SGDQ 2016 Feedback and Critique

Cool Matty

Edit history:

Cool Matty: 2016-10-21 05:44:36 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 04:03:43 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:42:50 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:40:21 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:08:17 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:02:58 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:02:43 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:02:26 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:02:01 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:01:24 pm

2016-07-29 02:58:53 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

It's that time again! We'd love to hear your input on this summer! Here are a few topics we're especially interested in hearing about:

Doctors Without Borders
They'd love to hear comments and criticism about their presence at the event, and their videos on the stream. Also, for those who tried it, how was the VR?

Submissions, Registration, and Schedule
Do you feel the dates for these were timely? Do you feel you understood the process and that the submission guide helped? Is there anything you were confused about?

Also, for this winter, would people be interested in late registration? Registration would be open an extra 2-3 weeks, based on our badge printer's rush capabilities. However, we would be charging an extremely high fee for these registrations, 3X of the standard registration. While we want to strongly discourage late registrations, we want to try what we can to support those who absolutely have no other choice.

Location
How did you feel about the location of the event? While we are not looking to move further west at this time, we do want feedback on how people enjoyed the city, and the availability of food/etc.

Hotel
Do you have any comments about the hotel, or things you'd like to see at a hotel in the future?

I will acknowledge that the LAN being on its own floor is unfortunate, it is simply the lowest priority room and unfortunately we ran out of rooms. However, we do want to improve signage about the location of all the rooms.

BREAKFAST
(Thanks to FanaticDreamer for the reminder)

The pastry deal is getting dropped for next summer. We will NOT offer free breakfast of any type for the summer. It was confusing, it was woefully inadequate, and no hotel is willing to offer a proper breakfast in the summer. It is a major concession for them (I believe AGDQ values it at around $150,000) and it's just not doable for SGDQ without a massive increase in room rates. We think it's better for people to simply make use of their own money and buy, or not buy breakfast at their choosing.

Costs
How did you feel about the hotel costs? Was it reasonable?

How about the registration costs? Would you be interested in slightly higher registration costs ($5-10) if we continued to add more things to do at the event? Things we have been discussing include: VR gaming experiences (aka, a giant HTC Vive room), bringing in a sponsor for board/card gaming to bolster the options and ensure it has a dedicated space, further expanding the arcade and improving its quality, expanding the game library with World9 for runners and attendees, etc.

We'd love to expand the entertainment options. But we don't want to raise the cost of registration if there's no interest in these things. By the way, we don't really want to offer these as add-ons at this time, it would be significantly more expensive that way, and complicates things for attendees.

Experience at the event
How was check-in? How was the stream-watching experience on-site? What could be improved, and what could be changed?

This should not be considered an exhaustive list of topics. If you have your own things you want to throw out there, feel free. Just remember to keep the insults out, and focus on things we can do to improve.

--------------------

Budget overview for this event:

Total paid from DWB to GDQ, including all staff pay: $170,485, paid prior to the event. This is an exact amount, not an estimate.
Total number of paid or travel reimbursed staff: 29

Entertainment (Arcade, Pinball, LAN room, hotel rooms for their staff, transport for said items from/to Maryland): $11000
Additional hotel/travel coverage for World9, Power Up Audio and DWB: $4500
Equipment: $8500
Badges: $2400
Shuttles: $5500
Hotel Internet: $11,000 (for all spaces)
Hotel Space: $13,540 not including LAN room
Prize Budget: $3500 including shipping reimbursements (not final yet, obviously)
Power Drops for Hotel: $1500
Storage for one year: $3600
Event Insurance: $300
Server Costs: $1500 for event, $1000 for Feb-June approximately
Cloudflare for 6 months: $1200
Rough Tax estimate: $15,000 (May be a lot lower, we have very little profit, but given this is the first year I will be processing the taxes, and our first year handling staff payments instead of the charity, I am playing it extremely safe)
Various monthy/yearly GDQ expenses, like insurance, license renewal, etc: ~$1000

These numbers are fairly close to exact, but you may add a leeway of $2000 in either direction for the total expenditure.

GDQ Income sources: DWB payment (above), Twitch contractual payment (cannot disclose), Twitch Ad Revenue (Approximately $13k), Registration income ($65k)
DWB Income sources: Donors, TinyBuild, Yetee, Something Artistic, Humble Bundle, GDQ donation of our subscriber revenue from February to July.

Our subscriber donation will be made once our payment is received from Twitch for the month of July, approximately 45 days from the end of July (So mid-september). Twitch is giving us 100% of July's subscriber money for this donation.

--------------------

Thanks for your support once again, everyone. I want to give special thanks to:

World9, for the exhaustive support of our events.
Jim and the OBS team, for their immense help with getting their software usable for our event.
Power Up Audio, for their fantastic work on our stream and event audio. We'll miss you guys for AGDQ! (They can't do early January, too much work at that time Sad

)
Support Class for going above and beyond their usual duties to provide us with badass layouts, and the supporting software behind it.
All the volunteers, chat mods, and social media team who worked really hard to make sure this event went smoothly.

Personally, I feel this was our smoothest event thus far and I want to make sure the next one is even better!

Note: Testrunner has posted a TECH FEEDBACK THREAD here: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/sgdq_2016_tech_feedback.html Keep all the tech stuff there so we can keep it all organized!

======================

Replies to posts below

Dates!

July 4th: While we'd love to avoid holidays, summer sucks. A lot. Here's an overview of what we have to consider when picking dates:

Late May/Early June: Runs too close to colleges
Mid-June: E3, we will get stomped on for streaming and lack of press.
Late June: All of the city is booked next year. All of it. Some massive event.
July 4th: Open, and has added benefit of cheaper rates from the hotels, because they don't get many bookings then.
Mid July: Runs over EVO, we will get stomped on for streaming.
Late July/Early August: The International. We will get stomped on for streaming.
Mid-late August: Getting too close to college/school starting back up.

Long story short, summer sucks.

As for AGDQ2017?
The first week of January actually sits on New Years. July 4th is a big enough holiday on its own, but tons of people, including staff cannot leave their family obligations to manage an event over new years. Furthermore, we would overlap entirely over MAGFest, which means potentially reduced numbers, and we will not have Tokyo Attack for most of the event.

Thread title:

It's that time again! We'd love to hear your input on this summer! Here are a few topics we're especially interested in hearing about:

[b]Doctors Without Borders[/b]
They'd love to hear comments and criticism about their presence at the event, and their videos on the stream. Also, for those who tried it, how was the VR?

[b]Submissions, Registration, and Schedule[/b]
Do you feel the dates for these were timely? Do you feel you understood the process and that the submission guide helped? Is there anything you were confused about?

Also, for this winter, would people be interested in late registration? Registration would be open an extra 2-3 weeks, based on our badge printer's rush capabilities. However, [b]we would be charging an extremely high fee for these registrations, 3X of the standard registration[/b]. While we want to strongly discourage late registrations, we want to try what we can to support those who absolutely have no other choice.

[b]Location[/b]
How did you feel about the location of the event? While we are not looking to move further west at this time, we do want feedback on how people enjoyed the city, and the availability of food/etc.

[b]Hotel[/b]
Do you have any comments about the hotel, or things you'd like to see at a hotel in the future?

I will acknowledge that the LAN being on its own floor is unfortunate, it is simply the lowest priority room and unfortunately we ran out of rooms. However, we do want to improve signage about the location of all the rooms.

[b]BREAKFAST[/b]
(Thanks to FanaticDreamer for the reminder)

The pastry deal is getting dropped for next summer. We will NOT offer free breakfast of any type for the summer. It was confusing, it was woefully inadequate, and no hotel is willing to offer a proper breakfast in the summer. It is a major concession for them (I believe AGDQ values it at around $150,000) and it's just not doable for SGDQ without a massive increase in room rates. We think it's better for people to simply make use of their own money and buy, or not buy breakfast at their choosing.

[b]Costs[/b]
How did you feel about the hotel costs? Was it reasonable?

How about the registration costs? Would you be interested in slightly higher registration costs ($5-10) if we continued to add more things to do at the event? Things we have been discussing include: VR gaming experiences (aka, a giant HTC Vive room), bringing in a sponsor for board/card gaming to bolster the options and ensure it has a dedicated space, further expanding the arcade and improving its quality, expanding the game library with World9 for runners and attendees, etc.

We'd love to expand the entertainment options. But we don't want to raise the cost of registration if there's no interest in these things. By the way, we don't really want to offer these as add-ons at this time, it would be significantly more expensive that way, and complicates things for attendees.

[b]Experience at the event[/b]
How was check-in? How was the stream-watching experience on-site? What could be improved, and what could be changed?

This should not be considered an exhaustive list of topics. If you have your own things you want to throw out there, feel free. Just remember to keep the insults out, and focus on things we can do to improve.

--------------------

Budget overview for this event:

Total paid from DWB to GDQ, including all staff pay: $170,485, paid prior to the event. This is an exact amount, not an estimate. 
Total number of paid or travel reimbursed staff: 29

Entertainment (Arcade, Pinball, LAN room, hotel rooms for their staff, transport for said items from/to Maryland): $11000
Additional hotel/travel coverage for World9, Power Up Audio and DWB: $4500
Equipment: $8500
Badges: $2400
Shuttles: $5500
Hotel Internet: $11,000 (for all spaces)
Hotel Space: $13,540 not including LAN room
Prize Budget: $3500 including shipping reimbursements (not final yet, obviously)
Power Drops for Hotel: $1500
Storage for one year: $3600
Event Insurance: $300
Server Costs: $1500 for event, $1000 for Feb-June approximately
Cloudflare for 6 months: $1200
Rough Tax estimate: $15,000 (May be a lot lower, we have very little profit, but given this is the first year I will be processing the taxes, and our first year handling staff payments instead of the charity, I am playing it extremely safe)
Various monthy/yearly GDQ expenses, like insurance, license renewal, etc: ~$1000

These numbers are fairly close to exact, but you may add a leeway of $2000 in either direction for the total expenditure.

