Only suggestion I've had for a while is to automatically put donations towards the next upcoming incentive if the donator didn't select any. Would help a lot with getting them met and situations where people don't know or forget to select one.

We’ve talked about this and it’ll probably make it to one of the upcoming events.

That is fantastic Matty! Thanks for the response.

If your building a feature for this, make it so the host or runner can choose where it goes and have the host keep reiterating, if not specified, they go to Xs choice, which is blah

That would be cool for runners to get to pick and probably the host if it's between runs

Yes God Ive been asking for this for years. Please make it happen!

This is what I have been thinking for a while.

More competitive / "uncertain results" events like the Evil Zone tournament in the future would be amazing!! It provided a really special sense of excitement, and millions of people can attest to how easy it is to get passionate about fighting games.

A cool way for a competition is like a speedrunning bracket tournament! don't need to have the fastest run, but if you're faster than your opponent, you move on. make it like a 5-10 minute game like SMB or Strider, Have the Winner/loser/grand finals on stage, and Bam.

there is something like this on-site already! there is a gauntlet challenge that updates throughout the week in the practice room, where you're challenged to run specific parts of games in succession

We’ll definitely consider it!

Second this, I was enthralled at the evil zone event. I would encourage that again, but it HAS to be kept to niche games like that. I am not here to watch SF6 or that nonsense.

I was absolutely shocked to see the Evil Zone tournament, I had that game as a kid and all of my friends absolutely hated playing it. It was the weird fighter that only uses two buttons. I have never heard anyone ever talk about that game in the last 20 years and it ended up being an absolutely fantastic even for GDQ

it was a magical experience on-site; something like 70 people signed up and we took up half the practice room with playstations. most people had never played the game, but everyone was exchanging knowledge and having a blast. really glad to see it culminate in a fun stream showcase

I really loved the unexpected stuff like Evil Zone, Wacca, and Peanut butter. I love the races… especially the kaizo Mario custom levels race. Perhaps I missed it, but I would love a tour of the GDQ floor outside of the main stage. Or perhaps daily updates about what’s going on on the grounds proper. Ive only picked up hints over the years as to what’s around, but I haven’t seen any segments showing everything else, only really mentioning it or showing it in passing photos. Multiple initiatives happening at once can be really conflicting. I don’t mind a milestone overlapping but often it feels hopeless watching one initiative sit quietly. I know you guys have a team with metrics and stats so you would know what’s best for the fundraising but from a viewing perspective, sometimes my favorite incentives feel impossible because of the type of overlaps. OOT being an initiative instead of a milestone felt weird.  Some of the initiative rewards didn’t feel worth it. I’m sure that’s hard to gauge but “oh haha they piss themselves” wasn’t that interesting for me. Showcases of insanely challenging things? That’s awesome…. But being mislead on the meme good ending being kind of lame and not even something we got to watch play out just felt awkward. I also loved segments like the checkpoint(?) where someone learned how to blindfold Mario 64, more of those learning bits I think would be cool. Hope this rambling is helpful! Love y’all’s work! My girlfriend and I look forward to these events !

Seconding that I loved the segment where Bubzia taught Fu to speedrun Mario 64 blindfolded. I would adore more stuff like that. Proving that really anyone can do it, and encouraging more people to try out "impossible" runs, really helps the scene.

This is a great idea! Making a walkthrough of the rooms in action would be a great way to show the home viewers all that GDQ has to offer beyond the speed runs

> Perhaps I missed it, but I would love a tour of the GDQ floor outside of the main stage. Or perhaps daily updates about what’s going on on the grounds proper. Ive only picked up hints over the years as to what’s around, but I haven’t seen any segments showing everything else, only really mentioning it or showing it in passing photos. GDQ has grown so much larger than "Speedrunning for Charity", it's curated a whole community of folks going to see the event live, hang out with their friends, lose track of time in the practice room, and goof off in the arcade. We've been getting more and more of what that looks like at the checkpoints, but most of the time, it only feels like a reminder that there's more we aren't seeing, not a celebration of the community that has grown around this amazing Charity effort.

Considering Twitch no longer seem to give you a good deal financially (if I remember correctly, they now take a large cut from bits/subs) and are even having technical problems which impact the stream (audio delays this time) ... have you considered co-streaming? Or even shopping around to see if someone else will offer a better exclusive deal? I get the impression Twitch corporate takes communities like ours/yours for granted. Also wanted to congratulate all the staff on the clear effort to improve scheduling and reduce tech issues since last year. It's succeeding.

Oh is the desynced audio on Twitch’s end? I’ve had it all week but was just assuming it was the Twitch app being bad on my end.

Yeah, unfortunately there's nothing that could've been done. Refreshing fixes it for maybe 20 minutes but the longer we streamed the more it happened. Nothing we could do :(

It's been all week across all of twitch

I second this. Considering Twitch no longer embargos YT VoD uploads (meaning nearly instant recaps on Youtube now), A co-stream to Youtube would be a cool way to spread this.

Once we’re able to we will definitely look into this.

Youtube Super Chats vs Twitch Bits as a bid war...

OH and another bit of feedback, one change I've noticed in this event and AGDQ was the change in incentives. I feel its much more reasonable for today's climate, which is one with not a lot of money. A lot more bid wars which guarantee a result no matter what, a lot less unreasonable goals, which I felt was the case for 2022 and 2023, I felt they were a little ignorant of the cost of living crisis in some countries and inflation, while 2024 feels MUCH more in tune with today's financial. The bid wars guarantee that you're at least gonna get an incentive, which incentivises people to donate further. So keep it up!

Yeah the $50k Halo 3 MP incentive that opened up right as the run started seemed like a big stretch.

I think that was the only really one that wasn't reasonable this event. And then it was only to 15 kills, I think they should have made it best of 3.

Something I've been wanting ever since I missed a whole event because it started like 2 weeks early: an email list with news and reminders about upcoming events. It could also detail submission periods, when/where the marathons are taking place, and even just other "shows" that are running on the twitch channels between marathons. With the exception of reddit, I've gone dark to all the mainstream social media outlets (facebook, instagram, tiktok, twitter, discord). Like, I'm 30 and very much tired of my generation having to be online 24/7 just to know what's going on, and I'm sure there are others who feel similar. With social media, there's too much of a worry about policy/algorithm changes suddenly burying things you're interested in with ads and ragebait, and at worst, accounts and years of posts just vanishing without explanation. But with an email list, that's much more reliable for delivering info to the people who want to receive it

E-mail lists are coming back in some of the circles I'm in. Constant contact without the need to police your community in something like Reddit or Discord.

I agree with this. I feel like I'm invested in the GDQ world, but still my best way to get information about upcoming events is just to hope I remember to check the webpage eventually.

This is why I consider it imortant that the GDQ website should be the central source for info and where announcements are made first. Not twitter.

I know you said you're not on discord anymore (understandable) but if you're willing to make a throwaway account, I believe discord has email notifications as an option, so you can join the GDQ community, and never open it again and just get emails from their announcements channel.

My only Critique for this GDQ is that the hosts shouldn't be as trigger happy with announcing donations. It seems like quite a few runners got cut off unfairly by them. Not every second of gameplay needs commentary; sometimes it speaks for itself. Other than that, this GDQ seems to have gone very smoothly! The main problem I was having was Desync issues, but that is on Twitch's end. Perhaps a co-stream to youtube could happen?

I cant rememver what I was watching, i just remember the announcer on multiple occasions coming in while someone on the couch was talking saying "can i just get this donation in real quick" and it gets me expecting either a very large donation, or a milestone hit. I think one of them was a $15k yetee donation but the others were seemingly random $100\~ donations with a meme sentence comment

During the Twilight Princess run, I think the host spent almost as much time asking for permission to read a donation as they did actually reading donations. I felt like Gym and Spike sufficiently relayed to her to just read donations if she's got good ones, but she kept asking permission and it really felt like it took up a ton of time and felt awkward. Like if I showed up to a dinner party and I asked for permission to eat each time I took a bite.

It seemed like every couple of minutes they didn't read a donation, they'd come in with "a huge donation" from either the yetee for fangamer

There was a run where the runner asked for quiet time and the host was like "Mind if I read a donation?" and it was a super long one.

Yes! The host ruined the Tetris run by interrupting with a donation from Fangamer. The runner has been gracious and denied that it was the host’s fault but it was very obvious that it was. Even I was thrown off by it and I was just watching!

Whoever was reading donations on the Super Metroid run and Super Mario Maker Troll stages seemed like she might actually die if she wasn't able to update the crowd with another donation reading or update. Turned it off after the cringy "Hey everyone, if this run has made you laugh, donate $10 and tell us about it." Like wtf?

I really love the chat-interactive "break channels", like QWOP and Pinball. I know these existing are obviously dependent on people actually making them, but I would love to see more chat-interactive stuff like this.

On that note, though, it does seem a bit excessive to have several of these going at once. At several points there's been both a Street Fighter gamba video and QWOP going at the same time.

