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Warp wrote:
I don't really understand. I thought all of the suggested runs were rejected, and there will effectively be no TAS block.
dwangoAC wrote:
<snip> after talking to the GDQ submission committee it's clear that they really wanted us to have the opportunity to show content that is representative of what can be found on TASVideos and they felt Super Monkey Ball was a better choice. Kaizo nearly made it in but they opted to go with Super Dram World 2 instead. To that end, I'm working with the team in #tasbot to try to do a donation incentive TAS for Super Dram World 2 and anyone here is welcome to help out with that.
That's all the time I have to respond, but I did want everyone to know that I will be attending in person. More later!
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
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This is a long overdue update but it's still going to be a bit rambly, I have a lot on my mind right now.
I have purchased airfare for DefeneSam, Wrentendo and I out of my own pocket and I will be attending AGDQ 2018 for essentially the entire week, although visiting family for a couple of days in the middle. I missed the hotel registration which filled up very fast and I don't yet know how I will solve that but it's probably going to be expensive. As I noted I won't be creating a donation request thread but I left http://donate.acbit.net up - my hope is that folks from my Twitch channel can help shoulder the load so the site membership doesn't have to, and this is all I'll say on that matter.
We only have "Bonus" games at AGDQ 2018, but fear not. The official description of this category is as follows: "Bonus: Your run was selected to be a donation incentive for the event. Note that we occassionally cut these runs during the event if we are running behind schedule, although it is rare."[sic]
Super Monkey Ball is confirmed in as a bonus game, i.e. it's a donation incentive that will show up on the tracker. Trust me when I say TASBot being a donation incentive will ensure this run makes it in, especially with us coming in under time due to the replay mechanism shaving several seconds off each level due to not having to do the level zoom-around and being able to leave the level right after hitting the goal. SMBall1 is listed on the schedule as "SETUP BLOCK 5" directly after Zela1's normal+extra run, currently slated for Friday morning on January 12th.
Super Dram World 2, the GrandPOOBear 100% run, is confirmed as a bonus game (and thus as noted above, a donation incentive). Paradoxically, the TAS playaround run being created by Masterjun is *also* a donation incentive. The entertainment to time value is so high that I'm convinced they'd show the incentive even if it wasn't met. :) SDW2 is, to the best of my knowledge, slated on the schedule as "SETUP BLOCK 8" directly after the Super Mario World no cape race on Saturday evening, i.e. prime time on the final night.
Finally, I'll be speaking with Darkman this weekend on in-between run segments with my plan being to do 1-3 analysis portions where I use TAS tools to show, in slow motion and frame advance, why a particular trick a runner did was so difficult and use the tools as a way to praise the runner for their skill. This is the least defined TAS related element for this event and requires a fair bit of work on my part since I'll be doing the actual presentation, so I'm trying to delegate as much of the work on the other two runs as I can to others. Huge thanks to people like Masterjun, MediaMagnet, serisium, timeshifter, deef, coderjo, Ilari, CyclopsDragon, GrandPOOBear, p4plus2 and countless others who have stepped up to help out on random things.
That's it for now, I need sleep as I haven't been getting enough of that, but I wanted to at least post an update on where things are at. Discuss! :)
This is a long overdue update but it's still going to be a bit rambly, I have a lot on my mind right now.
That's it for now, I need sleep as I haven't been getting enough of that
Yeah, it's extremely obvious just from your uncharacteristic posts. Take a break man. D:
As for the actual info, cool stuff! Nice work to team TASBot for making the most of limited opportunities.
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TL;DR: I believe the so called "limited" opportunities at AGDQ 2018 are a result of my own shortcomings/life situations rather than a reflection on the site itself and I'm making a decision to let go of some personal obligations to keep a healthy balance.
Alyosha wrote:
Yeah, it's extremely obvious just from your uncharacteristic posts. Take a break man. D:
(Slightly personal response, feel free to skim over this as this is peripheral to AGDQ 2018 prep directly.) The honest truth is that due to personal issues that I haven't shared about widely I'm tapped out and I have no choice but to let go of some things, especially in light of my already difficult personal challenges being compounded due to being moved into a different position at work this week.
