Update:

All digital prize winners have been contacted! That means that everybody who is not Edenal or uk.gamesplanet.com and has something to do with a prize should now have an e-mail somewhere.

I'll poke winners of physical prizes once if they don't respond by mid-August.

Providers of physical prizes will be poked early August if they haven't mailed me any shipping confirmation. (This does not include Edenal who won't be poked until at least three weeks after he actually gets addresses.)

Winners of digital prizes will not be poked. If their e-mails are invalid, I try their PayPal e-mails. If they, too, are invalid, they lose. Gamesplanet.com does not need a poke.

Update: All of the winners of physical prizes should have been contacted now. Still waiting on the codes from GamesPlanet to send out the digital prize winner e-mails.

If you donated or won a physical prize (that is still in your posession if you donated), you have not received an e-mail (check spam, please) and your name is not Edenal, please contact me ASAP!

I wrote up my part first and then proceeded to answer to other people. So don't be confused if all you said about hosting is unquoted in the first part, because then I would have said it anyway ;)

Venue: While Nyeport last year seemed very cramped, the House of Culture this year was very much not so. In my opinion, we should use it again for another year because it still permits growth. Biggest minus was the distance to mass housing, but it helped going from Kavelbro to HoC during nighttime: The heat wouldn't hit. (I did, however, have days where the first thing I did back in Kavelbro was take a shower, because no way would I have slept after that hot walk.)

Streams: I liked the idea of both streams being in close vicinity of each other and in the same room. For one, tech was close (technically Kappa ) for both streams whenever they were needed, without someone having to run through the building to fetch them. For two, it was nice seeing the other stream on cam; the announcer could just glance over to see what was going on. I didn't run, so I can't really comment on the question of if it was too loud.

Yellow stream needs a big red button! Also, for races the big red button should be able to do splits. And every run should start with a button press like Swat did Kappa

Hosting: Some hosts were good, some hosts were bad, and I wasn't around nearly as much as last year. I liked the idea of having the host on cam with the audience behind him on purple stream, even though it meant that hosts had a hard time looking at the runners/couch. Also, two seats with two mics were a plus, should do again. Yellow stream needs better hosting possibilities next year; the host should especially not be sitting right where the tech is working. It wasn't accounted for in planning this year, but it should be next year. If hosts get the mixing table responsibility again there next year, it would mean giving every host a run through on how it works — possible but work. +10 for giving the hosts a dedicated PC on purple and dedicated Twitch accounts. A dedicated hosting PC/laptop for yellow next year would be great, but if we need it, I can donate Kana-chan again (and screw people over with her keyboard). On purple, hosts often had no clue that setup was over except for the screen switching back to couch. Tech waving hands didn't exactly work, because hosts would be watching chat more closely than the other screen. Maybe a little green light that lights up? If I'm allowed to take responsibility for it again next year, we're giving ourselves a schedule. I'm also going to attempt to delegate some duties to off-site mods: They totally have time to enter the final run time into the tracker and figure out inter-game setup times. While they're at it, they should update the schedule, too. I'm not entirely sold on how to check hosts out next year. I could schedule experienced hosts for the first days on purple with a free learning seat so that people can directly shadow them. I could cast hosts beforehand. I'm open to suggestions.

Setup times: We would have failed every single 2014 egg timer. (At least those where I was present). But on the other hand, we were often ahead if it wasn't for really bad luck on someone's behalf. And those that I witnessed weren't exactly bad.

Scheduling: Less great runs should be played on the minor stream when FFIX is being played on major. Seriously I missed SMB3! BibleThump

Mafia: There was not enough mafia played. Melon/tin foil gaming: There needs to be more of this, especially hockey.

Twitch chat: Whenever I was following chat (because hosting) it was very civil. Mods and bots, you did a very good job! Modding as hosts: I really hope we don't need to do that. Sometimes stuff was left untimeouted for too long so I stepped up (followed by chat comments 'mods finally awake!'). I was really unsure about the modding guidelines though (and I tend to turn into a nazi mod within 8.8 seconds of modding) so I stepped back as far as I could.

Pre-marathon planning: Due to my work turning a lot more stressful than it had been in the months before, I completely missed the deadlines I wanted to set for myself for donation incentives and prizes threads. Good thing is that I will have finished my PhD next year, so I will be in a very much less stressful position and maybe that can get done in a timely manner. At least the prizes are drawn already and mails are being shipped out ;)

Comments on what other people have said: Necktie: Post-run interviews: Definitely! We should tell all runners that they are welcome to come up to the hosts after their run, if they want to join a chat. (Not all runners will do so, though.) Incentives: Yes, that's a point. We need to figure out a way of having upcoming incentives on the hosting PC. Game Hype: It's possible, but it's a LOT of research. I don't know if we want to put that in ju~st yet. I'm guessing that ESA has about as many hosts as the German restream has, and they're really struggling sometimes with getting information like that. Maybe in years to come. Twitch Chat: It was one of the best ways to bridge longer setup times and keep oneself occupied during games. I personally am against keeping it away from the host, just like I am in favour of letting runners read it if they wish. But I acknowledge that it's the individual host's decision.

