Professional Second Banana
RPG Limit Break 2018 raised almost 50% more than last year's event and I've heard quite a bit of positive feedback from attendees and viewers; but as always there are things we can improve to make RPGLB 2019 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. It is preferred by Staff for feedback to be posted to this thread (to make it easier to find later), but it is also accepted via the #rpglb-event-feedback channel on our Discord server (discord.gg/rpglb).
Schedule/Games
-The event dates in mid-May were chosen to try to minimize conflicts with college/university classes & finals weeks, avoid running into Memorial Day weekend (which would impact many attendees' travel costs), and be at least a full month away from SGDQ. We know that multiple community members are unhappy with the dates overlapping with Mothers' Day weekend, and we're interested in hearing feedback from them on what they'd rather see in event dates (the more specific the better).
-We are planning to keep the marathon 6 ½ days (Sunday-Saturday) for the foreseeable future.
-Game submissions were done about a month later than RPGLB17’s (in order to give runners more time to prepare their submissions), and the games list/schedule were released about 3 months prior to the event dates. Interested to hear if this worked more conveniently for people compared to previous events (which did submissions & posted the game list about a month sooner).
-Runner drops were pretty heavy this year - we had a total of 6 games need to be removed from the schedule and replaced. Real-life happens and we don't hold it against people for dropping (especially when our event has significant costs to attend for many people) - I'm just bringing this up since I saw some questions about how the games committee replaces drops, and wanted to go over that process (which is different from the initial game selection):
-After the games list is done, games are chosen for the backup list - these are generally games that almost made the accept list but had to be cut for time, and games with a proven history of success at previous events (but didn’t make the accept list in favor of games that haven’t been in yet); and we aim for a backup list with a variety of run lengths, runners, and platforms. Like accepted runners, it is expected that backup runners register for the event before the deadline in order to stay on the backup list.
-The #1 factor in drop replacement was avoiding damage to the schedule, like significantly changing the timeslots for other runs, creating conflicts with runners' availability, creating logistical or tech setup issues due to specific runs being too close together or far apart, etc.
-#2 factor was replacing drops quickly, so the new runners would have as much notice and practice time as possible. We often did delay replacement decisions up to a week or so in order to see if more drops happened (which would allow for more replacement options, such as replacing 2 shorter games with 1 longer one).
-Side factors were trying to use drop replacements to give runs to people that didn't already have other runs on the schedule (when possible), and having replacements be similar to the dropped game for genre/franchise/etc.
-Next event the committee will consider GDQ-style setup blocks (which will either just be absorbed or replaced with bonus games, depending on schedule pacing) and other options to help keep the schedule from falling too far behind.
Venue
- Using the smaller OC room for extra TVs seemed to work well for preventing heavy crowding in the main practice/casual room. There wasn’t really a defined purpose for each room though - for future events we’re curious what attendees would like to see in TV rooms: larger ‘casual’ room and smaller ‘practice’ room (with the practice room expected to be a quieter place for runner practice), larger ‘practice/casual’ room and smaller ‘races/tournaments’ room, etc.
- Having both dividers closed seemed to help prevent practice room noise from getting into the stream room.
- The food/board game room being separated from the rest of the event space was unfortunate (I heard many attendees say they weren't aware it existed for some or all of the event), but was a necessary sacrifice to keep attendance fees low (we were offered a significant discount on renting the Officers Club, and going with a different setup that kept everything together would have cost a lot more). Originally we were planning to have the food trucks park by the food room, but the hotel required them to park by the OC instead (fortunately the weather was consistently nice enough that this wasn't as big an inconvenience as it could have been). We as staff appreciate people's flexibility in this, and aim to provide an unbroken space for next year's venue.
Food
-Food trucks seemed to work out well aside from the previously mentioned location issue. Interested in feedback on the food selection, availability hours, meeting of dietary restrictions, etc. As the event continues to grow we don’t expect our charity partner to be able to continue providing daily full meals for all attendees the entire event; but we are hopeful that food/drinks support will continue in some form.
Tech
Schedule delays occurred for a number of reasons, and the tech setup certainly contributed. Here are our thoughts on how/why that happened:
- The audio setup became much more complex due to the new mixer and equipment; we knew this would happen and accepted the risk, plus it allowed us to do more cool things on audio (e.g. service special requests for Dr Skies and RyuQuezacotl during their runs)
- Interview setups imposed some added delays, largely related to the above point
- Many setups had specific issues that were unforeseen or unusual in nature, for example:
- Valkyrie Profile was entirely our fault; we did not set up and test DS capture in advance
- Soul Blazer was not reasonable to foresee; however, in the future we'll swap carts sooner as a testing step, because it's fast to do even if it's not likely to be the problem
- Legend of Legaia was caused by the tech on shift not being sufficiently educated on the AV capture, and Vulajin/Gamer/others being asleep or unresponsive; we're looking to ensure 24/7 coverage of tech experts in the future
- We experienced frequent issues with bad audio and video coming from consoles, almost entirely due to bad cables or splitter deficiencies; we're looking into better equipment to reduce these issues
- We had one instance of unplanned stream downtime during the event (during Ni no Kuni); the cause is unknown so there are no related changes planned (no, no one kicked the cable)
There were complaints at times during the event regarding audio issues, e.g. game audio too quiet or people being muted or the audio balance varying from game to game.
