Sorry, I must not have seen this originally. There aren't any plans to add a B-Type category to the main board currently. However, another option is to request a category extension board and have it run separately there. This is the first request I have heard, so I am not sure how many actual runs/runners would be interested in doing this as well as moderating it. If you have any interest in either post here, and then we can see if any interest warrants the creation of a new board.
I would be interested in this, but not quite sure exactly how it would work. Would it just be one category ignoring height and level? If so, then it's basically just a race to 25 (21 w/ tetris start) lines, which still wouldn't be terrible. The appeal I see is that this is the fastest part of the game, so if people did decide to run it, it's easy to hop in and do a bunch of runs. You can also use the height to have an automatically generated platform for building high.
I may be too new, but I would be willing to help moderate, as well as running myself.
I'm only suggesting this because there might be some interest due to the current Big 20 #17 that is preparing to be held September 9th. There is a substantial number of players that are running B-Type runs of all 6 categories in both single segment RTAs (from 0 to 5) as well as ILs.
If a category was made or at least potentially, that might fill up very quickly. I'd certainly like to submit my PB :)
To reiterate JSR's post, we currently have over 100 people running this which is more than the 300k points category. It's also a relatively short run (7-9 min) and is fun.
Random thought: i think it is very strange that the B Type game mode has no run categories considering it is the only mode with an objective laid out by the game.
All current categories are arbitrary goals
Yeah, I don't know what the fastest time anyone doing the big 20 tomorrow has got, but I would guess based on the first completed run I did that a mid-7 should be extremely easy to do - the attached is a 7:40 which is sloppy as anything so anyone half competent should be able to sub-8. Obviously if the competitive scene became interested any decent roller would just do 19 all the way
nothing is going to happen because the tetris mods dont play tetris and hence dont know what is going on in the community. maybe if someone who gave a shit about the scene were to be in charge we'd see some change or some activity atleast
Decisions to create new categories are not made lightly. I agree that there should be something for B-Type, especially since it is the only game mode that actually constitutes some formal form of completion. However I also moderate boards where categories that were created solely for Big20 goals have been removed due to their arbitrary nature and eventual inactivity. I think this category is a good starting point for B-Type, and since there is a lot of recent interest I think a lot of people will have fun with it, so I have decided to create a leaderboard for B-Type Height 0 through 5 runs.
While I appreciate TegaMech's enthusiasm for this new category, I have to point out that every single thing he said is wrong.
-Things like new category creation typically occur after discussion (like the one above) determines that it's warranted. This board had only 3 categories for years; a lot has changed since then. Things are always going to happen, especially with such a popular game.
-I don't follow the other Mods' gaming closely, but I can say that I myself have played Tetris every month for over 4 years, continuing a tradition of going for monthly Maxouts.
-As I already mentioned in another thread, the Tetris community is almost entirely focused on gameplay that has nothing to do with speedrunning. We might not know everything that happens in the Tetris community, but we do 'know what is going on' in the Tetris speedrunning community.
-We do care about the scene. I especially enjoy the enthusiasm Big20 frequently creates just by including a game in its twice-a-year speedrunning event. I want this category to be here because this isn't just something a bunch of people ran, there is genuine excitement over it.
-The Mods see far more activity than people may be aware of. Out of over one thousand games that are classified as NES games on SRC, Tetris currently ranks #18 in active players, and #9 in all time quantity of runs. Its run quantity ranks in the top 250 of all games on the entire site. It is rare that a week goes by without a new submission. In short, Tetris has one of the most active boards on the entire site, and this is the exact reason we don't just create categories on a whim. When I started moderating boards I was specifically asked by the then-owner of the site to clean up a bunch of games that had meaningless categories, because they tend to cheapen the notion of world records. This is a standard that I continue to strive to uphold for the benefit of the NES section of this site.
