Rules and FAQ revision

Breakdown

Edit history:

Breakdown: 2010-10-15 04:49:52 pm

2010-10-15 04:48:07 pm

Haters gonna hate

Spider-Waffle, you seem to miss the point of this thread. It's an unveiling of the new rules and we're taking suggestions on how to fine tune the text so it's as clear and concise as possible. What the rules are is not up for debate. You don't like it, that much is obvious, and you're perfectly within your rights not to. Long story short though, no matter how much you rage about it, pick semantics with those who "oppose" you about it, and insist that this is the worst decision SDA could possibly make, it's a decision that's been made and will be implemented.

And really, if you're so confident that these runs will be the most popular runs ever by a wide margin, why do you even need SDA? By all means, go make your own site, host your runs and others like them that have been affected by the new rule change, and encourage others to make more like them. If you're right in your estimates the site should prosper no problem. It will give those who don't want to play their games unscripted a place to call home.

I'm willing to bet it's pretty easy to think I'm being condescending in the above paragraph, but I'm actually quite serious. This is a big change, and will displace a reasonably sized chunk of people and projects, but just because we don't feel scripts fit in with what SDA's about doesn't mean the pursuit of a well constructed scripted run is suddenly invalid. All SDA offered to any speedrunner ever was the hosting of their run and some exposure on our front page, nothing more, nothing less. You can quite easily get the same thing on your own terms on a site of your own making. SDA's gone a different way, maybe it's time to make your own.

Spider-Waffle, you seem to miss the point of this thread.  It's an unveiling of the new rules and we're taking suggestions on how to fine tune the text so it's as clear and concise as possible.  What the rules are is not up for debate.  You don't like it, that much is obvious, and you're perfectly within your rights not to.  Long story short though, no matter how much you rage about it, pick semantics with those who "oppose" you about it, and insist that this is the worst decision SDA could possibly make, it's a decision that's been made and will be implemented.

And really, if you're so confident that these runs will be the most popular runs ever by a wide margin, why do you even need SDA?  By all means, go make your own site, host your runs and others like them that have been affected by the new rule change, and encourage others to make more like them.  If you're right in your estimates the site should prosper no problem.  It will give those who don't want to play their games unscripted a place to call home.

I'm willing to bet it's pretty easy to think I'm being condescending in the above paragraph, but I'm actually quite serious.  This is a big change, and will displace a reasonably sized chunk of people and projects, but just because we don't feel scripts fit in with what SDA's about doesn't mean the pursuit of a well constructed scripted run is suddenly invalid.  All SDA offered to any speedrunner ever was the hosting of their run and some exposure on our front page, nothing more, nothing less.  You can quite easily get the same thing on your own terms on a site of your own making.  SDA's gone a different way, maybe it's time to make your own.

VorpalEdge

2010-10-15 04:49:48 pm

welcome to the machine

Since this topic is pretty obviously not going to be used for its original purpose anymore, it's time to respond to the last criticisms of the document before making the final edits. I kinda feel bad for shutting the viewer preference discussion down now that I'm rereading the topic... but not that bad.

Quote from Manocheese:

Quote:

Mods may be accepted as runs of a separate game at staff discretion.

I thought Mike decided against this? I can't check now, but I thought I'd point it out.

You're right, but that was eventually changed. >_> Now that you mention it, it needs to be added in the list of changes in my second post in the thread. Also, most of the other things you mentioned are going to be addressed in some way.

Quote:

"Players may not use systems modified in any way".

the actual statement in the rules is "Players may not modify their systems in any way (e.g. overclocking it to reduce lag). The only extra hardware allowed are mod chips and boot disks used for playing imports, video mods to allow old systems to output higher quality audio/video, and official add-ons, such as the Nintendo 64 expansion pack.", although that's going to be reworded a bit.

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Were seconds already rounded down? I thought they were rounded up, or at least rounded to the nearest minute.

They're always rounded down. Even if a run is five seconds away from rolling over to the next minute, calling a 3:40:55 run 3:41 would imply that those extra five seconds existed, which is misleading and uncharitable to the runner. Remember that, if seconds were tracked, this hypothetical run would still be 3:40:xx.

Since this topic is pretty obviously not going to be used for its original purpose anymore, it's time to respond to the last criticisms of the document before making the final edits.  I kinda feel bad for shutting the viewer preference discussion down now that I'm rereading the topic... but not [i]that[/i] bad.

[quote="Manocheese"][quote]Mods may be accepted as runs of a separate game at staff discretion.[/quote]

I thought Mike decided against this? I can't check now, but I thought I'd point it out.[/quote]

You're right, but that was eventually changed. >_>  Now that you mention it, it needs to be added in the list of changes in my second post in the thread.  Also, most of the other things you mentioned are going to be addressed in some way.

[quote]"Players may not use systems modified in any way".[/quote]

the actual statement in the rules is "Players may not modify their systems in any way (e.g. overclocking it to reduce lag). The only extra hardware allowed are mod chips and boot disks used for playing imports, video mods to allow old systems to output higher quality audio/video, and official add-ons, such as the Nintendo 64 expansion pack.", although that's going to be reworded a bit.

[quote="ZenicReverie"]Were seconds already rounded down? I thought they were rounded up, or at least rounded to the nearest minute.[/quote]

They're always rounded down.  Even if a run is five seconds away from rolling over to the next minute, calling a 3:40:55 run 3:41 would imply that those extra five seconds existed, which is misleading and uncharitable to the runner.  Remember that, if seconds were tracked, this hypothetical run would still be 3:40:xx.