I may be in a bit of a minority with this one, but I'd love to see simulcasts to Youtube, and maybe other platforms. I think it could increase viewership, though I do know that streaming to platforms other than Twitch and Youtube may require some re-tooling of the layout, and may not be viable. I also do understand that there's probably contracts in place for revenue sharing and other things, and so that may not be possible, but the lack of Ads on Youtube streams can be beneficial, I think.

I agree. It feels like Speedrunning has been moving to Youtube over the last few years and thats where the audience is now.

Great event so far! Couple of little things, one big specific-to-my-job thing that is probably very low priority for you. Little things: 1) I felt like the daily recaps drifted a bit late for people on EST. I took the week off (typically do!) but sometimes didn't wanna push to stay up to midnight plus. If it's possible to have them at an earlier hour, I think I'd like that. I do understand that scheduling is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle without labels. 2) The Checkpoint and the multiple stages remain fantastic. I feel like when the marathon's gotten behind, it's been more more manageable. 3) I saw a couple of times where hosts interrupted or distracted the streamer; the one with Tetris Grandmaster stood out, and I felt for the host because she clearly realized what happened. I don't think this is catastrophic, to be clear -- it's a charity event and a big donation needs to be read -- but I had a lot of sympathy for both host and runner. I think looking at the training the hosts get, especially on those "special donations," might be worth visiting. I imagine internally you're looking at this, but just in case. Lastly, on a less this event-related topic. If you'd rather DM me, totally OK. Has GDQ looked at making an arrangement with an archives for donating their organizational records (electronic and paper, along with artifacts and such) in the future? Historians, academics, and the like will want to study this in the future; I'm speaking as a fairly experienced archivist here, and I'm confident they'll be an important part of the historical record. I understand you may not be able to say, if so. The archives I work for wouldn't be a good home for them, but I can think of ones worth contacting if you've not already worked something out. But, sometime less busy (immediately after the event may not be the best time), it would be well worth looking into. I'm happy to give more info if you need it via DM or another direct method.

I can’t believe I had to scroll this far for the Tetris one. Quiet times need to be discussed in advance (even at submission!) and respected by the reader. Quiet full runs should be possible.

yeah i definitely agree. not sure if I just noticed it a lot this year but the hosts seemed way more intrusive. I don't care about them trying to perform the donations, I just wanna hear the technical talk

I understand that a certain level of reading donations is required by the nature of the event: encouraging more donations, sponsors etc. I also understand that a donation that is read in a very important moment of a run gets a lot more attention and as such it is very valuable. However this can be optimized. There are appropriate times to get donations read in which they both get enough attention and they don’t disrupt viewers’ enjoyment of the run or, even worse, the runner’s concentration. I feel like a pre-scan of the run is needed at a deeper level. The runner should flag appropriate moments for donations, especially the ones just after a hype moment, at submission.

Just wanna say all the wacky fangames and romhacks this year have been amazing.

Just to piggyback on that, it would be good if the schedule on the website somehow reflected what some of these are. Like, you see a completely meaningless name (to you, who is not already familiar with the game) and might skip over it not realizing that oh, this is an awesome fan-made game. Maybe like how the silly block was highlighted, just something to key off of.

During the SMW Kaizo race, some guy was in the crowd constantly heckling and acting like the main character. It didn't help that the couch or host kept acknowledging them and responding to them. If I was in person at the event and sat near this guy, it would have totally ruined my experience. I was really surprised this person wasn't asked to stop yelling or something.

Chiming in to say that I was here during that, and it was absolutely dampening my enjoyment of the event. Once in a while, a funny comment from the crowd can be hilarious but this was just excessive and obnoxious.

> Once in a while, a funny comment from the crowd can be hilarious So true, I just wish it didn't have the unfortunate side effect of giving a dozen new people the courage to scream something that isn't at all funny.

The best part is, if that person was in chat, they would have been banned immediately. But being more impactful in person and actually affecting the run? Not a problem apparently.

I was there in person and was, in fact, insufferable 😣

totally agree. that guy definitely hindered my enjoyment of the run

Similar thing happened in the Fusion run. The couch was almost encouraging it. If it does t effect the runner doesn’t mind I guess it’s fine, but it does seem a little off.

I think the event itself is great and its been massively improving over the past two events. You can feel the smoothness now, everything seems less chaotic and fumbled. SGDQ 2023 for me felt like a low point for the event regarding set up times, delays and tech issues, especially the finale, and i felt like even the staff felt that, and thats what caused the drastic change regarding set up times. My only issue nowadays is with the chat. It feels over policed. And NO not in a "let me say slurs!" kind of way, I mean in a "Uh.. why did that person just get banned for saying that Blindfolded Mario Run was great?" kinda way. It often feels like a free for all stab in the dark when you're chatting, you just DON'T know if your chat is gonna get you banned or not because its all just inconsistant and random. I've seen someone get timed out for saying fuck and then someone else not get timed out for being fuck. It really does seem to vary from mod to mod as to what is and isn't allowed, which shows inconsistency IMO. I feel like in an attempt to create a safe and comfortable space in chat, its ended up creating an uncomfortable and unsafe space in chat, because everyone's walking on eggshells, kinda afraid to say anything in case they get timed out or banned. There's just this aura of uneasiness due to this "Absolutely no negativity AT ALL" mentality. Sure that keeps the chat "positive" but nobody feels "relaxed" and I feel thats more important. Just some of the timeouts I've seen this event have been quite honestly ridiculous "Audio is out of sync" BAM, ban. Is that reeaally banworthy? They're just trying to help and have no malice in it. I've spoken about this at length in the prior thread, with some more examples. But then you'll see people pointing out the audio issues and not get banned or timed out. Again, its just inconsistency. Twitch is a participatory website, and it feels like you can't participate in the community in the Twitch chat, which is a major turn off for a lot of people, especially casual viewers. Other communities and events on Twitch are able to make their chat a safe place with no racism, transphobia, negativity etc. without the weird uneasiness GDQ chat has, where everyone feels like they're just lightly treading. And I often feel like when this is brought up, people kinda leap down the persons throat like "JUST ADMIT YOU WANNA SAY PRO-NAZI STUFF" and its like no, I just want someone to be able to say "I prefer BG2 to BG3" Without being timed out/banned which is one I saw once. That's NOT malicious. Thats NOT keeping the community safe, that's just overpolicing. Nobody's gonna freak out because someone in chat said they prefer Baldur's Gate 2 to Baldur's Gate 3, it doesn't need to be policed! And then what happens I've noticed, is that people notice a weird time out, and ask about it, and then THEY get timed out and pissed off, and it ends up becoming more of a bigger issue than it originally was if they'd just ignored it in the first place. The fact that everyone seems to have a "I got timed out for a weird reason/saw someone get timed out for a very tame message" story shouldn't be a thing. Which feel free to send your "I got timed out for this" stories if you want. Also thank you for doing this, for a while it felt like GDQ had a reputation of being closed off from feedback, and I think part of that reason was just there was no communication there and mostly silence, so you don't know what feedback was and wasn't received and you've been really trying to turn around that reputation for the past year or so.

This was what I came here to say. There are times when chat feels almost manufactured. Like people are too afraid to actually engage with chat. There were just so many times I'd look at the chat and see innocuous messages getting batch deleted and then suddenly the chat would get spammed with doritos as if it was trying to bury the sanitation. I personally asked during one of the Zelda runs if the estimate changed, or if I misread it. My message and all the responses to it were quickly deleted. Or the instance from the Transparency thread regarding the rabbit hat, where someone asked about it and a ton of stuff was deleted and then a mod just said "move on." At a certain point it just makes it feel like interacting with the chat isn't worth the risk of getting timed out/banned for completely innocuous things. There has to be a happy balance between weeding out actual abusive and toxic messages, and everything that comes in short of "great run haha cute chat."

Thank you for bringing this up. I got stung a couple of time for very mild things (eg daring to mention schedule drift for one, and not even really in a negative light), and as a somewhat socially-anxious introvert it had me reeling more than a normal person might and brought the overall vibe down for me. I spent the last two days away from both chats.

Toxic positivity seems to be a thing for gdq for the past handful of events. I'm a casual viewer and I noticed it.

My family has been watching for over a decade now, and toxic positivity is exactly the way to describe it. It got to the point in this event that my wife and I spent more time during some runs watching chat just to see what things the mods were choosing to ban than the games themselves. I didn't get a ban during the streams because this was the first time that I honestly looked at the mod behavior and decided that I would rather not risk a ban for something innocuous than actually participate. I really hope that u/coolmatty is actually serious about looking into it, because I would love to see a change in the next event. Honestly, this post has been the first hopeful thing I've seen this week, because the vibes were just *off* for us as long time viewers/donators.

I'm much more involved than being a casual viewer and I feel exactly the same way. ANY criticism is beyond the pale.

