RPG Limit Break 2015 - Feedback Thread

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2015-05-24 12:22:54 pm

puwexil: 2015-05-24 12:21:56 pm

puwexil: 2015-05-23 09:09:33 pm

2015-05-23 07:18:27 pm

Professional Second Banana

RPG Limit Break 2015 was a clear success, raising over $46,000 for charity and making for a great week for the attendees. After SGDQ ends in August, the other staff and I will be getting to work on planning RPGLB 2016 - we’d love to know what people (both attendees and stream viewers) thought did and didn't work about this year’s marathon, so we can make the next one even better.

To get the conversation started, here’s some thoughts from staff - feel free to add on to these topics or any others you can think of:

Schedule/Games
-Faulty math on the marathon length led to a wrong estimate being posted (120 hrs instead of 105 hrs) - was corrected pretty quickly and shouldn’t happen again
-Next marathon will probably be 1-2 days longer to accommodate another longer run or two (>6 hrs)
-Most games removed from the schedule because of runners dropping were replaced pretty quickly with waitlisted games of similar length - this kept the schedule fairly stable and gave the new runners maximum notice to practice, but also limited the game options (as opposed to waiting and then replacing multiple shorter games with 1 longer one)
-Great play quality overall by the runners - nothing went significantly over estimate, and both mercy kills were basically unavoidable (hardware malfunction and rare boss pattern)

Venue
-Essentia’s house was basically perfect for the # of attendees we had (only issues I can think of were wi-fi outages and limited bathrooms), though it can’t realistically hold more than 40-45 total and house 25-30 overnight (will be looking at bigger venues for next year)
-Hotel rides weren’t always readily available (especially around 7-8AM), but I’m not aware of any cases where someone had to wait over ~1 hr longer than their requested time
-Food was amazing, and attendees with food allergies were almost always accommodated

Tech
-Vulajin tested the streaming equipment very thoroughly in advance, and it definitely showed in the small # of major tech issues/lengthy setups (basically just the audio issue at the start of the Diablo 3 run)
-Camera angles can be planned better in the future
-Some deinterlacing issues (picture jitters) up through Kingdom Hearts II, which were resolved by switching capture cards
-1 report of input lag on the main CRT (currently unknown if it was due to the setup for that specific run or just not noticed by other runners)
-Gaming PC worked out fine, though needed a fair amount of setup before being usable for practice
-Stream layouts were amazing, thanks to several artist revisions from RPGLB staff feedback
-Animation effects could be a bit more polished (ie “Next Game: Finale” showing at wrong times)

Chat/Website
-Overall both chats were quite civil/appropriate and moderated well
-Quakenet chat and rpglimitbreak.com website were underused (former probably due to the Twitch chat being slow/calmer than many other marathons, and latter probably due to the marathon being heavily promoted through Twitch hosting) - will continue having Quakenet chat as the event grows and more Twitch chat moderation is needed
-Too few active chat mods at a few points - chat mods who are watching the stream from home generally don’t like to have formal schedules, so modding more people for next time is the only real solution I see
-Moobot & Moonizz’s bot worked well for their respective chats, for posting marathon info

Commentary
-Quite good overall - virtually all runs had at least 1 commentator knowledgeable about the game
-Not aware of any instance of commentators drawing too much attention away from the runner
-Did well overall at sticking to the PG level we wanted

Prizes
-Prizes/donors promoted decently well by hosts/runners
-Might use GDQ tracker submission form next time for more streamlined submissions

Incentives
-Some early marathon incentives were overpriced (mainly in the 1st PC block) and some late marathon ones were underpriced
-Trashcan/carrot incentive for FF4 should have been done as a post-race incentive to make for a stronger race
-Onsite snipe of FF4 character names shouldn’t have been allowed as it wasn’t fair to other donors

Charity
-NAMI was chosen based on community feedback during the early planning stages of RPGLB - they were great to work with overall and very grateful for our community’s support, and the cause seemed to resonate pretty well with our viewers
-Some concerns were raised about NAMI’s impact being US-centric

Volunteering
-A few gaps in volunteer training - some hosts/tech volunteers weren’t aware of how to process donations
-Volunteers did well at peer training people that missed the pre-marathon training
-Having more attendees at future events will mean more volunteers and shorter shifts

Social Media
-RPGLB Twitter was used very well during the marathon to promote the event/runs

Feedback received via Twitter or other means
Could have used more promotion of runners' channels in chat during their runs (maybe via bot commands)

Thread title:

RPG Limit Break 2015 was a clear success, raising over $46,000 for charity and making for a great week for the attendees.  After SGDQ ends in August, the other staff and I will be getting to work on planning RPGLB 2016 - we’d love to know what people (both attendees and stream viewers) thought did and didn't work about this year’s marathon, so we can make the next one even better.

To get the conversation started, here’s some thoughts from staff - feel free to add on to these topics or any others you can think of:

[u]Schedule/Games[/u]
-Faulty math on the marathon length led to a wrong estimate being posted (120 hrs instead of 105 hrs) - was corrected pretty quickly and shouldn’t happen again
-Next marathon will probably be 1-2 days longer to accommodate another longer run or two (>6 hrs)
-Most games removed from the schedule because of runners dropping were replaced pretty quickly with waitlisted games of similar length - this kept the schedule fairly stable and gave the new runners maximum notice to practice, but also limited the game options (as opposed to waiting and then replacing multiple shorter games with 1 longer one)
-Great play quality overall by the runners - nothing went significantly over estimate, and both mercy kills were basically unavoidable (hardware malfunction and rare boss pattern)

[u]Venue[/u]
-Essentia’s house was basically perfect for the # of attendees we had (only issues I can think of were wi-fi outages and limited bathrooms), though it can’t realistically hold more than 40-45 total and house 25-30 overnight (will be looking at bigger venues for next year)
-Hotel rides weren’t always readily available (especially around 7-8AM), but I’m not aware of any cases where someone had to wait over ~1 hr longer than their requested time
-Food was amazing, and attendees with food allergies were almost always accommodated

[u]Tech[/u]
-Vulajin tested the streaming equipment very thoroughly in advance, and it definitely showed in the small # of major tech issues/lengthy setups (basically just the audio issue at the start of the Diablo 3 run)
-Camera angles can be planned better in the future
-Some deinterlacing issues (picture jitters) up through Kingdom Hearts II, which were resolved by switching capture cards	
-1 report of input lag on the main CRT (currently unknown if it was due to the setup for that specific run or just not noticed by other runners)
-Gaming PC worked out fine, though needed a fair amount of setup before being usable for practice
-Stream layouts were amazing, thanks to several artist revisions from RPGLB staff feedback
-Animation effects could be a bit more polished (ie “Next Game: Finale” showing at wrong times)

[u]Chat/Website[/u]
-Overall both chats were quite civil/appropriate and moderated well
-Quakenet chat and rpglimitbreak.com website were underused (former probably due to the Twitch chat being slow/calmer than many other marathons, and latter probably due to the marathon being heavily promoted through Twitch hosting) - will continue having Quakenet chat as the event grows and more Twitch chat moderation is needed
-Too few active chat mods at a few points - chat mods who are watching the stream from home generally don’t like to have formal schedules, so modding more people for next time is the only real solution I see
-Moobot & Moonizz’s bot worked well for their respective chats, for posting marathon info

[u]Commentary[/u]
-Quite good overall - virtually all runs had at least 1 commentator knowledgeable about the game
-Not aware of any instance of commentators drawing too much attention away from the runner
-Did well overall at sticking to the PG level we wanted

[u]Prizes[/u]
-Prizes/donors promoted decently well by hosts/runners
-Might use GDQ tracker submission form next time for more streamlined submissions

[u]Incentives[/u]
-Some early marathon incentives were overpriced (mainly in the 1st PC block) and some late marathon ones were underpriced
-Trashcan/carrot incentive for FF4 should have been done as a post-race incentive to make for a stronger race
-Onsite snipe of FF4 character names shouldn’t have been allowed as it wasn’t fair to other donors

[u]Charity[/u]
-NAMI was chosen based on community feedback during the early planning stages of RPGLB - they were great to work with overall and very grateful for our community’s support, and the cause seemed to resonate pretty well with our viewers
-Some concerns were raised about NAMI’s impact being US-centric

[u]Volunteering[/u]
-A few gaps in volunteer training - some hosts/tech volunteers weren’t aware of how to process donations
-Volunteers did well at peer training people that missed the pre-marathon training
-Having more attendees at future events will mean more volunteers and shorter shifts

[u]Social Media[/u]
-RPGLB Twitter was used very well during the marathon to promote the event/runs

[u]Feedback received via Twitter or other means[/u]
Could have used more promotion of runners' channels in chat during their runs (maybe via bot commands)

EnkerBlues

2015-05-24 07:25:17 am

I pretty much agree with all of the things that were suggested, can't say I disagree with any of that.

The layouts were phenomenal and made it look like an experience marathon even though it was the first one under this name.

Essentia and Denton's house was great and I have 0 complaints about that. I know a bigger venue next year would only need to accommodate those who are simply wanting to spectate(I know I saw in lots of twitch chats before the event people who were bummed about not being able to come and watch).

I like that Final Fantasy wasn't heavily represented to show that there are more than just FF games as good RPGs. It would be really easy to just throw a bunch of FF games in there, so kudos to those who picked the schedule and made this a really varied experience.

I know I'm quite partial, but the location of RPGLB(Salt Lake City) was great. If it were anywhere else I know I would have 0% chance of attending/running a game. I know it may not stay here for the next one, but I was happy I was able to be a part of it this time.

Thanks for a great marathon!

I pretty much agree with all of the things that were suggested, can't say I disagree with any of that.

The layouts were phenomenal and made it look like an experience marathon even though it was the first one under this name.

Essentia and Denton's house was great and I have 0 complaints about that. I know a bigger venue next year would only need to accommodate those who are simply wanting to spectate(I know I saw in lots of twitch chats before the event people who were bummed about not being able to come and watch).

I like that Final Fantasy wasn't heavily represented to show that there are more than just FF games as good RPGs. It would be really easy to just throw a bunch of FF games in there, so kudos to those who picked the schedule and made this a really varied experience.

I know I'm quite partial, but the location of RPGLB(Salt Lake City) was great. If it were anywhere else I know I would have 0% chance of attending/running a game. I know it may not stay here for the next one, but I was happy I was able to be a part of it this time.

Thanks for a great marathon!

eLmaGus-

2015-05-24 11:40:48 am

I must simply laugh.

I guess i'll give my two cents from the viewer side:

Schedule/Games

+Marathon was obviously packed with the greatest RPGs out there, missing a series here and there, but covering almost all the great RPG series you can think of
+For the most part, the scheduled times were maintained which surprised me quite a bit (dragging out FF4 and CT at the end but that was the end of the marathon so understandable)
+The dropping out process (despite a few last minutes ones as usual) was transparent and was handled really well.