Last night after my post (or honestly, while writing it) I started looking at what I could do to give myself more grace and space. I have opted to pause all computer repairs for my mechanic/dentist/doctor, stop following Bitcoin development, pay someone to help with monthly deep cleaning around the house, drop out of one of my two weekly church small group meetings, defer MAME cabinet and pinball repairs at church, lend one of my pinball machines that needs maintenance to a friend to repair, delegate most church network/server maintenance tasks to others, only serve at NBLUG if there are no other accepted nominations for President next year, reduce my production/lights/projection team volunteering at church, and most of all delegate as much of the workload for AGDQ 2018 TAS content as I can as that looming deadline has started to swell to the point that it's threatening to fill most of my after-the-kids-go-to-bed time.
In an effort to continue to move toward a healthier life balance I've opted to expand my existing chiro/muscle therapy, yoga, and counseling sessions during this season. I must figure out how to master late night time management and device use and get more sleep, the kind of things you'd assume an adult would have sorted out by now which I've found is a struggle I'm alarmingly not in the minority in, but I digress. In essence, my kids need a not-exhausted dad that has time for *their* needs.
Please don't read anything in the last bit of run-on sentences as me martyring myself or otherwise trying to cause people to take a guilt trip; this is an ongoing process of me finding a healthy balance given my current real life situation. As I mentioned in my last post, many people have already stepped up to help out in #tasbot / http://chat.tasbot.net and while we could always use more able hands I have confidence that the team can do at least the bare minimum to make this year happen well even if I was forced to step back entirely.
Alyosha wrote:
As for the actual info, cool stuff! Nice work to team TASBot for making the most of limited opportunities.
Agreed, I think we're doing the best we can with what "limited" content we have, but I think that aspect was a bit blown out of proportion in earlier posts. I can't emphasize enough how much the "limited" aspect of AGDQ 2018 TASBot content is a result of me. This is largely because no one else really wanted to actively share in or take over leading the effort (link_7777 being an exception albeit with him unable to attend); GDQ staff / submission committee members knew a bit about my current situation and it factored into their choices, as did the staggering amount of content they had to choose from.
Masterjun's playaround of SDW2 being confirmed in was a result of me asking for it (not that I'm making more of myself than I intend, just that it happened because I shared with them that they may have gone too far in their goal of wanting to help us show "typical" TASVideos content and they ultimately agreed with me when I reached out). I'm still a bit disturbed at how entitled some people's comments seemed in this thread earlier and I want people to understand that it's ultimately my fault if you will, more a reflection of a complex situation rather than a cut-and-dried rejection of site content.
I've wanted to do the in-between runs interview desk sections as a way to praise the abilities of realtime runners using TAS tools for years so I'm going to continue to plink at that but I'll be limiting the complexity of my original vision (likely by only using one emulator, such as only picking SNES runs to highlight and sticking to lsnes or similar). I anticipate the commitment will be about 20-40 hours of work spread across the next two months. As long as I get help with the remaining SBAll1 / SDW2 tasks I should be able to accommodate that without too much strain.
Outside of TAS content prep for GDQ I have been spending some of my time doing things I find relaxing, most of which involve playing things like Super Metroid while showing my extroverted side and streaming to http://twitch.tv/dwangoAC in the evenings after the kids are in bed. MediaMagnet, timeshifter, coderjo, Jackdubs, deef, and several others have helped expand things like the paint-by-numbers / pixel grid art we've been doing and it's been a fun distraction. I've found joy in it and I'm going to keep doing that here and there to relax in between GDQ prep so I don't fall apart. That's it for now, thanks for the support all.
Good on you for deciding to step away and let some things go. It can be difficult to stop doing things you feel responsible for, even when the alternative is crashing and burning. Hope you find a good balance and get rested!
dwangoAC wrote:
TL;DR: I believe the so called "limited" opportunities at AGDQ 2018 are a result of my own shortcomings/life situations rather than a reflection on the site itself
dwangoAC wrote:
I can't emphasize enough how much the "limited" aspect of AGDQ 2018 TASBot content is a result of me. This is largely because no one else really wanted to actively share in or take over leading the effort
I think maybe you are being a bit too hard on yourself here. Perhps aside from DKC2, I would say that we really didn't have anything to offer, and I don't think that would have changed if someone else had taken your place. I would offer up the opinion that TASBot, much like TASVideos itself, has more or less run it's course with what's currently possible. We need some serious R&D before we are in a position similar to 2014 where there was novel and exciting stuff to offer.
Anyway, good luck with the prep!
