Sonic Hacking Contest 2012 RESULTS

You guys have got to do something about the sloppy execution of your radio shows. Seriously. There's no protocol for people speaking out of turn, and there were tons of people there who were just spewing shit. Next time do a rehearsal or something.

 

I don't think he meant that was the problem. We know you had some internet woes that night and we can forgive you for that because it wasn't your fault. But it was the show itself. You really need to have a plan on what to say and even a checklist. I remember at one point you lot only annouced two trophies, then most of you forgot on how many you awarded so far.

 

Congratulations to Selbi, The Bar Admin and redhotsonic for achieving 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
Well done to all other trophy winners and my commiserations to those who didn't win a trophy; there is always next year to go for the green!

I enjoyed witnessing this year's contest because it brought out a lot of amazing hacks. It's also a nice incentive for people to continue on with their projects, if I may say so myself.
Keep up the good work guys and I look forward to next year's spectacle!

 

That's not true. There were only two people "spitting shit" (though I will not say any names). They were also the guys asking which trophies have been announced so far. A real checklist wasn't needed, because the structure was already there:

• Introduction
• Judge trophies
• Community trophies
• The 3 grand winners
• Speech of the 1st place
• Outro

That was the anticipated structure, but was pretty much sabotaged by those two people constantly interrupting everybody and making fun of people. The worst part was when they suddenly just stopped the stream and completely skipped the outro part. I, for one, was not okay with that at all.

In fact, although that I'm happy for being the winner of the grand price, I feel kinda ashamed that these two people had to ruin the moment for me and had to ruin the entire recording of the show that involves me. The solution is simple, they need to be excluded from the next show. Simple as that.

 

It might have been them asking what had been awarded so far, and maybe meant it in a joking way. But I definitely heard it.



I don't know who these two people are (I didn't know who was speaking when), but if that's the case, something will need to be done.

 

I would like to stress that the radio show was by and large the only measurable failure in this years contest, considering that not only was the entry turnout larger than last year, judging turn-around time was improved as well. I think that if this is any indication, next year's will be even better.

 

I didn't agree with the results at all, but this is why I enacted the judging platform anyway. The goal was to eliminate my bias and more accurately represent the will of the community through its more knowledgeable members. The ultimate goal when I was running it, was to get an equal amount of "hardcore" gamers and "casual" gamers to create a balanced view of how the community would react. The addition of community voting (finally implemented only AFTER I left) was supposed to further add to this. Any misnomers left in this rating process I have actually had worked out since right before the current contest. These will be implemented for next year's completely different approach to the hacking contest which will be revealed sometime in the coming weeks.

The podcast itself, was a travesty -- I'm certain anyone listening could tell that. My connection and SOTI / Spanner's connection kept giving out and my real life randomly decided to get in the way (for something that should not have mattered to begin with) which ultimately removed me from the call. It was then that SonicKid / Peter & Tobin came in. When SOTI / Spanner finally was able to get a word in, he was nothing short of constantly berated for being himself (implying such things as incapable, being welsh, and just generally being a loser) while he desperately tried to put on a professional podcast for the hacking contest. He was unable to.

Peter and Tobin both, in a skype call, apologised for their actions (as well as the actions of others, which they really didn't need to do) and for ruining our skypecast. The podcast will not be released. I'll need to discuss it with others, but we may redo the contest results with just the contest people.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the people mainly responsible have apologised and that we have not just let this occurrence go unaware. More information regarding this and the next contest will be announced in coming weeks.

~Julia / Samantha / Nayr

 

I'm not really familiar with the way podcasts work, so I may be wrong here, but surely there was a way you could block everyone out from talking except the ones that actually mattered - the judges. I only lasted about 10 mins in that broadcast and it felt like I was dropping IQ points by the second listening to the mindless bullshit certain people were coming out with. Considering this is a community that has a memberbase of a high volume of adults, I would have expected something like this to have gone off without a hitch (technical issues aside, as they sometimes can't be helped). Instead, it was probably the most unprofessional broadcast I've ever heard, considering it's not really hard to deliver a set of results which should have been put down in writing already between the three main contributors. It's a shame, as up until then the contest had been handled very well, and pretty quickly for once. The problem is, in the future people are going to be less interested in taking part in community activities such as the reading of results, if that is going to be the level of intelligence that is allowed into the broadcasts. Hopefully, there will be lessons learned from this and in future the broadcasts won't become the farce that took place yesterday.

 

Speaking as someone who has done a podcast, That's not necessarily anything to do with how podcasts in general are done itself, moreso how the people recording do it. Doing a podcast, in any sense, is the simple act of recording something, and subsequently posting it... the same way one would record a video for YouTube, or something...

Whether or not they could block out people and bullshit, really depends on how they are doing their sound recording, and whether or not they are willing/able to manage everyone else who is putting in input. As you stated, and I bolded, one really SHOULD note down before hand what they want to do. Have a bullet list of things you want to run down throughout your show, in what order you want to do them. Also recording people on different channels while in this environment, and removing certain channels when necessary, as well as other bits of post-production editing, are vital when doing a podcast or recording of this nature.

Anyone can take notes from Live Audio Wrestling (even if you aren't an MMA or wrestling fan) The quality put into the show in such a short time of post-production is great.

 

Thanks for listing a bunch of games only in text that I'll have to try and find on my own.

 

Try here.

While I'm here, perhaps one of the judges could tell me why they voted for Sonic 2 Adventure Control for best new move? I am entirely mystified.

 

Oh I see there's a link there at the very end.
Now do I feel dumb.

 

Probably because Speed Break is addictingly fun to use in EHZ. That move absolutely breaks Emerald Hill in the most fun way imaginable.

 

Ok, but that's in Sonic 2 Secret Rings Edition/Control, not Sonic 2 Adventure Control...

 

Sorry, I somehow misread that; Perhaps the Ancient Light attack was well recieved?

 

Light attack was in Megamix though...either way I'm pretty glad with the results this year. I doubt I would've gotten anything even if I did enter but might do so anyway next year for the heck of it, assuming there will be a next year XD

 

The chargeable one from Adventure, that hits multiple enemies? I don't remember that in Megamix...

 

Every single move in Sonic 2 Adventure Control was also in Megamix, but done in a different way: Spin Dash, Homing Attack, Light Speed Dash, Light Speed Attack, Tails' flight...