-One weak point was that i think the last day had too many good games. yes I see that as a weak point because people who are not RPG nuts and instead watch for games like SoM/FF4/CT went in with the thought "oh well i just have to catch the last day".
Its a small "issue" but next time, you could balance out popularity on days as long as runners and availability provide the chance.
-The Demon Rush
-The FF4 Interviews that were held in the days before the race, while they were a great idea, they were NOT ON THE SCHEDULE >:-----------(. that makes me especially sad because i wouldve liked to hear all of them, but i only caugh Nocash and Neerrms :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Venue
+i cant really say too much, but from what ive seen it was perfect and everybody was pretty content

-what i did notice though were that rides were constantly discussed, i dont know how far away the hotel was, but imo if you can walk in 20-30 minutes, you dont need rides unless you get equipment

Tech
+Good stream quality throughout, having little downtimes to explain a new person at the tech station how everything works
+layouts were really good, simple yet effective AND MOST IMPORTANTLY not cluttered with advertisment (yes i hate that sue me)

-The Gamecube of death Sad

-FF4 race took way too long to set up, im sure there was a lot to do but it took forever, 4 way race (if there is one next time) needs better preparation, even though im sure you guys planned ahead, it didnt seem to work out very well
-Sometimes donation readers forgot to unmute their microphone. i know this is not a direct tech issue, but having a reminder note seems like a good idea.

Chat/Website
+website was awesome as always. sad it was underused
+quakenet and twitch chat were civil at all times i was awake
+i didnt notice the chat mod issue that much honestly and i was awake at times where not a lot were there. chat was very nice and easily handable

-i feel like the underusement of the site came from the simple fact that it was not advertised prior to the marathon. the first time i heard of the site was a day before the marathon started. next time it defenitley needs to be ready 2-3 months before the marathon.
-

Commentary
+Great Commentary. Everywhere. i want to point out TideRuglia and Gyre_ especially who did a fantastic job.
+Couch never seemed crowded, everybody bounced of really well off each other (from the runs i saw)

-One minor thing was the Lufia 2 run and Ferals reset which i think was caused by him having to commentate while doing the manipulation. a slight thing but i wished somebody wouldve taken over the first 10 minutes so he could focus.
-Sometimes people on the couch were really quiet. Especially Stinger comes to mind who (i cant really believe it) is even more quiet than i am. having more than 1 microphone for the couch could be a good thing.

Prizes
+generally every game had a prize, very nice
+most prizes seemed fun and cool

-the grand prize, i dont know, i love the banner and all but... as a grand prize? its a personal thing but i dont really thing thats a worthy grand prize, even though it has a nice touch to it

Incentives
+every game had fun incentives that were worth donating for
+donation incentives were advertised very nicely and not too frequently to take away from the current run. good job on that.

-some donation incentives for games need to change for next time. Lunar Battle Voices should have been a clear goal incentive instead of a bidwar, some others i dont feel very good about like naming a bunch of things in Disgaea. probably was too much generic things that could be named.
-having the naming incentive in FF4 did make a lot of money, im still not sure about whether it was really a good idea though.
-trashcan/carrot, while they talked about how to do it before the race, they were too stubborn. it basically destroyed a race that couldve been really close, everybody was entering the boss at the same time, then it was 1) - 2) +1 minute, 3) + 6 minutes 4) + 12 minutes.

Charity
+from what i could see and tell and heard, great charity, great cause. 10/10 would charity again.

Social Media
-honestly i do feel like the twitter was slacking the first 24-36 hours, afterwards it went pretty nicely though, constant updates delivered.

Summary
+Overall a really cool marathon, all the people involved gave it their best and it was evident that all had fun and a good time. the numbers speak for themselves ($46,000)

-Nothing major went wrong, everything i listed above will be minor improvements.

Oh and on a sidenote: restreaming and commentating in a different language was weird but fun :> Working/Talking to everybody on site was very easily doable and the cooperation was very easy and very well set up, i want to thank y'all for that!

On that note, im going to be on site next year, whether you like it or not : - )

Cheers and until next year

eLmaGus

I guess i'll give my two cents from the viewer side:

[b][u]Schedule/Games[/u][/b]

+Marathon was obviously packed with the greatest RPGs out there, missing a series here and there, but covering almost all the great RPG series you can think of
+For the most part,  the scheduled times were maintained which surprised me quite a bit (dragging out FF4 and CT at the end but that was the end of the marathon so understandable)
+The dropping out process (despite a few last minutes ones as usual) was transparent and was handled really well.

-One weak point was that i think the last day had too many good games. yes I see that as a weak point because people who are not RPG nuts and instead watch for games like SoM/FF4/CT went in with the thought "oh well i just have to catch the last day".
 Its a small "issue" but next time, you could balance out popularity on days as long as runners and availability provide the chance.
-The Demon Rush
-The FF4 Interviews that were held in the days before the race, while they were a great idea, they were NOT ON THE SCHEDULE >:-----------(. that makes me especially sad because i wouldve liked to hear all of them, but i only caugh Nocash and Neerrms :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

[b][u]Venue[/u][/b]
+i cant really say too much, but from what ive seen it was perfect and everybody was pretty content

-what i did notice though were that rides were constantly discussed, i dont know how far away the hotel was, but imo if you can walk in 20-30 minutes, you dont need rides unless you get equipment

[b][u]Tech[/u][/b]
+Good stream quality throughout, having little downtimes to explain a new person at the tech station how everything works
+layouts were really good, simple yet effective AND MOST IMPORTANTLY not cluttered with advertisment (yes i hate that sue me)

-The Gamecube of death :(
-FF4 race took way too long to set up, im sure there was a lot to do but it took forever, 4 way race (if there is one next time) needs better preparation, even though im sure you guys planned ahead, it didnt seem to work out very well
-Sometimes donation readers forgot to unmute their microphone. i know this is not a direct tech issue, but having a reminder note seems like a good idea.

[b][u]Chat/Website[/u][/b]
+website was awesome as always. sad it was underused
+quakenet and twitch chat were civil at all times i was awake
+i didnt notice the chat mod issue that much honestly and i was awake at times where not a lot were there. chat was very nice and easily handable

-i feel like the underusement of the site came from the simple fact that it was not advertised prior to the marathon. the first time i heard of the site was a day before the marathon started. next time it defenitley needs to be ready 2-3 months before the marathon.
-

[b][u]Commentary[/u][/b]
+Great Commentary. Everywhere. i want to point out TideRuglia and Gyre_ especially who did a fantastic job.
+Couch never seemed crowded, everybody bounced of really well off each other (from the runs i saw)

-One minor thing was the Lufia 2 run and Ferals reset which i think was caused by him having to commentate while doing the manipulation. a slight thing but i wished somebody wouldve taken over the first 10 minutes so he could focus.
-Sometimes people on the couch were really quiet. Especially Stinger comes to mind who (i cant really believe it) is even more quiet than i am. having more than 1 microphone for the couch could be a good thing.

[b][u]Prizes[/u][/b]
+generally every game had a prize, very nice
+most prizes seemed fun and cool

-the grand prize, i dont know, i love the banner and all but... as a grand prize? its a personal thing but i dont really thing thats a worthy grand prize, even though it has a nice touch to it

[b][u]Incentives[/u][/b]
+every game had fun incentives that were worth donating for
+donation incentives were advertised very nicely and not too frequently to take away from the current run. good job on that.

-some donation incentives for games need to change for next time. Lunar Battle Voices should have been a clear goal incentive instead of a bidwar, some others i dont feel very good about like naming a bunch of things in Disgaea. probably was too much generic things that could be named.
-having the naming incentive in FF4 did make a lot of money, im still not sure about whether it was really a good idea though.
-trashcan/carrot, while they talked about how to do it before the race, they were too stubborn. it basically destroyed a race that couldve been really close, everybody was entering the boss at the same time, then it was 1) - 2) +1 minute, 3) + 6 minutes 4) + 12 minutes.

[b][u]Charity[/u][/b]
+from what i could see and tell and heard, great charity, great cause. 10/10 would charity again.

[b][u]Social Media[/u][/b]
-honestly i do feel like the twitter was slacking the first 24-36 hours, afterwards it went pretty nicely though, constant updates delivered.

[b][u]Summary[/u][/b]
+Overall a really cool marathon, all the people involved gave it their best and it was evident that all had fun and a good time. the numbers speak for themselves ($46,000)

-Nothing major went wrong, everything i listed above will be minor improvements.

Oh and on a sidenote: restreaming and commentating in a different language was weird but fun :> Working/Talking to everybody on site was very easily doable and the cooperation was very easy and very well set up, i want to thank y'all for that!

On that note, im going to be on site next year, whether you like it or not : - )

Cheers and until next year

eLmaGus

FFgamer86

2015-05-24 12:59:22 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

I have to say from a participator perspective that I really enjoy the marathons from a house moreso than the ones from a hotel. Yes the hotel you can accommodate more people but RPGLB and C4L1 both have that hanging out part that I enjoy the most. I believe if we do look for another venue to host, we try to find something that will keep that part of the marathon intact.

The only other thing I must complain about is some games not having enough people behind the couch to make the room feel filled. Yes most of the overnight games are like that because everyone is asleep, but even some of the middle of the day games could have used some filler viewers just to make it look like its not just 2-3 people in the room. I think final fantasy had this for a little bit.

Food was amazing. Never was anyone hungry or didn't have something to eat/drink. Denton is an amazing cook (even had homemade Rootbeer) and was a pleasure to help around the house for. NAMI also bringing food every day was wonderful. The variety made it so you weren't eating the same thing every day. I don't think I ate the same thing twice for a meal the whole time I was there.

Overall I'd rate the marathon a 9.5/10. Very well organised and no one really argued with anyone else. Would definitely do again.

I have to say from a participator perspective that I really enjoy the marathons from a house moreso than the ones from a hotel. Yes the hotel you can accommodate more people but RPGLB and C4L1 both have that hanging out part that I enjoy the most.   I believe if we do look for another venue to host, we try to find something that will keep that part of the marathon intact.

The only other thing I must complain about is some games not having enough people behind the couch to make the room feel filled. Yes most of the overnight games are like that because everyone is asleep, but even some of the middle of the day games could have used some filler viewers just to make it look like its not just 2-3 people in the room.  I think final fantasy had this for a little bit.

Food was amazing.  Never was anyone hungry or didn't have something to eat/drink.  Denton is an amazing cook (even had homemade Rootbeer) and was a pleasure to help around the house for.  NAMI also bringing food every day was wonderful.  The variety made it so you weren't eating the same thing every day. I don't think I ate the same thing twice for a meal the whole time I was there.