- This is a Very Hard Problem(™)
- Twitch chat feedback doesn't help with this since it's usually a mixed bag of conflicting opinions
- We're looking to improve our monitoring both inside and outside the stream room to improve the quality of the stream
- This is also partially a manpower issue because consistency is hard to accomplish without having the same people balancing
- It's also partially a training problem with the new mixer; we're going to do a much better job next year educating audio volunteers on how to use the mixer to its full potential
Finally, we had some complaints regarding volunteering for tech (e.g. people coming on shift during a game and leaving during the same game), and we have some thoughts about tech volunteering as well:
- Lengthy games that outlast individual volunteer shifts are a reality of our event, but we'll be thinking about whether we can improve that since we know it's boring and feels like you're not able to help much
- Our tech training was not sufficient to cover all of the tasks expected of tech volunteers
- Even so, our volunteers stepped up in a major way and educated each other
- Another part of this was that we didn't even fully understand the mixer prior to the event, and learned many lessons by the end
- We're planning to have training videos available pre-event next year
- We made many changes to the tech setup throughout the event (usually to simplify things), and these complicated volunteers' lives; the tech scratch doc somewhat helped communicate these, but we need to improve on this communication
- We struggle with 24/7 expert coverage of the event, which means sometimes volunteers are left without any expert support; this is a high priority for us to address next event
Twitch Chat/Discord
- We realize it's getting more difficult to keep Twitch chat under control, especially during the busy times. We're looking at bringing in more mods, especially those who have helped with community events, to make things better. We're also putting together a list of tools to help make moderation easier.
Website
-This event saw a fully redesigned rpglimitbreak.com website with a new stream viewer and links to other resources. For people that used the site during the marathon, interested in feedback on the design and feature set.
-We are aiming to move game submissions and event registration to our website starting next year.
Prizes
-Next year’s prize submission form will include a field for preferred name to use on our website/stream layouts, and also an anonymous option.
Incentives
-Incentives were priced a bit higher overall than last event, and several incentives for the last 2 runs were hidden until the last 2 days to allow them to be priced based on the marathon’s overall donation pacing.
-A few runs this year falsely appeared to go over estimate due to mid-run incentives being miscategorized as post-run on the schedule. For incentive submissions next year, we will ask runners to indicate whether incentives with time costs would be done during or after the run (to ensure that mid-run incentives are added to the estimate instead of to post-run setup).
Charity
-NAMI has been a great partner to our event for 4 years, and they’ve started using RPGLB as their shining example of ‘Do It Yourself’ fundraising campaigns. The cause of mental health has also clearly resonated well with our attendees and viewers. That said, we always want our charity cause/partner to have strong community support are always open to feedback. The main specific feedback we’ve gotten in the past is requests for as much donation money as possible to go towards international/global efforts, and we have passed that along to NAMI.
Volunteering
Signups
-Host auditions were slow until we put out a general call to get more applicants. Hopefully this goes away in year 2 of requesting auditions since all of our hosts from this year will have one
already, and there will be a larger attendee base that will want to submit.
- Next year, we will ask on the form if Tech volunteers would be comfortable working on the audio mixer, given appropriate training. This will help in scheduling to make sure knowledgeable people are on duty as much as possible.
- There will also be a section to list what runs you will be on the couch for commentary to avoid any scheduling conflicts.
Scheduling
- We attempted to place senior techs on specific shifts to cover setups, but that was somewhat undone by the sheer number of game drops and reworking the schedule multiple times in April, and even into May. This resulted in inexperienced volunteers being thrown into the fire on occasion during setups.
On-Site
- The biggest curveball we threw at volunteers on donations was having to update the schedule in the tracker. We did not communicate this well enough internally as staff to prepare volunteers for it. Going forward, updating the tracker will remain on the donation station volunteer, and we will include this in the orientation before the marathon.
Social Media
- Social Media coverage during the event went well, and people on Twitter appeared to be talking quite a bit about the event! We'll continue to look into ways to involve people off-site.
Pre-Show/Interviews
-The interview area/setup this event was a pretty significant upgrade from last year’s, and went off well aside from a few tech hiccups with transitions between normal setup and interview.
