations per day: Fun fact, Monday to Tuesday was not our slowest day going by the Awesome Games Done Quick - Done Quick video (thanks UA!), our slowest day was Sunday to Monday, which means people definitely weren't tapped out by Monday.
Here's a chart showing donations per day:
All days start at 4 PM because that's when our marathon started. Each day is a 24-hour cycle
Thursday to Friday - 8713.1
Friday to Saturday - 13793.25
Saturday to Sunday - 12508.65
Sunday to Monday - 6239.23
Monday to Tuesday - 9667.82
The rest of Tuesday - 1597.78
If you want to include the entirety of Tuesday for Monday to Tuesday, then it was 11265.60
Now part of that was the RPGs, I'll admit, but games like the Kirby series, Crash Pundicoot (for the puns heh, not the game it seems), and Cave Story rolled in a good amount (just look at the video and watch the donations spike). I think it's really just dependent on the games and the prizes for the games that determine donations.
Also, if we have the marathon for 100 hours again (and all signs are pointing to yes), I don't see how we can get around the weekday situation, since moving the final day to Sunday would just mean that we'd start on Wednesday.
Quiet and Loud people: I have to agree with Molotov here. Some people naturally have quiet voices (Kareshi, Molotov, and PJ despite the fact he talks all the time), and it sounds really unnatural if they have to yell constantly when they're talking about something. I think having a commentator do some of it for them does help, but it's probably just best if the people on the couch or the person at the donation station shut people up when the runner wants to talk.
Tigger77: It's hard to get addresses at the marathon, but you can sometimes tell what country a prize winner is from through their email (.uk, .fi, .se, etc.), so it's definitely a good idea to have some of the Europeans take those prizes with them. A next game setup table is also a great idea, because it tells us whether the runner is ready for their game or not.
Your dad's idea about putting up a banner shouldn't be too tough, as long as if we don't try to nail the banners up against the wall.
Trekhaak: Best. Suggestion. Ever! Stroopwafels should be a 20 dollar donation prize.
Pootrain: That's what I was thinking with the console setup.
Houser: We're thinking wirecast next year. I think it has PiP display, and it will also be good for Tigger77's occasional flashing banner idea.
Arrow: Yeah, we were so obsessed with making sure a 4-way race would work that we didn't focus on other important things like the donation station.
Here's a chart showing donations per day:
All days start at 4 PM because that's when our marathon started. Each day is a 24-hour cycle
Thursday to Friday - 8713.1
Friday to Saturday - 13793.25
Saturday to Sunday - 12508.65
Sunday to Monday - 6239.23
Monday to Tuesday - 9667.82
The rest of Tuesday - 1597.78
If you want to include the entirety of Tuesday for Monday to Tuesday, then it was 11265.60
Now part of that was the RPGs, I'll admit, but games like the Kirby series, Crash Pundicoot (for the puns heh, not the game it seems), and Cave Story rolled in a good amount (just look at the video and watch the donations spike). I think it's really just dependent on the games and the prizes for the games that determine donations.
Also, if we have the marathon for 100 hours again (and all signs are pointing to yes), I don't see how we can get around the weekday situation, since moving the final day to Sunday would just mean that we'd start on Wednesday.
Quiet and Loud people: I have to agree with Molotov here. Some people naturally have quiet voices (Kareshi, Molotov, and PJ despite the fact he talks all the time), and it sounds really unnatural if they have to yell constantly when they're talking about something. I think having a commentator do some of it for them does help, but it's probably just best if the people on the couch or the person at the donation station shut people up when the runner wants to talk.
Tigger77: It's hard to get addresses at the marathon, but you can sometimes tell what country a prize winner is from through their email (.uk, .fi, .se, etc.), so it's definitely a good idea to have some of the Europeans take those prizes with them. A next game setup table is also a great idea, because it tells us whether the runner is ready for their game or not.
Your dad's idea about putting up a banner shouldn't be too tough, as long as if we don't try to nail the banners up against the wall.
Trekhaak: Best. Suggestion. Ever! Stroopwafels should be a 20 dollar donation prize.
Pootrain: That's what I was thinking with the console setup.
Houser: We're thinking wirecast next year. I think it has PiP display, and it will also be good for Tigger77's occasional flashing banner idea.
Arrow: Yeah, we were so obsessed with making sure a 4-way race would work that we didn't focus on other important things like the donation station.
Edit history:
Worn_Traveler: 2011-02-24 06:07:30 pm
Worn_Traveler: 2011-02-24 06:07:27 pm
Worn_Traveler: 2011-02-24 06:07:26 pm
Formerly known as Skullboy
I am all for the dedicated console setup. I don't think my Genesis ever left the room, even before it was hooked up for the races and remainder of the marathon. Using a dedicated setup would also make it easier to keep track of things as well. Also, please remember to take those three frames of physical movement and turn off your syetems after playing them. We ask a lot from them and they deserve a rest.
