Big 20 was announced yesterday and 50,000 points is the goal. This is a high score category, and is consistent with a lot of shmup NES games similar to Life Force.
I saw that this category was requested, denied, and the thread locked immediately (lol) without welcoming any input from anyone else. I thought that this category would bring some life to a board that has had 5 total submissions in over 18 months.
If anything, it'd probably get people to run the main, full-game categories. Thanks for consideration.
Makes sense for a game with a lot of auto scrolling to have alternate goals. Even the TAS for these genre of games often considers "style" as a factor in determining the best runs.
It gives a new way to explore the game, and I think it'd be a great entry point for more runners.
gentlemen, there's a very easy solution if anyone feel like this is a must have. Get a category extension page going, moderate for it and add whatever categories you want. That should satisfy both sides.
Edit: I made the request to get an extention page going with lack as a mod for it since he started this thread. Knock yourself out people.
There's 2 reasons why that's not a very easy solution.
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Each game is generally limited to one board. A "Category Extensions" board may be allowed to popular games to accommodate additional category sections on a case by case basis. This game is not popular enough to justify that.
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Category extension boards must be requested by moderators of the existing game through the Support Hub i.e. you'd have to do it.
Hi, it seems there is some debate about this issue. I want to offer insight from the site perspective on this.
We are generally not a site that keeps track of scores and score-related goals. While people are welcome to set up boards that track it if they wish, we will not accept boards that are solely score-related. In this instance, unless a Category Extension board has more possible categories, we will not be accepting a board solely to track scores. Due to the fact that we don't track scores, we also don't expect moderators to set it up, even if it is in popular demand.
It seems the moderators are willing to set up a category extension board to add this score based category, which we will accept, only under the condition that there are other non-score based categories to go alongside it.
Eh, I don't agree with your reasoning. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of score-related categories on SRC. I also didn't want or request a separate extensions leaderboard.
I only posted because the original request was denied and the thread was locked immediately, which I found to be in poor form on xenka's part. The post has been edited from its original state, the contents of which I found insulting.
I thought that bringing 70+ people to a game that has been basically dead for over a year would be welcomed.
Anyway, keep up the good work!
A category extension board isn't necessary, in my opinion. The game isn't popular enough to warrant one anyway.
However, I disagree with the notion that a score category doesn't have merit because of some generalized "we don't do scores here" argument. While Any % is a timeless classic, speedrunning goals are arbitrary. In the abstract, we're here to complete a goal as fast as possible, and I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of goals across the site that don't involve beating a game. Just a few examples: throw Debbie off a cliff in Friday the 13th, collect mirror shield in A Link to the Past, marriage % in Skyrim. Denying a goal solely based on the fact that it's score related just comes across as anti fun.
We are generally not a site that keeps track of scores and score-related goals. While people are welcome to set up boards that track it if they wish, we will not accept boards that are solely score-related.
Thank you for your feedback, @starsmiley. If I may inquire, how are the following goals allowed then?
Spy Hunter (30K and 30K Coleco)
Double Dribble (100 points )
Tetris (pick your category)
Pac-man (10K Points)
Pinball (100K Points)
Shooting Range (30K)
Duck Hunt (pick a category)
I could go on here, but I think the above makes the point. The request is not for a "high score" board. The request here is for a board that is "achieve the required score as quickly as possible", which is clearly allowed in many other games.
There appears to be a misunderstanding here, because nobody is proposing anything "solely score-related", nor a board to "track scores". The proposed category would be a time attack to a specific score goal which is very common on this site, not a score attack, and that argument supposedly going against it is entirely beside the point.
And to counter the claim in the other locked thread of "here we have the option to beat the game", several of the games above have goals that are equivalent to "beat the game":
- Pac-man could be "beat X levels"
- Duck Hunt has kill screen
- Pac-Man has "Level Completion"
- Spy Hunter has "beat the game".
Other games also have partial game goals:
- Link to the Past has Master Sword.
- Final Fantasy IV has Paladin (which is an arbitrary point 1/3 into the game).
The requested goal is a partial game goal (allowed by many site games, even with the capacity to do a full game run), and goals of arbitrary yet significant point values are regularly allowed (see my previous post). As this game doesn't seem to be eligible for category extensions (see Raistlin's post), a request for a category that's about to become very popular for the next 4-5 weeks seems more than reasonable, and would likely serve as a launch point for players into the full game run eventually.
(Edited for formatting)
As lead moderator for this game, let me be clear and concise.
Within the next week, there WILL be a 50k points category added to the leaderboard. As long as there is interest and active runners, new categories will always be highly considered. Our job as moderators is to encourage anything that could bring activity, routing and the spirit of friendly competition to the games and leaderboards here at speedrun.com.
Thank you for all the interest and posts in the forum, if anyone has further questions, comments or suggestions, please continue to post here or message me directly. Big 20 hype building!
Yes, it appears to have been a miscommunication. I was under the impression that this was a high score category, not reaching a specific score as fast as possible. We tend to be more lenient regarding that goal for older games, such as this. We don't wish to cause infighting between the community, so we're still willing to accept a category extension board if that would be easier.
The new category has been added. There will be updates coming soon to every category for more detailed information and resources.