Overall I'd rate the marathon a 9.5/10.  Very well organised and no one really argued with anyone else.  Would definitely do again.

Bizkit047

2015-05-24 01:29:24 pm

I greatly enjoyed choosing to go to this and was happy to be a part of the KH block. It felt really welcoming from the second I got there to the second I left and overall it was a really well run marathon. Getting to/from airports & hotels were really easy and fairly well organized so that we were never really sitting around waiting to get somewhere.

I know Spike and I definitely felt the input lag on the CRT, but I don't know if it was the TV itself or capture card setup, but hopefully for next time that won't be an issue (I know Spike had a lot of trouble doing aerial combos consistently due to this). Looking at the KH highlight, I didn't see too much of a visual problem like most people told us it had, so that was probably exaggerated (I didn't fully watch it at least yet).

And yea, food was amazing. It was great to go from AGDQ having no food to being able to eat full meals all day, so thanks to Denton & NAMI for providing us with so much food to keep everyone happy. I saved a ton of money off of food alone.

Overall, I'm glad I chose this over SGDQ, no regrets, if KH is in next year I should be making the effort to go again

I greatly enjoyed choosing to go to this and was happy to be a part of the KH block. It felt really welcoming from the second I got there to the second I left and overall it was a really well run marathon.  Getting to/from airports & hotels were really easy and fairly well organized so that we were never really sitting around waiting to get somewhere.

I know Spike and I definitely felt the input lag on the CRT, but I don't know if it was the TV itself or capture card setup, but hopefully for next time that won't be an issue (I know Spike had a lot of trouble doing aerial combos consistently due to this). Looking at the KH highlight, I didn't see too much of a visual problem like most people told us it had, so that was probably exaggerated (I didn't fully watch it at least yet).

And yea, food was amazing. It was great to go from AGDQ having no food to being able to eat full meals all day, so thanks to Denton & NAMI for providing us with so much food to keep everyone happy. I saved a ton of money off of food alone.

Overall, I'm glad I chose this over SGDQ, no regrets, if KH is in next year I should be making the effort to go again

megakidicarus

Edit history:

megakidicarus: 2015-05-24 03:55:15 pm

2015-05-24 01:39:20 pm

ᕦ(° Д°)ᕤ

I wasn't able to see a whole lot but from the game choices and amount raised, I saw it had many improvements over C4L. It sounds like's it's a more centralized location, less customs to deal with first of all.

What I liked at C4L1 was final fantasy, I originally saw it as a final fantasy marathon. C4L2 was still focused on final fantasy, but, the big improvement is a more wide variety of RPGs, it convinced me that these rpg marathons could have other non-final fantasy and square/enix/soft RPGs. in Limit break it had a lot more variety. We had SRPGs like Disgaea, and Final Fantasy Tactics. the tradition SDA marathon RPGs like final fantasy 4, 6 and Chrono trigger. This marathon and action rpgs like Evoland. the variety was a welcome addition.

apparently according to Puwexil there were 2 RPGs that had to be mercy-ended. (I know Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles the other was Secret of Evermore.) it happened in a _GDQ marathon, it happened at limit break, that is just the nature of some marathons. The layout was decent.

I am probably biased (I have a cousin I deeply care about with diabetes that was really helped by JDRF) when I say this but I was shocked when the marathon announced the charity wouldn't be for JDRF. I felt that these RPG marathons, after C4L2, would use that charity. after looking at NAMI's website I can say it looks like a good charity, I just had a bias and was used to JDRF being the charity of choice for these RPG marathons. It also was unexpected, but understandable, to have someone else in charge of organization.

over all these was a good marathon, I've seen video game marathons where people didn't know there game and should have, people not show up, the "charity" not researched to make sure it was legitimate, and hosts going into full-on sexual topic mode. I don't think it's too much to ask that these things be a factor when making a marathon, sure two games had to be mercy killed, technology can fail, I understand but at least the staff will do all they can to remedy this.

I wasn't able to see a whole lot but from the game choices and amount raised, I saw it had many improvements over C4L. It sounds like's it's a more centralized location, less customs to deal with first of all.

What I liked at C4L1 was final fantasy, I originally saw it as a final fantasy marathon. C4L2 was still focused on final fantasy, but, the big improvement is a more wide variety of RPGs, it convinced me that these rpg marathons could have other non-final fantasy and square/enix/soft RPGs. in Limit break it had a lot more variety. We had SRPGs like Disgaea, and Final Fantasy Tactics. the tradition SDA marathon RPGs like final fantasy 4, 6 and Chrono trigger. This marathon and action rpgs like Evoland. the variety was a welcome addition.

apparently according to Puwexil there were 2 RPGs that had to be mercy-ended. (I know Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles the other was Secret of Evermore.)  it happened in a _GDQ marathon, it happened at limit break, that is just the nature of some marathons. The layout was decent.

I am probably biased (I have a cousin I deeply care about with diabetes that was really helped by JDRF) when I say this but I was shocked when the marathon announced the charity wouldn't be for JDRF. I felt that these RPG marathons, after C4L2, would use that charity. after looking at NAMI's website I can say it looks like a good charity, I just had a bias and was used to JDRF being the charity of choice for these RPG marathons. It also was unexpected, but understandable, to have someone else in charge of organization.

over all these was a good marathon, I've seen video game marathons where people didn't know there game and should have, people not show up, the "charity" not researched to make sure it was legitimate, and hosts going into full-on sexual topic mode. I don't think it's too much to ask that these things be a factor when making a marathon, sure two games had to be mercy killed, technology can fail, I understand but at least the staff will do all they can to remedy this.

Vulajin

2015-05-24 01:50:15 pm

Disclaimer: I'll respond to a few particular points, but don't take my lack of response to certain points as indicating that we are not considering them. All feedback is being taken into consideration, whether we post any responses to it or not.

Quote from eLmaGus-:

I guess i'll give my two cents from the viewer side: [...]

-The FF4 Interviews that were held in the days before the race, while they were a great idea, they were NOT ON THE SCHEDULE >:-----------(. that makes me especially sad because i wouldve liked to hear all of them, but i only caugh Nocash and Neerrms :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
-FF4 race took way too long to set up, im sure there was a lot to do but it took forever, 4 way race (if there is one next time) needs better preparation, even though im sure you guys planned ahead, it didnt seem to work out very well
-Sometimes donation readers forgot to unmute their microphone. i know this is not a direct tech issue, but having a reminder note seems like a good idea.
-Sometimes people on the couch were really quiet. Especially Stinger comes to mind who (i cant really believe it) is even more quiet than i am. having more than 1 microphone for the couch could be a good thing.

- The interviews were pretty last minute, although Nocash suggested them well before the event started. I agree that failing to add them to the schedule was a big miss - in the future, we want to plan stuff like this further in advance.

- My goal for FF4 setup was 20 minutes, but that turns out to have been a bit unrealistic. Most of the discrepancy between this and, say, a GDQ setup is that we simply could not have any of the cables or TVs for the 3rd or 4th player in the room in advance of the race for space reasons. That said, there are a number of ways things could have been prepared better to reduce this time (for example, having splitters pre-wired outside the room and ready to go), and if we do end up having another many-way race, getting it set up quickly will be the biggest priority. (Also, we were supposed to at least have background music during this time, but somehow my dumb brain forgot how to get the mixer to play stuff off my iPhone without screwing everything. Remember the silence at the start of Chrono Trigger? Yeah.)

- Unmuting the host microphone was actually a tech issue, as the tech person has control of the mixer and we don't have the capacity to give the host a separate mute button. This falls under the category of "rookie" mistakes. We'll look to address this with a little more comprehensive training next time, but it also just requires regular communication between the host and tech person (who, funny enough, were sitting five feet away from each other at all times).

- This one is particularly pernicious. When you use lavalier ("clip-on") mics or earsets like at a GDQ, it's easier to individually adjust for how quiet each person is (though, if someone is quiet enough, it can still be hard). We were using an area mic setup, so dealing with quiet people like Adamtimothy and Stinger can be pretty challenging. I haven't made any decisions about our audio setup for next year yet, but this is definitely one of the things I'm most concerned about.

Many thanks for the feedback so far, please keep it coming!

Disclaimer: I'll respond to a few particular points, but don't take my lack of response to certain points as indicating that we are not considering them. All feedback is being taken into consideration, whether we post any responses to it or not.

[quote="eLmaGus-"]I guess i'll give my two cents from the viewer side: [...]

-The FF4 Interviews that were held in the days before the race, while they were a great idea, they were NOT ON THE SCHEDULE >:-----------(. that makes me especially sad because i wouldve liked to hear all of them, but i only caugh Nocash and Neerrms :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
-FF4 race took way too long to set up, im sure there was a lot to do but it took forever, 4 way race (if there is one next time) needs better preparation, even though im sure you guys planned ahead, it didnt seem to work out very well
-Sometimes donation readers forgot to unmute their microphone. i know this is not a direct tech issue, but having a reminder note seems like a good idea.
-Sometimes people on the couch were really quiet. Especially Stinger comes to mind who (i cant really believe it) is even more quiet than i am. having more than 1 microphone for the couch could be a good thing.
[/quote]

- The interviews were pretty last minute, although Nocash suggested them well before the event started. I agree that failing to add them to the schedule was a big miss - in the future, we want to plan stuff like this further in advance.

- My goal for FF4 setup was 20 minutes, but that turns out to have been a bit unrealistic. Most of the discrepancy between this and, say, a GDQ setup is that we simply could not have any of the cables or TVs for the 3rd or 4th player in the room in advance of the race for space reasons. That said, there are a number of ways things could have been prepared better to reduce this time (for example, having splitters pre-wired outside the room and ready to go), and if we do end up having another many-way race, getting it set up quickly will be the biggest priority. (Also, we were supposed to at least have background music during this time, but somehow my dumb brain forgot how to get the mixer to play stuff off my iPhone without screwing everything. Remember the silence at the start of Chrono Trigger? Yeah.)

- Unmuting the host microphone was actually a tech issue, as the tech person has control of the mixer and we don't have the capacity to give the host a separate mute button. This falls under the category of "rookie" mistakes. We'll look to address this with a little more comprehensive training next time, but it also just requires regular communication between the host and tech person (who, funny enough, were sitting five feet away from each other at all times).

- This one is particularly pernicious. When you use lavalier ("clip-on") mics or earsets like at a GDQ, it's easier to individually adjust for how quiet each person is (though, if someone is quiet enough, it can still be hard). We were using an area mic setup, so dealing with quiet people like Adamtimothy and Stinger can be pretty challenging. I haven't made any decisions about our audio setup for next year yet, but this is definitely one of the things I'm most concerned about.

Many thanks for the feedback so far, please keep it coming!

Cool Matty

2015-05-24 01:51:54 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Schedule:

You guys should consider adding some RPGs or something.