I'm seeing a lot of people talking about host self-promotion. I WILL put my finger down on that one.

Graywards: Runners filling out info so the host has something to talk about? I approve. It will be down to game selection and scheduling crew to require it though, unfortunately.

Odyssic: GDQ's schedule doesn't auto-update, but it rather grabs information from the same spreadsheet that GDQ people use for their tracker. It's all down to GDQ staff manually updating that same spreadsheet, it just looks more automatic because the updates happen quicker and more regularly. I do have ideas on how to combat this problem for 2016, though.

Gonzi: If there was no cheat sheet, nobody would have known what to say about MSF; let's face it. I tried to put many different blurbs on there so that it wouldn't be the same every time, but no-one is going to remember that all off by heart (especially not in a marathon), so it sure as hell is not going away.

Avant: That was probably me. And if you want to interact with chat, you're not supporting the runner; if you're not supporting the runner, you shouldn't be on the couch or chairs. Just sayin'. I feel the no-phones needs an even stricter enforcement. (For most runs there was a big chat screen you should have been able to read off, if you really needed to read chat.)

Pwnix: See above ;)

AMVX: I personally would rather have hosts talking than music and overlooking view — at least three minutes between runs can be filled with who we are, what this is, whom we need to thank and who we're collecting donations for. I would rather aim for giving people stuff to talk for the remaining three minutes ;)

Andy: You're counting days? You know 2016's dates already? Please share! Kappa

Re Curseddoll's complaint about not asking questions: Audience mic? (As in one standing there that you can walk up to.) But I'm not sure if it would actually help.

Crippe can I like your first post ten times, please?

Apparantly Edenal has my PS RGB cable, so I have Edenal's so that bit has been cleared up =D

Props to Mhmd for leaving a flash drive at the lake xD Best lost so far.

N64 and GameBoy sign redrawn and made sure there's only one winner. A first 'batch' of e-mails (three, for physical prizes; waiting on Edenal to get back to me for most of the remaining physical prizes) was sent out.

Digital prizes will follow once I get the codes from GamesPlanet. The remaining physical prizes once I have e-mail addresses.

Two prizes are sitting here, ready to be shipped.

You loved ESA and want to talk about it? Use this thread to shout out to everybody who was great! (Or not so great ¤coughSwedishrailwayssurprisinglycough¤)

I'll do my own shoutouts once I think about it, I just wanted to start this thread for you guys ;)

On the final day, I noticed that somebody took my PS RGB cable which was labelled with a yellow label on which was written a stylised Ge and a number (likely 8.1). Instead, somebody else's PS RGB cable with a composite break-out was left behind — so likely, if your RGB cable formerly had such a breakout, you now have mine ;) . The cable left behind was unlabelled. I took it with me for the time being.

If you need the composite breakout, we can figure out a way of exchanging cables (likely snail mail). If you can live without it, I'll say next ESA.

Check out my stylised Ge in this pic:

^ Feedback thread, pls Kappa

I've already announced it during the marathon: The prizes have been drawn.

However, there has been a slight fuckup by the person who entered the GameBoy and Nintendo64 signs into the tracker. There weren't five of each but rather one each. As such, the winners have been deleted and I have to figure out a way to redraw them accordingly.

Also, because people didn't update the spreadsheet ¤coughs out at people¤ there seem to be no winners of a few prizes. But I'll be adjusting that to work within this week, too.

The first batch of prize e-mails will be sent out after the week-end (latest).

[quote="first post"]Can I pay on site for mass housing? Yes. There are no final deadline for mass housing. But we do not accept cash payments. You must either be able to transfer the money with PayPal. Or do a wire transfer in front of one of the staff members[/quote]

Okay, so we have had a huge bunch of prizes that I can't get through with entering them all … jokes aside; we have one so far. Feel free to enter more, I'm extending the deadline!

'Reasons' for denying visa can be weird … there was a Turkish postdoc in a neighbouring group at my research centre (staying there for I think three or six months) whose sister wanted to visit her … the sister had the whole family in Turkey plus owned a business. Visa denied because 'we're not sure if you're going to go back'. Srsly wtf.

If we had two sets of chess + clock we could do tandem … always fun =D (but I don't think I can bring either — definitely not the clock and likely not the set =C)

I'm not a runner, but I'm going to suggest this:

Final Fantasy IX -> Name the characters (Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Garnet (I refuse to call her by the weapon name), Freya, Quina, Eiko, Amarant); I think it was seven characters each.