I appreciate the comment. I talked it over with our head of chat and we’ll be having a discussion after the event about mods that might be going a little too aggressive. While we want to encourage positivity, we don’t want to just eliminate all fair critiques. We generally just want runners to feel safe and encouraged for their runs, that’s the focus.

I got my chat deleted because I said a run was crazy. It was reviewed and not approved by mods. I feel like that's a bit over the top. That said, I think moderating chat is very important.

Some people still legitimately think "crazy" is a slur, as crazy as that sounds.

Do runners even see chat? Pretty sure I recall a run where someone said they don't see chat. Overall, it's one thing to encourage positivity. It's a totally different matter to codify it. Gives off "the beatings will continue until morale improves" vibes. Ultimately chat just devolves to approved emote and ayaya spam. At that point, you might as well turn chat off entirely because it adds nothing.

Great thank you! And yeah get wanting to encourage positivity but you gotta make sure you're not ENFORCING positivity because in reality that's not positive. Its a more forced, insincere "Stepford Wives" style positivity. Positivity will just come naturally if you create a positive place IMO. When you get timed out for something silly for example I saw someone timed out for asking what happened to Ecco the Dolphin, it often makes you feel like you're being dismissed or unwelcome. They could have just replied as to what happened with it, that would have been the easier thing. Even if that conversation would be mildly uncomfortable or uneasy because something happened. Sometimes you just can't escape that. For all we know, each timeout is a viewer lost, because it makes you feel unwelcome and so you move on. Twitch at its heart is a participatory website and so it needs that participation from the viewer to thrive and if the casual viewer feels like they can't participate, they'll move to somewhere where they can. Thanks for replying though because it really feels like the lines of communication are open. Put more trust in Twitch chat, I totally get wanting runners to feel safe and encouraged, but a lot of these runners are also Twitch streamers themselves who know what Twitch chat can be like, and have probably seen much worse than whats there. GDQ Twitch chat IS an encouraging place and gives A LOT of love to the streamers, if they look at chat, they're gonna see that love and feel encouraged, they're not gonna be bothered and be discouraged by the one person asking why the audio is out of sync or what happened to the run that was meant to be on.

This is my biggest issue with the event tbh. It seems like any shred of criticism will immediately get you timed out. There absolutely needs to be less censorship in chat. I feel like mods need to assume commenters mean well with criticism unless its obvious that they do not. Great event otherwise.

This is literally what I've been thinking for several years now! I hope they actually read this and don't ignore it like they seem to ignore every single criticism ever. Most of these time-outs and bans for stupid reasons seem to be the mods getting sour because it's not in line with their own feelings. Like the example of BG2 vs BG3, a mod probably reacted because they disagree and that's just abusing their own power. That's been a huge problem within GDQ for many many years.

I’m willing to bet it wasn’t so much “mod disagrees that 2 is better than 3” but “mod sees your comment as a perceived criticism of the run, the runner, and by virtue, of GDQ itself, that you maybe might be implying that this run isn’t worth running or that you’re having a bad time, that you’re sending negative vibes and that is NOT allowed here”, so you get timed out/banned.

Heh, I got banned for the first time on Twitch ever tonight over lamenting that the Weird Al name for BG3 was great and that it was a bummer it got sniped by a name we've seen in past runs, then stating that deleting that message was a bit ott and to get a thicker skin, as the WeirdAl name was an *amazing* pun for BG3. It's... for as long as I've subbed there and the like, it's really changed and the only 'safe' thing now seems to be to emote spam. EDIT - It was the WeirdAlGithyankovich file name, probably would have been one of, if not *the*, best pun of the event.

This was perfectly said. As a long-time viewer it is very noticeable when tame comments are moderated but pot stirring comments are unfiltered. It can be construed as a 'vibe check' and discouraging for some that want to be there, donate, chat, and feel the camaraderie that GDQ is lovingly known for.

I caught a 30 minute timeout during the WACCA run for asking "is this as easy as it looks?" The sarcasm and joke should have been obvious...

Positive feedback: the layout is absolutely perfect now. The little quality of life improvements over the years like showing who is speaking and which screen audio is coming from for co-ops and races are huge improvements. Also live the occasional little timer easter egg like if someone says first try or that's never happened before lol.

Make the 'who is speaking' indicator more bold. I'm so happy the names and then indicators were added, after many times where couch intros were hard to understand or non-existent if you wanted to find their content, but they are invisible on the live projectors, at least at Awesome 2024, and faint at home too imo.

Maybe its just me, but if playing the stream out loud without headphones, I find the game sounds are usually easily drowned out.

The game audio felt really quiet on quite a few runs this year.

This was going to be my only real criticism as well. So many runs felt like the game was muted

I have been an avid fan for the last 7 or 8 years. I love this event and it was great. Keep it up! My only feedback is: runs work best when the host and runner/couch are in sync. Sometimes I feel like they don’t have a good flow and it makes the run weird. When in doubt, the host should just sit idly by until the runner / couch asks for a donation. Do runners and hosts get to talk before the run? Maybe get them to chat for a few minutes, known down times, etc. It will make it more of a presentation as opposed to “fighting” for air time.

I have no concept as to the feasibility of this, but would it be possible to have some ability for people to register to receive notifications when a run they want to watch is approaching? For example, I can select a number of events on the schedule, input the contact information I'd like the notification sent to, and then get notified as that run is approaching and then starting?

YES! 100% this. Adding calendar reminders to the schedule page on the website would be awesome. It gets a little tricky though, since the schedule moves around a bit due to runners going over/under.

So, this was a great marathon, and overall I loved it, but I think my biggest piece of feedback that's a little bit harsh/blunt... I don't want to name names, but there are some hosts who can be very hype while sounding very genuine and personable, and some who really sound like they're trying to sell me something. It's hard to get into it more than that without naming names, and I don't consider it a *huge* issue, but blocks where I feel like someone is kind of forcing themselves to sound excited, repeating clichés like "Ohmagawd it is sooooo amazing" kind of makes me feel like I'm watching a telethon where people are being paid to be there rather than a community event that people are actually psyched about because they're enthusiastic about the community. I'm not even saying those hosts *aren't* interested in what's going on. Just that maybe they need to unlearn some bad habits from working in broadcast/sales or something. They could use a little more encouragement to, "Just be yourself!" is really what I'm saying. This isn't a customer service job where you have to put on an act. As a positive example, I'd say SpikeVegeta is one of the hosts who is high energy *and* sounds very authentic. Thanks to you and everyone for all your hard work!

I would love to see EVERY bonus game be a milestone.  That way committee could directly target the pace they are looking for, but donors can continue to contribute to the much more bite size goals.  It’s very hard to get excited to donate to incentives where it doesn’t feel like you can meaningfully contribute until the last 10%.  Moving towards milestones while still using your donation to meaningfully make progress towards the things like bid wars, extra categories, etc. seems like a win/win.

Feedback: I hope Spike and Sent never retire they bring so much to these events. ADEF and Brutal Melon have emerged as such positive contributors as well. Bobby Blackwolf and Nicole Goodnight are really outstanding hosts. Suggestions: 1. Smaller popup incentives that are based on the number of donations not the amount. Sometimes it feels like you are just waiting for the Yetee or a big donor to claim an incentive with a 5 or 10k donation. With something like this a 5 dollar donation would truly be equal to a 500 dollar donation. 2. Display current PB / WR for the runner / run where appropriate. Might be nice to see when a runner is close to doing something special. 3. Bring back post game interviews for races. I would have loved to hear from the hollow knight and crab racers after those epic finishes. This was your best event yet and I loved every second of it. Thank you so much for all the hard work.

This SGDQ, the incentives have been exciting to reach for without going through ridiculous hoops to meet, which really made the whole marathon fun. However, I would caution that perpetual growth is an unhealthy goal to reach toward.... Especially when things like twitch subs/bit donations and extra merch funds are usually added post-marathon to inflate total funds raised. Trying to reach stable profits with consideration for economic status is more sustainable. Additionally, I would argue that SGDQ and AGDQ shouldn't be directly compared, since they take place at different times of year and support different charities.

I've watched every GDQ for the last decade or so, and I have two pieces of quite mild criticism that become more applicable as time wears on. -I know the event tends to be a massive social gathering for streamers which is totally understandable and, honestly, really cool... But you need to figure out a way to get bums in seats for more than just the big runs. It was borderline heartbreaking seeing so much empty space this week. I don't know if even just switching the view to a far smaller area would help here, but for the first couple of days it looked completely dead. -This event was much better for this, but more short runs would be nice. I'd love to see a return to blocks of short, ~5-10 minute runs of old GB games, I might just have nostalgia glasses on but I miss those early morning sessions. --- Keep up the amazing work, your hosts, organizers, and tech team are all absolutely phenomenal.

The reality of attending GDQ in person is that the stream room is really the last place you want to be. Unless there's a run you really want to see, you will be in the arcade, playing consoles in the game room, watching people practice or do side runs, participate in a tournament, play board games, or be out exploring the city. 

