Zelda Marathon Hyrule vs Lorule feedback thread

[TheSpeedGamers]

Hey guys! We would appreciate any feedback we can get on our Zelda Marathon that we just completed. Tell us what you did and did not like. Thanks!!!

[CaptainSlug]

I think it would be cool if there were different handicaps or challenge runs, in addition to or in place of the time limit. for example maybe you can only get X amount of heart containers or u can only have y amount of bottled fairies for the entire run. I really liked the blind race so maybe more things in that vein, like someone makes a pseudo strat guide for one of the games and someone else who never played the game had to run it based off that guide.

[JoshBresser]

I definitely love the idea of more competition. This was great, and I would love to see it expanded. More races, more challenges, etc. All good stuff.

Really nice layout this time. No real complaints.

My only complaint (and it's a real minor one) was that I didn't love the way some of the games were scheduled. But that's honestly so minor. There's a reason this was the best earning TSG marathon in 4 years, and it was my favorite to watch in that timespan too.

Oh, one more minor thing. I think someone else mentioned this in the other thread, and I want to mirror it here - a way to be up to date on which achievements were passed while we were away would be great. Whether its updating the Twitter, or a page on TSG.tv, etc...

[cHicKeLoR]

The idea of teams was reall well executed. I loved the small games in between and the banter.

My fav. gameplay moment as the race and I hope there will be more in the future. Having Baltes and Alan battle in LA with glitches and speedrunning strats was amazing but a race between two players with a long game would also be great.

The marathon was great and I loved it. I can say that I would've liked to see more of but all in all it was one of the best marathons.

[Apple314]

I loved, loved, loved the Hyrule vs. Lorule concept. It gave the chat something to talk about and root for at all times, and it worked better then I thought it would.

I wasn't a fan of the idea of putting tweets up on screen. It made the screen look too cluttered when one popped up, and picture tweets would cover half the commentators at times.

It was, honestly, a hell of a lot of fun to watch. It was obvious you guys were enjoying every second, and the chat responded to your enthusiasm. It was great!

[Fluffyapple]

Fantastic marathon this year.

My only complaint would be the mic issue.

At times I would have to turn my sound up so when TEXAS SIZE popped up, my flat mates, neighbours and the rest of the country went on a Witch hunt.

I had a lot of fun and I look forward to the next marathon.

[SoapyNome]

I know I was only there for the last couple of days for the marathon, but I had a blast watching! The competition gimmick was insanely fun, and I only wish I had been there from the start to see it unfold.

That said, a minor complaint, information management on y'alls end would perhaps help things run smoother. You guys did very well at it, but there are a few minor tweaks that would make your lives a lot easier. It seems like anytime there was an auction, someone was manually adding up the scores for each person. That's fine and all, but as a guy with a BS in Computer Science, there is certainly an easier way to do it. I'm not familiar with your setup, but I almost guarantee you could automate that process and make it much easier on you guys to process donations.

In addition to that, having a better tracker for the auctions would have been nice. I understand the top of the stream went through the names and how many $$$ they raised, but often I would find myself waiting 20-30 seconds for the little ticker to restart just to find out how much money was in first place. Maybe a semi-regular chat update would help so you don't have to clutter up the visuals on the stream?

I guess that's all I have to say. Just minor things - the stream was still insanely fun to be a part of, even if I got there super late. Thanks for the good time!

[Keftenk]

The competition was quite a refreshing element that you brought to the marathon this year.

I think more challenge modes or donation incentives to restrict certain aspects of a players run could be interesting. For instance, it is close to nearly impossible to die in a casual game like Ocarina of Time due to the abuse of Fairy mechanics. The game literally will revive you. You don't even have to pop the bottle. As much as the "race" and "competition" didn't really matter in the end, it is something to rally behind and promote further as a chat-community. So, seeing someone like Rob use it as a crutch was infuriating and uninteresting. No offense.

Donating different amounts to block the bottle for certain people was a little annoying too. I completely understand if a player is playing during prime time that the incentive should maybe be a little higher seeing as it's easier to acquire donations oppose to at 3AM, but $500 for one player while it takes $1000 for another? I think it needs to be stream lined a bit. Kudos to the community for even making these restrictions and locks possible. Great idea from them.

To note though, it would suck for those that actually put forth a true and extreme effort in trying to speed run the game legit. I'd leave those people alone if that's what they want to truly try and accomplish. We almost saw some WR's this marathon! Imagine if restrictions were applied to them and they missed that personal (read: life) achievement because someone decided to pull a Keftenk. Haha, I kid...sort of, but seriously.

Also, running a game like OoT so many times was a little off putting, but it works in terms of the Team Battles. Just something to think about.

What was the reason for getting rid of commentators? I understand that there was one scheduled individual at all times with whoever else wanted join in. Did we even have a Chazuki moment this marathon? (Apologies if we did, I had to work a lot more this year than I have had to in the past So I may have missed it.) It made it a bit informal, which isn't bad, but what I noticed is there were close to 40 of you involved this year and it 'seemed' we didn't even see some of them. Notably, some are on Producer duty and such, but still. It was like we only saw the same people over and over with such a vast and massive group. Perhaps it was the location that made it feel minute since this was the first year in a long time that you were out of the Barn. I can't even remember what it was like back at the old place before the Barn, haha.

A personal gripe would be donating for a challenge that a commentator suggests, but not fulfilling it completely or half assing it. It really isn't that big of a deal, but it has happened each and every year for the last 3 years when I've donated. Why do you think I fixate on a different individual each time? It's all in good fun though and I'm mostly donating to support TSG and the charity in the end, but in my opinion it tarnishes the aspect of trust with the viewer.

I'm not going to kill anyone, but because of my schedule I sometimes take it upon myself to boost things during those odd hours with the only way I can. The guy that looked like Ness last year is a great example. That guy is a champ chomping down that Ghost Pepper...unlike Robell Pepper! I'm not really a sadist, but if you offer self inflicted 'pain' for some money to a charity. Just expect me to be there, willing and ready.

As far as technical issues. The internet connection was vastly superior than the Barn but the audio was quite low. On my desktop I had to crank it up to max and it was still hard to hear, however when I was watching on my phone during my work breaks it was crystal clear.

Lastly, seeing so many organizations sponsored and backing you guys on screen this year was also great. Even seeing Fangamer come into chat and other marathons like yours contact you guys for some one-on-one feedback and chit chat was cool to see and hear. It's that feeling of legitimizing what you guys do year in and year out.

Til next summer, TSG. For whatever games you'll be playing!

[AnythingButAwesome]

(oops I didnt know deleting comments left the post there, I should have just edited it)

Great marathon, I loved the hyrule/lorule concept and would be willing to watch another marathon with the same concept. Really, you guys did great.

If anything with the stream presentation was to improve I would say it would be the audio, but I know it was probably hard to get good audio when recording a whole room. The audio was good enough if fixing it is too much trouble.

And near the end of the marathon whenever a game was played for the third time I found myself getting bored of that game, I was only watching to see how many points that team would get and to listen to the commentators and chat.

[SilverMoon9000]

This was definitely a huge success. I look forward to future marathons. I know I'll probably be playing pokemon sun/moon about the same time as that marathon. As well as Breath of the Wild. That should be a kind of shared experience.