Speedrunner Roundtable July 10 at 9 PM EDT [locked]

2013-07-08 11:53:33 pm

Around page 7, I noticed several people saying it would be a good idea to accommodate everyone who wants to run a game, and some specifically saying they'd give those who have not had a game before priority.

I don't agree with this. I think the game selection should be based on the merit of the game within the scope of the marathon and not focused on being fair to every single person who has offered a game. This seems to already be the case, so I don't see a problem.

Starting a blog or writing detailed posts about accept/reject decisions, cuts, etc as well as having several opinions (a committee, and not an individual) will probably smooth this out. I've disagreed with these decisions before (while understandably not getting the full story behind the reasons) but for the most part it's been pretty fair and the process is clearly improving.

I do think that in the future -- if not by next AGDQ, then probably by 2015 -- there might be a problem with the community becoming a bit too big for the schedule, but that's a topic for another day.

Around page 7, I noticed several people saying it would be a good idea to accommodate everyone who wants to run a game, and some specifically saying they'd give those who have not had a game before priority.

I don't agree with this. I think the game selection should be based on the merit [i]of the game within the scope of the marathon[/i] and not focused on being fair to every single person who has offered a game. This seems to already be the case, so I don't see a problem.

Starting a blog or writing detailed posts about accept/reject decisions, cuts, etc as well as having several opinions (a committee, and not an individual) will probably smooth this out. I've disagreed with these decisions before (while understandably not getting the full story behind the reasons) but for the most part it's been pretty fair and the process is clearly improving.

I do think that in the future -- if not by next AGDQ, then probably by 2015 -- there might be a problem with the community becoming a bit too big for the schedule, but that's a topic for another day.

Everhate

2013-07-09 12:13:44 am

I'm a bit exhausted, so it's possible I just missed it somewhere in the thread, but directed at the stream of the roundtable itself (and probably at Cool Matty, since he's doing all that fancy tech stuff).

It was brought up last time that since so much of the content came from the chat (and I'd assume it'll be the same this time around), that the chat be streamed for those who cannot catch the stream live (or, alternatively, the statement/question/rambling be read prior to being answered). I'm sure this is something that has been taken into consideration, and in my sleep-addled state I've missed, but wanted to make sure there was some kind of mechanism in place for those who cannot watch live.

Though, with PJ involved, I expect all the things to break, and chat to end up spontaneously transported to Arkansas or Oz or any other completely random location never to be heard from again.

MURPHAGATOR!

2013-07-09 12:42:37 am

Terraffirmative!

The chat can't be controlled, so having the chat forever immortalized in the video stream is pretty much a terrible idea. If you'd seen some of the stuff that got posted in the chats, you'd understand pretty well why that is the case.

mike89

Edit history:

mike89: 2013-07-09 01:12:03 am

2013-07-09 01:10:22 am

SEGA Junkie

In this case I think the positives outweigh the negatives, purely for the purpose of later review. With the last roundtable the bulk of the work was actually done with the post-stream talking points, and there's no guarantee that all of the talking points will be met and adequately addressed in a few hours. Indeed, a lot of the issues could probably benefit from a more considered and polished response than is possible in this setting. This merely puts issues on the table.

MURPHAGATOR!

2013-07-09 01:13:08 am

Terraffirmative!

For some reason I misinterpreted that as chat during the marathon instead of during the roundtable. So yea, ignore me.

Tranquilite

Edit history:

Tranquilite: 2013-07-09 01:41:05 am

2013-07-09 01:40:03 am

When answering questions from the chat on stream, it is always a good idea to re-read/summarize the question before answering it. This helps both the people who watch the archived video, as well as those who don't care to follow chat closely, or watch fullscreen. This is a strategy that improves the quality of communication in any stream.

Lenophis

2013-07-09 02:00:20 am

0-10

Quote from ButtersBB:

SDA tends to be nicer about it, but yeah, it is not much different from that... So what's the problem here?