Website

This was my biggest beef: the charity needs to be on the front page somewhere. Not hidden in the about tab or stream. I would actually consider just making the About tab be the primary tab. There was no link to NAMI's main website.

The schedule should have some sort of pop-out button. In addition, don't use rollovers for additional info, it's very non-obvious and not mobile friendly.

Finally, having a mobile friendly design in general would help. Focus on information (schedule, about the event, etc) and then link to the twitch channel to allow people to watch the stream in the app. Make sure the donate button is front and center on that.

Tech

Was solid, no issues. Just the usual mistakes we all make. Require people to donate $5 every time they forget to unmute. Tongue

Overall

I think you guys did a fantastic job. You blew away your original goal, and it was well organized. For something as niche as this, at a first event, you guys should really be proud of yourselves. Here's to breaking that $50k next year!

[b]Schedule:[/b]

You guys should consider adding some RPGs or something.

[b]Website[/b]

This was my biggest beef: the charity needs to be on the front page somewhere. Not hidden in the about tab or stream. I would actually consider just making the About tab be the primary tab. There was no link to NAMI's main website.

The schedule should have some sort of pop-out button. In addition, don't use rollovers for additional info, it's very non-obvious and not mobile friendly.

Finally, having a mobile friendly design in general would help. Focus on information (schedule, about the event, etc) and then link to the twitch channel to allow people to watch the stream in the app. Make sure the donate button is front and center on that.

[b]Tech[/b]

Was solid, no issues. Just the usual mistakes we all make. Require people to donate $5 every time they forget to unmute. :P

[b]Overall[/b]

I think you guys did a fantastic job. You blew away your original goal, and it was well organized. For something as niche as this, at a first event, you guys should really be proud of yourselves. Here's to breaking that $50k next year!

Melodia

Edit history:

Melodia: 2015-05-24 02:06:18 pm

2015-05-24 02:04:42 pm

I just wanna chime in and agree about the FFIV trashcan-carrot thing -- it really made the race a lot less as close at it could have, probably should have, been. Should have been an incentive for a short post-race showcase.

Obviously it's unlikely that that specific issue would be a thing int he future, but for future races it should be up to the runners to decide if they want to implament risky strats like that.
Otheriwse, I'll just echo pretty much everything above...

Vulajin

2015-05-24 02:16:56 pm

Quote from Melodia:

Obviously it's unlikely that that specific issue would be a thing int he future, but for future races it should be up to the runners to decide if they want to implament risky strats like that.

Just to clarify, the incentive was offered by the runners and we accepted it. At some point in that chain any of the ~11 of us who could have decided against it should have done so. No incentives are added without runner approval, however.

azkiboh

2015-05-24 02:23:05 pm

Terribad is as terribad does

From the viewer perspective...It looked professional. What I mean by that is, the layout was tasteful (although the NAMI logo could have been a bit bigger, so we didn't have to answer the "what does NAMI stand for" question every 5 min,) the runs were well done, with minor tweaks here and there (its a marathon, expecting a perfect run is just ridiculous, but the runs were still pretty spectacular, with a few runs that I didn't think I'd enjoy becoming quite intense,) the set up times (minus the aforementioned race set-up) were respectable, the hosts were clearly not just reading from a script when it came to promoting things (I think a large portion of that was having some veterans of other marathons doing the hosting,) the mods in the chats were friendly, even if quakenet was dead on arrival (sad,) the commentators were knowledgeable, without awkwardness, etc.
I think for the venue, the area mic was appropriate, but I agree with some of the others who have expressed that some people (*cough MetaSigma coughcough) overpowered it, with others being difficult to hear. I don't know what the fix would be, as I don't know anything about sound engineering.
The dinner calls coming into the room were a bit odd, but it made the whole thing feel more home-y, which, IMHO, was the right tone to set for the charity and the whole event.
TL;DR Highly entertaining, well done, folks.

From the viewer perspective...It looked professional. What I mean by that is, the layout was tasteful (although the NAMI logo could have been a bit bigger, so we didn't have to answer the "what does NAMI stand for" question every 5 min,) the runs were well done, with minor tweaks here and there (its a marathon, expecting a perfect run is just ridiculous, but the runs were still pretty spectacular, with a few runs that I didn't think I'd enjoy becoming quite intense,) the set up times (minus the aforementioned race set-up) were respectable,  the hosts were clearly not just reading from a script when it came to promoting things (I think a large portion of that was having some veterans of other marathons doing the hosting,) the mods in the chats were friendly, even if quakenet was dead on arrival (sad,) the commentators were knowledgeable, without awkwardness, etc. 
I think for the venue, the area mic was appropriate, but I agree with some of the others who have expressed that some people (*cough MetaSigma coughcough) overpowered it, with others being difficult to hear. I don't know what the fix would be, as I don't know anything about sound engineering. 
The dinner calls coming into the room were a bit odd, but it made the whole thing feel more home-y, which, IMHO, was the right tone to set for the charity and the whole event.
TL;DR Highly entertaining, well done, folks.

Freddeh

2015-05-24 02:24:48 pm

Most of my feedback was covered, I only have a couple points/responses to add:

Tech:
- I know I forgot to unmute the Host mic on multiple occasions, I basically facepalmed every time too >_>.
- This is partially related to the other issue I had with the tech station: It was very difficult to discern the commentary volume on the stream versus the commentary volume in the room. Basically, I was hearing the commentary louder despite it actually being somewhat quiet on the stream. So while I could hear the commentators (and even the muted host) just fine, after going back and watching quite a few couches were rather quiet, and this seemed to be an issue in quite a few of the runs I've watched. This was less of an issue for quieter commentators, but a large issue for louder commentators/hosts. Maybe it was just an issue with me not being used to noise-cancelling headphones or being a rookie in general, but I found it a bit tough to balance out the sound sometimes.

Overall:
- It was a great time
- Denton is my hero

Most of my feedback was covered, I only have a couple points/responses to add:

Tech:
- I know I forgot to unmute the Host mic on multiple occasions, I basically facepalmed every time too >_>.
- This is partially related to the other issue I had with the tech station: It was very difficult to discern the commentary volume on the stream versus the commentary volume in the room. Basically, I was hearing the commentary louder despite it actually being somewhat quiet on the stream. So while I could hear the commentators (and even the muted host) just fine, after going back and watching quite a few couches were rather quiet, and this seemed to be an issue in quite a few of the runs I've watched. This was less of an issue for quieter commentators, but a large issue for louder commentators/hosts. Maybe it was just an issue with me not being used to noise-cancelling headphones or being a rookie in general, but I found it a bit tough to balance out the sound sometimes.

Overall:
- It was a great time
- Denton is my hero

Ghoul02

2015-05-24 02:58:54 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

Alright...

Schedule:

Honestly, the schedule was the highlight of the marathon, and I'll fully admit I was skeptical at first. Looking back at the schedule, I honestly can't pinpoint a run that didn't fully deserve the showcase, that wasn't a blast to watch, and that somebody didn't get behind. Commentary was across the board fantastic, game variety had something for everybody... Truly incredible. Any minor complaints I could have come up with will be completely mitigated by adding an extra 2 days to allow for some longer, more "modern" runs.

I'll echo that it was just a hair too backloaded; I understand wanting to let naming incentives for big games run as long as possible, but throwing just one of the Final Fantasy's on the first day was probably a risk worth taking. For that matter, I think incentives were mostly good; it might be smart to restrict some of them for naming; so many of them means a lot of them become something of non-issues. I understand that they're free and easy, but reserving one per run for something like GoodTaste or JerkBird or Ventus might drive donations in a different way. Also, Valkyria Chronicles was a bit of a sad case... Victim of lots of incentives, and following FFCC and an early morning time slot. Never got close enough on any incentive to get the pushes towards them, which was really sad, I think, and not the game or runner's fault (Nitrodon did a fantastic run)

Venue:
Great, really felt like family for those 5 days. Only complaint was only 1 HD practice setup, the Xillia crew eventually just had to go back to the hotel (which might have been smart if every setup was in HD regardless). It would have been nice if some of the PS1 on PS3 runners would have hooked up to a CRT via composite; would have been a nice gesture. Thankfully, we didn't have many issues, but it could have become one.

Tech:
Never let a Gamecube game be run on a non-Wii again (Advice for anybody running a general marathon). I said it after, I've never gotten those errors on Wii, I used to see them on Gamecubes far more commonly. Whether that's because Wii's protect the disk drive better, whether it has a better laser, I have no idea, but honestly... that was kinda heartbreaking. I'd rather FFCC get remembered as just another run than the run the Gamecube killed on the final boss.

We need some way to capture both DS screens. It sorta worked for Pokemon, but even there, you're missing a surprisingly large amount by not having the bottom screen (and I'm not even talking about Dapper Emboar). Small things like PP management, move slots, all make much more sense if we can show the viewer them. I know why it was the way it was (DS capture to Gaming PC, Gaming PC to stream PC via HDMI, no way of separating top from bottom screen as separate captures), but it's something to look into for next year.

Going to echo what Freddeh said on audio mixing; I did tech for The Demon Rush, and didn't find out until following the event that Brossentia was a bit on the quiet side relative to the game, something I could have fixed easily. Basically, I couldn't tell if the feed through the headphones was from Brossentia or from the mic. I don't know of an easy fix, whether that's headphones that isolate sound better, having somebody in another room poke in and let me know that "Hey, game audio is a bit loud". Also might be chalked up to general inexperience and the fact that I should have approached somebody on tech before my shift so I wasn't figuring things out on the fly.

Chat: Surprisingly civil. Don't know if that was because much smaller than GDQ or just a different crowd, but it was legitimately nice. Props to the mods.

Prizes: Decently plugged, although still might have been nice to do so a bit more. It's hard to isolate the effect of prizes from others, but we'd get about 2 or 3 $10+ dollar donations during Lunar 2 every time I mentioned that we had a copy of the collectors edition as a prize (major props to The_Sid, probably one of the top two prizes of the marathon, the other being NoCashNoCash's cart, which was fantastic).

Charity: Really resonated with a lot of people. I understand the "Maybe US centric" thing, but... I'm not sure what to do about it. Splitting the money or focus between two charitys seems counterproductive, and I've heard fantastic things about NAMI and their sister organizations.

Social Media: Fine for the most part. Seemed to promote each run as it started, occasionally would blurb in the middle of runs. Also did a good job of trying to convey the feel of the marathon to people. Only thing is that I think we might add it to the "things to mention on occasion" list.

Overall, the most enjoyable marathon I've ever been to. I'll be in attendance next year, hopefully with another game to run.

Alright...

Schedule:

Honestly, the schedule was the highlight of the marathon, and I'll fully admit I was skeptical at first. Looking back at the schedule, I honestly can't pinpoint a run that didn't fully deserve the showcase, that wasn't a blast to watch, and that somebody didn't get behind. Commentary was across the board fantastic, game variety had something for everybody... Truly incredible. Any minor complaints I could have come up with will be completely mitigated by adding an extra 2 days to allow for some longer, more "modern" runs.

