SwedenFirst point of criticism I would like to make is more for Save The Children.
Your ads are way too long. I'll take the aid thing as an example, the ad doesn't really make the point until it's halfway through at which point most people have stopped paying attention. This could lead to some misinterpretation, consider making the ads shorter or play them less often.
I'd also like to complain some about the banners showing ads around the arena, most of them seemed irrellevant to ESA, but more for like an sports event or something. Were those sponsors of fort knox or part of some deal?
Trash Oh my, this was yet again a problem. People are pigs, stop throwing your trash around and find the nearest garbage bin. I haven't been paying attention to what you could sign up for as an volounteer, but I'm assuming cleanup was one of those things? If not, consider making it so. We can't rely on Tompa every year.
Arena layout Assigning a floorganizer was an excellent idea. I really enjoyed it being more of a meetup and less like Dreamhack. Maybe we can get some light next year? Natural or a lamp or whatever, I don't really care which one. The arcade machines were a nice touch, although maybe a bit too old? The daytona machine had some issues, but nothing too bad.
Streaming tech Seemed to run much more smoothly this year, I got some hands on experience with the setup at Dreamhack and I must say it's much easier to use. In general it felt more planned and the hickups were kept minimal. Well done friends!
Scheduling Estimates, way too tight in many cases. It was probably a low estimate submitted but the schedulers could've followed up on that to make sure it's plausible (especially with incentives added in).
Hotel Picked Royal Corner this year to be closer to the city, and that was absolutely the correct decision. Not having to walk for a good while after a night out was a blessing.
Donation tracker Get it working and stress tested before the event, not halfway through. (looking at you Pac)
Wristband/Lanyard Keep the wristbands, I much prefer them to the lanyards. Speaking of which, I really didn't like them, the design wasn't to my taste and the lanyard itself was too bulky.
All in all it was mostly a positive experience for me, the negatives were overshadowed by the positives.
While you are kinda correct, you're also not on point. The error on my part was writing national ID, I did mean a valid ID (drivers license or such), those are only valid withing schengen. National ID cards doesn't work in all EU countries, Sweden - Ireland being a good example (speaking from experience).
My main point still stands though, while an ID can work in many cases, awalys bring your passport just in case.
Swedish banknotes and coins with the value of 1, 2, 5, 100 or 500 are being replaced and will turn invalid by June 30th this year. This means that those of you that have any of these notes left, won't be able to redeem them in stores.
The national treasury will however exchange them for, but for a 100 SEK fee for each transaction. No matter if it's 20 SEK or 20 000 SEK.
More info here: http://www.riksbank.se/en/Notes--coins/Banknotes/Schedule-new-banknotes-and-coins/
Just a copy/paste from my thread last year, but it's still relevant!
It's been frequently asked in the travel channel on discord so I thought I'd make a small list for anyone wondering. When traveling to sweden you ¤might¤ need a visa but in most cases you don't. If traveling within Schengen (all of europe except Ireland, UK, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus or Bulgary) you only need a valid ID (drivers license etc), you can get away without a passport although it might be a good idea to have one just in case.
Here you can find a list of all countries needing a visa to enter Sweden: http://www.government.se/government-policy/migration/list-of-foreign-citizens-who-require-visa-for-entry-into-sweden/
Note that big countries like US, Canada and Australia and most of Europe (sorry Russia) is not on that list.
If you should travel from one of the countries in the list consult the following page on how to get a visa: http://www.migrationsverket.se/English/Private-individuals/Visiting-Sweden/Tourists-visas.html
One more thing worth noting is that the border control between Denmark and Sweden is more strict due to the European Migration Crisis, be prepared to have your Passport checked when entering Sweden, with a valid passport there's no problem whatsoever.
Happy traveling!
Be sure to stock up on booze, while not being exactly tax free it's still a lot less tax compared to Sweden.
I'm assuming you're talking about Helsinki - Stockholm boat, in that case you could try to sync up with people when traveling Stockholm - Växjö.
I myself will be traveling from Stockholm, though dates are very undecided at this time.
I'm very against arbtirary categories, I don't feel they add anything to the game as a speedrun but only serves to clutter up the leaderboard. That being said, you may impose whichever challenge you want on yourself, no one can tell you how to spend your time!
Experience as a runner (selection process and actual run time). While I didn’t personally run anything this year I feel there was a healthy mix of retro, modern, pc and indie games. Overall I feel the scheduling team came up with a solid schedule, although the selection process could’ve been made more efficient with less time between cuts and clearer information to runners.
Experience as an attendee (arriving, checking in, venue, cleanliness, etc.). Here’s something that improved big over past years, check-in with dedicated personnel was great and went on smoothly. The t-shirts are nice (I’d prefer to not have my butt covered with save the children, but that’s a minor complaint) and the hoodies are superb (good job planks!).
The venue itself was nice, I feel there was ample space for everything and it’s a shame hall B didn’t end up being used more, was it due to lack of communication or something else? I don’t know. It got quite hot during the first days which we can thank the ventilation for, while it worked it isn’t really made for keeping people cool.
Cleanliness was for the most great, big props to Tompa for collecting trash and shame on you who left it in the first place ¤shakes fist¤.
Chairs oh chairs, how I missed you. This issue was brought up to the Northern Sky guys but it looked like those extra chairs all ended up being used for the LAN in the B-hall
The location of the venue was…. Okay I suppose. It makes sense to have an arena out in the industrial area but my feet really didn’t enjoy the walk downtown. I recommend everyone getting a bike if next ESA ends up being at the same venue. It wasn’t my first time in Växjö and I still think it’s a lovely town, quite different from the bigger towns in Sweden.