I may make a dangerous accusation here, but you are someone that has not been bullied in your life.

Quote:

Let us look deeper into this metaphor. Ok, so I am 11 and was not picked to play basketball. Rather than crying and running home to denounce the injustices of this cruel world, I find myself instead thinking about why this might have occurred.

One serious flaw with this is that if you're 11, you aren't going to possess the critical thinking to understand "why." Sure, you can try and pitch your ability in with talk, and sometimes it will work. The rest of the time, you're dealing with kids that just don't like you, and possibly not even for a specific reason. I cannot emphasize this enough. I should have made this explicitly clear initially, and for that I apologize.

Dessyreqt

2013-07-09 02:15:24 am

So I kinda skimmed the 9 pages that sprung up since I last saw this thread, but here's my two cents: attendance at a marathon is based solely on two things. 1.) The goals and the attitude of the marathon align with your values closely enough that you believe they outweigh the cost of you going, and 2.) the organizers of the marathon believe your skills would help fulfill part of the needs of the marathon. If you don't get to go this time, then one of those things didn't click. Don't take it personally. It's not because you weren't popular or your game sucks. The proposition you offered just didn't satisfy both of those requirements.

That said, there are many ways you can still go to the marathon if you're willing to bend your skillset and will do things in service to the marathon. You can have fun while you're at it to. You could organize a poker tournament where the pot goes to charity and the winner decides on donation incentives. You could make millions of Costco runs, cook a thousand grilled cheese sandwiches, and drive everybody to and from the airport (if you find that last bit fun, I guess.) You could even find a way to organize important marathon information and present it beautifully where all the attendees have easy access to it. Heck, if you have tons of skills, you can make the marathon stream and the page on which it lies look far more beautiful and be far more functional than it has been in the past. Heck, if you're really creative, you can even contribute in a way that hasn't been done at a previous marathon.

So your game has been rejected. Still looking for an excuse to hop a plane to another state just to hang out with folks who share your passion? "Hey, I love to cook and would like to make the marathon a four course meal, I just need $x from everyone interested." "Hey, my game got rejected, but I'd like run an X tournament with $X entry fee and winner gets to pick where the pot goes in the marathon." "I was never able to run anything, but give me some talking points and I'll practice my commentary skills on X underrepresented game and deliver it like a routine on camera."

We all love playing video games. We all love making meaningful contributions to society. If your game is rejected and you still want to go, maybe try to think of a way to combine one of your OTHER passions with the goals of the marathon. If it were me, I'd probably try to sanction a Magic draft tournament (since I'm a DCI judge) and have the top winners put their share of the pot to their donation winnings. Plus some players would get to own some sweet new cards. And then I would try to get a game on bonus stream anyway. Smiley

TL;DR: Remember, if you didn't get to play this time, it's not personal. Service is a two-way street. It's not enough to want to serve. Your target recipient has to need and want your service. And if your service isn't needed/wanted, but you still want to serve, find a different service to provide.

"Ask not what your marathon can do for you, but what you can do for your marathon."

So I kinda skimmed the 9 pages that sprung up since I last saw this thread, but here's my two cents: attendance at a marathon is based solely on two things. 1.) The goals and the attitude of the marathon align with your values closely enough that you believe they outweigh the cost of you going, and 2.) the organizers of the marathon believe your skills would help fulfill part of the needs of the marathon. If you don't get to go this time, then one of those things didn't click. Don't take it personally. It's not because you weren't popular or your game sucks. The proposition you offered just didn't satisfy both of those requirements.

That said, there are many ways you can still go to the marathon if you're willing to bend your skillset and will do things in service to the marathon. You can have fun while you're at it to. You could organize a poker tournament where the pot goes to charity and the winner decides on donation incentives. You could make millions of Costco runs, cook a thousand grilled cheese sandwiches, and drive everybody to and from the airport (if you find that last bit fun, I guess.) You could even find a way to organize important marathon information and present it beautifully where all the attendees have easy access to it. Heck, if you have tons of skills, you can make the marathon stream and the page on which it lies look far more beautiful and be far more functional than it has been in the past. Heck, if you're really creative, you can even contribute in a way that hasn't been done at a previous marathon.