GDQ Income sources: DWB payment (above), Twitch contractual payment (cannot disclose), Twitch Ad Revenue (Approximately $13k), Registration income ($65k)
DWB Income sources: Donors, TinyBuild, Yetee, Something Artistic, Humble Bundle, GDQ donation of our subscriber revenue from February to July.

Our subscriber donation will be made once our payment is received from Twitch for the month of July, approximately 45 days from the end of July (So mid-september). Twitch is giving us 100% of July's subscriber money for this donation.

--------------------

Thanks for your support once again, everyone. I want to give special thanks to:

World9, for the exhaustive support of our events.
Jim and the OBS team, for their immense help with getting their software usable for our event.
Power Up Audio, for their fantastic work on our stream and event audio. We'll miss you guys for AGDQ! (They can't do early January, too much work at that time :( )
Support Class for going above and beyond their usual duties to provide us with badass layouts, and the supporting software behind it.
All the volunteers, chat mods, and social media team who worked really hard to make sure this event went smoothly.

Personally, I feel this was our smoothest event thus far and I want to make sure the next one is even better!

[b]Note:[/b] Testrunner has posted a TECH FEEDBACK THREAD here: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/sgdq_2016_tech_feedback.html   Keep all the tech stuff there so we can keep it all organized!

======================

[size="20"]Replies to posts below[/size]

[b]Dates![/b]

July 4th: While we'd love to avoid holidays, summer sucks. A lot. Here's an overview of what we have to consider when picking dates:

Late May/Early June: Runs too close to colleges
Mid-June: E3, we will get stomped on for streaming and lack of press.
Late June: All of the city is booked next year. All of it. Some massive event.
July 4th: Open, and has added benefit of cheaper rates from the hotels, because they don't get many bookings then.
Mid July: Runs over EVO, we will get stomped on for streaming.
Late July/Early August: The International. We will get stomped on for streaming.
Mid-late August: Getting too close to college/school starting back up.

Long story short, summer sucks.

As for AGDQ2017?
The first week of January actually sits on New Years. July 4th is a big enough holiday on its own, but tons of people, including staff cannot leave their family obligations to manage an event over new years. Furthermore, we would overlap entirely over MAGFest, which means potentially reduced numbers, and we will not have Tokyo Attack for most of the event.

TheMG2

2016-07-29 03:05:03 pm

Great marathon imo

BystanderTim

2016-07-29 03:19:26 pm

Personally, i thought this was a fantastic marathon. However, the dates we're near impossible for me to attend, and I was really hopping to attend. Just putting that out, as the marathon organization was fantastic and this was a definite improvement from AGDQ 2016's fiasco

FanaticDreamer

Edit history:

FanaticDreamer: 2016-07-29 03:37:18 pm

FanaticDreamer: 2016-07-29 03:34:29 pm

2016-07-29 03:32:40 pm

Let's get frisky.

Okay so here are my critiques.

Hotel: I think that the breakfast situation wasn't a good one. I feel like the way the previous GDQ had was much better. I understand someone said "based on knowledge the voucher system would be fine" but uh, first come first serve isn't really a fun/productive way to do things when there are over 1000 hungry people at an event, in my opinion. The breakfast situation caused me and a few others I know to not stay up as late - where as in past GDQs we literally stayed up all night and went to breakfast together. I feel like given the fact that the ticket prices went up slightly...the breakfast option shouldn't decrease in quality. At least not compared to previous GDQs where the options were much better.

The parking situation: not good. I get that there were free vouchers and luckily for me, a friend who was staying gave me their left over vouchers (because they were only staying for half the week and had extra) but that wasn't the case for everyone. I know many people who didn't make the cut and ended up having to pay for expensive parking. I feel like that situation could have been better worked out somehow.

Room Locations: It seemed odd that some of the rooms were spread out from each other soo much. I feel like this could be better.

Dates: I know this is probably being said a lot, but the dates weren't that good considering that quite a few people had to deal with a more expensive flight. Luckily I drove, but again, not everyone is as crazy as me to do a 20+ hour drive. Tongue

I feel like SGDQ could have been pushed off a few weeks and it would have made little difference in the long run.

Location: This might need some looking into. The location was kind of...seedy. It didn't feel safe going out places at night and a few people I know had incidents that could have ended very badly, I.E. one of my friends was almost violently accosted by a homeless guy. I didn't feel this issue with AGDQ's hotel...just the fact that SGDQ is in such a huge city. Might be worth thinking about.

Thoughts on Improvement: I loved the small touches the hotel for AGDQ did for us. Like the Final Fantasy themed waters, random bowls of candy everywhere, etc. Little touches like that are quite nice and really make someone feel welcomed. The game lineup was MUCH better than previous GDQs but there were still a few runs that were...meh. I think it would help to let the community vote on a few runs like a wild card submission. This would keep things interesting and make the community feel like their input matters.

And since you mentioned this winter, I still am in the camp that the dates for AGDQ aren't good. I think the weekend before would be much better. The week you guys have it would cause a large portion of the community (I.E. the High Schoolers/College kids) to not be able to go. And the adults who can't get off of work, either. I just think this should be rethought.

Lastly, while I know GDQ isn't a "con" in most senses, I wonder if the powers that be have ever considered a vendor area? For people to bring stuff to sell pearlers, drawings, etc. Might be an idea.

Good Notes: Hotel staff was very pleasant and helpful. The GDQ staff were much friendlier/talkative than previous events, I feel. I think the cost of registration is fine now, and we probably could handle an extra 5$ or so, but if it gets TOO high that may be an issue. And I want to thank Twitch or whomever for the free shirts at the end. Was a really nice gesture. Smiley

Edit: I'll ditto the post below me about the arcade situation. Seemed less to it than AGDQ and since the cost of registration has gone up it is imperative that the quality doesn't go down.

Okay so here are my critiques.

[b]Hotel: [/b] I think that the breakfast situation wasn't a good one. I feel like the way the previous GDQ had was much better. I understand someone said "based on knowledge the voucher system would be fine" but uh, first come first serve isn't really a fun/productive way to do things when there are over 1000 hungry people at an event, in my opinion. The breakfast situation caused me and a few others I know to not stay up as late - where as in past GDQs we literally stayed up all night and went to breakfast together. I feel like given the fact that the ticket prices went up slightly...the breakfast option shouldn't decrease in quality. At least not compared to previous GDQs where the options were much better.

The parking situation: not good. I get that there were free vouchers and luckily for me, a friend who was staying gave me their left over vouchers (because they were only staying for half the week and had extra) but that wasn't the case for everyone. I know many people who didn't make the cut and ended up having to pay for expensive parking. I feel like that situation could have been better worked out somehow.

[b]Room Locations:[/b] It seemed odd that some of the rooms were spread out from each other soo much. I feel like this could be better.

[b]Dates:[/b] I know this is probably being said a lot, but the dates weren't that good considering that quite a few people had to deal with a more expensive flight. Luckily I drove, but again, not everyone is as crazy as me to do a 20+ hour drive. :P I feel like SGDQ could have been pushed off a few weeks and it would have made little difference in the long run.

[b]Location:[/b] This might need some looking into. The location was kind of...seedy. It didn't feel safe going out places at night and a few people I know had incidents that could have ended very badly, I.E. one of my friends was almost violently accosted by a homeless guy. I didn't feel this issue with AGDQ's hotel...just the fact that SGDQ is in such a huge city. Might be worth thinking about.

[b]Thoughts on Improvement:[/b] I loved the small touches the hotel for AGDQ did for us. Like the Final Fantasy themed waters, random bowls of candy everywhere, etc. Little touches like that are quite nice and really make someone feel welcomed. The game lineup was MUCH better than previous GDQs but there were still a few runs that were...meh. I think it would help to let the community vote on a few runs like a wild card submission. This would keep things interesting and make the community feel like their input matters.

And since you mentioned this winter, I still am in the camp that the dates for AGDQ aren't good. I think the weekend before would be much better. The week you guys have it would cause a large portion of the community (I.E. the High Schoolers/College kids) to not be able to go. And the adults who can't get off of work, either. I just think this should be rethought.

Lastly, while I know GDQ isn't a "con" in most senses, I wonder if the powers that be have ever considered a vendor area? For people to bring stuff to sell pearlers, drawings, etc. Might be an idea.

[b]Good Notes:[/b] Hotel staff was very pleasant and helpful. The GDQ staff were much friendlier/talkative than previous events, I feel. I think the cost of registration is fine now, and we probably could handle an extra 5$ or so, but if it gets TOO high that may be an issue. And I want to thank Twitch or whomever for the free shirts at the end. Was a really nice gesture. :)

Edit: I'll ditto the post below me about the arcade situation. Seemed less to it than AGDQ and  since the [u]cost of registration has gone up it is imperative that the quality doesn't go down.[/u]

philosoraptor42

Edit history:

philosoraptor42: 2016-07-29 03:34:45 pm

2016-07-29 03:32:43 pm

Dapper as fuck.

Submissions, Registration, and Schedule

I think this went very well, and you guys set expectations and stuck to them. No complaints here, and hope to see this continue.
I'm not sure about the late registration thing, as if people aren't registering on time due to money concerns, jacking up the cost really isn't going to help them. Others might have better perspective than I on the matter.

Location

Going to refrain from too much comment here, since I live in the MSP area I don't want to be accused of bias. But I am glad it is somewhere that isn't super hot generally since this is in the middle of the summer. Made walking around for food a lot less of a chore.