Finally I just want to warn everyone that it is likely that a roller will soon come along and conquer the record in this category by playing Level 19 on all the highest Heights. That's not a bad thing, of course; just something I want you to know in advance is inevitable.
Thank you all for your interest in Tetris, and enjoy the new category!
It seems i never responded to thiswhen it came out. Let me adress some of the things you mention i said were wrong. While i was very harsh in my original critique. this stems from a place of me wanting to see this category grow and become better. but only seeing a lack of any action or change for years.
even simple changes to the rules like disallowing developer mode use in runs in the PAL version, That is quite litterally one sentence that needed to be added. But it has yet do be done purely out of lazyness.
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i have nothing to say about point one.
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"I can say that I myself have played Tetris every month for 4 years." It is cool and all that you play the game, but when was the last time you or any mod interacted with the community? That's really what my statement was about. That the mods "don't know what is going on in the community" I seem to recall you having an account and sending a few messages in CTM which is miles better than any other mod. But you seem to have deleted your account and any trace of it, effectivly errasing any trace of your interactions with anyone elsein the scene. AND YOU'RE THE MOST ACTIVE ONE. yet you have not interacted with the scene for what feels like a year or two now. (attending CTWC for 3 days a year doesn't count as interacting with the community)
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I agree. the tetris scene as it has been for 2 years now have almost exclusivly been focused on gameplay. And this is almost entirely due to the mismanagement of the rules for Speedrunning this game. you see.
2 years ago, Kirjava released a romhack of tetris Called TetrisGYM. since then, it has become the definitive romhack for Tetris with quality of life changes and every training mode or fun gamemode you could want. It is used in effectivly ALL tournaments.... And yet it is not allowed to be used in the speedrunning leaderboard. Since 95+% use TetrisGYM this effectively bans 95+% of top players from submitting to the leaderboard unless they change back to the original cartridge. And to anyone that has played with TetrisGYM for over a year, going back to the slow loading screens between games. the bad UI. the lack of so much quality of life improvements is just... horrible. and most of all it's a massive psychological hurdle to overcome.
In a time where this leaderboard needed to be more appealing to top players as a fun alternative between long PB grinds. As a chance to practice efficiency in 300k, Or a new fun way to practice your rolling up high in the 100 line category. This leaderboard has positioned itself as a cumbersome and inconvenience that only outsiders to the scene can be bothered submitting games. In the time where this leaderboard needed to embrace change it has gone the way of Twin Galaxies, being stuck in the past with outdated rules and too big of a barried of entry to be worth it.
Also ofcorse you know what the Tetris Speedrunning scene does. It is dead, and it's not hard to keep track of the happenings of a dead scene.
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the big20 thing sounds interesting, i should chack it out.
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When it comes to the activity. Yes you can mention that we have a ton fo runs. But there is a reason you talk about the quantity of runs and not the quality. And that's because you know that the top of the leaderboards are more dead than margaret thatcher, and she is multiple meters underground kinda dead. Looking through the boards. only 1 or 2 Runs out of the TOP 50 on each of the 3 main categories have been run THIS YEAR. you get how bad that is?!? it would be more fine if it was a scene where strategies and developements doesnt change much. But tetris has seen a MASSIVE skill jump in the last 2 years. Yet still no movement near the top. This again directly ties back to being a result of disallowing TetrisGYM
you mention that we see a run each week. But you seem to not mention that it's rare that people grind tetris runs and improve their PBs over time. People simply come, play tetris for a day or two. get a PB. And never play tetris again and leave. That's not the sign of an active community. That's a sign that Tetris for the NES is widely available in retrogaming spheres and the barrier to entry for runs is very low. Given the massive sucess of Tetris i am not surprised it is among the top of NES games in Quantity. But with the PB focused Scene it has that can even rival SMB1 in activity (#1 ranked NES game right?) it should have a way more active speedrunning scene than it does today.
I think i mentioned everything i wanted to say. sorry about the lengths. i have had plenty of gripes with moderation choices.