So your game has been rejected. Still looking for an excuse to hop a plane to another state just to hang out with folks who share your passion? "Hey, I love to cook and would like to make the marathon a four course meal, I just need $x from everyone interested." "Hey, my game got rejected, but I'd like run an X tournament with $X entry fee and winner gets to pick where the pot goes in the marathon." "I was never able to run anything, but give me some talking points and I'll practice my commentary skills on X underrepresented game and deliver it like a routine on camera."

We all love playing video games. We all love making meaningful contributions to society. If your game is rejected and you still want to go, maybe try to think of a way to combine one of your OTHER passions with the goals of the marathon. If it were me, I'd probably try to sanction a Magic draft tournament (since I'm a DCI judge) and have the top winners put their share of the pot to their donation winnings. Plus some players would get to own some sweet new cards. And then I would try to get a game on bonus stream anyway. :)

[b]TL;DR[/b]: Remember, if you didn't get to play this time, it's not personal. Service is a two-way street. It's not enough to want to serve. Your target recipient has to need and want your service. And if your service isn't needed/wanted, but you still want to serve, find a different service to provide.

"Ask not what your marathon can do for you, but what you can do for your marathon."

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2013-07-09 02:29:36 am

2013-07-09 02:24:49 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Lenophis: You are taking the metaphor too far, I do my best to treat people like adults, and not like they are 11 years old. I also do not bully people. I might reject games a person wants, but I don't rub it in that person's face. Honestly, if you are focused on the 11 year old part of butters' post, then you are missing the entire point.

Dessyreqt: I like that message.

EDIT: I missed the previous posts.

yggdrizzle: If that's an issue for 2015, I'll worry about it next year.

Chat being captured for roundtable: Yes, that is currently the plan so that the people watching the roundtable in the archives still have some reference instead of being completely baffled.

moooh

2013-07-09 02:27:53 am

Exoray

Previous roundtable was an unstructured mess since there weren't really many set topics and things were just discussed as questions came up in chat. This made topics come up all over the place and follow up questions to things previously discussed came in mixed with stuff about the current topic.

This time around, the goal is to have it more structured and the topics to cover being decided in advance (hence this topic). Since there's a limited time for the roundtable, obviously we will not be able to cover all topics mentioned in here. So don't act surprised or pretend to be hurt if your particular grievances with the community isn't discussed during this roundtable. There's just no time.

Given the time constraint and the fact that we already have too many topics to cover (no we're not going to make it into a 24 hour long roundtable), I would pretty much bet that no new topics will be picked up from the chat. The chat will most likely be used for catching follow-up questions to the topic currently being discussed.
If you have a major topic that you really think needs to be discussed now you will have to bring it up here, or wait for the next roundtable.

Previous roundtable was an unstructured mess since there weren't really many set topics and things were just discussed as questions came up in chat. This made topics come up all over the place and follow up questions to things previously discussed came in mixed with stuff about the current topic.

This time around, the goal is to have it more structured and the topics to cover being decided in advance (hence this topic). Since there's a limited time for the roundtable, obviously we will not be able to cover all topics mentioned in here. So don't act surprised or pretend to be hurt if your particular grievances with the community isn't discussed during this roundtable. There's just no time.

Given the time constraint and the fact that we already have too many topics to cover (no we're not going to make it into a 24 hour long roundtable), I would pretty much bet that no new topics will be picked up from the chat. The chat will most likely be used for catching follow-up questions to the topic currently being discussed.
If you have a major topic that you really think needs to be discussed now you will have to bring it up here, or wait for the next roundtable.