Hotel

This hotel was leaps and bounds better than the hotel in St. Paul last year as far as space and layout. Also better options for food nearby. I didn't stay at the hotel last year, but this year I got a room for the final night so I could enjoy myself and not worry about driving home. The hotel rooms were very nice.

Costs

Registration costs were fine I think. The arcade room felt like there was less to it than at AGDQ this year, so I am slightly curious why AGDQ was $40 early registration but this was $50, but overall I think it's fine for a registration fee. I might pay more for more things to do, though I didn't spend a lot of time in the arcade room this GDQ. If it helps to expand World9 and improving the arcade, that seems like good use of an increase.

Volunteering

As usual I was glad to volunteer and enjoyed helping when I could. Sometimes I felt like people weren't in the loop on things, or just didn't communicate well. Specific examples I have: 1. I missed the orientation due to coming back into town from a trip, so when I talked to Ted to get the rundown of changes, he told me there was a producer and head donation no longer was doing Twitch ads. A few days later I'm being told by Gyre that head donation is running Twitch ads. Not a huge deal, but it was weird to hear and if that was a change that was made, it wasn't really communicated. 2. During my host shift for FF6, I was told to talk about the Demon Chocobo incentive, but I didn't know it was a dynamic thing that would change over the course of the run until someone else with a microphone (puwexil I believe) explained it during the run.

Overall I feel like the event was great, and continuing this positive momentum into 2017 is a great thing for everyone.

[b]Submissions, Registration, and Schedule[/b]

I think this went very well, and you guys set expectations and stuck to them.  No complaints here, and hope to see this continue.
I'm not sure about the late registration thing, as if people aren't registering on time due to money concerns, jacking up the cost really isn't going to help them.  Others might have better perspective than I on the matter.

[b]Location[/b]

Going to refrain from too much comment here, since I live in the MSP area I don't want to be accused of bias.  But I am glad it is somewhere that isn't super hot generally since this is in the middle of the summer.  Made walking around for food a lot less of a chore.

[b]Hotel[/b]

This hotel was leaps and bounds better than the hotel in St. Paul last year as far as space and layout.  Also better options for food nearby.  I didn't stay at the hotel last year, but this year I got a room for the final night so I could enjoy myself and not worry about driving home.  The hotel rooms were very nice.

[b]Costs[/b]

Registration costs were fine I think.  The arcade room felt like there was less to it than at AGDQ this year, so I am slightly curious why AGDQ was $40 early registration but this was $50, but overall I think it's fine for a registration fee.  I might pay more for more things to do, though I didn't spend a lot of time in the arcade room this GDQ.  If it helps to expand World9 and improving the arcade, that seems like good use of an increase.

[b]Volunteering[/b]

As usual I was glad to volunteer and enjoyed helping when I could.  Sometimes I felt like people weren't in the loop on things, or just didn't communicate well.  Specific examples I have:  1. I missed the orientation due to coming back into town from a trip, so when I talked to Ted to get the rundown of changes, he told me there was a producer and head donation no longer was doing Twitch ads.  A few days later I'm being told by Gyre that head donation is running Twitch ads.  Not a huge deal, but it was weird to hear and if that was a change that was made, it wasn't really communicated.  2. During my host shift for FF6, I was told to talk about the Demon Chocobo incentive, but I didn't know it was a dynamic thing that would change over the course of the run until someone else with a microphone (puwexil I believe) explained it during the run.

Overall I feel like the event was great, and continuing this positive momentum into 2017 is a great thing for everyone.

Enkaybee

Edit history:

Enkaybee: 2016-07-30 01:28:10 am

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 07:09:44 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 07:08:40 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 07:07:12 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 06:59:54 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 06:59:29 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 04:06:29 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 04:04:36 pm

Enkaybee: 2016-07-29 03:40:15 pm

2016-07-29 03:33:27 pm

twitch.tv/enkaybee

First, let me say congrats on a successful marathon and on raising more than any previous SGDQ. It was a lot of fun doing a run as part of it, and on the first day, no less! Also, thank you for moving the venue to Minneapolis, 3 miles from where I live. It was very nice of you to do that.

Let's get right into this:

Venue/Location:
+ The marathon room this year was not as nice as the one last year, but still perfectly acceptable. The practice and casual rooms, however, were far nicer, bigger, and had better air conditioning. That was great compared to last year.
+ The hotel had a pool and a sauna which was fun.
+++ The availability of food and shopping nearby this year made last year look like a joke. The Target within walking distance that stayed open until 9 or 10 PM should make Walgreen's feel ashamed of itself. If I had wanted to, I think I could have gone the whole week without going to any food place more than once.
- The hotel wifi was not good. It was not good at all.
+ Parking was easy, convenient, and free with the vouchers.
+ Last year we almost died near Dominoes at midnight. Nothing close to that happened this year (unless you count the guy I had to out-muscle for a table near a fireworks display. Oh and that half-remembered catfight we saw walking back from the bars that same night). The location seemed much safer to me than last year.

Submissions/Registration:
+ It's clear that you guys made an effort to avoid delays seen during recent events. The games list and schedule were put together on time and the registration cutoff was made clear and done professionally.
+ This is the second event at which pre-registration was required to attend. I did not attend AGDQ 2016, but I can say that SGDQ 2016 seemed to have far fewer non-speedrunners showing up because they think they're friends with the big streamers.

Schedule:
+/- I felt that the schedule this year was a little weak, to be honest. The first day was packed with games I was interested in seeing, but the rest of the week was pretty sparse. Being at the event and having things to do made this not matter so much for me, but for people at home I could understand some disappointment. Still, record high donations, so you know....

Timing:
+/- I had no problem with this being during the 4th of July. I understand that travel costs go up for some people, but on the other hand, they also don't need to burn vacation days.

Closing thoughts:
Keep doing what you're doing. Nothing needs to change.

First, let me say congrats on a successful marathon and on raising more than any previous SGDQ. It was a lot of fun doing a run as part of it, and on the first day, no less! Also, thank you for moving the venue to Minneapolis, 3 miles from where I live. It was very nice of you to do that.

Let's get right into this:

Venue/Location:
+ The marathon room this year was not as nice as the one last year, but still perfectly acceptable. The practice and casual rooms, however, were [i]far[/i] nicer, bigger, and had better air conditioning. That was great compared to last year.
+ The hotel had a pool and a sauna which was fun.
+++ The availability of food and shopping nearby this year made last year look like a joke. The Target within walking distance that stayed open until 9 or 10 PM should make Walgreen's feel ashamed of itself. If I had wanted to, I think I could have gone the whole week without going to any food place more than once.
- The hotel wifi was not good. It was not good at all.
+ Parking was easy, convenient, and free with the vouchers.
+ Last year we almost died near Dominoes at midnight. Nothing close to that happened this year (unless you count the guy I had to out-muscle for a table near a fireworks display. Oh and that half-remembered catfight we saw walking back from the bars that same night). The location seemed much safer to me than last year.

Submissions/Registration:
+ It's clear that you guys made an effort to avoid delays seen during recent events. The games list and schedule were put together on time and the registration cutoff was made clear and done professionally.
+ This is the second event at which pre-registration was required to attend. I did not attend AGDQ 2016, but I can say that SGDQ 2016 seemed to have far fewer non-speedrunners showing up because they think they're friends with the big streamers.

Schedule:
+/- I felt that the schedule this year was a little weak, to be honest. The first day was packed with games I was interested in seeing, but the rest of the week was pretty sparse. Being at the event and having things to do made this not matter so much for me, but for people at home I could understand some disappointment. Still, record high donations, so you know....

Timing:
+/- I had no problem with this being during the 4th of July. I understand that travel costs go up for some people, but on the other hand, they also don't need to burn vacation days.

Closing thoughts:
Keep doing what you're doing. Nothing needs to change.

Cool Matty

Edit history:

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 04:02:08 pm

Cool Matty: 2016-07-29 03:42:36 pm

2016-07-29 03:39:53 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

FanaticDreamer reminded me of something I forgot to touch on in my first post:

BREAKFAST

The pastry deal is getting dropped for next summer. We will NOT offer free breakfast of any type for the summer. It was confusing, it was woefully inadequate, and no hotel is willing to offer a proper breakfast in the summer. It is a major concession for them (I believe AGDQ values it at around $150,000) and it's just not doable for SGDQ without a massive increase in room rates. We think it's better for people to simply make use of their own money and buy, or not buy breakfast at their choosing.

---------

Other comments so far:

Parking is going to be messy at Minneapolis. The government owns almost all the garages, so hotels have to broker with them. That is why we had to use a ridiculous voucher system for it, and it is likely that will occur as long as we remain in the city. We will be trying to clarify why sometimes only one was needed while other times you needed more than one, it was not explained to us that way (it was supposed to be one voucher per day). On the upside however, this means there's a lot of parking available to use, unlike St. Paul, where the lots are tiny and difficult to navigate. We will be getting more vouchers in general though.

Acknowledge hotel wifi was garbage. While the locations we're looking at next year have much more bandwidth, I do want to temper expectations. Supporting 1500 people on wifi watching Twitch is ... not easy. I don't expect miracles there from any location, even AGDQ.

Arcade was lackluster, which was the unfortunate result of Tokyo Attack being unable to make it there. The increased cost is due to transportation to get machines and pinball there. We looked for local options but didn't really have any. However, World9 themselves is working to build an arcade collection, which would be a benefit for next summer.

July 4th: While we'd love to avoid holidays, summer sucks. A lot. Here's an overview of what we have to consider when picking dates:

Late May/Early June: Runs too close to colleges
Mid-June: E3, we will get stomped on for streaming and lack of press.
Late June: All of the city is booked next year. All of it. Some massive event.
July 4th: Open, and has added benefit of cheaper rates from the hotels, because they don't get many bookings then.
Mid July: Runs over EVO, we will get stomped on for streaming.
Late July/Early August: The International. We will get stomped on for streaming.
Mid-late August: Getting too close to college/school starting back up.