-Setup periods with scheduled interviews should have had some extra time added, but this didn’t happen due to a scheduling oversight - will do next time to help keep the schedule better on track.
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. It is preferred by Staff for feedback to be posted to this thread (to make it easier to find later), but it is also accepted via the #rpglb-event-feedback channel on our Discord server (discord.gg/rpglb).
Schedule/Games
-The event dates in mid-May were chosen to try to minimize conflicts with college/university classes & finals weeks, avoid running into Memorial Day weekend (which would impact many attendees' travel costs), and be at least a full month away from SGDQ. We know that multiple community members are unhappy with the dates overlapping with Mothers' Day weekend, and we're interested in hearing feedback from them on what they'd rather see in event dates (the more specific the better).
-We are planning to keep the marathon 6 ½ days (Sunday-Saturday) for the foreseeable future.
-Game submissions were done about a month later than RPGLB17’s (in order to give runners more time to prepare their submissions), and the games list/schedule were released about 3 months prior to the event dates. Interested to hear if this worked more conveniently for people compared to previous events (which did submissions & posted the game list about a month sooner).
-Runner drops were pretty heavy this year - we had a total of 6 games need to be removed from the schedule and replaced. Real-life happens and we don't hold it against people for dropping (especially when our event has significant costs to attend for many people) - I'm just bringing this up since I saw some questions about how the games committee replaces drops, and wanted to go over that process (which is different from the initial game selection):
-After the games list is done, games are chosen for the backup list - these are generally games that almost made the accept list but had to be cut for time, and games with a proven history of success at previous events (but didn’t make the accept list in favor of games that haven’t been in yet); and we aim for a backup list with a variety of run lengths, runners, and platforms. Like accepted runners, it is expected that backup runners register for the event before the deadline in order to stay on the backup list.
-The #1 factor in drop replacement was avoiding damage to the schedule, like significantly changing the timeslots for other runs, creating conflicts with runners' availability, creating logistical or tech setup issues due to specific runs being too close together or far apart, etc.
-#2 factor was replacing drops quickly, so the new runners would have as much notice and practice time as possible. We often did delay replacement decisions up to a week or so in order to see if more drops happened (which would allow for more replacement options, such as replacing 2 shorter games with 1 longer one).
-Side factors were trying to use drop replacements to give runs to people that didn't already have other runs on the schedule (when possible), and having replacements be similar to the dropped game for genre/franchise/etc.
-Next event the committee will consider GDQ-style setup blocks (which will either just be absorbed or replaced with bonus games, depending on schedule pacing) and other options to help keep the schedule from falling too far behind.
Venue
- Using the smaller OC room for extra TVs seemed to work well for preventing heavy crowding in the main practice/casual room. There wasn’t really a defined purpose for each room though - for future events we’re curious what attendees would like to see in TV rooms: larger ‘casual’ room and smaller ‘practice’ room (with the practice room expected to be a quieter place for runner practice), larger ‘practice/casual’ room and smaller ‘races/tournaments’ room, etc.
- Having both dividers closed seemed to help prevent practice room noise from getting into the stream room.
- The food/board game room being separated from the rest of the event space was unfortunate (I heard many attendees say they weren't aware it existed for some or all of the event), but was a necessary sacrifice to keep attendance fees low (we were offered a significant discount on renting the Officers Club, and going with a different setup that kept everything together would have cost a lot more). Originally we were planning to have the food trucks park by the food room, but the hotel required them to park by the OC instead (fortunately the weather was consistently nice enough that this wasn't as big an inconvenience as it could have been). We as staff appreciate people's flexibility in this, and aim to provide an unbroken space for next year's venue.
Food
-Food trucks seemed to work out well aside from the previously mentioned location issue. Interested in feedback on the food selection, availability hours, meeting of dietary restrictions, etc. As the event continues to grow we don’t expect our charity partner to be able to continue providing daily full meals for all attendees the entire event; but we are hopeful that food/drinks support will continue in some form.
Tech
Schedule delays occurred for a number of reasons, and the tech setup certainly contributed. Here are our thoughts on how/why that happened:
- The audio setup became much more complex due to the new mixer and equipment; we knew this would happen and accepted the risk, plus it allowed us to do more cool things on audio (e.g. service special requests for Dr Skies and RyuQuezacotl during their runs)
- Interview setups imposed some added delays, largely related to the above point
- Many setups had specific issues that were unforeseen or unusual in nature, for example:
- Valkyrie Profile was entirely our fault; we did not set up and test DS capture in advance
- Soul Blazer was not reasonable to foresee; however, in the future we'll swap carts sooner as a testing step, because it's fast to do even if it's not likely to be the problem
- Legend of Legaia was caused by the tech on shift not being sufficiently educated on the AV capture, and Vulajin/Gamer/others being asleep or unresponsive; we're looking to ensure 24/7 coverage of tech experts in the future
- We experienced frequent issues with bad audio and video coming from consoles, almost entirely due to bad cables or splitter deficiencies; we're looking into better equipment to reduce these issues
- We had one instance of unplanned stream downtime during the event (during Ni no Kuni); the cause is unknown so there are no related changes planned (no, no one kicked the cable)
There were complaints at times during the event regarding audio issues, e.g. game audio too quiet or people being muted or the audio balance varying from game to game.