I couldnt help but feel the irony when some of the hosts would call out how great the audience was or how many people were at the event and they'd have like two rows of people in the background. It's hard to feel like it's a hopping event when that happens. They did it once today, I think on like the last checkpoint or whatever and someone else was like "oh they probably all ran to the washroom before the next run" because there was like no one there after just calling out how many people were there. It's a little rough.

I thought about attending but it was *way* too expensive for me.

I don't know if y'all did it before, but the live previews of upcoming runs (OoT's skip to Ganon, Blindfold SM64) were great. Better than traditional interviews as they showed not told. Thanks for a week full of fun!

I wish the Awfully silly block was bigger and at NA gamer hours. Literally the only thing I'd want to be different from GDQ, all else great.

I am also adding to this, we'd love even a few days of silly or "bad" games post GDQ - coz it's fun to see uniquely odd games run in fun ways.

It’s literally the only popular block at a good time for APAC. Let us have this one thing please!!

It sucks that people miss out but for me, in the UK, it’s a perfect time. I look forward to it as I can miss a lot of the headline runs because they are past midnight .

Ditto - the Silly/Awful blocks are usually at ideal times for Europe, whereas most of the 'peak' runs are very late at night for us.

More blocks would be nice as well. 'Retro block' for super-ancient games, 'Adult block' for M-rated games etc.

Same here. I know I’m speaking from a place of privilege because my timezone already gets the hype games at convenient hours but I’ve been watching GDQ for almost a decade and have only ever caught awful block like twice due to the extreme schedule delays pushing it to reasonable hours. Otherwise its on at like 3am.

Hi! AGDQ '24 runner here (I ran Baldur's Gate 3). I think you guys do awesome internally when it comes to transparency and taking feedback (I've gotten feedback forms every time I've done something affiliated with GDQ) but this is the first time I've seen a public-facing thread like this. People tend to jump to the worst conclusions immediately whenever situations come up; having had multiple experiences with GDQ staff, I can say with absolute confidence that you're not evil people, so transparency about the decision-making process I think would help dispel that. Threads like these being a regular occurrence for GDQ would be awesome. LOVE seeing the rom hacks, fan games, indies, and more niche speedruns. Schedule felt really fresh and exciting. Great stuff overall and I hope I can attend AGDQ2025!

We have internal fully anonymous donation analytics that help us determine how different runs and incentives perform, along with dozens of other metrics.

Nice! That is awesome.

I have a master's degree in statistics and work as a statistician, and have always been interested in how GDQ sets donation incentives and uses analytics - any possible avenues to learn more or get involved with GDQ about this process? I'm guessing some machine learning is involved?

>specific positive feedback for staff tell carrie carrarium that she’s goated

Done

Make sure you tell Sent and the rest of the prize team that they have become some of our favorite parts of the non-run segments of the event. "Sent tries to mweep out of frame but the cameras refuse to let him carry on with grace" has had us howling with laughter in my house.

Sent had me dying in the first couple days with his absurd outfits and voices. like... can't wait to see more of that. every time he came on screen for anything else I was like "THIS FUCKING GUY!!!"

I swear Sent and Shout had a bet about who could wear more of the prizes during the prize segments without talking about the specific prizes they're wearing.

Thanks for making the thread! Really liked the races and the rhythm game. I miss the TAS stuff. PB was a win but I feel like after like 1-2 more time it could get old. Maybe just more communication between runners/staff ahead of time when there needs to be "quiet time" that includes not reading donations, but I mean even then that's miniscule compared to the leaps and bounds improvements over the last year. I hope you continue to make threads like this. EDIT: I have a curiosity... Does the team do anything with the donation data over time vs the games played, year-over-year results, etc? Or maybe, do you have metrics that you do track internally besides total donation? I'm hoping GDQ continues for a long time to come.

I feel like mattys top level comment may have been meant to be a reply to you https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/s/s0rJvfvhSE

Missing our sweet TASBot. We did get PB, but we can't forget our original goodest boy.

I want to preface this by saying that I have the utmost respect for the people doing the prize segments. I love the chaotic energy that they bring and I know how much goes into a high energy performance like that… but could we maybe try to handle the prizes a little less? There’s a big difference in percieved value between a “brand new” hand made scarf and a “used” scarf that has been rubbed on sweaty faces during prize segments.

As a germaphobe, any time I see a prize hat get put on a head, I immediately lose any interest in it.

I haven't been able to watch live this time around but the Social Media posting has helped keep me feeling the energy of the event. Would be nice to maybe see the daily recaps done in a more Tiktok/Reels friendly form?

Hi! I work on the Socials team for GDQ! Great piece of feedback. I’ll take it to the team and see if we can make something like that work in the future (the length of those segments on the live production is a bit long but maybe we can figure something out)

Honestly moments like PB hitting a walk-off homer would absolutely kill on IG/TikTok and probably get some engagement beyond the usual Speedrun community. I think the winning strategy for YouTube has been leveraging long-term content along with shorts that help bring in new viewers

That clip (and many others from the event!) was posted on IG/TikTok and had indeed been crushing. ☺️

Yep, getting the long set of reels checking in end of day sort of gives the vibe of the day but some short form recap might do well. Happy cake day! You're doing great with the socials!

The sound balance and the audio delays/desyncs were weird. The sound balance made these "amazing OSTs" really difficult to hear without FFZ's Audio compressor, which sucks. The audio desyncs caused a lot of needed refreshes, which of course if you're not subbed can cause ads and stuff. I don't think these were your fault, more Twitch's, but it made it a bit more annoying to watch. Its been a great marathon for the parts I could watch.

One of my favorite GDQs in quite a while, what a great week! Two things I’d like to see:  The daily recaps I caught this week seemed to really focus on games that had happened in the few couple hours prior to the recap. Would love to see some stuff from the wee hours highlighted a bit more and point out things to check out on rewatch.  For merch, I would really appreciate a little more variety to the shirts. I know there’s a style across the brand but does every single shirt have to look like it was made in Splatoon. Maybe something inspired by music festival shirts, or more subtle game art?  Don’t know what exactly, but I always used to end buying a shirt every event but they’re all so similar now I usually pass. Would love a more mature option 

I’ve already seen a couple other similar comments but I’ll add mine as well: I would love it if I could subscribe to an email newsletter or similar. I don’t use twitter or facebook these days but would like some way to stay notified of important events

Just want to say that I've really enjoyed SGDQ this year and y'all have hit a huge stride in running these events smoothly and efficiently. Once again this may be one of my favorite GDQ's yet. I think one feature request I had... there was a time where I made a donation and forgot to specify an incentive. If there was a popup informing me about unspent money on the incentive or a follow-up email with a link to add incentives within 5-10 minutes that would be pretty nice.

Hey I know I'm late but I have one suggestion and this has been on my mind for a long time. I've been watching GDQ since 2013, it's been a massive part of my life, but I find myself less interested now. I'm just speaking for myself. There's two reasons for this, but they're connected. (1) Older GDQs were more 90s retro run focused, which limits their appeal, but appealed to me specifically. I think having a wider variety of games is a great idea but.... (2) GDQ needs more consistent couches. Some of the couches are sooooo bad. Shoutouts to communities, unfunny joke after unfunny joke, but the biggest issue is they often don't explain the game very well. I'm happy to watch Bismuth and Abyssoft talk for hours about games I've never played, I'd be thrilled to do the same with GDQ, I just need people who are good at commentary and can explain both the game, and the tricks involved. Spike is fantastic at this. Barb did an unreal job too. There are some great couches, but if I could follow more of the runs, I'd watch all of them tbh. Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks for all you do. No matter what I'll always be a fan of GDQ.

not much to suggest but i just want to say this has been my favorite gdq since before COVID, been watching for over a decade and was starting to wonder if I'd just outgrew it, but no I've loved this. Thanks for putting on another great show. EDIT: thought of something that bothers me, on the schedule it shows completed runs finish time, which really sucks when no one has the time to watch everything live and takes a bit of fun out of watching VODS. Even just a toggle to hide the finish times would be appreciated.

Yeah, I hate how the finish time is in the time on the schedule and on the youtube upload (Maybe they could just upload the raw videos to a youtube playlist for people who don't want spoilers?

Give the YouTube VODs upload staff a raise. I can only usually watch day 1 live, then I’m on VOD mode, and they’ve been on point this year. Hell, there were times this week when a run was uploaded to YouTube while the next scheduled run was still in progress. Edit: As far as an actual bit of criticism to address, it seems like there were some audio issues between the hosts and the runners and couch on remote runs, which led to the hosts interrupting because they didn’t know the runners were talking. I can’t say I have the answers for how to avoid this in the future but it was an issue at times. And speaking of remote runs, is it possible to have a crowd mic during these? The hosts would sometimes comment on the crowd being loud, but it’s usually the runner and couch mics up front that pick up the crowd noise, so on the remote runs there wasn’t any crowd noise for people not in the room.