Long story short, summer sucks.

As for AGDQ2017?
The first week of January actually sits on New Years. July 4th is a big enough holiday on its own, but tons of people, including staff cannot leave their family obligations to manage an event over new years. Furthermore, we would overlap entirely over MAGFest, which means potentially reduced numbers, and we will not have Tokyo Attack for most of the event.

FanaticDreamer reminded me of something I forgot to touch on in my first post:

[b]BREAKFAST[/b]

The pastry deal is getting dropped for next summer. We will NOT offer free breakfast of any type for the summer. It was confusing, it was woefully inadequate, and no hotel is willing to offer a proper breakfast in the summer. It is a major concession for them (I believe AGDQ values it at around $150,000) and it's just not doable for SGDQ without a massive increase in room rates. We think it's better for people to simply make use of their own money and buy, or not buy breakfast at their choosing.

---------

Other comments so far:

Parking is going to be messy at Minneapolis. The government owns almost all the garages, so hotels have to broker with them. That is why we had to use a ridiculous voucher system for it, and it is likely that will occur as long as we remain in the city. We will be trying to clarify why sometimes only one was needed while other times you needed more than one, it was not explained to us that way (it was supposed to be one voucher per day). On the upside however, this means there's a lot of parking available to use, unlike St. Paul, where the lots are tiny and difficult to navigate. We will be getting more vouchers in general though.

Acknowledge hotel wifi was garbage. While the locations we're looking at next year have much more bandwidth, I do want to temper expectations. Supporting 1500 people on wifi watching Twitch is ... not easy. I don't expect miracles there from any location, even AGDQ.

Arcade was lackluster, which was the unfortunate result of Tokyo Attack being unable to make it there. The increased cost is due to transportation to get machines and pinball there. We looked for local options but didn't really have any. However, World9 themselves is working to build an arcade collection, which would be a benefit for next summer.

July 4th: While we'd love to avoid holidays, summer sucks. A lot. Here's an overview of what we have to consider when picking dates:

Late May/Early June: Runs too close to colleges
Mid-June: E3, we will get stomped on for streaming and lack of press.
Late June: All of the city is booked next year. All of it. Some massive event.
July 4th: Open, and has added benefit of cheaper rates from the hotels, because they don't get many bookings then.
Mid July: Runs over EVO, we will get stomped on for streaming.
Late July/Early August: The International. We will get stomped on for streaming.
Mid-late August: Getting too close to college/school starting back up.

Long story short, summer sucks.

As for AGDQ2017?
The first week of January actually sits on New Years. July 4th is a big enough holiday on its own, but tons of people, including staff cannot leave their family obligations to manage an event over new years. Furthermore, we would overlap entirely over MAGFest, which means potentially reduced numbers, and we will not have Tokyo Attack for most of the event.

RaikouRider

2016-07-29 03:52:35 pm

Amateur DKC Runner

First off, the venue this year was absolutely incredible - I hope you consider returning there next summer. Everything about the venue was amazing. The discount you got us for the hotel's restaurant actually made the prices reasonable and the food there was amazing. The rooms weren't ridiculously cramped either like they were last year. My only complaint was the wifi, but with an event that size, very few hotels will be able to accommodate that.

The arcade was great, and World 9 being there to provide backup systems and controllers was great - I forgot my Wii remotes and borrowed some from them almost every day.

The only other complaint I had was the timing - I strongly recommend against running GDQ during a holiday weekend.

Overall, fantastic, fantastic event. Kudos to the staff.

Alventenie

Edit history:

Alventenie: 2016-07-29 04:16:27 pm

2016-07-29 03:57:59 pm

Quote from philosoraptor42:

Volunteering

As usual I was glad to volunteer and enjoyed helping when I could. Sometimes I felt like people weren't in the loop on things, or just didn't communicate well. Specific examples I have: 1. I missed the orientation due to coming back into town from a trip, so when I talked to Ted to get the rundown of changes, he told me there was a producer and head donation no longer was doing Twitch ads. A few days later I'm being told by Gyre that head donation is running Twitch ads. Not a huge deal, but it was weird to hear and if that was a change that was made, it wasn't really communicated. 2. During my host shift for FF6, I was told to talk about the Demon Chocobo incentive, but I didn't know it was a dynamic thing that would change over the course of the run until someone else with a microphone (puwexil I believe) explained it during the run.

Overall I feel like the event was great, and continuing this positive momentum into 2017 is a great thing for everyone.

The original intent was to have the producer person do the twitch ads. We had planned on this before the event to try and make it simpler on the whole process in the tech area between games. Unfortunately at the event we have 6 different producers and they all have their own PC they use for their stuff. Since access to the GDQ twitch account is limited to specific key people, not all producers would be able to log in without getting one of these people to log them in during their shift (The password is not handed out in any way for security reasons of the account). It was decided that it would be much easier to have it moved back to Head Donations and it was communicated more in the moment.

We will definitely do better at this for AGDQ and if we don't have a better solution will likely keep the Head Donation to run the twitch ads when asked to. Sorry for the confusion!

Edit: Since my original post someone informed me that you can have Channel Editors which can be added to the GDQ account. This likely wasn't looked at in the moment when we ran into this issue at SGDQ but added to our feedback notes for AGDQ.

For the Demon Chocobo that was probably more of an oversight on our part for it not being explained properly. I believe this is the 3rd time we have done it so likely that we were complacent in a good portion of people knowing how it worked. We can definitely be more descriptive or specific with more detailed incentives such as that.

[quote="philosoraptor42"]
[b]Volunteering[/b]

As usual I was glad to volunteer and enjoyed helping when I could.  Sometimes I felt like people weren't in the loop on things, or just didn't communicate well.  Specific examples I have:  1. I missed the orientation due to coming back into town from a trip, so when I talked to Ted to get the rundown of changes, he told me there was a producer and head donation no longer was doing Twitch ads.  A few days later I'm being told by Gyre that head donation is running Twitch ads.  Not a huge deal, but it was weird to hear and if that was a change that was made, it wasn't really communicated.  2. During my host shift for FF6, I was told to talk about the Demon Chocobo incentive, but I didn't know it was a dynamic thing that would change over the course of the run until someone else with a microphone (puwexil I believe) explained it during the run.

Overall I feel like the event was great, and continuing this positive momentum into 2017 is a great thing for everyone.[/quote]

The original intent was to have the producer person do the twitch ads. We had planned on this before the event to try and make it simpler on the whole process in the tech area between games. Unfortunately at the event we have 6 different producers and they all have their own PC they use for their stuff. Since access to the GDQ twitch account is limited to specific key people, not all producers would be able to log in without getting one of these people to log them in during their shift (The password is not handed out in any way for security reasons of the account). It was decided that it would be much easier to have it moved back to Head Donations and it was communicated more in the moment.

We will definitely do better at this for AGDQ and if we don't have a better solution will likely keep the Head Donation to run the twitch ads when asked to. Sorry for the confusion!

Edit: Since my original post someone informed me that you can have Channel Editors which can be added to the GDQ account. This likely wasn't looked at in the moment when we ran into this issue at SGDQ but added to our feedback notes for AGDQ.

For the Demon Chocobo that was probably more of an oversight on our part for it not being explained properly. I believe this is the 3rd time we have done it so likely that we were complacent in a good portion of people knowing how it worked. We can definitely be more descriptive or specific with more detailed incentives such as that.

kirkq

Edit history:

kirkq: 2016-07-29 05:22:43 pm

2016-07-29 05:21:40 pm

Die Hard 2013.

Short post:

Things went well. Food options were better than average, grocery store nearby was good. Area is still probably questionable at night, but better than the St Paul area we were in last time in my opinion.

FanaticDreamer

Edit history:

FanaticDreamer: 2016-07-29 06:37:15 pm

2016-07-29 06:37:04 pm

Let's get frisky.

Quote from Cool Matty:

FanaticDreamer reminded me of something I forgot to touch on in my first post:

BREAKFAST

The pastry deal is getting dropped for next summer. We will NOT offer free breakfast of any type for the summer. It was confusing, it was woefully inadequate, and no hotel is willing to offer a proper breakfast in the summer. It is a major concession for them (I believe AGDQ values it at around $150,000) and it's just not doable for SGDQ without a massive increase in room rates. We think it's better for people to simply make use of their own money and buy, or not buy breakfast at their choosing.

Have you guys tried reaching out to local places such as Dunkin Donuts, Bagel shops, etc? Because my grandmother used to organize things for charity and multiple times she ran into situations where she had over 200 hungry people to feed and most businesses were more than happy to donate food items for free because it's a write off on taxes and many times (at least in the case of Dunkin Donuts and/or Bagel shops) they'd be throwing away dozens of food, anyway. Not to mention GDQ is getting bigger and as it was just on TV many people would know about it. Jgust a thought for the summer. Because the free breakfast thing is a huge huge saving grace for many people.

[quote="Cool Matty"]FanaticDreamer reminded me of something I forgot to touch on in my first post:

[b]BREAKFAST[/b]

The pastry deal is getting dropped for next summer. We will NOT offer free breakfast of any type for the summer. It was confusing, it was woefully inadequate, and no hotel is willing to offer a proper breakfast in the summer. It is a major concession for them (I believe AGDQ values it at around $150,000) and it's just not doable for SGDQ without a massive increase in room rates. We think it's better for people to simply make use of their own money and buy, or not buy breakfast at their choosing.

[/quote]

Have you guys tried reaching out to local places such as Dunkin Donuts, Bagel shops, etc? Because my grandmother used to organize things for charity and multiple times she ran into situations where she had over 200 hungry people to feed and most businesses were more than happy to donate food items for free because it's a write off on taxes and many times (at least in the case of Dunkin Donuts and/or Bagel shops) they'd be throwing away dozens of food, anyway. Not to mention GDQ is getting bigger and as it was just on TV many people would know about it. Jgust a thought for the summer. Because the free breakfast thing is a huge huge saving grace for many people.