MilesTheWolfman

2013-07-09 03:48:24 am

King of the Choads

As far as I'm concerned about the marathon issue and runners getting games -

Someone said it a ways back in the thread, and I don't have the clarity of mind to go back and find them at the moment, but if a runner wants their game in the marathon, they should have to submit a 5-10 minute clip of their game and their commentary over said game, and the organizers should be required to watch it and then make their decision based on that. I understand this is a lengthy request, and you get a LOT of games offered to be in the marathon, but quite frankly, some games are boring as shit to watch, but the commentary is amazing, or they have decent donation incentives to get the viewers participating, etc. And in the interest of fairness, I'd also like to point out that for this setup to work, everyone would have to submit a video, even allstars who have played before. There shouldn't be any sort of bias, and the decisions should be made based on what both the game and runner have to offer in conjunction with each other.

I understand that game selection for a marathon is not designed to be fair, but you also have to understand the potential backlash behind the decisions made and the reasoning given for those decisions. For example, a lot of people were not happy with Mike's decision to cut Nier from SGDQ on the basis that the game wasn't really well known, I believe. (If I'm wrong, I do apologize, but I'm quite sleepy at the moment) Even though I don't really know too much about the game, I thought the decision was utter bullshit. But again, I'm not the one making the decisions, and Nier is in the marathon, so all is well I guess. Some of the reasoning behind cutting games or not putting games in in the first place are just garbage, and I'd rather have the truth than some fluff.

Honestly, I really love SDA, and while I may not be a major contributor on the forums, I applaud everyone who keeps the site running and for getting us where we are today. I still plan on going to AGDQ, and while I hope to get a run in the marathon, even if I don't I'm ok with being part of the experience if I can afford to. I figure I can at least get on stream as a couch commentator for someone's game if I know it well enough or be a part of bonus stream shenanigans.

/rant

As far as I'm concerned about the marathon issue and runners getting games -

Someone said it a ways back in the thread, and I don't have the clarity of mind to go back and find them at the moment, but if a runner wants their game in the marathon, they should have to submit a 5-10 minute clip of their game and their commentary over said game, and the organizers should be required to watch it and then make their decision based on that. I understand this is a lengthy request, and you get a LOT of games offered to be in the marathon, but quite frankly, some games are boring as shit to watch, but the commentary is amazing, or they have decent donation incentives to get the viewers participating, etc. And in the interest of fairness, I'd also like to point out that for this setup to work, [b]everyone would have to submit a video, even allstars who have played before.[/b] There shouldn't be any sort of bias, and the decisions should be made based on what both the game and runner have to offer in conjunction with each other.

I understand that game selection for a marathon is not designed to be fair, but you also have to understand the potential backlash behind the decisions made and the reasoning given for those decisions. For example, a lot of people were not happy with Mike's decision to cut Nier from SGDQ on the basis that the game wasn't really well known, I believe. (If I'm wrong, I do apologize, but I'm quite sleepy at the moment) Even though I don't really know too much about the game, I thought the decision was utter bullshit. But again, I'm not the one making the decisions, and Nier is in the marathon, so all is well I guess. Some of the reasoning behind cutting games or not putting games in in the first place are just garbage, and I'd rather have the truth than some fluff.

Honestly, I really love SDA, and while I may not be a major contributor on the forums, I applaud everyone who keeps the site running and for getting us where we are today. I still plan on going to AGDQ, and while I hope to get a run in the marathon, even if I don't I'm ok with being part of the experience if I can afford to. I figure I can at least get on stream as a couch commentator for someone's game if I know it well enough or be a part of bonus stream shenanigans.

/rant

Edenal

2013-07-09 03:50:33 am

Hockey enthusiast

Quote from Poxnor:

Text

My issue is in this instance not with fundraisers in general. Thought I believe they could benefit the community as a whole more if there were somewhat centralized like Lee suggested. Instead of raising funds for a select few, raise money for an event.

Before going into details. These are my personal opinions, and this is all in the past. Though I want to raise the question for the future.
And into the specifics. My issue is when organisers or "officials" if you will, actively participates in a fundraiser to fund a runners trip and stay to a marathon. In this particular case, it was Romscout's participation when running several games at the MegaMarathon in favor for Wawlconut that caught my eye. I firmly believe officials or anyone with influence should stay impartial.