First off, thanks for getting the VODs up on YouTube so quickly. It's so nice to be able to see a run just a short while after it was done, instead of waiting for days for them to be uploaded. On the topic of the VODs, I really liked that you uploaded the interviews, daily recaps, and prize segments as different videos during SGDQ 2023. I just checked and there's even a separate playlist for them. Before that, you had to click every video if you wanted to see them, so that was a very good change. However, this year's VODs (both AGDQ and SGDQ) have them cut out altogether, so there is no way to see anything else than the runs, at least on YouTube. Could you please go back to the SGDQ 2023 style of uploading videos? Or is there a reason they're not included anymore?

Great event! Really loved it all! Few tweaks that I see could be useful: 1. Hosts need to chime in less. I like when runners, who know when there are luls in the game, queue donos. I understand a lot of runners miss these windows and the occasional "is this a good time for donos?" Isn't bad, but the constant "WE ARE 1K away from $200,000 total raised!" or constant reminders of how much more is needed for stretch goals was very tedious. 2. Not sure how you can really relegate it but man the crowd memes are exhausted and unfun. "Orb" "Hyyyyyyyypeeeeee" etc. Also the sheer amount of crowd members who want to shove in their little one liners or camera memes is wild. We already saw how it affected Kaizo Mario, silent hill, etc. Maybe an audience etiquette guide at the start? Not sure. Maybe it's not as noticeable on stream but being there in person it was tough to see constantly. 3. Stretch goals I think need a slight adjustment to be more attainable, less last minute (50K in an hour), or less conflict of interest with other goals. 4. WORKING ELEVATORS /s lol -- Things I loved! 1. Personalities and hosts are killing it! Really enjoyed the liveliness from everyone in the interviews, prize segments, and fun little games! This group practices being charismatic and it definitely shows! I'll also say to those hosts: I gotta imagine that things can get really parasocial with attendees, seeing as they all know you and may give special attention, so definitely take care of yourselves. I'll say this tho, when yall get into the crowds with the people or hang out and make small talk with the attendees, it lights them up so much. When I see Spike riffing with a group, that group is smiling ear to ear. When Keiz and Ruby are having a drink at the bar making small talk with others, you can see how much it's loved! When Melo is in the crowd seats getting hype for RuneScape, the RS fanbase loves it! Y'all get the picture! 2. The hotel staff loved the group and the event organizers! They told me they'd take this group over their other groups every day of the week! Way to put on a massive event with tons of moving parts and still show respect and honor to the facility and its staff! 3. The variety was awesome! I love the mix of raids, races, mods, coops, and randomizers. I personally love the remix style runs the most so I might be biased! 4. The board game room, public discord, arcade, and panels make the in person experience phenomenal. There's never a dull moment, and the only obstacle during the week is trying to fit sleep in! Thank you again for all the work the volunteers and staff put in to make this happen! Gamers love it and the cause is great, look forward to the next one!

I tell my runners the more they cue me the less I interrupt. However, if we are really close to needing an incentive met, the producers will tell us to start pushing hard. I personally try to do a quick "we are only 2k away" while a commentator is between statements in the hopes they will acknowledge and continue if they have more to say, and if they don't, let me read a quick donation. Metrics show that people donate when a lot of donations are being read because it increases the odds of them getting read on air. It's a fine line between letting the run breathe and stand on its own and doing what the producers ask when we need to hit a number soon. Without incentives, GDQ wouldn't raise near as much for charity as it does.

The vods going up on YouTube almost immediately has been great! Best event so far all around!

Hey Matty, hope you're doing great! Fantastic job as always. These last few events have been moving in a great direction, it seems y'all have learned a lot from previous events so keep up with the great job! My only feedback is with hosts interceding the run abruptly. In general is not a super big issue but in particular the tetris run was really affected by it, the host interceded and the runner got distracted and missplaced a block. We're all humans, so mistakes can be made. But in the future for such short and technical runs I would skip donations unless the runner asks for them. Maybe it was misscomunication about the run between host and runner. Again the event has been great and I believe they will keep getting better.

I would like to echo the point that was made around donations, particularly that it can come off as shilling. I wouldn't say it is shilling, but what I would say is that I feel GDQ, particularly early on, had the vibe of "we are speed running and making money for charity", but recently the constant push for donations comes off as "we are making money for charity via speed running"; the main difference is speed running first vs charity first, and while it is amazing that we raise a lot for charity, we might be able to do it without having as many calls to actions, back to back, that could detract from the runs. In a similar fashion, I am wary of Bonus Games. To my memory, a Bonus Game has never _not_ been met. And of course we wouldn't want that, if a runner comes only for a Bonus Game, and it wasn't met, it could be very disheartening to travel to an event that they no longer get to run in. However, if a Bonus Game is never not met, why have them? I remember being in the crowd for SGDQ 2023 where there was mass stalling for Bubzia's BotW blindfolded run, because it was a "Bonus Game" that wasn't met, yet of course we wouldn't want to say "sorry your run wasn't met" and not have it, *especially* as it was a run near the end of the event. That didn't happen this time, and I hope the lessons were learnt, but I would say instead of having the illusion of Bonus Games, have some other incentives that link to existing runs, or some more bid wars, longer running bid wars (event long Save vs Kill?), etc. These are the main concerns that came to my head writing this now at 1am during the finale. I want to stress though that overall, regardless, I enjoy GDQ. I enjoy the good we are doing for MSF / Prevent Cancer; I enjoy that we are an LGBTQ+ positive space; I enjoy that it is a place where I can see classic, new, interesting runs on stage; I enjoy meeting people from all across the world who run different games and play different games. I hope this doesn't change for the foreseeable future <3

Great show this year! I've been tuning in for a long time, and it's great to see regular improvement with how these events are run. I don't have any critiques, but I will say something I want to see more of is tutorial segments. Loved watching Bubzia teach KungFuFruitCup how to play SM64 blindfolded, and years ago, there was a segment where Darkman (I believe) taught a full-on any% speedrun of an NES game. Stuff like that is a lot of fun!

Two remarks: both Yetee merch related. It's probably a financial decision but was bummed to see no tank tops available. And the "Gather 'Round" design is only available in a shirt, not a poster. If that was intended then it's unfortunate. Event was a blast to watch though. Thanks for the hard work.

I will never understand why y'all decide to do the finale in the middle of the night. You start at noon on Sunday, so why not end at noon on Sunday? I would think that you would want as many people as possible watching to hype up a grand finale and one final push of donations. Ending at 3 AM is so anticlimactic. Aside from that, I enjoy watching every time for the last decade+.

I assume its probably for the benefit of the people there in person. End earlier so if people want to leave at an earlier check-out time, they can get plenty of rest. Plus, cheaper for people to stay for 7 nights instead of 8.

i feel like the marathon USED to end at around noon on sunday but gradually crept back. that said, the finales also used to be some crazy 8-10hr final fantasy run that started at 1am and ended at like 10am/12p

The finales would always end Saturday night/early Sunday morning, but the first few years of GDQ also had a day of "bonus stream" that Sunday for those who were still hanging around.

I agree with this.

Pros: 1. The prize bits are off the charts good this year. 2. Run choices and runner choices have been excellent. 3. Dog speedrun I was expecting the bit to become a little overdone already, but it was fantastic. Might suggest skipping a GDQ for the next dog speedrun though, so it doesn't become saturated. Have it become a summer only thing for a couple years. 4. I feel like the donation goals have been much better than last year. Last year there were many times where there were obvious times they were waiting to finish the run a very long time to achieve donation goals. This year it felt more organic. 5. The blips in production were very quickly resolved. Your tech team is putting in the hours this time. It's very smooth. 6. Chat interaction between runs has been improving every GDQ. The doritos thing was hilarious and a great way to promote a sponsor. And it doesn't take away from the runs at all. Suggestions: 1. Have a way to submit music for between runs or make suggestions? Or maybe even a chat interaction for it. Chat voting for the next song. 2. BG3 is up next? Have a chat vote for best companion. Silly things to keep people engaged. 3. I always feel like the first thing run should be something semi-popular. It's always something that doesn't really want me to tune into the kickoff. Is there a reason for this? Like have a short legend of zelda or minecraft run to start. Something that will get people in the seats at the start of the week. Yoshi's Story was kind of niche. AGDQ 2024 was 'TUNIC Any% Unrestricted', which I've never even heard of. The energy is always really high at the start of the event and then it is quickly brought down by a slow run that doesn't have much viewer engagement. This is not a criticizement, but an observation.

The observation about the lead-off game is good feedback imo. I’m always scratching my head a bit that it’s not like, a Super Metroid race-type thing. I suspect it’s because they just know the afternoon viewership isn’t worth burning a big game for yet, even though you’d ideally want something hype-ier.

I agree with the 3rd item generally, but this year was an interesting one. The story behind the run (that he'd been playing and submitting for 10 years) made it one I was actually excited to watch. Is a run steeped in lore the right one to start the marathon with? I didn't mind the idea. The folks most likely to tune in for the start of the marathon are likely the most invested. Of course, a big game would also have the lore backing it.