I apologize for the lack of trivial/vital/pertinent information sheets at AGDQ. I had volunteered to help prepare them and then never did. Sorry. I had plenty of time to do it (would've only taken a day or two) so no excuses here.
It may help for the runners to tell the commentators how much talking they plan on doing during the run before the run starts. This should help clear up some of the runner-commentator overlap.
In response to the sleep question: Aside from the first day at the Center (the day before the marathon), I pretty much stayed on my normal sleep schedule aside from a night or two for bonus streaming.. This was done mainly for health reasons and also so I wouldn't be screwed up heading back to college. Did I miss a lot of live gaming? Yes. Was it worth the sleep? I believe so.
I think that 100 hours is a good time, provided we have a good balance of game lengths. I'd prefer ending on a weekday.
I apologize for the lack of trivial/vital/pertinent information sheets at AGDQ. I had volunteered to help prepare them and then never did. Sorry. I had plenty of time to do it (would've only taken a day or two) so no excuses here.
It may help for the runners to tell the commentators how much talking they plan on doing during the run before the run starts. This should help clear up some of the runner-commentator overlap.
In response to the sleep question: Aside from the first day at the Center (the day before the marathon), I pretty much stayed on my normal sleep schedule aside from a night or two for bonus streaming.. This was done mainly for health reasons and also so I wouldn't be screwed up heading back to college. Did I miss a lot of live gaming? Yes. Was it worth the sleep? I believe so.
I think that 100 hours is a good time, provided we have a good balance of game lengths. I'd prefer ending on a weekday.
My feelings on The Demon Rush
Arkarian: That is a valid point. I just had an idea that shouldn't be too tough to implement (hopefully). Have scrolling text on the bottom of the commentary stream for all of the people who donated (a dollar or more) during a certain time period (10-20 minutes). This lets the people who donated get some credit while letting us continue to commentate on the game more.
torch slug since 2006
This year, the timer/stopwatch was at a computer Lag.Com was operating, right? Well maybe next time, the runners should time them self, cause they know when to start and stop and they wont have to wait before starting the game, like :"are you ready?" "Start the timer when i hit the ground." etc.
just a suggestion
just a suggestion
Visit my profile to see my runs!
Mike, I think you were implying this with your first suggestion, but in case you weren't I've always thought a sort of 'yearbook' showing pictures of the runners (and showing their names of course) would be a very welcome addition. We could have a link somewhere near the streams that would take you to another page where everyone who comes to the marathon can submit a picture of themselves. Hopefully this would if nothing else reduce the constant need to identify everyone in the room.
Fucking Weeaboo
Quote from DJS:
This year, the timer/stopwatch was at a computer Lag.Com was operating, right? Well maybe next time, the runners should time them self, cause they know when to start and stop and they wont have to wait before starting the game, like :"are you ready?" "Start the timer when i hit the ground." etc.
just a suggestion
just a suggestion
Eh, I liked having somebody else time, simply because I don't have to free up a hand or break concentration. Plus the timing can be more accurate.
torch slug since 2006
Quote from Sir VG:
Quote from DJS:
This year, the timer/stopwatch was at a computer Lag.Com was operating, right? Well maybe next time, the runners should time them self, cause they know when to start and stop and they wont have to wait before starting the game, like :"are you ready?" "Start the timer when i hit the ground." etc.
just a suggestion
just a suggestion
Eh, I liked having somebody else time, simply because I don't have to free up a hand or break concentration. Plus the timing can be more accurate.
That is true, but I was thinking of the part in the first post:
Quote:
If you're ready to play your game, then play dammit! - me, inspired by watching Tri-Hex's 6 minute wait before his YI run, which sadly, is an improvement over the 15 minute prepation for his CGDQ run
Sorry to put you on the spot, Tri-Hex, but you are the worst offender. No one really needs to be ready aside from the person (or people) playing the game. If the person on the timer isn't ready, it's not a huge deal, they can just start the timer a little late.
Sorry to put you on the spot, Tri-Hex, but you are the worst offender. No one really needs to be ready aside from the person (or people) playing the game. If the person on the timer isn't ready, it's not a huge deal, they can just start the timer a little late.
Of course, now I see that it says "If the person on the timer isn't ready, it's not a huge deal, they can just start the timer a little late.", dont know why I missed that part yesterday.. oh well.
Twinkle-Twinkle Lil' Star, har har!
One question I have is: Were all members from the forums allowed to come to the marathon just to hang out? Or was it only restricted to people who were actually doing runs? I ask because I am working on some runs at the moment and was wondering if I didn't have them ready by next year's marathon, would I still be able to attend and just hang out?
Fucking Weeaboo
There was no restriction on only being there if doing a run. Silver (aka Mrs. Emptyeye) was there despite not doing a run. Granted she WAS getting married to Emptyeye at Magfest, but that's a different story.
However, the summer one might be different, since there's more of a space issue then the one at the 4H Center, which had tons of space.
However, the summer one might be different, since there's more of a space issue then the one at the 4H Center, which had tons of space.