I am certain that neither Romscout nor MitoRequiem had a single thought about this. But to me, that's a statement that certain runners are more important than others.

I do apologize in advance that I've target you both while elaborating, Romscout and MitoRequiem. But I needed a concrete example, not a vague metaphor.

[quote="Poxnor"]Text[/quote]

My issue is in this instance not with fundraisers in general. Thought I believe they could benefit the community as a whole more if there were somewhat centralized like Lee suggested. Instead of raising funds for a select few, raise money for an event.

Before going into details. These are my personal opinions, and this is all in the past. [i]Though I want to raise the question for the future.[/i]
And into the specifics. My issue is when organisers or "officials" if you will, actively participates in a fundraiser to fund a runners trip and stay to a marathon. In this particular case, it was Romscout's participation when running several games at the MegaMarathon in favor for Wawlconut that caught my eye. I firmly believe officials or anyone with influence should stay impartial.

I am certain that neither Romscout nor MitoRequiem had a single thought about this. But to me, that's a statement that certain runners are more important than others.

I do apologize in advance that I've target you both while elaborating, Romscout and MitoRequiem. But I needed a concrete example, not a vague metaphor.

lag@work

2013-07-09 04:03:49 am

Not naming names because naming them did no good at the time and will only further serve to alienate people. Thanks for pushing for some written rules about harassment, funkdoc. I know SDA won't ever be "what I want" but I can try and nudge it in the right direction if other people take up my cause.

Yagamoth

2013-07-09 04:16:48 am

INTJ

Quote:

While we are on the topic of sports metaphors: Why do television networks show sports besides football, even though football pulls the highest ratings? Simple: Because different strokes for different folks, and because over saturation would flood the market. The charity marathon would not make more dough by just doing Mario, Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc. because it would get stale, and because it would be missing the boat on a bunch of fans of other games that while collectively smaller than the mainstream hits, might not otherwise be donating.

^ This is something I wanted to post but I couldn't find a good way to talk about it. Butters just took that point and put it in words, elegantly and nicely in one clean sweep. Thank you.

It seems like a minor thing (because with the current game choice for marathons-mentality it's a non-issue), but it's actually a pretty crucial point to be considered in general. I have nothing valuable to add, so I'll leave it at that ^^

Poxnor

2013-07-09 05:05:11 am

Moo! Flap! Hug!

I just wanted to quickly and publicly apologize for my behaviour last night. I was frustrated at this thread, and some elements of the direction the marathons are taking, and I lashed out in a wildly inappropriate manner. It was completely uncalled for, and not the right way to resolve anything that I viewed as an issue -- especially to mikwuyma. I'll attempt to contribute to the round table and the community in a far more adult manner than my previous behaviour would indicate.

oasiz

Edit history:

oasiz: 2013-07-09 05:14:19 am

2013-07-09 05:12:59 am

Iha paska

I was originally going to attend AGDQ as a visitor, and I live on the other side of the globe pretty much and travelling really put a dent on my budget.
Originally my AGDQ plans had no games at all, it's all about the experience for me really and I just happened to do two runs while at it.

Speed running games on stream was just a miserable excuse to travel really far away just to finally meet people from SDA.
I'd say that I enjoyed it as it was and I don't see why people are bummed about it. It's really up to you how much you can make out of the situation / event.

Anyway, that thing aside, more interested on getting PC rules sorted out !

Discussion topics I'd like to see being sorted out or put in to motion (repeating old shit from the previous post with my two cents):
PC gaming of course..

Frame rate, maybe have a simple flag for games that have major game breaking differences with a high FPS (Like where physics change completely, HL1/quake is still tame compared to some of the stuff you can get) See point *

Frame rate capping, mostly for older games where you can "uncap" the framerate and it will execute at a faster speed than it's supposed to be at. Mostly just applies to old IBM PC games that assumed a fixed MHz speed. For speed I'd allow "fastest possible" that still uses frame caps (C&C series, GTA1/2 etc..) Should be pretty obvious that the game must not run too fast.