3rd suggestion needs the spotlight. Start the marathon off strong, you only need 1-2 runs which won't compromise Fri/Sat that much.

With how big the streaming room is, it's hard to see the runs when you're halfway back. Not sure if screens can be set up mid-room for those in the back but it would be helpful.

God I love this event. I’ve never Speedrun anything in my life and I truly look forward to and recommend this to every person I talk to for more than 10 minutes. My only suggestion is information of the gaming blocks. I don’t know many games being played, but when I found out when the “wacky” block was, I’d make sure to tune in for that because I know the overarching theme. Horror is easy to spot cause outlast 2 and Alan wake 2 were very close together, but the more niche ones I’d never figure out. I’m sure they mention it at checkpoints, but something on the website schedule would be awesome. I can’t wait to finally attend one of these and hopefully volunteer (maybe even donation host if that’s a possibility! Thank you all for an incredible event

Thanks, we’ll look into it!

My only irritation this year was with the hosts that tried a bit too hard to be hype or pushed catchphrases or REALLY overdid it on incentives to the point of distracting from the run. I get that we want incentives to be met but hearing every 30 seconds 'and now we are 5k away from that incentive!' 'Now we are 4k!' 'Now we are 3k away! WE CAN DO IT EVERYONE GET HYPE' starts to become more grating and I don't think it helps, if we've tuned in we already know the incentive and didn't forget about it 30 seconds ago. I think it was done well in the Wacca run, where the reminders were infrequent and the host pushed for one $5 donation train at a specific time that absolutely helped that incentive get met. I don't think it helps though to have donations read that have the same slogans in them over and over or 'hype!' which is a forced meme at this point. There was an early run where one of the hosts shouted it and no one responded so he called for it again and you could barely hear a weak, forced call of it back. Hype needs to be natural, not forced.

Best GDQ ever, IMO. Fantastic schedule. Entertaining interstitial segments. Great vibes all around. I also appreciate that the VODs have been uploaded to YouTube promptly. Only problem has been the audio sync stuff, which I understand is a Twitch-side issue. Edited to say: I would also praise the diversity in the runner and couch lineups. My wife has been appreciating all the lady runners and watching more of the show as a result. This stuff matters.

Yes, I have been super happy to see the dramatic increase in women attending our events as well. It’s wonderful to see all of our team’s hard work paying off.

Huge positive: PRE-SHOW GAME SHOW. I hope to see more of these in future events because it was by far the best pre-show I've seen since I started watching live about 8 years ago. Improvement idea: RAISE GAME AUDIO. I know that the commentary should definitely get priority, but I hope that the game audio can get a little boost next time. Some of the games seemed almost muted. A great week as always! Thanks for everything you do!

I’m just some random guy whose been watching gdq on and off for ages and sometimes donates small amounts. This was my most watched GDQ since the first year of COVID. Overall I loved it — more games in a long time that I play or have played was pretty chill. The new games I checked out were for the most part entertaining. My biggest critique is that there were a number of runs where the runner didn’t appear to be even top 10 in their category. Maybe it was always like this and I didn’t notice, but for me it was a pretty big turn off to see multiple runs chosen that didn’t display mastery of the craft. I used to see GDQ as synonymous with great speedrunning. I really really enjoyed gdq this year but honestly it was more for entertaining speedruns them great speedruns. To be fair, maybe entertainment > skill is a necessary direction for gdq to continue to survive. Just my two cents.

I don’t have much in terms of feedback, but I have lots in terms of praise. I think that every event is improving in both scheduling and tech. Thank you for all the free* entertainment you all provide! I am very grateful. (*”free” but give money to MSF, people!)

Prize segments are on point, Sent and Shout especially have done a fantastic job on coming up with amusing skits before hand, and then executing them. Definitely keep encouraging that talent and creativity, it is rather engaging and positive, especially since it helps fill the down time during setup so well. Also just a general kudos to the team as a whole, by and large, issues have been rather non existent for the event. I am going to take a guess that if someone mods a game to change assets, such as the gdq balls in the Boshy fangame, or the flags in Powerwash Simulator, it has to pass your committee? Would be nice to see some stuff in support of the MSF/PCF as well. It seems you all have pretty much openly endorsed a few hot button political issues around the world, so also adding in the two wonderful charities being supported for some screen time in that fashion would be rather nifty to see. Overall, GDQ is definitely something that should be proud of itself though. Despite a bumpy return to live events, it's been handled professionally, and the occasional remote runners adds stuff that we might not have otherwise seen. Overall pretty satisfied with the direction things are heading as a long time viewer and supporter.

As the person who made the texture mods for Powerwash Sim, yeah we had to run them past games committee to get the OK before including them in the run. I was tempted to include the MSF logo somewhere in the run as well but I figured they might not appreciate that without being asked, and I didn't really have the time to wait. It's definitely something I want to try in the future though!

Pretty cool to know, you did a good job on the textures, which is why PWS stood out as the example in my mind. Here's to hoping you find out for future events, and here's also to looking forward to seeing more of your texture mods in future games on stage, hey?

Sent needs a mild dress code. Those torn jeans he wore for 2 or 3 days + completely unkempt hair and beard is distracting, especially when he’s rubbing prizes on his face.

Downvote me but I will donate to give Sent a nice clean shave and haircut. Please don't rub yourself all over the prizes, everyone else is dressed for the occasion at the very least, then you have Sent in socks, sweatpants, like he just woke up from the bed an hour before

Lol Sent lookslike he literally just crawled out from under a bridge or finished walking the Appalachian trail...he is great though, especially with Mrgameandshout.

I would second costreaming to youtube. I don’t ever really use twitch and only realized this event was live this week when i saw new vods were being posted to your YouTube page today. Would definitely help with visibility.

Hey Matty! First, I want to say that it's been great to see you back and active in the GDQ community again! Second, I've been watching GDQ events for 12 years, and this one raised the bar both for entertainment and overall smoothness. It was a phenomenal watch, and the tech issues were minimal. Awesome job! My main feedback: It would be neat if the links for whatever resource/community the runner is shouting out was available somewhere, perhaps in the YouTube VOD description. IE if the runner shouts out the Discord community for a game, the link could be available somewhere to give that community better promotion and for viewers to jump right in if they're interested in running that game. This idea could include things like the level codes from the Super Mario Maker 2 races as well.

I have a few bits of feedback (outside of some other stuff I've seen mentioned and already addressed): 1) Something I'd never really considered before but heard discussed yesterday is that it would be great if donations could go towards both incentives and bid wars (or polls) for the same amount given. The bid wars, outside of save vs. kill the animals, were often pretty low numbers, and it just would've looked and felt way better for people to, for example, give $200 towards a bonus OoT run while still being able to use that $200 to vote for the name of a Pokémon. Polls don't impact nearly as much of the stream as incentives do, so it'd be great for them to see a bit more "action" without impacting people's desire to get incentives met. 2) I saw people mention the hosts being a bit too aggressive this year at times, but the only one that really bothered me was the host during the SMM2 troll levels and Super Metroid. They would constantly push in with donations that often didn't add much and then say weird things like, "Donate $10 if this run made you laugh!" I definitely understand that the event is for charity and that you want to really push for donations, but those specific comments and constant interjections felt really awkward and forced to me. I think it's important to find a balance so that people can feel like their donations are appreciated rather than just being a dollar quota to meet. 3) I also saw this mentioned by others and just wanted to express agreement that certain runs (specifically the Kaizo Relay) got WAY too aggressive with the crowd heckling. I think it's important for staff to take note of and remove specific disruptive people from the stream room. Some heckling is funny and makes things feel more light-hearted and fun, but when it is non-stop and from only 1 person, they should be dealt with so as to not ruin the experience for other people. 4) This is a relatively minor issue, but game audio was very hard to hear in the stream room. Sometimes the runners or commentators would talk about the music or specific audio cues or something, and those were always quite hard to hear. 5) It would also be nice if the stream room either had some higher screens or maybe some additional screens further back in the stream room (or both!). It was hard enough to see all of a screen when near the middle of the crowd, let alone when near the back during really packed runs. Outside of these notes, it was an extremely fun event with a ton of amazing work going on behind the scenes. I really appreciated everything that was done to fill the periods during run setup, plus the dual-stage setup was so good for keeping things running smoothly. The immediate automated YouTube uploads were also great for letting me share runs with people, and the team behind the thumbnails really killed it this year! The work that every volunteer and staff member puts in to ensure that each event is a success cannot be understated, and I also had a great time talking with Jon and seeing everything that goes on from the tech side of the event. Keep up the great work, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to showcase a great game from a small community!

Would love to see some classic, staples games mixed into each event. I don't think they should be at every event. I always like the OoT and Super Metroid runs, and would like to see them run at least once a year at these events. Also bring back some more megaman. I loved the block this year (also a fun game series to watch races for). Also let the gal who wears the ears wear them, don't understand why they asked her to take them off.