Shurue

2016-07-29 07:35:17 pm

I wasn't at the event in person but there is one comment I would make about the stream layout. For the sake of context I would add WR and PB numbers next to the estimated time.

yellowkillerbee

2016-07-29 07:38:11 pm

First of all, all of the organizers and staff are amazing, thank you for putting this on twice a year.

Submissions, Registration, and Schedule
I thought this went so much better than last SGDQ, everything was on time and so smooth. I liked how there was just one cut for the game submissions and not 2 separate cuts. I did talk to several people who said they would have paid up to $200 for late registration if that was an option.

Location
I liked the all of the food options close by, and it didn't seem too dangerous to me, but I didn't go out very late, or walk too far away from the hotel either.

Hotel
I loved the bigger rooms and the fact that there were 6 working elevators that didn't break down even once during our stay. The AC was great the whole week. If all the gaming rooms could be closer together and on the same floor that would be ideal, but I loved everything else about the hotel. I liked how the eating and board game room were combined. Having a pool and hot tub was a nice addition.

Breakfast
I heard about breakfast, and thought "I'm never up in time to eat breakfast at GDQ anyway!", but I surprised myself by keeping a decent sleep schedule and eating pastries each morning. It was pleasant, but I wouldn't miss it much if it was gone. You could just buy a box of donuts and make coffee in your room for cheap.

Costs
The hotel costs were more expensive than last year, but worth it for the better hotel, in my opinion. Registration costs are more than reasonable for a whole week. I don't feel the entertainment options need to be expanded, there are already way more things to do than I could get to in a week. I did more board gaming this year and it was really fun, Twinge in the board game room made us feel welcome. Parking would have been spendy, but there is no getting away from that downtown, and I snagged some vouchers which were awesome.

Experience at the event
Check-in was great, although I got there on Saturday, so not sure how the lines were on Sunday. I thought the stream room was big enough, but it would be nice if the big screens were higher. Even just a few rows from the front the bottom of the screen was cut off and in races you couldn't see the bottom racers at all. The whole stream flow was vastly improved, from better interviews to having a producer to streamline everything. I loved how they had individual end times for racers with little badges for 1st, 2nd, etc. I also like the music icon to denote which stream the sound was coming from. (I know some of these things were probably introduced at AGDQ, but I have only attended SGDQs)

Dates
I really loved that it was over the fourth of July (one less day to get off from work), but I heard from a lot of people that the flights were more expensive. I would still say it's better to have it over a holiday than compete with other big stream events, or lose attendees who have to be at college in the spring or fall.

First of all, all of the organizers and staff are amazing, thank you for putting this on twice a year.

[b]Submissions, Registration, and Schedule[/b]
I thought this went so much better than last SGDQ, everything was on time and so smooth. I liked how there was just one cut for the game submissions and not 2 separate cuts. I did talk to several people who said they would have paid up to $200 for late registration if that was an option.

[b]Location[/b]
I liked the all of the food options close by, and it didn't seem too dangerous to me, but I didn't go out very late, or walk too far away from the hotel either.

[b]Hotel[/b]
I loved the bigger rooms and the fact that there were 6 working elevators that didn't break down even once during our stay. The AC was great the whole week. If all the gaming rooms could be closer together and on the same floor that would be ideal, but I loved everything else about the hotel.  I liked how the eating and board game room were combined. Having a pool and hot tub was a nice addition.

[b]Breakfast[/b]
I heard about breakfast, and thought "I'm never up in time to eat breakfast at GDQ anyway!", but I surprised myself by keeping a decent sleep schedule and eating pastries each morning. It was pleasant, but I wouldn't miss it much if it was gone. You could just buy a box of donuts and make coffee in your room for cheap.

[b]Costs[/b]
The hotel costs were more expensive than last year, but worth it for the better hotel, in my opinion. Registration costs are more than reasonable for a whole week. I don't feel the entertainment options need to be expanded, there are already way more things to do than I could get to in a week. I did more board gaming this year and it was really fun, Twinge in the board game room made us feel welcome. Parking would have been spendy, but there is no getting away from that downtown, and I snagged some vouchers which were awesome.

[b]Experience at the event[/b]
Check-in was great, although I got there on Saturday, so not sure how the lines were on Sunday. I thought the stream room was big enough, but it would be nice if the big screens were higher. Even just a few rows from the front the bottom of the screen was cut off and in races you couldn't see the bottom racers at all. The whole stream flow was vastly improved, from better interviews to having a producer to streamline everything. I loved how they had individual end times for racers with little badges for 1st, 2nd, etc. I also like the music icon to denote which stream the sound was coming from. (I know some of these things were probably introduced at AGDQ, but I have only attended SGDQs)

[b]Dates[/b]
I really loved that it was over the fourth of July (one less day to get off from work), but I heard from a lot of people that the flights were more expensive. I would still say it's better to have it over a holiday than compete with other big stream events, or lose attendees who have to be at college in the spring or fall.

TheMG2

2016-07-29 08:13:41 pm

Quote from Shurue:

I wasn't at the event in person but there is one comment I would make about the stream layout. For the sake of context I would add WR and PB numbers next to the estimated time.

This gets suggested by viewers every year and the response towards this idea is always negative

kirbymastah

Edit history:

kirbymastah: 2016-07-29 08:48:40 pm

kirbymastah: 2016-07-29 08:37:18 pm

kirbymastah: 2016-07-29 08:37:04 pm

kirbymastah: 2016-07-29 08:36:56 pm

kirbymastah: 2016-07-29 08:36:08 pm

2016-07-29 08:35:31 pm

<(^_^)>

Quote from TheMG2:

Quote from Shurue:

I wasn't at the event in person but there is one comment I would make about the stream layout. For the sake of context I would add WR and PB numbers next to the estimated time.

This gets suggested by viewers every year and the response towards this idea is always negative

Ditto. Bad idea.

-It makes the focus on the time instead of the actual run itself, whether you like it or not. No matter what, to any viewers, if the WR/PB time is constantly shown, a marathon run will feel less impressive if it isn't near that displayed time, no matter how good the run actually was.
-Most runs use (or should use) marathon-safe strats and/or safety saves to guarantee completing the run. This means it'll generally be impossible to be close to WR/PB, making it an unfair comparison
-Donation incentives can also waste time, also making it an unfair comparison
-Different communities use different timing standards. This will only make it more confusing to viewers if the game's community doesn't follow the same timing method as what's in the marathon.
-In the context of things like relay races and/or co-op runs, it doesn't really apply either. If there were some 4-way race, it'd also be hell to put up every runner's PB time in the layout.

tl;dr it's a bad idea no matter how often it gets suggested. It won't happen, and it should NEVER happen.

In terms of actual marathon critique, enkaybee basically summed up everything for me. The marathon was a lot of fun, I thought the stream was great from what I've seen. Only significant complain is awkwardness of vouchers and the terrible terrible hotel wifi (both of which have already been mentioned/discussed). Thanks a lot for all your hard work Cheesy

[quote="TheMG2"][quote="Shurue"]I wasn't at the event in person but there is one comment I would make about the stream layout. For the sake of context I would add WR and PB numbers next to the estimated time.[/quote]
This gets suggested by viewers every year and the response towards this idea is always negative[/quote]

Ditto. Bad idea.

-It makes the focus on the time instead of the actual run itself, whether you like it or not. No matter what, to any viewers, if the WR/PB time is constantly shown, a marathon run will feel less impressive if it isn't near that displayed time, no matter how good the run actually was.
-Most runs use (or should use) marathon-safe strats and/or safety saves to guarantee completing the run. This means it'll generally be impossible to be close to WR/PB, making it an unfair comparison
-Donation incentives can also waste time, also making it an unfair comparison
-Different communities use different timing standards. This will only make it more confusing to viewers if the game's community doesn't follow the same timing method as what's in the marathon.
-In the context of things like relay races and/or co-op runs, it doesn't really apply either. If there were some 4-way race, it'd also be hell to put up every runner's PB time in the layout.

tl;dr it's a bad idea no matter how often it gets suggested. It won't happen, and it should NEVER happen.

In terms of actual marathon critique, enkaybee basically summed up everything for me. The marathon was a lot of fun, I thought the stream was great from what I've seen. Only significant complain is awkwardness of vouchers and the terrible terrible hotel wifi (both of which have already been mentioned/discussed). Thanks a lot for all your hard work :D

Vulajin

2016-07-29 08:41:00 pm

Quote from Shurue:

I wasn't at the event in person but there is one comment I would make about the stream layout. For the sake of context I would add WR and PB numbers next to the estimated time.

Thanks for your suggestion! We do get this suggestion fairly often, and there are many reasons why we have chosen not to implement it. Primarily, WR and PB numbers are almost never appropriate context for a marathon run. Marathon runs tend to use safer strats to ensure that a completion can be attained in reasonable time, so for the vast majority of games, neither WR nor PB is within reach. As it is, if a runner misses their estimate, they are harshly judged and their mistakes are heavily scrutinized. Having a PB or WR listed would just introduce that pressure for every runner. Additionally, estimates account for things such as donation incentives done during the run, while a WR or PB listing will not account for that. A common variant proposed is to list the "marathon WR" of a game (similar to the "Olympic record" listed at Olympics events), but unfortunately there are extremely few data points for that sort of thing, and many games have never had a major marathon appearance to even provide such data. Additionally, this is an exhibition stream, not a personal stream of PB/WR attempts, and as such, time is only one of several aspects that determine the overall quality of a run. A run with a "poor" time compared to the PB/WR can still be a very successful marathon run by virtue of top notch commentary. Speedrunning as a hobby is about going fast, but our event is about exhibiting the practice of going fast, and that means most of the time you won't be going the fastest anyone has ever gone. Finally, the idea of listing the PB/WR times on the stream layout is not generally popular with runners themselves.