What key binds are allowed -> as in, can you call console commands straight with a single key or just limited to what menu offers, allows stuff like "start vote to restart the game".

Can you bind two actions to the same key in series (not parallel). Some games like Duke3D allow you to do stuff like binding "W" to "move forwards" AND "use medkit", this is generally acceptable and does not require any console commands since the setup allows you to bind a single key to multiple actions (People always did this with deathmatch games) but would be cool to have a more clear ruling if this falls with scripts or not. Two categories for this too, the ones that require console commands to accomplish and the ones that simply fire multiple action straight away. NOT like typical scripts that do multiple actions after each other, more like gluing two keys/gamepad buttons together with a wooden stick (shitty analogy).

Version differences, Re-release, dos & Windows 9x multimedia enhanced releases & HD & source engine upgrades and such. See point *

DOS stuff was pretty well covered in my previous post but Dosbox is something that we need, extremely faithful and even the official releases use pretty much "out of box" configuration and you can install from old CD-ROM just as you would with a real machine. PC stuff never really relied on being cycle exact unlike console games (PAL vs. NTSC speeds and physics for example).

Win9x, I'd allow virtual PC /box /vmware, most games use really basic direct draw very often or just software rendering, 9x is probably the hardest system to deal with since there is no "winbox" available. The games never really relied on being 1:1 speed across systems so it can slide a bit again. There IS an option on using composite or s-video out on a old P3 level box for example and just using that with a capture card, works fine most of the time and is kind of cheap, providing that you have a machine that can run win9x (tv-out capable card shouldn't be hard to come across).

* Due to small differences with speed, re-releases, versions, etc.. I'd rely more on the verifiers actually knowing their game, if a ruling gets decided then why not add it to the KB? I'd say.. Just generic notes on what the game ended up using or if any issues got brought up and solved during verification should make things a lot easier for the next time and for potential new runners too.

Sorry for the wall of text but there are some things with PC gaming that need to be brought up and finalized since many things just land in the "grey zone" Smiley

I was originally going to attend AGDQ as a visitor, and I live on the other side of the globe pretty much and travelling really put a dent on my budget.
Originally my AGDQ plans had no games at all, it's all about the experience for me really and I just happened to do two runs while at it.

Speed running games on stream was just a miserable excuse to travel really far away just to finally meet people from SDA.
I'd say that I enjoyed it as it was and I don't see why people are bummed about it. It's really up to you how much you can make out of the situation / event.

Anyway, that thing aside, more interested on getting PC rules sorted out !

Discussion topics I'd like to see being sorted out or put in to motion (repeating old shit from the previous post with my two cents):
PC gaming of course..

[b]Frame rate[/b], maybe have a simple flag for games that have major game breaking differences with a high FPS (Like where physics change completely, HL1/quake is still tame compared to some of the stuff you can get) See point *

[b]Frame rate capping[/b], mostly for older games where you can "uncap" the framerate and it will execute at a faster speed than it's supposed to be at. Mostly just applies to old IBM PC games that assumed a fixed MHz speed. For speed I'd allow "fastest possible" that still uses frame caps (C&C series, GTA1/2 etc..) Should be pretty obvious that the game must not run too fast.

[b]What key binds are allowed[/b] -> as in, can you call console commands straight with a single key or just limited to what menu offers, allows stuff like "start vote to restart the game".

[b] Can you bind two actions to the same key[/b] in series (not parallel). Some games like Duke3D allow you to do stuff like binding "W" to "move forwards" AND "use medkit", this is generally acceptable and does not require any console commands since the setup allows you to bind a single key to multiple actions (People always did this with deathmatch games) but would be cool to have a more clear ruling if this falls with scripts or not. Two categories for this too, the ones that require console commands to accomplish and the ones that simply fire multiple action straight away. NOT like typical scripts that do multiple actions after each other, more like gluing two keys/gamepad buttons together with a wooden stick (shitty analogy).