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Quick recap, also added to the first post: I am attending AGDQ 2018 as the primary presenter of content from TASVideos and organizer of the broader TASBot team, representing work from CyclopsDragon and a host of others on a Super Monkey Ball replay file "console verification" as well as a playaround of Super Dram World 2 by Masterjun. Unless something goes wrong on the tech side I'll also be doing 3 interview desk segments where I use TAS tools to praise runners for their aptitude in accomplishing difficult glitches; the games/glitches we're targeting are Donkey Kong Country 1/2 barrel glitch, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island level 5-4 skip, and Rockman & Forte skips. Discussion will continue to occur on #tasbot in IRC as well as on the TASBot specific Discord server. Dacius has donated a raffle prize consisting of boxed copy of Super Monkey Ball 1 and a GC memory card that will be filled with the exact content we will show at AGDQ.
I'm facing a number of personal challenges that I've now shared with most of the core team of AGDQ 2018 volunteers; if you have a genuine interest in our personal travails, please contact me privately. Real life is extremely stressful (aside from a silver lining that doesn't fix the hurt). Our situation will remain emotionally precarious for the coming months as we walk through a new chapter of life but I have the support I need for the kids and I to make it through AGDQ 2018. Please note: I will determine my next steps several weeks after AGDQ 2018 concludes but I anticipate needing to skip SGDQ 2018. I'm saying this now because there's always the post-GDQ amnesia that I need to not get caught up in.
I'll be largely undistracted at AGDQ 2018 thanks to the help of grandparents other than being away from the event late Monday night and all day Tuesday. I will be on screen on 5 unique days presenting some aspect or another. I'll inevitably be holed up in a corner of the private practice room working on rehearsing. This GDQ is much, much more focused on rehearsing instead of actual technical hurdles and my goal is to present the most polished result I possibly can which will require running through the material until I know it by heart. A lot of the help I'll need while I'm on-site is research related and fine-tuning what is presented. I don't have to be the only person presenting and I may pull other people in depending on their availability.
That's it for now. Thanks for all who have provided support!
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The first of 5 total segments (covering DKC1) is complete, but there was no audio. If a video becomes available I'll let you know but chances are good there will be no audio there either. I'll update as time allows. The next segment will be a preview explanation of what to expect for SMW2:YI regarding the level 5-4 skip which is currently scheduled for Wednesday afternoon EST.
I was really looking forward to seeing the explanation segment. Too bad about the audio during most of it. Hopefully the rest of your segments go better, but I've seen the audio guys mess up a bunch already, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
Edit: Looks like the YouTube video has all of the audio, but they put it at the beginning of the Sonic Advance 3 segment instead of the end of the DKC RBO segment. Hopefully they get that fixed later.
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The next TAS portion of AGDQ will be at roughly 5:00 EST today at the interview desk following Wario Land 4 (subject to shift, see http://gamesdonequick.com/schedule to see how it changes today). I will be showing a preview of how runners of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island skip most of level 5-4 by using TAS tools to demonstrate the difficulty of the trick and to emphasize how much practice the runners have put in.
I missed the other two interview segments and the Super Monkey Ball run, but was absolutely floored by the Super Dram World 2 run. Masterjun truly is a master at making these runs happen.
Thanks again to dwangoAC for sacrificing your time (and everything else you give) to present these runs at these events.
I missed everything due to work and sleeping. Does anyone have the VOD timestamp links?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
I like how they surrounded dwango with mics at the third interview. XD Too bad first one has no audio.
I only got to see Super monkey ball live but it was really cool! Dram 2 was really cool as well, impressive work to all involved!
(Still hoping to see DKC2 at some point)
Sounds like everything came down to the wire again for both runs, glad it all came together in the end.
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Alyosha wrote:
Sounds like everything came down to the wire again for both runs, glad it all came together in the end.
I'd agree with that for Super Monkey Ball because we were trying to make some aesthetic tweaks at the last minute. We didn't add any content, we just made minor replay file adjustments and some fixes for the credits to make them work more reliably. For Super Dram World 2 however, everything was fully done the day before. The only thing I did prior to the event was make sure all four visualization boards worked correctly. It was very, very strange to be playing a card game after eating a leisurely dinner in the hours before the run. (Truth be told, I received some painful family-related news right before that and I needed to distract myself for a bit.)