I'll echo that it was just a hair too backloaded; I understand wanting to let naming incentives for big games run as long as possible, but throwing just one of the Final Fantasy's on the first day was probably a risk worth taking. For that matter, I think incentives were mostly good; it might be smart to restrict some of them for naming; so many of them means a lot of them become something of non-issues. I understand that they're free and easy, but reserving one per run for something like GoodTaste or JerkBird or Ventus might drive donations in a different way. Also, Valkyria Chronicles was a bit of a sad case... Victim of lots of incentives, and following FFCC and an early morning time slot. Never got close enough on any incentive to get the pushes towards them, which was really sad, I think, and not the game or runner's fault (Nitrodon did a fantastic run)

Venue:
Great, really felt like family for those 5 days. Only complaint was only 1 HD practice setup, the Xillia crew eventually just had to go back to the hotel (which might have been smart if every setup was in HD regardless). It would have been nice if some of the PS1 on PS3 runners would have hooked up to a CRT via composite; would have been a nice gesture. Thankfully, we didn't have many issues, but it could have become one.

Tech:
Never let a Gamecube game be run on a non-Wii again (Advice for anybody running a general marathon). I said it after, I've never gotten those errors on Wii, I used to see them on Gamecubes far more commonly. Whether that's because Wii's protect the disk drive better, whether it has a better laser, I have no idea, but honestly... that was kinda heartbreaking. I'd rather FFCC get remembered as just another run than the run the Gamecube killed on the final boss.

We need some way to capture both DS screens. It sorta worked for Pokemon, but even there, you're missing a surprisingly large amount by not having the bottom screen (and I'm not even talking about Dapper Emboar). Small things like PP management, move slots, all make much more sense if we can show the viewer them. I know why it was the way it was (DS capture to Gaming PC, Gaming PC to stream PC via HDMI, no way of separating top from bottom screen as separate captures), but it's something to look into for next year.

Going to echo what Freddeh said on audio mixing; I did tech for The Demon Rush, and didn't find out until following the event that Brossentia was a bit on the quiet side relative to the game, something I could have fixed easily. Basically, I couldn't tell if the feed through the headphones was from Brossentia or from the mic. I don't know of an easy fix, whether that's headphones that isolate sound better, having somebody in another room poke in and let me know that "Hey, game audio is a bit loud". Also might be chalked up to general inexperience and the fact that I should have approached somebody on tech before my shift so I wasn't figuring things out on the fly.

Chat: Surprisingly civil. Don't know if that was because much smaller than GDQ or just a different crowd, but it was legitimately nice. Props to the mods.

Prizes: Decently plugged, although still might have been nice to do so a bit more. It's hard to isolate the effect of prizes from others, but we'd get about 2 or 3 $10+ dollar donations during Lunar 2 every time I mentioned that we had a copy of the collectors edition as a prize (major props to The_Sid, probably one of the top two prizes of the marathon, the other being NoCashNoCash's cart, which was fantastic).

Charity: Really resonated with a lot of people. I understand the "Maybe US centric" thing, but... I'm not sure what to do about it. Splitting the money or focus between two charitys seems counterproductive, and I've heard fantastic things about NAMI and their sister organizations.

Social Media: Fine for the most part. Seemed to promote each run as it started, occasionally would blurb in the middle of runs. Also did a good job of trying to convey the feel of the marathon to people. Only thing is that I think we might add it to the "things to mention on occasion" list.

Overall, the most enjoyable marathon I've ever been to. I'll be in attendance next year, hopefully with another game to run.

bichphuongballz

Edit history:

bichphuongballz: 2015-05-24 03:38:35 pm

2015-05-24 03:34:15 pm

bichGOAL

-I thought the lineup was great, but have to agree that even I felt that I didn't have to watch much the first couple days. While that allowed me ample practice time (which is nice), it's probably not a good thing that I felt that way. Of course, what games are considered "must watch" is subjective. I know that I enjoyed everything I did see, but there are probably plenty of viewers who are only looking out for the "classics"

-The venue was great for the current size of the marathon. I'd hate to lose out on Denton's glorious cooking, but I think a bigger venue needs to be found for next time.

-I agree that some aspects of tech could have been better, but I feel like that is more attributed to growing pains than neglect. I would just hope that the same issues are avoided next time.

-Nothing to say about ff4 trashcan that hasn't been said already. It is a lesson learned. If it worked, it would have been amazing, but clearly the risk wasn't worth the theoretical reward.

-I'm likely in the minority about this, but I really hate seeing a near empty stream room. If I were watching a run, I made a it a point to be in the stream room, rather than the living room. Of course there are times when many are asleep, but I know there were other times plenty were watching in the living room (and weren't donation processors or something). While I know we all supported each other, I tend to feel that the empty room communicates the opposite of that. A bigger attendance probably fixes this, and of course no one can or should be forced to do anything, I guess I would just like urge others to back up each other "in person". I know a big part of why I felt FF6 was successful was because of the energy a "crowd" provides. The ideal for me would be for everyone to feel like that.

-I do have to make a comment about the transportation system. It just really didn't work in most cases, and it was very frustrating to deal with. It's also impossible to really complain about it considering it relies on people doing us favors on a daily basis. So I will just say this, if we have to be left to our own devices due to practicality reasons, then so be it. However, if you are going to communicate that there is a system in place and people will be getting picked up, then that needs to be followed through with. From my personal standpoint, the only time we actually got picked up on schedule (aside from airport trips, which were totally on point), it was with andyperfect. Every time that a ride wasn't set up with him and we had to sign up on the sheet, there was no one to get us until we harassed an organizer to get something to happen. I imagine it'll either need to be as strict as other volunteer jobs, or we just have to take care of things on our own. I'm fine with either option, as I think it's mostly about setting/meeting expectations.

Oh, maybe I should actually not totally be a negative nancy. This was my first marathon, and if it had to be my last, I would be happy. I had a great time, the event was clearly a success, and the things I brought up do not take away from these things. These are minor things that can be improved on, and I can't wait for the next one. I'm honored that I was invited to be a part of this, and I am thankful for the friendships that were made

-I thought the lineup was great, but have to agree that even I felt that I didn't have to watch much the first couple days. While that allowed me ample practice time (which is nice), it's probably not a good thing that I felt that way. Of course, what games are considered "must watch" is subjective. I know that I enjoyed everything I did see, but there are probably plenty of viewers who are only looking out for the "classics"

-The venue was great for the current size of the marathon. I'd hate to lose out on Denton's glorious cooking, but I think a bigger venue needs to be found for next time.

-I agree that some aspects of tech could have been better, but I feel like that is more attributed to growing pains than neglect. I would just hope that the same issues are avoided next time.

-Nothing to say about ff4 trashcan that hasn't been said already. It is a lesson learned. If it worked, it would have been amazing, but clearly the risk wasn't worth the theoretical reward.

-I'm likely in the minority about this, but I really hate seeing a near empty stream room. If I were watching a run, I made a it a point to be in the stream room, rather than the living room. Of course there are times when many are asleep, but I know there were other times plenty were watching in the living room (and weren't donation processors or something). While I know we all supported each other, I tend to feel that the empty room communicates the opposite of that. A bigger attendance probably fixes this, and of course no one can or should be forced to do anything, I guess I would just like urge others to back up each other "in person". I know a big part of why I felt FF6 was successful was because of the energy a "crowd" provides. The ideal for me would be for everyone to feel like that.

-I do have to make a comment about the transportation system. It just really didn't work in most cases, and it was very frustrating to deal with. It's also impossible to really complain about it considering it relies on people doing us favors on a daily basis. So I will just say this, if we have to be left to our own devices due to practicality reasons, then so be it. However, if you are going to communicate that there is a system in place and people will be getting picked up, then that needs to be followed through with. From my personal standpoint, the only time we actually got picked up on schedule (aside from airport trips, which were totally on point), it was with andyperfect. Every time that a ride wasn't set up with him and we had to sign up on the sheet, there was no one to get us until we harassed an organizer to get something to happen. I imagine it'll either need to be as strict as other volunteer jobs, or we just have to take care of things on our own. I'm fine with either option, as I think it's mostly about setting/meeting expectations.

Oh, maybe I should actually not totally be a negative nancy. This was my first marathon, and if it had to be my last, I would be happy. I had a great time, the event was clearly a success, and the things I brought up do not take away from these things. These are minor things that can be improved on, and I can't wait for the next one. I'm honored that I was invited to be a part of this, and I am thankful for the friendships that were made

doicm

Edit history:

doicm: 2015-05-24 04:04:27 pm

doicm: 2015-05-24 03:58:15 pm

doicm: 2015-05-24 03:57:15 pm

2015-05-24 03:54:05 pm

I can try.

Schedule/Games
-No complaints. I hadn't seen many speedruns of these games, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the ones I watched. I can also say that I enjoyed FF1 as well, despite being on tech for that for all of the poison fun. Thanks Vulajin and Gyre for all of the fun there.
-It would be kinda neat to see some statistics as far as viewer counts go for the marathon. I noticed that we had reached our peak viewers during the Earthbound run and the final day at about 3200 (?), but other than that we seemed to have steady lows at 1600-1800 in the mornings and steady highs at 2600 in the evenings. I'm not sure. Those are estimates from what I can vaguely recall. Regardless, chat seemed to like the game selection, but I wonder if viewer counts may be a good way to check a decent balance in scheduling games. I do disagree with elmagus about the last day effect and having all the "popular games" on the last day as a negative, seeing as that was a Saturday and that would be probably the most available time for people to catch the marathon. I'm not entirely sure though.

Venue
-Very cozy. Probably perfectly fine for me since I could come and go as I pleased (I lived 10 minutes away and had my own vehicle), but I could see potential issues for those without the same conveniences.
- ...now after seeing all the ride issues, I probably should have volunteered to help. I didn't realize there were so many.
-Food was great, and NAMI was awesome with their accommodations to those with food allergies in catering. I only have to echo others' sentiments with saying how awesome of a cook Denton is.

Tech/Volunteering
-OBS doesn't do well with DS capture for both screens unless you do a separate Window Capture for the second screen. It's been addressed on their forums, and there's no real workaround about it. There are some mods/plugins/whatevers you could maybe install, but that's the extent of my research (I don't have a DS, so I haven't played with it myself). From what I can recall, there wasn't enough time to test that before the marathon stream started. Perhaps in future marathons, accommodations can be made to do that. I don't know if OBS has plans to do more with DS capture for both screens, but that's what the details are afaik.
-I enjoyed working on tech, as it was my first time. I had some difficulty using the headphones to isolate audio from what was actually going on inside the room, so I couldn't determine what audio was going on in the live stream compared to what I was actually hearing.
-Some details were missed during orientation, such as putting the actual start time of the run in the schedule. I believe I tried putting one in when I started a later shift, which threw off the entire schedule and caused everyone to panic at one point.
-I hope for a world someday in which updating a title or clicking to have commercials will not log a user out of Twitch.