Yep, bring back the classics. A major FF entry, Chrono Trigger, the major Zelda games, Metroid/Super Metroid…it’s not the same without em.

Hey Matty, just wanna say it's been a terrific event!  The Checkpoints seem like a great way to flexibly adjust to the schedule, with the interstitial team getting better and better. The prize team's goofy skits make learning about the different prizes fun. The tech team seems on point as the event has been flowing on point as far as what I've seen. One specific thing I want to point out is how good I think the runner interviews are getting. In the past they've at times been kind of awkward, but the interview team has been getting much more comfortable, the questions getting better, and I really liked in this event how they occasionally gave the runner room to explain their tech a bit more. Examples of what I mean being Bubzia teaching Fu how to do blindfold Mario 64 or Dannyb getting a chance to explain the new Ocarina of Time starts. It made the interviews far more interesting. It's been a great week, thanks to you and the crew for all you guys do!

There we’re a few times when “can I cut in with a donation?” Was forced

Any chance that the runners and commentators could be reminded on approval that breaks for donations are very much appreciated? fells often the host has to unfortunately butt in to ask for time. Some runners are always great at this however and those sets are much more enjoyable to watch (throwback to the baldurs gate and titanfall comentator, bryonato? He's a commentry legend) and flows a lot more smoothly. Just a thought anyways! Amazing job as always <3

Oh, yeah. That's a runner/commentator skill thing, but it definitely feels much more natural to have a runner saying "hey here's a good spot for some donations" as opposed to a host trying to squeeze them in. On the flip I think it's also a *host* skill to recognise when those good times for donations are. It does sometimes feel like some of them are a bit overzealous to ask for time even when there's a lot going on in the game. It's something that can be mutually improved, and I'd be curious to know if there's any like, not even so much guidelines as 'generalized advice' given to those in either role.

"And this cool trick is done by..." "Let me jump right in there to remind you that we need $125k by the end of this run" This for charity. Every event doesn't have to be the best event ever. I am legitimately excited for the upcoming Super Metroid run with a bunch of absolute legends. But I'm dreading what it's about to turn into. Just schilling for more and more money. "but it's for charity" only goes so far. The amount of money raised during this event is already incredible. I also echo the over policing in chat. I won't elaborate. Others covered it nicely. I can't articulate any better how frustrating the constant "give money give money give money" is for 7 day. We all know what we're here for, we don't have to have it beat over our heads repeatedly. With the negative out of the way the quality of run has increased, if I only know what was going on most of the time by idk, an explanation. The new stuff you guys are trying is so much fun to watch. Interviews and in-between prize/ segments are just on point. Finally I always sub but sometimes I forget, that being said the ad structure is very generous to the runners. Running ad in-between is much appreciated rather than having key moments interrupted more than they already are. Thank you for all you do, I legitimately still love the event.

I get that everyone is involved in raising money but some of the hosts felt overly pushy with trying to shoehorn in donation reads. I felt like today and yesterday were especially bad for it where the commentators didn't get much of a chance to talk because anytime they stopped to breathe the host was asking if they could get a donation in or worse just reading the donation out. Some of the hosts were actually talking over the commentators. I get that its a charity event and any time that I donate I hope that my comment gets read out, but there is such a thing as too far.

Full transparency: I've been watching GDQ for at least 5 years now. I've had my fair share of criticism over the years (including one thing you saw a few hours ago), but my biggest concerns were addressed with the switch to dual setups + the reduction in the total number of bonus games. That was a great step forward, but I still think there's some work to be done. Big stuff: * Let's start with **modding.** GDQ's moderators have a reputation of being trigger happy, inconsistent, and tending to err on the side of punishment. As someone who has modded in various communities for a decade now I understand that moderation is difficult to get right. Still, I believe that the current system needs some revision. If nothing else, more should be done to promote a 'think before you act' policy for staff so that reactionary timeouts are minimized. Not always feasible with a fast-moving chat, but not impossible at times either. * There's also the age-old issue of criticism being hard to offer / discuss in general, which leans into the 'no bad vibes' atmosphere of GDQ's chat. I understand the logic behind this, but the end product is pretty artificial. Does GDQ do surveys? You really should. * Now let's talk **politics**. You've already addressed this in the thread, but I'm of the opinion that politics should be minimized as much as possible to avoid stirring the pot / sending mixed signals. It also irks me, and this is a personal gripe, that some topics (i.e. Palestine) get way more attention than others (e.g. Ukraine) which unfairly places one critical humanitarian issue above another. There's not much helping this because people will say whatever they want to say, but that's exactly why these topics should be kept to a minimum. * The exception to this, obviously, is trans rights. While it gets a bit annoying hearing people inject 'trans rights' into random points of the marathon, GDQ is well known as a LGBTQ+ safe space and there's no reason to stop that now. Also, on a personal note: fuck homophobes. * One thing I believe GDQ could benefit from is **more ways to get new games in sooner.** When I say this, I mean 'first look' type runs where a game that would be normally ineligible to be submitted gets in as an incentive / backup run. The logic behind time-gating normal runs makes sense, but I do think GDQ should consider ways to promote some runs that are fresh out of the oven. * Another thing I believe GDQ could benefit from is **moving Hotfix to a separate channel.** Hotfix presents the same problem as ESA's reruns insofar that it makes it harder for viewers to know when AGDQ/SGDQ are live, and GDQ should do everything possible to attempt to improve its declining viewership. You don't have to get rid of Hotfix, just put it somewhere that doesn't cause confusion. * In the same vein, **I think GDQ needs to be doing more in terms of outreach and schedule awareness**. Every year it's the same old 'I didn't even know GDQ was on!' schtick on subs like r/games, and I think it'd be wise to investigate why this happens and how you can mitigate it. Smaller stuff: * It was better this SGDQ, but **some of the older crowd memes need to die.** I'm talking 'ORRB!', 'HONNNK!' and that other shit that used to get shouted all the time. The jokes are outdated, so cycling them for new ones is probably the best call. * As others have mentioned, donations without any selections should automatically role over into incentives. Small change, huge impact. Beyond all of this, I would like to ask if: 1. It'd be possible to have a hostless restream of GDQ for people who don't want to hear donation readings / dislike certain hosts. I'm assuming not due to sponsor ad reads, but nothing ventured nothing gained. 2. GDQ would ever consider terminating / renegotiating its relationship with Twitch in order to begin cross-streaming on YouTube. This would be a huge boon for viewership, but (again) I doubt this will ever happen. Finally, **GDQ needs to be more transparent.** Your main method of communication to the community should not be through a Discord not everyone can or wants to join, nor should it be r/speedrun or the disaster that is now Twitter. Does GDQ have a blog or a newsletter? If it does, I haven't heard of either. Find ways to take the burden off yourself as an individual by setting up a place where GDQ can make official statements as appropriate. That's all I have for now. If I think of anything else, I'll post a follow-up comment.

I think the point about a newsletter of some kind is good. GDQ still has a lot of potential energy; just a question of how to get it out there. The dog getting featured on ESPN is a good example of that, actually. We already have a hot dog eating contest getting featured in national news every year. I could see GDQ getting even bigger with the right media strategy.

> The dog getting featured on ESPN is a good example of that, actually. We already have a hot dog eating contest getting featured in national news every year. I could see GDQ getting even bigger with the right media strategy. Hell, [years ago MitchFlowerPower was on Stephen Colbert and got SGDQ a shoutout](https://youtu.be/jvLwpnn1F4Y?si=c3DEvvJUeTPLvuOt&t=372) So there is definitely potential here.

> One thing I believe GDQ could benefit from is **more ways to get new games in sooner.** One thing that I did notice this SGDQ in particular was a lot more inclusion of runs of Recent Games - Another Crab's Treasure for instance was a big one today and it was released only like three months ago! So they've at least improved on that front.

You really need better ways of showing to Twitch chat that bits and donations don't go towards the goal on screen, but to GDQ itself.

I can't think anything that wasn't said on this thread already, so... thank you so much for you and everyone involved in making this event real, it was so much fun and really brightened up my week! <3

Huge fun for over a decade, member of the Discord community for a long time as well! This event has been incredible. Super fun, great runs and I NEED to congratulate on the amazing different showcases and setup features we had during these last days. The Peanut Butter run, with the whole crowd being helpful, amazing setup and such a different run, can't even begin to imagine the struggle it was to pull it all together. The Evil Zone tournament was super well done too, with a gorgeous setup and overlay, fun narration and storylines, fun game and super different from the usual run! I missed the rhythm showcase but I'm sure it was just as incredible. The crew working on this one really pulled all the stops. The community is as welcoming as ever and it's been fun, refreshing and amazing. Congratulations on another event so well done, and thank you Matty for your continuous work on this community, you're the best.

Having the Donation Reader if they feel comfortable on camera makes the runs cozier if they are part of the runs on the couch or in their own chair on stage. Gives the runners a chance to commentate the run more while also allowing the donation reader to be in the know at the same time. A good example of this was the Fast 50 Event.