For all of these reasons, we have chosen not to implement this idea so far, and we don't plan to do so in the foreseeable future.

[quote="Shurue"]I wasn't at the event in person but there is one comment I would make about the stream layout. For the sake of context I would add WR and PB numbers next to the estimated time.[/quote]

Thanks for your suggestion! We do get this suggestion fairly often, and there are many reasons why we have chosen not to implement it. Primarily, WR and PB numbers are almost never appropriate context for a marathon run. Marathon runs tend to use safer strats to ensure that a completion can be attained in reasonable time, so for the vast majority of games, neither WR nor PB is within reach. As it is, if a runner misses their estimate, they are harshly judged and their mistakes are heavily scrutinized. Having a PB or WR listed would just introduce that pressure for every runner. Additionally, estimates account for things such as donation incentives done during the run, while a WR or PB listing will not account for that. A common variant proposed is to list the "marathon WR" of a game (similar to the "Olympic record" listed at Olympics events), but unfortunately there are extremely few data points for that sort of thing, and many games have never had a major marathon appearance to even provide such data. Additionally, this is an exhibition stream, not a personal stream of PB/WR attempts, and as such, time is only one of several aspects that determine the overall quality of a run. A run with a "poor" time compared to the PB/WR can still be a very successful marathon run by virtue of top notch commentary. Speedrunning as a hobby is about going fast, but our event is about exhibiting the practice of going fast, and that means most of the time you won't be going [i]the fastest anyone has ever gone[/i]. Finally, the idea of listing the PB/WR times on the stream layout is not generally popular with runners themselves.

For all of these reasons, we have chosen not to implement this idea so far, and we don't plan to do so in the foreseeable future.

zewing

2016-07-29 08:54:53 pm

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

I think it went more smoothly than any other GDQ, especially the audio swapping between runners in races.

Only real downside is the time of the event, which makes it impossible for some of us to attend since week of 4th of July is a holiday week (I seen as to the "why" in the first post, but its still a negative for everyone).

Runs didn't get off schedule by an unreasonable amount is another excellent plus.

Variety of runs was really nice, lots of new games to see and experience, cool dev commentary and joking, I'd say improving from this is going to be difficult (in a good way).

Here's hoping to AGDQ17 being a blast as well.

zeronoin

2016-07-29 08:59:15 pm

This GDQ seemed to go quite well from my perspective, kudos to GDQ staff and others involved.
Have to say I am feeling much more optimistic about GDQ overall compared to how I was feeling closer to the previous event.

Is GDQ getting any closer to not-for-profit status?
It appears that GDQ loss $15,000 in its budget to taxes.
This status would also make the organization look/be more legitimate, give the organization a stronger foundation and more independence, save sponsers money, and broaden charity selection (though MSF seems fine for now).

Will GDQ consider revising some of its registration rules?
I saw a lot about this on social media in how jimmypoopins was treated.
It seems to me a bad idea to take such a hard-line on certain rules that have these kinds of consequences.
You are going to have situations questioning this hard-line in the past and in the future.
It seems like GDQ can and should give itself the discretion to make exceptions for certain situations like this.

Is GDQ going to do the finale as an incentive from now on?
I and a lot of others have quite a bit of respect for Lack, and thought it was great that he was given the finale.
I think a lot of us had mixed feelings about him being bumped to before the finale.
If this is how it will be done from now on, I feel it would be proper to mark the finale as an incentive upfront.

This GDQ seemed to go quite well from my perspective, kudos to GDQ staff and others involved.
Have to say I am feeling much more optimistic about GDQ overall compared to how I was feeling closer to the previous event.

Is GDQ getting any closer to not-for-profit status?
It appears that GDQ loss $15,000 in its budget to taxes.
This status would also make the organization look/be more legitimate, give the organization a stronger foundation and more independence, save sponsers money, and broaden charity selection (though MSF seems fine for now).

Will GDQ consider revising some of its registration rules?
I saw a lot about this on social media in how jimmypoopins was treated.
It seems to me a bad idea to take such a hard-line on certain rules that have these kinds of consequences.
You are going to have situations questioning this hard-line in the past and in the future.
It seems like GDQ can and should give itself the discretion to make exceptions for certain situations like this.

Is GDQ going to do the finale as an incentive from now on?
I and a lot of others have quite a bit of respect for Lack, and thought it was great that he was given the finale.
I think a lot of us had mixed feelings about him being bumped to before the finale.
If this is how it will be done from now on, I feel it would be proper to mark the finale as an incentive upfront.

TrUShade

2016-07-29 09:07:02 pm

The TrUest of Shades

Submissions, Registration and Schedule

Really good job on how you guys did it for this marathon, really smooth and I don't believe you missed any deadlines. Way better then what happened during AGDQ, but you can't make it good without a few mistakes. Personally I wouldn't want to be charged a high fee for a few more weeks of registration to be open. I feel most people are practice there game at this moment and really could only need the week to produce a great run to show off there game.

Location

For my first time in Minnesota, I really enjoyed the location. Probably the best location since SGDQ 2013 (which was my first marathon). Having a Target and so many food opinions around made it easy not to go hungry during the marathon. For being as west as you could possibly get in Canada, I'd like to see SGDQ come back out west, but I understand if it isn't financially worth it to move it more west.

Hotel

Only complain I have from the hotel was the Wi-Fi being shotty. AGDQ had bad wi-fi but you could get it everywhere. I'm a person that per say doesn't care to watch the marathon from a projector sometimes, and while practicing my game would like to have it up on my laptop. Also being Canadian, data is stupid expensive for us if we don't have a plan, so wi-fi is a definite need.

Breakfast

Never actually had it at the hotel cause it wasn't the same as previous marathons, but that is just me.

Overall

Great marathon, loved it. Probably my second favorite GDQ I have been to since starting to come to them. (nothing is ever going to topple SGDQ2013, first one is always the best)

[b]Submissions, Registration and Schedule [/b]

Really good job on how you guys did it for this marathon, really smooth and I don't believe you missed any deadlines. Way better then what happened during AGDQ, but you can't make it good without a few mistakes. Personally I wouldn't want to be charged a high fee for a few more weeks of registration to be open. I feel most people are practice there game at this moment and really could only need the week to produce a great run to show off there game.

[b] Location[/b]

For my first time in Minnesota, I really enjoyed the location. Probably the best location since SGDQ 2013 (which was my first marathon). Having a Target and so many food opinions around made it easy not to go hungry during the marathon. For being as west as you could possibly get in Canada, I'd like to see SGDQ come back out west, but I understand if it isn't financially worth it to move it more west.

[b]Hotel[/b]

Only complain I have from the hotel was the Wi-Fi being shotty. AGDQ had bad wi-fi but you could get it everywhere. I'm a person that per say doesn't care to watch the marathon from a projector sometimes, and while practicing my game would like to have it up on my laptop. Also being Canadian, data is stupid expensive for us if we don't have a plan, so wi-fi is a definite need.

[b]Breakfast[/b]

Never actually had it at the hotel cause it wasn't the same as previous marathons, but that is just me.

[b]Overall[/b]

Great marathon, loved it. Probably my second favorite GDQ I have been to since starting to come to them. (nothing is ever going to topple SGDQ2013, first one is always the best)

BradNThings

2016-07-29 09:43:37 pm

Location

After only being at AGDQ15/16, this location blows it out of the water. You can go places and do things without cars! It's so much better being able to do stuff with a mid/big group without worrying about transport. I would love it to be in this area of St. Paul again.

Hotel

So much better than AGDQ. The hotel chairs still suck, but the rooms never felt overstuffed of people. Casual room was nice and cool, and most of the GDQ-sponsored stuff was centralized (outside of the PC room) which made finding people to do things SO MUCH EASIER, this is miles better than AGDQ15/16 and hope its a trend. Wi-fi was trash when I wasn't in my room.

Breakfast

I didn't mind having no breakfast. We ended up having a breakfast crew that just chilled at a local Bagel and Coffee place and it was really nice. I wouldn't mind not having breakfast at future GDQs if there were places open that are within 5 blocks.

Schedule

Felt a bit loaded on the ends. I don't know how the schedule for AGDQ will pan out because SGDQ had so many of speedrunnings big titles on the front and back end. The middle of the week needs more love. Half of the runs I watched were on Sunday or Friday, and I left on Saturday but I wouldve watched those too.

Also, shoutouts to whoever put Illusion of Gaia on the schedule. It pushed a bunch of runs I wanted to watch back 2 hours so I could watch them after sleeping! You're truly the best.

Overall

3rd inperson GDQ. Best one in terms of attending.

[b]Location[/b]

After only being at AGDQ15/16, this location blows it out of the water. You can go places and do things without cars! It's so much better being able to do stuff with a mid/big group without worrying about transport. I would love it to be in this area of St. Paul again.

[b]Hotel[/b]

So much better than AGDQ. The hotel chairs still suck, but the rooms never felt overstuffed of people. Casual room was nice and cool, and most of the GDQ-sponsored stuff was centralized (outside of the PC room) which made finding people to do things SO MUCH EASIER, this is miles better than AGDQ15/16 and hope its a trend. Wi-fi was trash when I wasn't in my room.

[b]Breakfast[/b]

I didn't mind having no breakfast. We ended up having a breakfast crew that just chilled at a local Bagel and Coffee place and it was really nice. I wouldn't mind not having breakfast at future GDQs if there were places open that are within 5 blocks.