VorpalEdge

Edit history:

VorpalEdge: 2010-10-16 07:18:27 pm

VorpalEdge: 2010-10-16 07:13:07 pm

2010-10-16 07:12:44 pm

welcome to the machine

The next version's in. This one is final, unless someone comes up with a really compelling reason to change something that is actively confusing in the next day or so. Also, in something that I really should have been doing a while ago, I'm attaching the document with Track Changes enabled; all of the changes from the previous version are highlighted for you all. Most of it is minor wording changes; there is one thing worth noting. Video camera proof is no longer explicitly required when someone loads a save in an ss run. It hadn't actually been enforced in a while (a recent example I can think of is the valkyrie profile 100%), so out it goes. If you're wondering why it's question in the FAQ was also deleted, it's because there's a sentence in the Segmented Category paragraph that rendered the rest of it redundant.

Everything else should be self-explanatory. Enjoy.

[edit] lol, why is there a random paragraph with a different font size? it's not displaying like that in the source file. >_>

The next version's in.  [b]This one is final[/b], unless someone comes up with a really compelling reason to change something that is actively confusing in the next day or so.  Also, in something that I really should have been doing a while ago, I'm attaching the document with Track Changes enabled; all of the changes from the previous version are highlighted for you all.  Most of it is minor wording changes; there is one thing worth noting.  Video camera proof is no longer explicitly required when someone loads a save in an ss run.  It hadn't actually been enforced in a while (a recent example I can think of is the valkyrie profile 100%), so out it goes.  If you're wondering why it's question in the FAQ was also deleted, it's because there's a sentence in the Segmented Category paragraph that rendered the rest of it redundant.

Everything else should be self-explanatory.  Enjoy.

[edit] lol, why is there a random paragraph with a different font size?  it's not displaying like that in the source file. >_>

Attachment:

SDA Rules Revision.doc

djcj

2010-10-21 11:03:16 am

Quote from Inexistence:

Also, about the mousewheel jump thing, I've been thinking the same thing. I've heard that there are mice with scrollwheels that will continuously scroll, until you specifically stop it. This could make AHK obsolete, and technically, SDA would be fine with it. Wallclimbing (where you spam jump and grab, so you can pull an object underneath you and have it lift you up against a wall) would be possible with it too, as you can spam e fast enough on your own to manage it.

I wasn't talking about a mouse with a macro function, what I meant was binding jump to mwheelup and mwheeldown and spinning the wheel to bunnyhop (or fly) in source engine games. To me that doesn't sound like a macro or script.

Zeupar

2010-10-21 12:46:50 pm

Sonical!

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Quote from Manocheese:

Quote from Current rules:

You are not allowed to modify your system...

Quote from Revised rules:

Players may not modify their systems...

Saying 'Players may not modify their systems' isn't only talking to the players though. I mean if you want to take that literally, then players can't, but maybe someone else could?

Indeed. That is the reason why I think that part should be reworded like I suggested in a previous post.

cyghfer

2010-10-21 06:16:31 pm

anyone who actually assumed that runners could use systems modified by other people that aren't players is stupid. there might be tiny wording issues littered throughout the current version but a line needs to be drawn somewhere in the editing process.

ZenicReverie

2010-10-21 10:01:29 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Quote from cyghfer:

anyone who actually assumed that runners could use systems modified by other people that aren't players is stupid. there might be tiny wording issues littered throughout the current version but a line needs to be drawn somewhere in the editing process.

Working through details like that makes translations clearer. Nothing should be left to inference when you're making a document that's going to be translated. Also, not sure if it will ever matter, but the rules are more or less a contract, and if anything ever gets serious, then the rules should not be left to any form of interpretation (whether it is stupid or not).

Zeupar

2010-10-22 07:19:39 am

Sonical!

Quote from cyghfer:

anyone who actually assumed that runners could use systems modified by other people that aren't players is stupid. there might be tiny wording issues littered throughout the current version but a line needs to be drawn somewhere in the editing process.

Sadly, the internet is full of stupid people.

TheMG2

2010-10-24 12:26:51 pm

Quote from Zeupar:

Quote from cyghfer:

anyone who actually assumed that runners could use systems modified by other people that aren't players is stupid. there might be tiny wording issues littered throughout the current version but a line needs to be drawn somewhere in the editing process.

Sadly, the internet is full of stupid people.

The world is full of stupid people. The internet is not special in that regard.

ApolloFTW

Edit history:

ApolloFTW: 2011-08-29 10:58:59 pm

2011-08-29 10:13:18 pm

Lest We Forget

This Speed run of Megaman X3 I watched claims to be "legit" with no cheating, can you verrify it for me (summited or not).
Link:

Paraxade

2011-08-29 10:18:17 pm

sda's not gonna verify it unless the runner decides to submit it.

ApolloFTW

Edit history:

ApolloFTW: 2011-08-29 10:47:10 pm

ApolloFTW: 2011-08-29 10:46:37 pm

2011-08-29 10:45:29 pm

Lest We Forget

[quote="Paraxade"]sda's not gonna verify it unless the runner decides to submit it.[/quo

What I mean is, if this run (summited or not) is legit and not using any emulators and any other cheats.

ZenicReverie

2011-08-29 10:48:06 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Hard to tell concretely without getting raw files. Youtube changes too many things during their encoding process. Why do you care?

Sir VG

2011-08-29 10:48:14 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

It means exactly what he said it means.

BTW, what does this have to do with the rules or FAQ? And why have you posted it in 2 different threads?

It doesn't belong here, IMO. Save it for an X3 discussion thread.