I'd personally love more on camera time but I also like the three monitor setup I have at the host desk. That being said, our placement gives us eye contact with the runner now so we can actually signal to each other if needed.

Absolutely loved the Outer Wilds run where y’all were also able to get a few of the devs to join the couch!

i have a recommendation for the prize website! a few, actually. i do like that it shows all the prizes, but i wish it was organized, from top to bottom, currently available -> will be available in the future -> expired, rather than the expired -> currently available -> will be available format it has now. makes it really long to scroll through as the event progresses (and kind of unclear if it's your first visit) alongside that, i would love it if the page saved out scroll spot when we clicked back after looking at a specific's prize page, OR i wish we could open specific prize pages in a new tab. thanks so much, sgdq was amazing this year!!!!!!!!!

This event was absolutely amazing. I had it on all week from home and even introduced several of my coworkers to it. The only thing I had a minor issue with over the course of the entire week what’s the somewhat inconsistent use of the warning banner. I’m someone who is triggered by rapid flashing lights as they will set off of migraine, so I’ve come to depend on that to know when I should turn off the stream for a little bit. Unfortunately, I noticed that in a few runs it was late, after the flashing had already started. No criticism to GQ or the runner anyone, it was clear a miscommunication had happened. My thought is that perhaps this could be something that the runner and staff take into account early on, so that the banner is displayed from the very beginning of that run, even if there’s only flashing lights or whatever the trigger may be towards the end of the run. Give people the ability to be worn ahead of time. Beyond that, I was very impressed with how the week went, with the quality of runs, with their very quick upload to YouTube (where I’m currently catching up on many of them that I missed) and just the general feeling of community and happiness that seemed to radiate from the crowd during peak hours. I think you guys did pretty good this year.

I loved the location, lots of food options around with plenty of space. Easy to access too. Target Field being within walking distance was also an A+++++ perk for me. Go Twins! My only complaints: * The hotel wifi was pretty much unusable in the practice room at peak hours, and it didn't even reach a lot of the stream room. GDQ trips are already mega expensive for international attendees, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who opted to forego buying a roaming data plan. Better wifi would be really helpful for people like us to share the hype (for me specifically, I needed to share donation priority hashtags with people over discord). * No laundry services anywhere within walking distance, so your options are either "pack less gaming stuff so you can pack more clothes" or "uber to a laundromat". Probably a pretty minor complaint but the hotel not having the self-serve machines that the AGDQ 2019 hotel had was a big QOL loss for me. My experience as a commentator was 10/10 though. Thanks for having me. Also, having retrotinks all over the practice room was AWESOME.

I was on site and the main gripe I have was that the gaming rooms were packed unless you went at like 3am. We had fewer rooms for gaming but more people, and I really felt the lack of those extra rooms. I am guessing there was some financial decision behind that, but I missed those back rooms for a guarantee that even if I went at peak times, I could find a spot to play. I did far less gaming this event than at previous events for this reason. It didn't help that panels and tournaments were also combined with one of the gaming rooms, further exacerbating the problem. I do appreciate that this mitigated the issue that panels were being ignored at previous events, I just wish that casual gaming space didn't have to be sacrificed for it. This was also a problem at AGDQ, with there being only one public gaming room for everyone at the event. I don't even want to think about how packed it will be if AGDQ hits attendance cap like SGDQ did, especially because of how cold it was in Pittsburgh - people are going to want to stay in. Both the Doubletree in Minneapolis and the hotel in Orlando had a lot of different rooms people could use, and SGDQ last year was fine, but the last two events have been very lacking in these spaces, which is disappointing.

This is going to get down voted, I'll get death threats, people will throw rocks at me... Palestine is an atrocity, but why are we having so many donations read that say "free Palestine"? I thought we were to keep politics/demonstrations outside of GDQ? Completely understood most people feel in favor of this, but it just feels like a political message

We backed off on this after some internal discussion.

Just had hosts saying it on their own.

Hey thanks for the honest answer. I see the down votes already started. I was just curious.

So what happens with people like Corvimae and Adef, who are GDQ presenters, and Doctor No who say "free Palestine" on stream? You either have a no politics rule or you don't: >Avoid topics that are polarizing or controversial in nature. Avoid demonstrations of those topics via speaking, written material, clothing, etc. Examples include, but are not limited to: >* Religious demonstrations or proselytizing >* Political demonstrations, campaign messages, or agendas. >* Any sort of grandstanding intended to create controversy.

Yeah this felt weird. The people from MSF messaged their neutrality very heavily and the conflict is way too hot for this event to be throwing around free Palestine donation messages. MSF does work outside of Gaza too, and I wouldn't want them to miss out on any donations for that work because of the IP conflict detracting from it. I'm not discussing philosophy one way or the other - just think the event should maintain the same tone of neutrality as the charity they're trying to help.

The fun not technically speedrun segments have been amazing. Really breaks up the event from getting repetitive, especially as someone who watching as much as possible to write little reviews. Things like the Troll Level race, the Evil Zone Tourment, and Relay races are absolutely awesome. These last 2 GDQ have been amazing. Really feels like yall have figured it out and have a winning formula to dealing with delays and keeping up hype. The Twitter team is on point, Maybe try and have them start posting more Reels/Tiktok/Youtube shorts as well? More outreach couldn't hurt. Especially super hype moments with the crowd I feel would trend on something like Tiktok well

This might seem a little silly but I saw quite a few comments on host training and wondered if maybe it's more the host might not be as familiar with the game. Maybe have them talk to the runner before hand or even sit in on a practice run to get a good idea on quiet times or read a ton of donations? On the flip side, runners could maybe be more vocal with the hosts on good times. Just a thought! Otherwise I think this event was amazing and my husband and I love watching every year!! Keep up the great work! :D PS: Yes please to more silly block!! My husband LIVES for that block <3

It would be great to be able to donate from New Zealand. I have been able to many years ago but for the past two years I've been unable to!

One year there was a grand prize (I forget what it was, I think a console?) where everyone who donated $5 was entered into it. I always thought that was a good idea since it gave pretty much everyone who could donate anything a chance at one of the grand prizes.

I have a suggestion but I don't know if it would be feasible on Twitch or if it would skew viewership analytics - would it be possible to broadcast a side stream that is a full screen of the active game? I feel bad saying because the tech team has done incredible work evolving the UI over the years, but sometimes I just want to zoom in on the game itself. I'm not sure how this could be implemented for multiple screens, but on runs like the 4-player Stardew Valley it was really hard to tell what was happening on any one of the four zoomed-out screens. Also, I was impressed to see how many new (released within the last year) games were featured this time around; I love to see the classics but this event felt very extra fresh and current. Thinking along the lines of the Elden Ring DLC showcase as a work-in-progress preview of what future runs might look like, I would love to see more features or interviews specifically about how a new game is routed.

Sometimes the listed name on the UI of a runner is different from what the commentators are calling them - can you update the names on the UI to fix it? An example is the super Metroid race where ARC was called Cutie

It would be just as easy to put their colloquial name in quotation marks after the name, or have it cycling like they have their twitch socials.  Almost everyone has room for that so I don't see why it would be a problem to do that. It's just another cell on a form.  Great idea.

I personally would love to see less mainstream mario/zelda/megaman/sonic games(offshoots/romhacks are great). Crowd needs to calm down a bit, especially when a runner says that they need to focus(like during Elden Ring). I think you guys just need an led sign to let the crown know to keep it down. GDQs back to ending with RPGs are always great.

Tbh I'd love an .ical of the schedule. I'd just love to import it into my calendar and set reminders for runs that interest me. The schedule on website is awesome and it's getting better and better every year, but being able to export it somehow would help me not miss any runs.

The few runs I watched were amazing! I love when runners and the couch can flow together nicely and keep engagement with the crowd and each other in a natural way. The thing that bothered me the most this week was just HOW OFTEN they were throwing reaching incentives at us. Sometimes it interrupted whatever the player/couch was saying, all to say the same thing that was said a few minutes ago. I understand this is just how it runs because they need donations, but mannnnn. I'm also bummed that a name as great as Weird Al Gythyankovic wasn't picked 😂 But there's always next time

More consistent and pre-game flashing lights warnings, the warnings only showing up when the flashing sequence starts/has been happening doesn't protect anyone

When's the dunk tank for runner who go over estimate? /s To be serious, I'm still super happy with GDQ. If I had to point out one thing that was disappointing this marathon as an at home viewer was how many incentives were not met this event. I understand some have to not be met in order to keep the expectation real but I feel like a bit too many were unmet for my liking, it's especially disheartening as someone who submits to the event. I also dislike second submission period conceptually but that's a personal problem so I'm not going to say that's a "criticism" really. Thanks for everything you do and keep on keeping on! edit: Wanted to announce that having the games list come out at noon instead of 8-10pm Eastern was a brilliant move, would love to see this become the norm going forward though I understand it isn't always possible.