I would like to share the following from https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/donation/433707 for a donation I personally made on behalf of the site and the TASBot team of $2,345.67:
"I am TASBot. Many humans helped me this year. dwangoAC would like me to thank them for you. The donation reader would get tired reading all of the names. I have shortened the list for them. It is still long.
dwangoAC would like to thank Masterjun, micro500, GrandPOOBear, Ilari, Jaku, Tinahacks, CyclopsDragon, Byrz, PistonMiner, metaconstruct, Bobjrsenior, CraftedCart, Bites, Numbers, Funkmastermp, MediaMagnet, and Timeshifter.
I need more humans to help me at TASBot.net. TASVideos.org has more TAS content. You will enjoy it."
As I noted, there were many, many more people involved (to get an idea of how many, have a look at the Super Monkey Ball full credits list). There were also people like Andymac who helped with the interview desk segments and many more folks from #tasbot on IRC and the TASBot Discord server who lent their time to the effort. I want to say thank you to everyone who helped whether I managed to remember to mention your name or not.
Regarding my donation and in light of my desire to be fully transparent, I received just $10 in donations this year to cover my travel expenses and equipment costs and as noted I did not make a page asking for assistance this year because I felt like I had started to beg too much. My donation of $2.3k represents charitable giving I was willing to make this year because past personal losses mean I support the cause of preventing cancer before it starts, with the added benefit of providing some exposure for the site and everyone who helped make the TAS content at AGDQ 2018 possible.
The total raised toward TAS content is:
https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/bid/6820https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/bid/7192https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/bid/6801
All told, those three add up to a whopping $74,355. This does not include any donations during any of the three interview desk segments and only reflects donation incentives which were all met well beforehand (meaning it also excludes my own donation). I'm very happy with this, and for those who were initially decrying that we had nothing accepted I'd like to gently ask for a little more grace in the future as there was TAS content on 5 different days of the marathon which clearly led to fantastic exposure for the site.
I'm not ready for the (inevitably not all positive) feedback that's about to hit so I'm simply going to not read this thread for a week while I recover from some severe personal real-life blows, assuming I have the constitution to ignore it. I currently have no SGDQ 2018 plans. I'll update the first post pointing to this one and I look forward to seeing what everyone thought of the way content was handled. Thanks again to everyone who provided support this year!
dwangoAC: as always, thank you for (primarily) the one who represents TASVideos at GDQ events!
1. My feelings/observation of this year presence:
- demonstrating DKC glitch was great. Similar demonstrations in the future could have some memory addresses on the screen (if there's any that could be useful)
- yoshi's island: perfect (show the route, try changing, fail :) )
- super monkey ball: perfect (especially the "bad day" ones)
- rockman forte: okay, nothing to say
- super dram world: I think you did everything ok
I can't bring up any negative points, in my opinion, showing the basics of TASing as well as abilities (and it's consequences) very well covered!
2. Regarding "asking for assistance": I think this is the right forum where you should be allowed to ask for decreasing your expenses that requires to represent the site at these events. Those who don't want (or can't) donate, probably won't cry out there.
3. For future events compared to this year AGDQ events (my opinions written with the twitch chat and reddit reactions in mind):
a. Demonstrating TASing can be (and it was!) interesting and instructive. Both your segments with the piano roll editor probably well recieved. Enough visualisation for understanding a new concept is crucial, which I believe was very important for the Strider live tutorial (keypad shown of currently pressed button highlighted with a teacher's instructions)
b. Making new rules / restrictions to a known (for both viewers and speedrunners) through TA(S) can be (and it was!) funny and confusing. While I was somewhat concerned about Masterjun's "another smw engine freeplay", it was actually delivered amazingly. If "everyone" can enjoy the party, they will!
c. Console verifying live is good for TASes that completely out of this world and/or demonstrate something that requires heavy commentary (and the commentary can be done on the fly or with some explanation). All I wanted to say regarding this is unfortunately a desync ruins more than a sync finishing. Make sure there's an incentive / interest in replaying it on a console or "it's enough" to replay it in the emulator or show the encode (video).
d. My list of ideas that might work or at least I would really like to offer my help:
- demonstration of TASing from home streaming the screen. I think I could draw some TASes in FCEUX or push buttons madly in BizHawk (probably will try to record some footage cause it's talk for itself visually). The main idea is that if there's a submitted speedrun for GDQ, a TASer could get involved with creating new rules or explaining a glitch discovery/history or demonstrate something related
- TASing contest. I know it's a pain to find the right platform, game, judges and the "hurdle of a contest", but as GDQ races are funny to watch (2-4 screen at once). Imagine a puzzle game's 1 (preferably final or custom ROM) level being TASed by 4 guy (independently) at once with a time limit (having all informations is crucial for this idea).