Experience volunteering at tech or hosting. The biggest issues here was communication and preparation, at least another day for setting up the racks to do some stress tests might’ve let Edenal keep his beard.
The cheat sheets for the racks were nice and comprehensive but I feel like there should’ve been a sheet for the mixer as well, all too often were the audio levels off. This was especially true when people only went by what they could hear and ignored the peak levels both on the computer and the mixer itself.
Having music play towards the latter half of the event was a nice touch (I think I requested it, might remember wrong) but as it did I felt like I had no idea how to get it back on, I knew it was a playlist through VLC on the Linux PC, but that’s also all I knew.
While I am fairly familiar with the hardware and software used I’m willing to bet it can be really intimidating for someone with no prior experience or training, especially when expected to follow certain procedures of which there was no information about said procedures.
My thoughts on hardware being used: While the OSSC is quite nice for showing an up-scaled image on a LCD it has proven to be beyond unreliable for capture purposes, it’s a shame but those really shouldn’t be used.
I feel going all digital capture isn’t the correct choice without first investing in proper hardware which I’m guessing is quite expensive.
I’m also curious as to why the 304s weren’t being utilized, instead we had the other scalers which couldn’t handle 240p without an annoying bob? The matrixes were great as always, keep those beautiful things around!
Experience of accommodation (be it your hotel or mass housing). Stayed at Scandic Hotel, while the hotel was alright I feel like I didn’t get my money’s worth. For a two bed room it was fine but I’d imagine it being really cramped for the 3-4 people rooms.
Them putting up an angry note threatening to throw us out and charge us extra for “making any noise” after 10pm was really shitty, I didn’t feel like a welcome guest at all and it did sour the overall mood.
Next year I’ll be staying at Royal Corner which overall seems to be a better choice, especially after a night downtown.
__Oh and for all of you complaining about mass housing being far away, it was the next building, is it really that bothersome to walk around the corner?__
Closing statement: Overall the event was great and I had an amazing time. There were kinks here and there but nothing that ruined my experience and I’m confident that most if not all of those will be sorted out in the future.
PogChamp
I sent Länstrafiken Kronoberg an email asking to verify that a Öresundståg ticket does indeed give free travel in Växjö. I'll post again when I get an answer.
@Ursi I doubt any other train company has this deal, I couldn't see anything that implies it at least
Update: I have now confirmed that anyone with an Öresundståg ticket are entitled to a free busride to and from the trainstation within Växjö.
Happy travels!
Friendly reminder that we have a NEED LIST in the spreadsheet where you can ask for help with equipment, excellent if you have no idea who to contact!
Take a look at the google doc, there are a bunch of NESes being brought, I'm sure you can sort something out with one of those people
From my experience the fare prices are quite close to eachother. The sign John posted is what you can look at to get a rough idea of what 10km of travel should cost (can be more if there's heavy traffic), the higher price is the most you'll pay for 10km of travel.
The first box translates to: from monday 00:00 until friday 16:00
the second box translates to: From Friday 16:00 until sunday 24:00, day before red day (typically saturday) and red day 00-24 (typically sunday).
I can't find that much info on taxis in Växjö but Taxi Kurir seems reasonably priced.
If you want you can always ask when booking, they should be able to give you an estimate.
And yes, the prices do differ from company to company, usually not by a large amount.
Signed up! Please put the matches during daytime so I can grab my speedfriends and go get my drink on during evenings! ;)
I think the most important question is, where can you find the best kebab pizza in Växjö?
Also a map would be nice, do you want me to help you get that sorted out?
I believe that announcement was between two runs, seems to be lost in the VoDs. It's indeed save the children, I'll poke the top guys to write it out.
Last year we used quite a few flash carts, I can't imagine it would be any different this year. There's a high chance of your needed consoles being available in some way, if you want to make 100% sure you can always ask around and see if anyone is planning on bringing what you need
if you can find a piboard in a well circulated area you could try putting up a notice. I'm sure plenty of people still have their old TVs somewhere and are looking forward to get rid of them, the only CRTs I've seen for sale lately are Trinitrons and Beos, the rest are giving away provided you pick them up.
The swedish banks started replacing the old bills last October, so anyone exchanging money closer to ESA should be getting the new bills.
We also have a new 200sek bill!
Noticed a typo in the title, bummer! If any of you sexy organizers want to refer to this thread in the master thread, that would be awesome!
It's been frequently asked in the travel channel on discord so I thought I'd make a small list for anyone wondering. When traveling to sweden you ¤might¤ need a visa but in most cases you don't. If traveling within Schengen (all of europe except Ireland, UK, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus or Bulgary) you only need a valid national ID, you can get away without a passport although it might be a good idea to have one just in case.
Here you can find a list of all countries needing a visa to enter Sweden: http://www.government.se/government-policy/migration/list-of-foreign-citizens-who-require-visa-for-entry-into-sweden/
Note that big countries like US, Canada and Australia and most of Europe (sorry Russia) is not on that list.
If you should travel from one of the countries in the list consult the following page on how to get a visa: http://www.migrationsverket.se/English/Private-individuals/Visiting-Sweden/Tourists-visas.html
One more thing worth noting is that the border control between Denmark and Sweden is more strict due to the European Migration Crisis, be prepared to have your Passport checked when entering Sweden, with a valid passport there's no problem whatsoever.
Happy traveling!