[b]Schedule[/b]

Felt a bit loaded on the ends. I don't know how the schedule for AGDQ will pan out because SGDQ had so many of speedrunnings big titles on the front and back end. The middle of the week needs more love. Half of the runs I watched were on Sunday or Friday, and I left on Saturday but I wouldve watched those too.

Also, shoutouts to whoever put Illusion of Gaia on the schedule. It pushed a bunch of runs I wanted to watch back 2 hours so I could watch them after sleeping! You're truly the best.

[b]Overall[/b]

3rd inperson GDQ. Best one in terms of attending.

megamaple

2016-07-29 09:55:56 pm

Location

The location, city wise, was extremely convenient. There were plenty of restaurants and fast food areas within reasonable walking distance to a point where getting hungry wasn't even a problem. Secondly, there was a retail store right around the corner, perfect for any emergency supplies or buying bathroom supplies because of the TSA's 3-1-1 liquids rule. The location felt like a true blessing for quality of life (Definitely not saying this just because there was a pokestop right on top of the hotel)

Hotel

I think the hotel was great overall, my only issues being the wifi and the layout of the GDQ rooms. Regarding wifi, it was only available in certain areas and it wasn't strong at all. Regarding room layout, I disliked that the casual/pinball/arcade rooms were so disconnected from the practice room. I preferred the layout of the SGDQ 2015 where the casual and practice room were right next to each other while the eating area was the central hub, it was smart and convenient.

I'm not personally involved with this issue, but it did seem like an issue about the limited availability and use of parking passes was floating around, so maybe support toward that could be added to the registration fees.

Costs

Hotel costs were amazing for the quality of the hotel, you had to be a maniac to think the rates were too high. The registration fee felt fair too, World 9 Gaming's borrowing services were handy and the Arcade and Pinball Rooms were actually fun to go to at any given time rather than just being a side distraction. Regarding increasing the registration fee for extra features, maybe have a base fee + whatever you add goes toward what you'd like to see? I only feel this way because I'm not sure how many people would be stoked for a VR room and I don't think a poll would be an effective measure.

Experience at the event

On-site stream-watching was great, even when sitting at the back the screens were big enough to see. However what could be improved is the height of the projector screens, because it seemed a bit horizontally leveled with most people's heads, making it harder to see if someone tall was sitting in front of you. The video and audio quality were top notch, being able to clearly hear the stream wherever you were in the room without any strange echo or anything.

My biggest issue with this GDQ were the Attendee Name tags. Quality of the tag itself? Amazing, I didn't expect them to be double sided with usernames printed along with it. The downside? The usernames printed on it were miniscule, you always had to grab someone's tag to be able to read it.

Regarding the LAN room, I think it would be nice to include a rules list somewhere around the room about PC use restrictions and what not, it feels alienating to use a computer that isn't yours and not knowing whether you've crossed a line or not.

But other than that, I think nothing could've gone better, GDQ was very well done this year, thanks to the GDQ Staff for all the work they've done to organize this event.

[b]Location[/b]

The location, city wise, was extremely convenient. There were plenty of restaurants and fast food areas within reasonable walking distance to a point where getting hungry wasn't even a problem. Secondly, there was a retail store right around the corner, perfect for any emergency supplies or buying bathroom supplies because of the TSA's 3-1-1 liquids rule. The location felt like a true blessing for quality of life (Definitely not saying this just because there was a pokestop right on top of the hotel)

[b]Hotel[/b]

I think the hotel was great overall, my only issues being the wifi and the layout of the GDQ rooms. Regarding wifi, it was only available in certain areas and it wasn't strong at all. Regarding room layout, I disliked that the casual/pinball/arcade rooms were so disconnected from the practice room. I preferred the layout of the SGDQ 2015 where the casual and practice room were right next to each other while the eating area was the central hub, it was smart and convenient.

I'm not personally involved with this issue, but it did seem like an issue about the limited availability and use of parking passes was floating around, so maybe support toward that could be added to the registration fees.

[b]Costs[/b]

Hotel costs were amazing for the quality of the hotel, you had to be a maniac to think the rates were too high. The registration fee felt fair too, World 9 Gaming's borrowing services were handy and the Arcade and Pinball Rooms were actually fun to go to at any given time rather than just being a side distraction. Regarding increasing the registration fee for extra features, maybe have a base fee + whatever you add goes toward what you'd like to see? I only feel this way because I'm not sure how many people would be stoked for a VR room and I don't think a poll would be an effective measure.

[b]Experience at the event[/b]

On-site stream-watching was great, even when sitting at the back the screens were big enough to see. However what could be improved is the height of the projector screens, because it seemed a bit horizontally leveled with most people's heads, making it harder to see if someone tall was sitting in front of you. The video and audio quality were top notch, being able to clearly hear the stream wherever you were in the room without any strange echo or anything.

My biggest issue with this GDQ were the Attendee Name tags. Quality of the tag itself? Amazing, I didn't expect them to be double sided with usernames printed along with it. The downside? The usernames printed on it were miniscule, you always had to grab someone's tag to be able to read it.

Regarding the LAN room, I think it would be nice to include a rules list somewhere around the room about PC use restrictions and what not, it feels alienating to use a computer that isn't yours and not knowing whether you've crossed a line or not.

But other than that, I think nothing could've gone better, GDQ was very well done this year, thanks to the GDQ Staff for all the work they've done to organize this event.

abiscuit

2016-07-29 09:56:57 pm

+ Submission process was clearly defined, met deadlines, well communicated. Big improvement over previous events.
+ Grocery store nearby, also helped to have a fridge
+ Decent food options in the area
+ Hotel staff was helpful and friendly
+ Power Up Audio and World 9 being awesome as always
+ Setup was pretty efficient from what I saw
+ July 4th week was nice to spend one less day off and fireworks. Many many fireworks.
+ Good public transit options

- Wi-fi was bad. Only worked in certain areas and only when it felt like it.
- A directory or map would have been useful with how spread out some of the venue areas were, especially the LAN room
- Area felt a little sketchy, I didn't go out at night or late evening but it sounds like some people had some scary experiences
- Breakfast left a little to be desired but the nearby Target helped make up for that

Overall, probably my favorite one I've attended so far.

teaflower

2016-07-29 10:05:18 pm

hello hi yes

So this was my very first in-person GDQ, and I gotta say, for a first experience of the event, it was absolutely wonderful! All in all, I enjoyed myself greatly.

Thinking in the charity, I saw the booths, but I did not see them interact much, nor did I interact with them. The VR looked cool, but whenever I wanted to go check it out, there wasn't anyone to help me. A bit of a bummer, but understandable. These people have lives. I'd like, if they had something similar to this next year or at the next AGDQ, some kind of posted times. We knew when breakfast was, when registration was, etc.. Something like that would be great. Though as I understand it, DWB was the source of the cake on Friday, and it was pretty alright cake, all things considered. I don't complain about free cake.

For submissions, I didn't really do anything along those lines. I submitted my game, it got rejected, I said, "Okay" and vowed to do better next time. Registration was painless. For price, I was okay with putting down $50, and I'd be okay with putting down $60 or even $70. Then again, I volunteered, so I got all of that back.

The schedule was tight. There were a lot of mainstays and a lot of games that haven't been in a marathon, so it was fresh and exciting. There were things to find pretty much whenever.

The location was super nice! The hotel was fair in its pricing, and the rooms were very comfortable. I'm sure people have mentioned it, but the wifi was garbage. Everywhere. I didn't bring my tablet with my anywhere because it only had wifi, and once I left any of the hotel rooms, it just ticked off and off and off... As for my phone, I found out that I have a high-speed data cap that I didn't know about, so uhh, that's a plus?

In terms of layout, it was super sweet that we had the whole second floor to ourselves. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a map of any kind, and I didn't know where the casual/arcade/tourney/pinball conglomerate had settled until at least day 2 or 3 when someone told me. I think some better signage, or a drawn up map would be better for navigation.

Food was fantastic and readily available for all kinds of diets. I personally fell in love with a place called Coffee and Bagels. They served, get this, coffee and bagels. There was lots of variety during the day, but after 5 or 6, everything dropped off. Everything was dead on the weekend, too. If we settled near Coffee and Bagels, I myself would not complain about free breakfast. It was a bonus when money was tight, but it wasn't really filling.

Check-in was very smooth. I got there on Saturday, kind of late in the day, and everyone was really nice. I had just come down from a panic attack, so having people who were there to help was fantastic. The stream room setup was fantastic, but I found that while watching upstairs, I couldn't really hear the crowd.

Speaking as a volunteer, I gotta give special props to all the staff and such. Everyone I worked with was hyper professional. Not in a "oh god I should put on my heels and be an adult today" way, but a "oh, these people know what they're doing, so they can tell me what I should be doing, and I don't have to worry about accidentally breaking something.

In terms of the dates, July 4th works fine for me. Travelling out of state gives me a reason to buy sparklers, because those are illegal here! In all honesty, I have anxiety about flying, so to see there being no one in the airport on the 2nd was really great for me. The prices being better is just better all around, especially if we're going to add a bit more to the registration costs.

Were you to ask me what I think we should add to the next GDQ that wasn't here already? A bit more visible signage, maybe a map of the area of the hotel. Location was good, but from what I heard of people who went out later at night, the area got a bit.......... skeevy. I didn't go out later at night, though! I don't think I was out past sunset. I'm uhh.... boring. The only complaint I can think of other than the wifi was how fucking cold everything was. Jesus fucking Christ I bought a blanket so I could be warm some of the time. I'm glad I brought a sweater. I don't know if it's something about the hotel, or something we requested, but if we're at that same hotel, I'm going to bring my own fucking comforter.

So this was my very first in-person GDQ, and I gotta say, for a first experience of the event, it was absolutely wonderful! All in all, I enjoyed myself greatly.