Chat/Website
-A good Twitch chat is a chat where someone's mom can come on the chat and be welcomed.
-Site stuff has already been said. I didn't pay too much attention to it other than to donate or to check the donation total.

Commentary
-Amazing job. I didn't really have any games to commentate on, and I relied on it for the game I was running as well. I felt like I could hear it for some of the games I watched. I feel like it can be hard to do commentary bad, either as a runner or a co-commentator (although I have seen instances of it), but I didn't see any of it here. Well done!

Prizes/Incentives
-The hosts/runners/co-commentators did well on promoting these during the marathon. I felt like I had no clue on what any prizes were before the marathon, which was a bit discouraging when I was deciding whether or not to donate any prizes before the marathon (just in case a game wasn't represented or well represented enough). Was there any way to find out what prizes were going to be made available before the marathon? I kept checking the prize thread at least monthly to see, but never saw anything for it except the form for submissions.
-I agree with Puwexil's point about on-site submissions, and I recall seeing that event taking place and thinking whether or not that should've been allowed.
-All of the incentives appeared to be strong enough to hold their own.

Charity
-I think [EDIT] one of the main points is that we get the message across about mental illness, and those who have mental illness should find resources that can help them wherever they are in the world. I'm hopeful that those who watched the marathon wherever they are in the world got that message whether they are afflicted themselves or they know someone that is struggling. I really appreciated this choice for a charity, and I hope that, as a whole, people didn't get too hung over solely because this is US-centric. Regardless, it's probably good to keep international organizations in mind.

Other
Can we do this again? Even if I'm not there, I'm sure other people would like to see it happen and be there to help. Also, thanks to everyone there that befriended me, whether or not I really talked to you much. At least you didn't make an evil-looking face at me.

I can try.

[u]Schedule/Games[/u]
-No complaints. I hadn't seen many speedruns of these games, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the ones I watched. I can also say that I enjoyed FF1 as well, despite being on tech for that for all of the poison fun. Thanks Vulajin and Gyre for all of the fun there.
-It would be kinda neat to see some statistics as far as viewer counts go for the marathon. I noticed that we had reached our peak viewers during the Earthbound run and the final day at about 3200 (?), but other than that we seemed to have steady lows at 1600-1800 in the mornings and steady highs at 2600 in the evenings. I'm not sure. Those are estimates from what I can vaguely recall. Regardless, chat seemed to like the game selection, but I wonder if viewer counts may be a good way to check a decent balance in scheduling games. I do disagree with elmagus about the last day effect and having all the "popular games" on the last day as a negative, seeing as that was a Saturday and that would be probably the most available time for people to catch the marathon. I'm not entirely sure though.

[u]Venue[/u]
-Very cozy. Probably perfectly fine for me since I could come and go as I pleased (I lived 10 minutes away and had my own vehicle), but I could see potential issues for those without the same conveniences.
- ...now after seeing all the ride issues, I probably should have volunteered to help. I didn't realize there were so many.
-Food was great, and NAMI was awesome with their accommodations to those with food allergies in catering. I only have to echo others' sentiments with saying how awesome of a cook Denton is.

[u]Tech/Volunteering[/u]
-OBS doesn't do well with DS capture for both screens unless you do a separate Window Capture for the second screen. It's been addressed on their forums, and there's no real workaround about it. There are some mods/plugins/whatevers you could maybe install, but that's the extent of my research (I don't have a DS, so I haven't played with it myself). From what I can recall, there wasn't enough time to test that before the marathon stream started. Perhaps in future marathons, accommodations can be made to do that. I don't know if OBS has plans to do more with DS capture for both screens, but that's what the details are afaik.
-I enjoyed working on tech, as it was my first time. I had some difficulty using the headphones to isolate audio from what was actually going on inside the room, so I couldn't determine what audio was going on in the live stream compared to what I was actually hearing. 
-Some details were missed during orientation, such as putting the actual start time of the run in the schedule. I believe I tried putting one in when I started a later shift, which threw off the entire schedule and caused everyone to panic at one point.
-I hope for a world someday in which updating a title or clicking to have commercials will not log a user out of Twitch.

[u]Chat/Website[/u]
-A good Twitch chat is a chat where someone's mom can come on the chat and be welcomed.
-Site stuff has already been said. I didn't pay too much attention to it other than to donate or to check the donation total.

[u]Commentary[/u]
-Amazing job. I didn't really have any games to commentate on, and I relied on it for the game I was running as well. I felt like I could hear it for some of the games I watched. I feel like it can be hard to do commentary bad, either as a runner or a co-commentator (although I have seen instances of it), but I didn't see any of it here. Well done!

[u]Prizes/Incentives[/u]
-The hosts/runners/co-commentators did well on promoting these during the marathon. I felt like I had no clue on what any prizes were before the marathon, which was a bit discouraging when I was deciding whether or not to donate any prizes before the marathon (just in case a game wasn't represented or well represented enough). Was there any way to find out what prizes were going to be made available before the marathon? I kept checking the prize thread at least monthly to see, but never saw anything for it except the form for submissions.
-I agree with Puwexil's point about on-site submissions, and I recall seeing that event taking place and thinking whether or not that should've been allowed.
-All of the incentives appeared to be strong enough to hold their own.

[u]Charity[/u]
-I think [EDIT] one of the main points is that we get the message across about mental illness, and those who have mental illness should find resources that can help them wherever they are in the world. I'm hopeful that those who watched the marathon wherever they are in the world got that message whether they are afflicted themselves or they know someone that is struggling. I really appreciated this choice for a charity, and I hope that, as a whole, people didn't get too hung over solely because this is US-centric. Regardless, it's probably good to keep international organizations in mind.

[u]Other[/u]
Can we do this again? Even if I'm not there, I'm sure other people would like to see it happen and be there to help. Also, thanks to everyone there that befriended me, whether or not I really talked to you much. At least you didn't make an evil-looking face at me.

Highspirits

2015-05-24 05:19:21 pm

Thank you for allowing me to run a game and attend RPG Limit Break, I had a blast! Here are some of my thoughts:

No specific order:
-Staying at Essentia's house really made this feel like a community, everywhere you looked there was 15-20 people to talk to. The setup of the TV outside the streaming room was great, and the chairs were so comfy I think EVERYONE who sat on them at some point fell asleep at some point.

-The food was amazing... maybe TOO amazing. After 1 day I just sucked it up and said, "I'm going to suffer at the gym next week for this." Having to spend $0 on food the entire week was great, and there was variety to satisfy any taste. Denton's cooking was top notch and NAMI bringing lunch everyday was great. Only complaint I had was the burritos... "No fruit added burrito"... I didn't think mine had fruit in it, but I guess I'm just simple Kappa.

-Being apart of the midnight crew I felt like transportation was kinda iffy. Finishing most of my shifts around 3-5am meant I ended up doing most of my sleeping at the house cause no one was awake to give rides. During the day, for the most part, I could get rides, but that odd afternoon trip just for me felt kind of imposing.

-The Inn Town was horrible, and I think we need better hotel options for next year. It was cheap, but the beds were rock solid and I didn't hear a single person say they enjoyed that hotel. The only decent sleep I got all week at the hotel was when me and Aleck borrowed foam mats from Denton after the marathon, they were a lot softer than the bed.

-I'd like to petition if we move to a bigger venue that we bring Denton's cooking with it, I promise I'll scrub even more dishes.

Thank you for allowing me to run a game and attend RPG Limit Break, I had a blast!  Here are some of my thoughts:

[u]No specific order:[/u]
-Staying at Essentia's house really made this feel like a community, everywhere you looked there was 15-20 people to talk to.  The setup of the TV outside the streaming room was great, and the chairs were so comfy I think EVERYONE who sat on them at some point fell asleep at some point.

-The food was amazing... maybe TOO amazing.  After 1 day I just sucked it up and said, "I'm going to suffer at the gym next week for this."  Having to spend $0 on food the entire week was great, and there was variety to satisfy any taste.  Denton's cooking was top notch and NAMI bringing lunch everyday was great.  Only complaint I had was the burritos... "No fruit added burrito"... I didn't think mine had fruit in it, but I guess I'm just simple Kappa.

-Being apart of the midnight crew I felt like transportation was kinda iffy.  Finishing most of my shifts around 3-5am meant I ended up doing most of my sleeping at the house cause no one was awake to give rides.  During the day, for the most part, I could get rides, but that odd afternoon trip just for me felt kind of imposing.

-The Inn Town was horrible, and I think we need better hotel options for next year.  It was cheap, but the beds were rock solid and I didn't hear a single person say they enjoyed that hotel.  The only decent sleep I got all week at the hotel was when me and Aleck borrowed foam mats from Denton after the marathon, they were a lot softer than the bed.

-I'd like to petition if we move to a bigger venue that we bring Denton's cooking with it, I promise I'll scrub even more dishes.

Potato Handle

Edit history:

Potato Handle: 2015-05-24 09:35:34 pm

Potato Handle: 2015-05-24 07:22:13 pm

Potato Handle: 2015-05-24 07:16:02 pm

2015-05-24 07:14:05 pm

Plays games quickly. Eventually.

Ahoy there boys and girls!

Congrats on the amazing event, I loved watching every bit of it. Most of my plusses and minuses have been addressed by others already, but I just have something to add on this point:

Quote:

-Onsite snipe of FF4 character names shouldn’t have been allowed as it wasn’t fair to other donors

-- There was also a similar incident I felt was unfair for Lufia 2 (I'm personally involved though, so take that bias into consideration.) I hope this doesn't come off as simple snipe-whinging, but I donated for Maxim in Lufia 2 to be named after a friend and stream-regular, because it's his favourite game and he could've used a cheer-up.

I carefully watched it for several hours ready to donate more if needed (I was also planning on getting some twitter followers together as well), but it was sniped on-stream at the last possible moment, and they even had the runner wait for multiple tracker refreshes before starting the run. I donated again immediately when I realised what was going on, but they didn't check again until it was too late.

This was going to be my little personal donation drive I was going to plug; I don't pretend to have a massive online following, but I think I could have rallied another $50-$100 with even 10-minutes notice, which was ultimately missed out on.

-- My only other gripe is that you should hold the next event at my house, so I can join you all again. Tongue

P.S. Is 'bastard' (In the context of 'lovable bastard') really not a PG word? I humbly apologize to Vulajin for my brazen australian-ness in one of my donation comments if that's the case. Kappa

Ahoy there boys and girls!

