NEED STAFF TO HELP RUN THE NEXT TOURNAMENT!

[BLueSS]

So I'm planning something EPIC this summer, but am going to need some help running it.

If you want to help, reply in this thread or find me on AIM (BLueSSDDR)
- Note: I'll be preferring people who have ran past tournaments.
- I want people who follow through, and ones I can delegate tasks too.

[Juub005]

What kind of stuff do you need help with? If it's tallying votes, posting results and creating threads I'd be willing to assist (and make sure it gets done on schedule). Have you figured out the structure of the tournament and if not would you like some assistance in planning things out?

Will you also need help promoting the tournament i.e. finding people to enter?

[Valex]

I can maybe do some things I guess?

Depends on what is necessary

[BLueSS]

I'd be glad to get help from both of you, and I'll have more specific details in a few days.

I'm looking to get a team together for the following:

- Re-evaluating Rules for an open format tournament (not just DDR or ITG)

- Figuring out the best judging format that won't require judges (OR finding judges so we can judge)

- Tallying Votes / Making threads

- Promotion (I want this to be HUGE, and not just BEST-mix crowd this time around)

It's an ambitious goal, but with DDR declining in popularity each year, we have to do it now before it's all gone forever.

[Juub005]

Haha okay. Actually the DDR/ITG community isn't that dead, it's just moved. It might be about the same size as it was a few years ago. It seems to me that the DDR community is mostly on Zenius-i-vanisher/DDREvolved (which is pretty much only active for stepfile tournaments) now while the ITG community is on r21freak. And of course there are probably plenty of people on Bemanistyle who used to be very interested in DDR and Stepmania, but recently haven't had much reason to be. DDRFreak might yield some people. I guess DDR:UK's forum is gone, which is pretty sad, considering what that used to be. At least apparently they're still alive and kicking with events.

Hey, so for some reason the main page is giving an inaccurate display of the latest post - that is, it's not saying that the latest post is from this topic when it actually is.

[Valex]

- Re-evaluating Rules for an open format tournament (not just DDR or ITG)

- Figuring out the best judging format that won't require judges (OR finding judges so we can judge)

- Tallying Votes / Making threads

- Promotion (I want this to be HUGE, and not just BEST-mix crowd this time around)

- I'd actually prefer separate brackets honestly. DDR style stepping and ITG style stepping are so vastly different now that it'd be really hard to compare them both in the same bracket (ex. DDR charts never use the words "step rhetoric" but you can actually miss rhythms) I can probably say that most ITG steppers wouldn't be interested unless it was totally segregated from the DDR division
- Also I would prefer judges, just because I think the results would be better if the opinions of people we can trust to know what they're talking about counted for more
- This is easy and I can do it
- This is also easy; just make a generic post and we can copy and paste it all over the internet

[will-i-am]

I'd be willing to help again. It was really fun concluding last year's tournament and I'm sure it'd be equally as fun this time or possibly even more so considering the planning this is going through before launching.

If we were to host another ITG division, I honestly think it would be in our best benefit to reach out to the actual ITG community, rather than to the DDR community who also have an interest in ITG. I just think this whole thing would run by more professionally if we got some of the guys who have been working with ITG files for their entire Stepmania careers to give a second opinion on how the ITG division should be run and to also give much more informed critiques on the files created in their style of expertise. Of course, I understand the differences between the two communities like salt and pepper and that this could ultimately be a cry for drama, but I'd hope for this to be a way to make amends. Both communities have lasted since the dawn of dance simulation and there's still somehow no way for each community to wholly see each other on the same level. It's ludicrous that DDR and ITG players still think in complete opposite terms after all these years when DDR and ITG alike have their separate pros and cons.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to what you have in store for us this summer.

[Juub005]

Yeah, one thing that might be worth noting is that you might have some trouble convincing people who are used to making r21-ready files to include other parts that we usually include (namely, graphics and more than one chart), and then to consider those parts when they're evaluating said files. (They might have some bias towards files that are more r21-ready than others...? Doesn't r21 require ogg format?) Perhaps not. But it's one thing to consider.

[will-i-am]

True. But that's why it'd be nice to see what their criteria for a standard ITG file is. They obviously don't care for graphics, so that'd take a huge pain off of some simfile artists, and converting an .mp3 file to an .ogg file is simple. I'm pretty sure all you need for a standard ITG file is a challenge chart, a .sm file, and the song itself, possibly with an extra line of text somewhere in the .sm that makes it r21-ready or something. We'd have to cooperate with their standards, which means cutting out a few things we like to include (the graphics, extra charts, etc.), but I do believe it's a plus in the end because we'd be linking the two communities in a way we wouldn't think was possible a few years back. It's kinda like breaking down the Berlin Wall of the Stepmania communities, only on a much smaller scale and of much less global importance.

[Juub005]

Yeah, and so we have to make the decision whether graphics and videos will be a) mandatory, b) optional, or c) forbidden (but I don't know if it would bother people that much just to remove graphics and videos from the file before they bring it to the arcade...)

[will-i-am]

I'm pretty sure graphics wouldn't mess up with the machine too much. They're just much more preferred in a different dimension, which can be set as a regulation if necessary. I think it'd be kinda cool actually to run the ITG bracket this year with a different perspective than what we're used to. Most people here don't actually play the simfiles submitted to these competitions on foot, while a much larger chunk of people from the ITG community do, ironically enough considering DDR started on foot and ITG started as a dance simulation controlled by a keyboard. And I feel a lot more individuality goes into making an ITG simfile versus a DDR simfile because you want to make your file a thousand times different than another file based solely on one single step chart, where as with a DDR simfile you try to best follow the regulated standards that have been agreed upon by the community for years that automatically place your file above another file based not only on more than one step chart, but on the graphics, video, and overall presentation. You can count on butting heads with a few people from time to time in the rule making process if we do end up inviting the ITG community for this, but it's the possibility of a completely varied and diverse competition that's really driving me to pull for a more professionally run ITG division this year.

In short, I'd go with option b from your list. It'd be interesting to see BEST-mix #5 in terms of how it's always been with the DDR division, and BEST-mix #5 in terms of what it has in store for the future with the revised ITG division.

[Valex]

Um everybody includes with graphics with their files nowadays haha, and videos are OK too. While obviously r21 play is important a lot of people hack files straight onto the machine, so graphics and videos are still possible in that case. And you don't need to add anything to the .sm file to make it r21 compatible, just make sure it's an .ogg (don't even bother patching them people'll just do that themselves)

Full difficulties are still vary rarely made except for really big releases, and even then not really anymore haha

[the_ditz]

Hey Blue, if you are in need of some help, then I can lend a hand. The one thing I would say is that I don't have a massive amount of interest or experience with ITG, so I'd be a better bet for anything DDR-centric. The best place to contact me (as ever) is on the DDREvolved.com forums.

Looking forward to finding out more about the contest - I already have a cracking little song that I'd love to step for it (rules permitting)

[BLueSS]

I'd appreciate getting all of your help! Check the main index of the site, you guys should see a new forum. I'd like to keep the name of the forum and the details within a secret until the tournament is ready to be announced.