- This is a Very Hard Problem(™)
- Twitch chat feedback doesn't help with this since it's usually a mixed bag of conflicting opinions
- We're looking to improve our monitoring both inside and outside the stream room to improve the quality of the stream
- This is also partially a manpower issue because consistency is hard to accomplish without having the same people balancing
- It's also partially a training problem with the new mixer; we're going to do a much better job next year educating audio volunteers on how to use the mixer to its full potential
Finally, we had some complaints regarding volunteering for tech (e.g. people coming on shift during a game and leaving during the same game), and we have some thoughts about tech volunteering as well:
- Lengthy games that outlast individual volunteer shifts are a reality of our event, but we'll be thinking about whether we can improve that since we know it's boring and feels like you're not able to help much
- Our tech training was not sufficient to cover all of the tasks expected of tech volunteers
- Even so, our volunteers stepped up in a major way and educated each other
- Another part of this was that we didn't even fully understand the mixer prior to the event, and learned many lessons by the end
- We're planning to have training videos available pre-event next year
- We made many changes to the tech setup throughout the event (usually to simplify things), and these complicated volunteers' lives; the tech scratch doc somewhat helped communicate these, but we need to improve on this communication
- We struggle with 24/7 expert coverage of the event, which means sometimes volunteers are left without any expert support; this is a high priority for us to address next event
Twitch Chat/Discord
- We realize it's getting more difficult to keep Twitch chat under control, especially during the busy times. We're looking at bringing in more mods, especially those who have helped with community events, to make things better. We're also putting together a list of tools to help make moderation easier.
Website
-This event saw a fully redesigned rpglimitbreak.com website with a new stream viewer and links to other resources. For people that used the site during the marathon, interested in feedback on the design and feature set.
-We are aiming to move game submissions and event registration to our website starting next year.
Prizes
-Next year’s prize submission form will include a field for preferred name to use on our website/stream layouts, and also an anonymous option.
Incentives
-Incentives were priced a bit higher overall than last event, and several incentives for the last 2 runs were hidden until the last 2 days to allow them to be priced based on the marathon’s overall donation pacing.
-A few runs this year falsely appeared to go over estimate due to mid-run incentives being miscategorized as post-run on the schedule. For incentive submissions next year, we will ask runners to indicate whether incentives with time costs would be done during or after the run (to ensure that mid-run incentives are added to the estimate instead of to post-run setup).
Charity
-NAMI has been a great partner to our event for 4 years, and they’ve started using RPGLB as their shining example of ‘Do It Yourself’ fundraising campaigns. The cause of mental health has also clearly resonated well with our attendees and viewers. That said, we always want our charity cause/partner to have strong community support are always open to feedback. The main specific feedback we’ve gotten in the past is requests for as much donation money as possible to go towards international/global efforts, and we have passed that along to NAMI.
Volunteering
Signups
-Host auditions were slow until we put out a general call to get more applicants. Hopefully this goes away in year 2 of requesting auditions since all of our hosts from this year will have one
already, and there will be a larger attendee base that will want to submit.
- Next year, we will ask on the form if Tech volunteers would be comfortable working on the audio mixer, given appropriate training. This will help in scheduling to make sure knowledgeable people are on duty as much as possible.
- There will also be a section to list what runs you will be on the couch for commentary to avoid any scheduling conflicts.
Scheduling
- We attempted to place senior techs on specific shifts to cover setups, but that was somewhat undone by the sheer number of game drops and reworking the schedule multiple times in April, and even into May. This resulted in inexperienced volunteers being thrown into the fire on occasion during setups.
On-Site
- The biggest curveball we threw at volunteers on donations was having to update the schedule in the tracker. We did not communicate this well enough internally as staff to prepare volunteers for it. Going forward, updating the tracker will remain on the donation station volunteer, and we will include this in the orientation before the marathon.
Social Media
- Social Media coverage during the event went well, and people on Twitter appeared to be talking quite a bit about the event! We'll continue to look into ways to involve people off-site.
Pre-Show/Interviews
-The interview area/setup this event was a pretty significant upgrade from last year’s, and went off well aside from a few tech hiccups with transitions between normal setup and interview.
-Setup periods with scheduled interviews should have had some extra time added, but this didn’t happen due to a scheduling oversight - will do next time to help keep the schedule better on track.
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