Congrats on the amazing event, I loved watching every bit of it. Most of my plusses and minuses have been addressed by others already, but I just have something to add on this point:
[quote]-Onsite snipe of FF4 character names shouldn’t have been allowed as it wasn’t fair to other donors[/quote]
 -- There was also a similar incident I felt was unfair for Lufia 2 (I'm personally involved though, so take that bias into consideration.) I hope this doesn't come off as simple snipe-whinging, but I donated for Maxim in Lufia 2 to be named after a friend and stream-regular, because it's his favourite game and he could've used a cheer-up.

I carefully watched it for several hours ready to donate more if needed (I was also planning on getting some twitter followers together as well), but it was sniped on-stream at the last possible moment, and they even had the runner wait for multiple tracker refreshes before starting the run. I donated again immediately when I realised what was going on, but they didn't check again until it was too late.

This was going to be my little personal donation drive I was going to plug; I don't pretend to have a massive online following, but I think I could have rallied another $50-$100 with even 10-minutes notice, which was ultimately missed out on.

-- My only other gripe is that you should hold the next event at my house, so I can join you all again. :P

P.S. Is 'bastard' (In the context of 'lovable bastard') really not a PG word? I humbly apologize to Vulajin for my brazen australian-ness in one of my donation comments if that's the case. Kappa

osey889

2015-05-24 11:29:35 pm

I'll start by saying this, i enjoyed this marathon as a whole and will never forget the great moments i had there. However there are somethings i feel that need addressed.

1. Highspirits isn't kidding, the InTown Suites was a really bad place to sleep, hard beds, pillows that were as flat as week old soda, and the shower had no shampoo or soap. the only thing that was really nice was the TV, it was HD and helped get the Xillia Crew the practice we so needed.

2. While i can say for sure that Freddeh, Ghoul, PX, and myself were happy to help with volunteering, I felt like we were hit with a bit to much late night shifts. First 2 nights it was fine but there is only so much Night Shift a person can handle without completely destroying themselves.

3. During the Diablo 3 run there was a pretty nasty sound during the first 5 mins of the run. while i understand these things happen, Vulajin and Myself had no idea how bad it was nor how long it lasted. The biggest question of the run was "why are you playing the console version?" and we had answered that while the noise was happening, leaving the chat to ask between themselves. It would have been nice to had the host or tech to say "maybe you should repeat why you are playing on this version?" I felt bad leaving it up to my friends in chat to explain.

Overall these are things that should be easy to fix and reflect on while we wait for RPGLB2016 Smiley

I'll start by saying this, i enjoyed this marathon as a whole and will never forget the great moments i had there. However there are somethings i feel that need addressed.

1. Highspirits isn't kidding, the InTown Suites was a really bad place to sleep, hard beds, pillows that were as flat as week old soda, and the shower had no shampoo or soap. the only thing that was really nice was the TV, it was HD and helped get the Xillia Crew the practice we so needed.

2. While i can say for sure that Freddeh, Ghoul, PX, and myself were happy to help with volunteering, I felt like we were hit with a bit to much late night shifts. First 2 nights it was fine but there is only so much Night Shift a person can handle without completely destroying themselves.

3. During the Diablo 3 run there was a pretty nasty sound during the first 5 mins of the run. while i understand these things happen, Vulajin and Myself had no idea how bad it was nor how long it lasted. The biggest question of the run was "why are you playing the console version?" and we had answered that while the noise was happening, leaving the chat to ask between themselves. It would have been nice to had the host or tech to say "maybe you should repeat why you are playing on this version?" I felt bad leaving it up to my friends in chat to explain.

Overall these are things that should be easy to fix and reflect on while we wait for RPGLB2016 :)

Ghoul02

2015-05-25 01:58:18 am

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

Just really quick, wanted to refute a few things there:

The In Town Suites was cheap and cheap for a reason. Honestly, it didn't bother me that much; since it was an extended stay place, I knew to bring my own soap. The beds were cheap, but basically identical to the dorm beds I slept on for 3 years (Floor sucked, but I dealt with it). We did have a few other options, I guess we probably should have looked into them. Live and learn. I admittedly took a few naps at the house, but that was more due to proximity, lack of sleep and occasional difficulty of transportation thing than anything. It was a bit difficult getting places if PX or Freddeh weren't around or willing to drive. Having a volunteer on taxi duty, with reimbursements for gas probably would have solved the issue, although it'd probably have been a bit frustrating for the driver, for something that was just out of walking distance.

I said in my volunteering that I was okay with doing whatever shift was needed to make the marathon run smoothly, and I meant it. Zero complaints from me there; that was me doing what I said I'd do, and if it helped take the burden off others and allowed them to have better runs, I was happy to do so.

I also want to apologize to Potato Handle. I was on host duty and the one that really just didn't know what to do with that snipe, when somebody behind the couch says wait. I'm really sorry, it was a really difficult situation for me to be in, really didn't know the best way to handle it.

I guess you might also blame me for the on site snipe for FF4 character names. I was the one that suggested it and I put forward a pretty fair chunk of my own money to make sure it happened. In my defense, we talked with a few staff members who seemed okay with it, and it wasn't the only example of on site donations changing a bidding war. I donated 30 dollars during the Tales of Xillia run to put swimsuits back on top (Mostly because I wanted somebody to match me and increase the total donation total. AKA, the Vulajin), and Vulajin was going to do the same during Pokemon Black had Rachel not been Reshiram's name. I'm sure there were other examples. I don't know if it's a problem, but it was a thing.

Just really quick, wanted to refute a few things there:

The In Town Suites was cheap and cheap for a reason. Honestly, it didn't bother me that much; since it was an extended stay place, I knew to bring my own soap. The beds were cheap, but basically identical to the dorm beds I slept on for 3 years (Floor sucked, but I dealt with it). We did have a few other options, I guess we probably should have looked into them. Live and learn. I admittedly took a few naps at the house, but that was more due to proximity, lack of sleep and occasional difficulty of transportation thing than anything. It was a bit difficult getting places if PX or Freddeh weren't around or willing to drive. Having a volunteer on taxi duty, with reimbursements for gas probably would have solved the issue, although it'd probably have been a bit frustrating for the driver, for something that was just out of walking distance.

I said in my volunteering that I was okay with doing whatever shift was needed to make the marathon run smoothly, and I meant it. Zero complaints from me there; that was me doing what I said I'd do, and if it helped take the burden off others and allowed them to have better runs, I was happy to do so.

I also want to apologize to Potato Handle. I was on host duty and the one that really just didn't know what to do with that snipe, when somebody behind the couch says wait. I'm really sorry, it was a really difficult situation for me to be in, really didn't know the best way to handle it.

I guess you might also blame me for the on site snipe for FF4 character names. I was the one that suggested it and I put forward a pretty fair chunk of my own money to make sure it happened. In my defense, we talked with a few staff members who seemed okay with it, and it wasn't the only example of on site donations changing a bidding war. I donated 30 dollars during the Tales of Xillia run to put swimsuits back on top (Mostly because I wanted somebody to match me and increase the total donation total. AKA, the Vulajin), and Vulajin was going to do the same during Pokemon Black had Rachel not been Reshiram's name. I'm sure there were other examples. I don't know if it's a problem, but it was a thing.

jackrakan124

2015-05-25 03:15:51 am

I think the issue here as far as the onsite snipe is that they asked for extra time for the tracker to update for the donation, this would have never happened if it came from an offsite donation. Why should people onsite get extra privileges than people not attending the marathon. it just leaves a sour taste in our mouths.

Potato Handle

2015-05-25 03:29:21 am

Plays games quickly. Eventually.

Don't worry about it ghoul; I really appreciate the thought though.

I would have felt the same way in the same situation, totally understandable. Nothing's worse than being put on the spot like that. No individual is at fault, it's just an unfortunate circumstance. I just wanted to raise it so that a longer-term solution can be considered for future events. \o/

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2015-05-25 02:21:12 pm

puwexil: 2015-05-25 02:15:16 pm

2015-05-25 12:32:10 pm

Professional Second Banana

Re: the backloading of the schedule, initially Secret of Mana was going to be in the evening of the 1st day as an early 'heavy hitter'; but ended up getting moved due to changes in the runner's availability. Hopefully something similar is able to work out better next time.

Re: hotels, if we end up in a similar situation next time (marathon is in a house or some other non-hotel venue), maybe we can recommend both an extended stay and a more traditional hotel, so people have options for either lower cost or a nicer room. For the rides, I saw the 2 options as scheduling rides/drivers in advance of the marathon vs. a more casual approach (posting signup sheets and then recruiting drivers from whoever was around in the morning). I decided on the latter so people would have more freedom to come and go as they pleased; but that ended up being pretty hit-or-miss (especially a few cases later in the week where people had requested 7-8AM pickups, and there weren't any drivers awake and available), and I apologize for that. If we need to do something similar in the future, I agree with Bich that we should either do formal ride schedules in advance, or post a list of volunteer drivers and have the attendees staying offsite make their own arrangements.

Re: onsite snipes, if we make some kind of official rule to disallow this in the future, I think we should all be in agreement that it would only apply to competitive bid wars like character names (vs. onsite attendees finishing off incentives like Gyre did with the Puff-Puff Massage for Dragon Warrior).

Re: KH2 input lag, Vulajin and I are still at a loss as to what could have caused it, beyond some freak coincidence with using a Swap Magic-modded PS2 + NTSC-J game with that specific TV. If the main CRT TV itself or the splitter setup was causing lag, I think it would have definitely been noticed in other runs (the Crystalis race comes to mind, since the Flight glitch and some of the fights are pretty input precise). Going forward I think the best solution is probably just to encourage runners with input-precise runs or special console setups to do a quick test on the marathon equipment during Setup Day, to make sure everything's working as expected (we did that with the PSP and PSTV this year since Vulajin wasn't able to test those at home).

Re: the backloading of the schedule, initially Secret of Mana was going to be in the evening of the 1st day as an early 'heavy hitter'; but ended up getting moved due to changes in the runner's availability.  Hopefully something similar is able to work out better next time.

Re: hotels, if we end up in a similar situation next time (marathon is in a house or some other non-hotel venue), maybe we can recommend both an extended stay and a more traditional hotel, so people have options for either lower cost or a nicer room.  For the rides, I saw the 2 options as scheduling rides/drivers in advance of the marathon vs. a more casual approach (posting signup sheets and then recruiting drivers from whoever was around in the morning).  I decided on the latter so people would have more freedom to come and go as they pleased; but that ended up being pretty hit-or-miss (especially a few cases later in the week where people had requested 7-8AM pickups, and there weren't any drivers awake and available), and I apologize for that.  If we need to do something similar in the future, I agree with Bich that we should either do formal ride schedules in advance, or post a list of volunteer drivers and have the attendees staying offsite make their own arrangements.