[b]Version differences[/b], Re-release, dos & Windows 9x multimedia enhanced releases & HD & source engine upgrades and such. See point *

[b]DOS[/b] stuff was pretty well covered in my previous post but Dosbox is something that we need, extremely faithful and even the official releases use pretty much "out of box" configuration and you can install from old CD-ROM just as you would with a real machine. PC stuff never really relied on being cycle exact unlike console games (PAL vs. NTSC speeds and physics for example).

[b]Win9x[/b], I'd allow virtual PC /box /vmware, most games use really basic direct draw very often or just software rendering, 9x is probably the hardest system to deal with since there is no "winbox" available. The games never really relied on being 1:1 speed across systems so it can slide a bit again. There IS an option on using composite or s-video out on a old P3 level box for example and just using that with a capture card, works fine most of the time and is kind of cheap, providing that you have a machine that can run win9x (tv-out capable card shouldn't be hard to come across).

* Due to small differences with speed, re-releases, versions, etc.. I'd rely more on the verifiers actually knowing their game, if a ruling gets decided then why not add it to the KB? I'd say.. Just generic notes on what the game ended up using or if any issues got brought up and solved during verification should make things a lot easier for the next time and for potential new runners too.

Sorry for the wall of text but there are some things with PC gaming that need to be brought up and finalized since many things just land in the "grey zone" :)

Trekhaak

2013-07-09 06:38:54 am

Everybody's favorite monster

Marathons are for fun.

romscout

2013-07-09 06:43:34 am

that Metroidvania guy

Quote from Edenal:

Text

It's a valid concern, certainly. And no, I didn't really think much of it. I don't even really know Wawlconut outside of watching the stream a bit and just knowing a good handful of the SRL community in general. Here's something to consider though: by the time this marathon happened, the schedule was solidified (barring drops in attendance) and I also went on to participate in other fundraiser marathons for potential SGDQ runners who were already on the schedule as well as promote every single one I knew about in some manner.

So while you could say there was favoritism involved here, that just isn't true because I would have supported everyone who was supposed to attend but needed help getting there. I'm going because of the support of other people who covered my travel, too. Now this still brings up an issue for the future, and perhaps it is true that it is better for me to not be involved in any events outside of dealing with my own personal stream.

However, I don't think the circumstances are ever going to change much: people who put fundraisers up for this stuff plan on attending, whether it's to play a game or not (remember, not everyone who was involved in number smw played a game at AGDQ), and I will continue to support anyone who wants to sincerely attend and help out. If there was an event like this I didn't promote in some fashion this year, it's only because I didn't hear about it for some reason. The ones I directly participate in are because I know the people involved and have fun doing it. So yea, I don't see this as an issue personally, but if the whole community began to see this as a problem, I'd certainly reassess my thoughts on the matter.

[quote="Edenal"]Text[/quote]
It's a valid concern, certainly. And no, I didn't really think much of it. I don't even really know Wawlconut outside of watching the stream a bit and just knowing a good handful of the SRL community in general. Here's something to consider though: by the time this marathon happened, the schedule was solidified (barring drops in attendance) and I also went on to participate in other fundraiser marathons for potential SGDQ runners who were already on the schedule as well as promote every single one I knew about in some manner.

So while you could say there was favoritism involved here, that just isn't true because I would have supported everyone who was supposed to attend but needed help getting there. I'm going because of the support of other people who covered my travel, too. Now this still brings up an issue for the future, and perhaps it is true that it is better for me to not be involved in any events outside of dealing with my own personal stream.

However, I don't think the circumstances are ever going to change much: people who put fundraisers up for this stuff plan on attending, whether it's to play a game or not (remember, not everyone who was involved in number smw played a game at AGDQ), and I will continue to support anyone who wants to sincerely attend and help out. If there was an event like this I didn't promote in some fashion this year, it's only because I didn't hear about it for some reason. The ones I directly participate in are because I know the people involved and have fun doing it. So yea, I don't see this as an issue personally, but if the whole community began to see this as a problem, I'd certainly reassess my thoughts on the matter.