-> Act out the play. Either we choose who plays whom or we let the donors choose (I would prefer the first option). Edenal, don’t forget the props! Wastes no time because the play’s text is fixed speed. Low to medium.

-> Poke the barrel. Wastes like a second or two. Low.

-> Dunno if Tower vs. Orichalcon has the potential to be a thing

-> Sing Melodies of Life during the credits? (High to very high) That is, if we watch the credits for long enough.

-> Save/Kill the Cleyrans? But that one likely wastes too much time.

-> Dance the riverdance? high to very high.

Can we have a ghetto n-counter (excuse the pun) on screen?

One note: It's better if you say "make it high", "make it low" or "make it really high" for incentives; I'll thrash out the exact values before the marathon begins.

On another note: I personally am fine with anybody suggesting incentives, only the runner needs to confirm.

On a third note: Bangerra, are you compiling a spreadsheet with the incentives? Can we include a column 'Approval of game selection crew'?

Please, insert all your incentives in this thread! It makes it so much easier for the tracker crew.

The location's not new, it's actually the oldest, so back to the roots ¤/nitpick¤

Shame you can't come, though =C

Sorry, Plagued; I didn't make any arrangements to get any more Swedish cash, so I'm afraid I can't help you =C

ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click here to visit the master thread!

As with previous years, we are glad to accept prizes donated from you that we shall pass on to our donors. To make sure that last year’s disaster does not get repeated, there will be a few changes in organisation that should make it easier for us all. Please read on and observe the details.

What prizes can I donate? You’re not restricted to physical or digital prizes, however every prize should have some connection to the game. The connection can be more far-fetched if it is easily recogniseable; i.e. offering a Final Fantasy VIII stylised PS controller for Final Fantasy IX is okay, while offering a Dragon Quest game is not.

We encourage you to donate anything you think may be a good prize but don't be upset if we don't find a place for your prize! Alko, Edenal, flicky and bangerra will be helping decide this, should there be a problem — go to Alko first though!

What’s the procedure? Just fill out this form to submit a prize. You will be asked for some basic information about the prize and yourself. Please include an image you made yourself so we know you actually have the prize in your posession. (Exceptions are possible, e.g. for custom-printed T-shirts; contact Alko for those.) Make sure the image is available for the entire duration of the marathon!

You will be contacted in the week after prize submission deadline to confirm that you are still willing to donate the prize. Failure to respond to Alko’s e-mail will result in your prize being removed from the tracker so we don't accidentally give away something that doesn't exist. (Exceptions may apply, contact Alko in advance.)

We will attempt to draw the prizes in a timely manner during the marathon. After the marathon, you will receive another e-mail that includes the prize winner in the To-field, notifying the winner of their luck and asking them to send you their address. Once you have the winners address, please ship out the prize in a timely manner.

Please be sure to send Alko a proof of shipping. Failure to do so will result in you being blacklisted for further marathons so you won’t be able to donate any more prizes.

Will I get reimbursed for shipping? If you are donating a prize worth more than 30 €, we can consider reimbursing you for shipping. We cannot guarantee shipping reimbursements in case you decide to donate something like a pinball machine, because the several hundreds of euros required to ship that are more than our budget could handle. The 30 € limit is in place because we want to encourage you to donate prizes of value rather than something you found lying in the back of your closet.

If your prize is eligible, please note in the form if you would like to be reimbursed. Every case will be considered separately. Do not assume you will be reimbursed until you have a definite statement by Alko or Edenal that you will be (sorry, we’re poor).

What’s different for digital prizes? Of course, for digital prizes such as Steam codes the procedure is going to change slightly. Basically, answer the e-mail that you will receive before the marathon with exact details of how the winner will claim their prize. That can be something like including the Steam code into that mail, or including a website to purchase from with a 100 % discount voucher code. Alko will then pass on the details to the winner after the marathon and you are left without work.

I could make hundreds more of whatever prize I’m donating and/or I take commissions Great! If you want us to specially mention you apart from the general thanks for donating your prize, please let us know on the form and provide whichever contact info you are happy to give. We will keep a cheat sheet around for our hosts so they don’t forget. And many thanks for donating your time and effort in the first place!

When’s the deadline? Because I was late with posting this, I’m setting the deadline to Tuesday, 23rd June 8 p.m. (20:00) central European daylight-saving time (UTC+2)! That should give me enough time to send out the e-mails.

Got it. Where’s the link to the form? Right here!

Oh, and how do I contact Alko? You can either use SDA PMs or look for Alko on Skype. Alko’s Skype name has a holtorte added behind the o.

I'm putting my hand up for FFIX … wait I said that before xD Dunno about the rest.

All ten, so I can pick the worst ;)