Re: onsite snipes, if we make some kind of official rule to disallow this in the future, I think we should all be in agreement that it would only apply to competitive bid wars like character names (vs. onsite attendees finishing off incentives like Gyre did with the Puff-Puff Massage for Dragon Warrior).

Re: KH2 input lag, Vulajin and I are still at a loss as to what could have caused it, beyond some freak coincidence with using a Swap Magic-modded PS2 + NTSC-J game with that specific TV.  If the main CRT TV itself or the splitter setup was causing lag, I think it would have definitely been noticed in other runs (the Crystalis race comes to mind, since the Flight glitch and some of the fights are pretty input precise).  Going forward I think the best solution is probably just to encourage runners with input-precise runs or special console setups to do a quick test on the marathon equipment during Setup Day, to make sure everything's working as expected (we did that with the PSP and PSTV this year since Vulajin wasn't able to test those at home).

Cool Matty

Edit history:

Cool Matty: 2015-05-25 02:29:19 pm

2015-05-25 02:28:55 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Regarding onsite snipes, IMO you should implement an on-site cutoff for bid wars that is ~15 minutes or so before the actual cutoff. That way, attendees can still influence the bid war without unfairly sniping the result. Obviously, yeah, this should only apply to bid wars, not challenges.

In fact, it's such a smart rule that I'll see about having it implemented for GDQ. Tongue

Tide

2015-05-26 08:02:22 am

Insanity Prelude

My 2 cents after sitting on it for about a week...

Schedule/Games:
- I'm pretty pleased with the line up overall. The one thing that I would've liked is if a couple of other longer games could've gotten in. I've spoken to both Puwexil and Vulajin about the chances of this occurring and knowing that an extended marathon might accommodate this is good enough for me. There are lots of other good titles that are unfortunately a bit longer and that would give them a chance to shine (Shadow Hearts, Breath of Fire, other longer Wild ARMS games for example)
- The only other thing I would like is to reduce the number of repeating games in the future (so no FF4/FF6/CT every year). I understand the need for an anchor so its fine to have one or two games together, but I would personally like to have varied line ups as much as we can.

Venue
- No complaints other than what has been touched upon already. I didn't even realize we had a second bathroom for like the first 3 days I was there.
- Internet wasn't as big of deal for me since I didn't have my laptop. Since I was traveling over seas, I wanted to travel light. The one thing I would've liked is to have been able to see twitch chat or IRC chat somewhere in the family room.
- Shout outs to Essentia and Denton for thinking of everything though (ear plugs!). Every thing was provided sans toiletries I think (but you should be bringing those). Food was excellent.

Tech
- Shout outs to Vulajin for taking care of all the tech so the majority of us didn't have to worry about it.
- I didn't notice any tech issues from the family room or from rewatching several of the runs. The only problem that was memorable was the Diablo 3 run and that has already been covered.
- Race set up for FF4 - I wonder if we can do rehersals for this with more people around. I wanted to help but really didn't know what needed to go where so I took a backseat to not get in the way really.
- Stream layouts - Simple but excellent. Large enough to see the stream, the runners and the organization logo. No complaints.

Chat/Website
- Website was under used. Didn't even realize it existed until after the event.
- Chat from what I reviewed during my run was pretty civil. There was the odd jerk here and there but that is inevitable. Shout outs to the mods for keeping things in check.
- On the note of needing more active twitch mods, I'm wondering if having a couple of spare machines so people can log into twitch chat to help with the modding would be good. This would require more equipment so it might not be feasible. However, it would also help with the twitch chat thing I mentioned about the venue.

Commentary
- No issues of note. I can really only comment on my own though and the Wild ARMS run since I was at both and re-watched them specifically for criticism.
- The one thing during the FFT run that did stick out at me was the Smores call. Everyone just got up and left, which made the stream room look super empty. Chat commented on this, but it didn't seem to be super negative. I don't think this happened anywhere else.
- Going to second Puwexil's comment that commentators overall did good as supporting the runner. The Meateo dance during FFT didn't draw away from it for example.
- On the note of commentary though, dunno if the area mic was better than lavs at C4L2. I did notice that it seemed to pick up more noise from the centre of the couch. I know people were saying cha0s was kinda quiet during the Wild ARMS run and I thought my volume during the FFT run at parts fluctuated. Both times were from the right side of the couch.

Prizes
- No complaints. Just out of curiosity, can we give out gifts for games that aren't being run at the marathon? I have like 3 copies of Persona 3 which I can probably gift one out the next time.

Incentives
- No complaints than has already been mentioned ( Sad

Neerrm)

Charity
- Speaking as Canadian, NAMI being US-centric doesn't bother me too too much. I did prefer JDRF myself since members of my immediate family are effected by it and it is in Canada. But NAMI being very well regarded by the organizers and their overall support makes it such that its not a big issue. There are LOTS of good causes and we have limited resources so I'm not too upset by this.

Social Media
- Having attendees provide tweets I found made it more lively. Possibly more effective than just the RPGLB twitter since it showed everyone having a good time overall.

More if I can think of other stuff to comment on.

My 2 cents after sitting on it for about a week...

[u]Schedule/Games:[/u]
- I'm pretty pleased with the line up overall. The one thing that I would've liked is if a couple of other longer games could've gotten in. I've spoken to both Puwexil and Vulajin about the chances of this occurring and knowing that an extended marathon might accommodate this is good enough for me. There are lots of other good titles that are unfortunately a bit longer and that would give them a chance to shine (Shadow Hearts, Breath of Fire, other longer Wild ARMS games for example)
- The only other thing I would like is to reduce the number of repeating games in the future (so no FF4/FF6/CT every year). I understand the need for an anchor so its fine to have one or two games together, but I would personally like to have varied line ups as much as we can.

[u]Venue[/u]
- No complaints other than what has been touched upon already. I didn't even realize we had a second bathroom for like the first 3 days I was there. 
- Internet wasn't as big of deal for me since I didn't have my laptop. Since I was traveling over seas, I wanted to travel light. The one thing I would've liked is to have been able to see twitch chat or IRC chat somewhere in the family room.  
- Shout outs to Essentia and Denton for thinking of everything though (ear plugs!). Every thing was provided sans toiletries I think (but you should be bringing those). Food was excellent.

[u]Tech[/u]
- Shout outs to Vulajin for taking care of all the tech so the majority of us didn't have to worry about it. 
- I didn't notice any tech issues from the family room or from rewatching several of the runs. The only problem that was memorable was the Diablo 3 run and that has already been covered. 
- Race set up for FF4 - I wonder if we can do rehersals for this with more people around. I wanted to help but really didn't know what needed to go where so I took a backseat to not get in the way really.
- Stream layouts - Simple but excellent. Large enough to see the stream, the runners and the organization logo. No complaints.

[u]Chat/Website[/u]
- Website was under used. Didn't even realize it existed until after the event.
- Chat from what I reviewed during my run was pretty civil. There was the odd jerk here and there but that is inevitable. Shout outs to the mods for keeping things in check. 
- On the note of needing more active twitch mods, I'm wondering if having a couple of spare machines so people can log into twitch chat to help with the modding would be good. This would require more equipment so it might not be feasible. However, it would also help with the twitch chat thing I mentioned about the venue.

[u]Commentary[/u]
- No issues of note. I can really only comment on my own though and the Wild ARMS run since I was at both and re-watched them specifically for criticism. 
- The one thing during the FFT run that did stick out at me was the Smores call. Everyone just got up and left, which made the stream room look super empty. Chat commented on this, but it didn't seem to be super negative. I don't think this happened anywhere else.
- Going to second Puwexil's comment that commentators overall did good as supporting the runner. The Meateo dance during FFT didn't draw away from it for example. 
- On the note of commentary though, dunno if the area mic was better than lavs at C4L2. I did notice that it seemed to pick up more noise from the centre of the couch. I know people were saying cha0s was kinda quiet during the Wild ARMS run and I thought my volume during the FFT run at parts fluctuated. Both times were from the right side of the couch.

[u]Prizes[/u]
- No complaints. Just out of curiosity, can we give out gifts for games that aren't being run at the marathon? I have like 3 copies of Persona 3 which I can probably gift one out the next time.

[u]Incentives[/u]
- No complaints than has already been mentioned ( :( Neerrm)

[u]Charity[/u]
- Speaking as Canadian, NAMI being US-centric doesn't bother me too too much. I did prefer JDRF myself since members of my immediate family are effected by it and it is in Canada. But NAMI being very well regarded by the organizers and their overall support makes it such that its not a big issue. There are LOTS of good causes and we have limited resources so I'm not too upset by this.

[u]Social Media[/u]
- Having attendees provide tweets I found made it more lively. Possibly more effective than just the RPGLB twitter since it showed everyone having a good time overall.

More if I can think of other stuff to comment on.

JLohman711

2015-05-28 09:29:47 am

My thoughts as a home viewer:

Schedule: Excellent lineup of games. Thanks for being yet another marathon that has totally destroyed my sleep schedule. Every run I saw was excellent. Nice job by all the runners.

Tech: The stream layouts were amazing.
The only issues I noticed from home were the sound issue at the start of Diablo 3 and a few times where host/runner mics remained muted through the early part of a run.

Chat: I was in both chats the entire marathon. Overall both were excellent places to be.
I especially appreciated how welcoming the twitch chat was when Essentia's mom popped in during the end of FF4/start of Chrono Trigger.

Donations/Incentives: A few early incentives were maybe overpriced given the shorter time for them to be met.
I agree with the points already made by Puwexil and others concerning certain FF4 incentives (carrot/trashcan and the onsite snipe of the character names)
Donation processing was excellent overall. It was nice to actually have my comment read. And the incentive I finished off with my donation was totally worth it.

Charity: As a person that suffers from mental illness myself, I felt NAMI was an excellent choice.

My thoughts as a home viewer:

Schedule: Excellent lineup of games.  Thanks for being yet another marathon that has totally destroyed my sleep schedule.  Every run I saw was excellent. Nice job by all the runners.

Tech: The stream layouts were amazing.
The only issues I noticed from home were the sound issue at the start of Diablo 3 and a few times where host/runner mics remained muted through the early part of a run.

Chat: I was in both chats the entire marathon. Overall both were excellent places to be. 
I especially appreciated how welcoming the twitch chat was when Essentia's mom popped in during the end of FF4/start of Chrono Trigger.

Donations/Incentives: A few early incentives were maybe overpriced given the shorter time for them to be met.
I agree with the points already made by Puwexil and others concerning certain FF4 incentives (carrot/trashcan and the onsite snipe of the character names)
Donation processing was excellent overall. It was nice to actually have my comment read. And the incentive I finished off with my donation was totally worth it.

Charity: As a person that suffers from mental illness myself, I felt NAMI was an excellent choice.