Edenal

Edit history:

Edenal: 2013-07-09 07:42:00 am

2013-07-09 07:41:40 am

Hockey enthusiast

Quote from romscout:

Text

I appreciate your sincere answer! Again, I'm sorry for targeting you specifically.

I hope we, as a community, can figure out ways to make all marathon more accessible strictly financially speaking for all attendant. I love a "Meatballs-for-everyone"-fundraiser!

AdamAK

2013-07-09 07:55:20 am

Totally rad

Quote from Trekhaak:

Marathons are for fun.

First post in this 12 page thread I actually agree with. It's extremely disappointing to see that people's attendance to the marathon is so conditional on having a game to run on the main stream, rather than having fun with all the runners backstage. I'm inclined to think the marathons would have been a whole lot better if there was no money or charities involved.

Poxnor

Edit history:

Poxnor: 2013-07-09 08:07:55 am

2013-07-09 08:07:17 am

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Quote from AdamAK:

It's extremely disappointing to see that people's attendance to the marathon is so conditional on having a game to run on the main stream, rather than having fun with all the runners backstage.

Just to clarify, I never meant to disparage (and I hope that I didn't come off as doing so) people who attend marathons without running a game. They're amazing people who are helping out, making the event a success Smiley

All I meant to say is that some people have other considerations -- very limited vacation time, family, financial considerations, etc. It just becomes harder to justify taking a week off and spending money (money which could just be donated to the charity) to fly across the continent just to hang out. As fun as hanging out is, I just can't imagine going to my wife and saying, "Hey, I'm spending our money to go somewhere for a week without you to hang out with some cool people. See you!" Sorry if that disappoints you, AdamAK Sad

Solairflaire

2013-07-09 08:24:17 am

Here's an issue I remember people complaining about at this last AGDQ. There were people complaining in the chat and on the forums here that their donation comments weren't being read. How are donation comments going to be handled from here on forward?

moooh

2013-07-09 08:28:17 am

Exoray

Re: keybindings and configs
This isn't exactly something that belongs in the roundtable thread.
I'll extract the posts to a separate thread and I'll give you most of the answers there as most of these questions already have rulings made.

Kiyura

Edit history:

Kiyura: 2013-07-09 08:30:01 am

Kiyura: 2013-07-09 08:28:59 am

2013-07-09 08:28:36 am

Wiiaboo

Quote from Solairflaire:

Here's an issue I remember people complaining about at this last AGDQ. There were people complaining in the chat and on the forums here that their donation comments weren't being read. How are donation comments going to be handled from here on forward?

This was because we literally did not have the time to read them all. If things got too busy we would try to skip them smartly - not reading the 457th "Put this towards Die Hard as the best Final Fantasy," for instance, and focusing on actual messages/stories and larger donations. We tried to make this clear on stream, but understandably some people were still frustrated.

We will probably handle it the same way going forward. Not much choice! We are always making improvements to the donation tracker to make it more streamlined (though the bottleneck is really just the time to read them), and we are also considering other options for displaying donation comments without taking up stream time.

Cool Matty

2013-07-09 08:38:28 am

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Poxnor: I guess what I find ridiculous is that somehow running a game makes those considerations disappear? Suddenly, if you're running game, now you have time to go, now you can afford it? If you were going just to run the game, there'd be no reason to stay the rest of the marathon (after all, you'd still have to pay for the other nights!).

It seems to me that you're using your run as a justification in the most negative connotation possible: an excuse. Tongue

I believe people can (and for the most part, do) help in way more ways than just running games, and so the justification should really be "I want to go help them run this marathon". A run shouldn't be the overwhelming qualifier for that. If you don't think anything else is as important as your run of the game... yeesh.