TL;DR: Good job :)
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
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MESHUGGAH wrote:
2. Regarding "asking for assistance": I think this is the right forum where you should be allowed to ask for decreasing your expenses that requires to represent the site at these events. Those who don't want (or can't) donate, probably won't cry out there.
Here's a bit more transparency. During AGDQ 2016 prep someone donated $100 worth of Bitcoin which I never spent, at a time when Bitcoin was worth about $400 or so. That transaction was in the vicinity of 0.25 BTC. I sold that late last year at a around $17,000 per BTC, for a bit more than $4,200 in proceeds. What was left over after paying taxes on it helped cover my AGDQ 2018 expenses as well as the donation I made. I'd like to thank whoever made that donation.
On the flipside, for AGDQ 2017 barely half of our expenses were covered and outside of subscription income from Twitch (which I donated during HRDQ) the only donation that came in this year was a $10 donation to http://donate.acbit.net that came from someone outside of TASVideos. It's pretty clear I tapped the well dry after too many years of asking for funds and the site needed a break.
Being able to sell Bitcoin late last year was a huge boon financially but I'm not expecting a lucky windfall next year and I expect I will have to ask for assistance if I choose to go to AGDQ 2019, especially given the tumultuous season I'm in personally.
This post is only focused on transparency in funding because I wanted to make sure people understood why and how I did what I did; I'll reply to the rest of it in time but I admit I have some clarifying questions I'd like to ask as I think I got lost in the parens (although I have no room to talk given how often I use them, but I digress). Thanks for the support!
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DrD2k9 wrote:
dwangoAC wrote:
...I expect I will have to ask for assistance if I choose to go to AGDQ 2019, especially given the tumultuous season I'm in personally.
What's a rough estimate of what it costs you to participate in a GDQ event?
That's a good question. I've tracked costs for all events I've asked for assistance with. Here are the total expenses followed by donations that came in that year followed by the difference in CSV format (not showing any funds I willingly donated to charity as that's not something I'm trying to brag about):
Event, Expenses, Donations, Difference
AGDQ 2015, $2686, 2586, -$100
SGDQ 2015, $1086, 1286, $200
AGDQ 2016, $3119, $2320, -$799
AGDQ 2017, $2000, $770, -$1230
Total all GDQs, $8891, $6962, -$1929
I did not track costs for this year as I only received $10 in donations but excluding the donation I made my best guess is AGDQ 2018 trip expenses were about $2,500. Throwing that number into the mix and counting the events where I did not ask for assistance (AGDQ 2014 was probably about $1,800 and SGDQ 2016 was probably about $950) I've spent somewhere around $7k out-of-pocket for GDQ related events. I've done 7 events so another way to look at it is that on average I've been falling in the hole about $1k per event, but I digress. As you can see, I'm not deriving any personal profit from the events (and I've given away all Twitch income I've received to the GDQ charities anyway).
I hope this answers your question and is useful for others who may want to attend to determine what their costs might be. Thanks for the interest!
I hope this answers your question and is useful for others who may want to attend to determine what their costs might be. Thanks for the interest!
I'm willing to give what I can toward future events (thought it may not be much). How do you get such donations, and would a GoFundMe (or similar) page be a better option for others to donate?
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DrD2k9 wrote:
dwangoAC wrote:
I hope this answers your question and is useful for others who may want to attend to determine what their costs might be. Thanks for the interest!
I'm willing to give what I can toward future events (thought it may not be much). How do you get such donations, and would a GoFundMe (or similar) page be a better option for others to donate?
I've been using the same lame Paypal setup at http://donate.acbit.net for a while now. I have to make decisions on my ability to commit to future GDQ events. SGDQ 2018 is highly uncertain. AGDQ 2019, assuming it's in the same geographical area, is a possibility. If and when I make a decision there I'll review my funding needs and methods. In the meantime, the above donation link will continue to function. Thanks for the kind support, I mean it.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