Thinking in the charity, I saw the booths, but I did not see them interact much, nor did I interact with them. The VR looked cool, but whenever I wanted to go check it out, there wasn't anyone to help me. A bit of a bummer, but understandable. These people have lives. I'd like, if they had something similar to this next year or at the next AGDQ, some kind of posted times. We knew when breakfast was, when registration was, etc.. Something like that would be great. Though as I understand it, DWB was the source of the cake on Friday, and it was pretty alright cake, all things considered. I don't complain about free cake.

For submissions, I didn't really do anything along those lines. I submitted my game, it got rejected, I said, "Okay" and vowed to do better next time. Registration was painless. For price, I was okay with putting down $50, and I'd be okay with putting down $60 or even $70. Then again, I volunteered, so I got all of that back.

The schedule was tight. There were a lot of mainstays and a lot of games that haven't been in a marathon, so it was fresh and exciting. There were things to find pretty much whenever.

The location was super nice! The hotel was fair in its pricing, and the rooms were very comfortable. I'm sure people have mentioned it, but the wifi was garbage. Everywhere. I didn't bring my tablet with my anywhere because it only had wifi, and once I left any of the hotel rooms, it just ticked off and off and off... As for my phone, I found out that I have a high-speed data cap that I didn't know about, so uhh, that's a plus?

In terms of layout, it was super sweet that we had the whole second floor to ourselves. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a map of any kind, and I didn't know where the casual/arcade/tourney/pinball conglomerate had settled until at least day 2 or 3 when someone told me. I think some better signage, or a drawn up map would be better for navigation.

Food was fantastic and readily available for all kinds of diets. I personally fell in love with a place called Coffee and Bagels. They served, get this, coffee and bagels. There was lots of variety during the day, but after 5 or 6, everything dropped off. Everything was dead on the weekend, too. If we settled near Coffee and Bagels, I myself would not complain about free breakfast. It was a bonus when money was tight, but it wasn't really filling.

Check-in was very smooth. I got there on Saturday, kind of late in the day, and everyone was really nice. I had just come down from a panic attack, so having people who were there to help was fantastic. The stream room setup was fantastic, but I found that while watching upstairs, I couldn't really hear the crowd.

Speaking as a volunteer, I gotta give special props to all the staff and such. Everyone I worked with was hyper professional. Not in a "oh god I should put on my heels and be an adult today" way, but a "oh, these people know what they're doing, so they can tell me what I should be doing, and I don't have to worry about accidentally breaking something.

In terms of the dates, July 4th works fine for me. Travelling out of state gives me a reason to buy sparklers, because those are illegal here! In all honesty, I have anxiety about flying, so to see there being no one in the airport on the 2nd was really great for me. The prices being better is just better all around, especially if we're going to add a bit more to the registration costs.

Were you to ask me what I think we should add to the next GDQ that wasn't here already? A bit more visible signage, maybe a map of the area of the hotel. Location was good, but from what I heard of people who went out later at night, the area got a bit.......... skeevy. I didn't go out later at night, though! I don't think I was out past sunset. I'm uhh.... boring. The only complaint I can think of other than the wifi was how fucking cold everything was. Jesus fucking Christ I bought a blanket so I could be warm some of the time. I'm glad I brought a sweater. I don't know if it's something about the hotel, or something we requested, but if we're at that same hotel, I'm going to bring my own fucking comforter.

Ghoul02

2016-07-29 11:04:12 pm

www.twitch.tv/ghoul02

Submissions:
The single most improved part of the event. Went from being handled incredibly poorly at AGDQ to being probably the second best a major marathon has ever handled game submissions. I'd like to continue to see chances being taken on games, and seeing success stories come from those chances is really awesome. Deadlines were kept, Vulajin kept his DMs open for feedback and talk about offers that was also private and avoided people burning bridges to just find out what was going on inside the committee's head.

Schedule:
Not a fan of a few of the prime time blocks, especially having 8 hours of indie as a theme, which, I'd think, would cause most viewers to tune out. That block could easily have been multiple 3 hour blocks or shorter and been kept with other larger games to hold interest and lead people into smaller games potentially.
As for the finale, I agree that it was a bit disingenuous to call Lack's run the finale as it was on the schedule. That said, I don't hate the idea - I just think it was handled poorly. IMO, the best thing to do would be to do all of the closer stuff after Lacks run, completely clear the stage of tech and runners for 30 seconds and do an "encore" of the donated finale game. After the encore ends, say a quick thanks and raid. That way, the "named" closer gets the feel of the closer, doesn't feel rushed off at the end for setup on the next game, and gets to keep the emotional weight of being the "final" game of the marathon.
There's probably more that can be said, but these are the main points that came to mind. I'm pretty sure somebody can link the recap Spike, Hobz and I did after the event, which goes into way more depth on individual games, scheduling and other issues.

Location:
+ Food options were plentiful. Shoutouts to Hell's Kitchen for being rather awesome.
+ Minneapolis is fine. Not too expensive to get to, not amazingly terrible weather.

Hotel
+ Actually kept the food stand open late. Sandwiches were actually edible as well and not overly expensive. Considering the last time this was tried, a bag of chips was like 3 dollars and the hotel shut it down for not "being used", good on the hotel.
- Internet was godawful, but that's to be expected when you get 1000 tech nerds in a building. The Wifi will not be able to keep up.
= Don't really care about breakfast one way or another. I never woke up in time to use it. Potentially, if people wanted to, might be interesting to partner with a local breakfast place about offering a discount on a breakfast sandwich or something for those that want it, or just suggest people go to Target and buy whatever breakfast foods they want.

Overall, I'd be okay with staying with the venue.

Costs:

If you guys need to bump registration, that's probably fine. For a week long event, 50 bucks or whatever is basically nothing. Might be worth looking into a discounted two day option, but that's potentially more hassle than it's worth.
That said, can we please use a larger font on the badges? Print the names diagonally if you have to because somebody has an excessively large name.

Volunteering:
Powerup Audio is always awesome.
The bug in the tracker that prevented volunteers from assigning runners choice was maddening to deal with. The head donation volunteer should not have to constantly be working to input runners choice on 5 dollar donations while also managing the host, checking in with staff etc. If you want them to do their best work, the other donation volunteers need to have the tools to properly assist, otherwise, we couldn't do anything but try to filter for the donation head. Even then, during busy games, far too many things happening. There were points where I was dealing with over 15 donations per refresh, with probably 5 of them runners choice and 2 or 3 that I thought the host could potentially read. That's an excessive amount of work for donation heads.

Submissions:
The single most improved part of the event. Went from being handled incredibly poorly at AGDQ to being probably the second best a major marathon has ever handled game submissions. I'd like to continue to see chances being taken on games, and seeing success stories come from those chances is really awesome. Deadlines were kept, Vulajin kept his DMs open for feedback and talk about offers that was also private and avoided people burning bridges to just find out what was going on inside the committee's head.

Schedule:
Not a fan of a few of the prime time blocks, especially having 8 hours of indie as a theme, which, I'd think, would cause most viewers to tune out. That block could easily have been multiple 3 hour blocks or shorter and been kept with other larger games to hold interest and lead people into smaller games potentially.
As for the finale, I agree that it was a bit disingenuous to call Lack's run the finale as it was on the schedule. That said, I don't hate the idea - I just think it was handled poorly. IMO, the best thing to do would be to do all of the closer stuff after Lacks run, completely clear the stage of tech and runners for 30 seconds and do an "encore" of the donated finale game. After the encore ends, say a quick thanks and raid. That way, the "named" closer gets the feel of the closer, doesn't feel rushed off at the end for setup on the next game, and gets to keep the emotional weight of being the "final" game of the marathon.
There's probably more that can be said, but these are the main points that came to mind. I'm pretty sure somebody can link the recap Spike, Hobz and I did after the event, which goes into way more depth on individual games, scheduling and other issues.

Location:
+ Food options were plentiful. Shoutouts to Hell's Kitchen for being rather awesome.
+ Minneapolis is fine. Not too expensive to get to, not amazingly terrible weather.

Hotel
+ Actually kept the food stand open late. Sandwiches were actually edible as well and not overly expensive. Considering the last time this was tried, a bag of chips was like 3 dollars and the hotel shut it down for not "being used", good on the hotel.
- Internet was godawful, but that's to be expected when you get 1000 tech nerds in a building. The Wifi will not be able to keep up.
= Don't really care about breakfast one way or another. I never woke up in time to use it. Potentially, if people wanted to, might be interesting to partner with a local breakfast place about offering a discount on a breakfast sandwich or something for those that want it, or just suggest people go to Target and buy whatever breakfast foods they want.

Overall, I'd be okay with staying with the venue.

Costs:

If you guys need to bump registration, that's probably fine. For a week long event, 50 bucks or whatever is basically nothing. Might be worth looking into a discounted two day option, but that's potentially more hassle than it's worth. 
That said, can we please use a larger font on the badges? Print the names diagonally if you have to because somebody has an excessively large name.

Volunteering:
Powerup Audio is always awesome.
The bug in the tracker that prevented volunteers from assigning runners choice was maddening to deal with. The head donation volunteer should not have to constantly be working to input runners choice on 5 dollar donations while also managing the host, checking in with staff etc. If you want them to do their best work, the other donation volunteers need to have the tools to properly assist, otherwise, we couldn't do anything but try to filter for the donation head. Even then, during busy games, far too many things happening. There were points where I was dealing with over 15 donations per refresh, with probably 5 of them runners choice and 2 or 3 that I thought the host could potentially read. That's an excessive amount of work for donation heads.

Cool Matty

2016-07-29 11:20:40 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from Ghoul02:

The bug in the tracker that prevented volunteers from assigning runners choice was maddening to deal with.

What issue was this? Wyrm and I haven't heard of it before now. Maybe UA was informed but we're really curious about this.