Any Questions About the Kong Off 3?

[Svavar]

Vincent, I couldn't agree more. If the point of the competition is to find the best live performer in Donkey Kong then excluding MAME won't necessarily reflect the true top 12, even if the competition is only on the arcade platform. Maybe it won't affect a lot of players this year but if this is how it'll be now then I don't think it'll be likely that MAME scores will ever be included and in the coming years there will probably be a lot more of huge MAME scores.

I personally was hoping to get on the top 12 and I am still trying to up my score, on MAME this time. I have never even seen an original DK cab with my own eyes and if I want to play on one I'll either have to buy one or travel a huge distance to have the opportunity, neither of which is really feasible for me...  I hope I can still make it to the KO3

[danman123456]

Well MAME players went 1 and 2 at KO2. Is this an "arcade" competition or a "Donkey Kong" competition?  What if they decided it has to be LIVE performances at a sanction TG arcade? Then all of the cab owners would probably be pretty torqued about it don't cha think?

MAME players have proven themselves over and over. Excluding this competition for the people who are lucky enough to live near Ken or Richie or can afford to buy a machine just seems to stifle something that was actually getting a lot of goodness from the DK community.

I have to try and find a DK now as the one at Flippers was borked when I checked it out. Hopefully they fix it soon but for now I'm pretty much dead in the water unless I can somehow buy one. :<

[marinomitch13]

It may be important to remember that the gameplay advantages of playing on MAME compared to Arcade only really present themselves on the very highest level of point-pressing. I think the psychological advantages of playing on MAME are much greater (such as brought about by being able to sit comfortably in a nice chair or being able to restart more quickly).

[ChrisP]

Ultimately Richie could have a rule that all scores must be achieved on a red cabinet while wearing a dress, because it's his competition. To paraphrase him, if you don't like how his Kong Off works, start your own.

In my view, I'm not all that worried about the integrity or purity of the tournament because I feel that it's going to be lacking in that regard no matter what you do. There is just too much to think about and consider, and no way to accommodate all of the considerations.

[giv]

I don't think Richie allowed mame players in to fill out the field of contenders. He didn't think mame players should be in it, but he allowed it because the general consensus of the players he knows personally said that he should give certain mame players a chance to prove themselves, and it was based on the trust he has in their opinions that he allowed it. I don't see a general consensus about including mame players anymore, so I think it is safe to say that neither does he. So he's just going back to how he originally intended it. He didn't say I have this many cabinets, and need to fill them with competitors, he worked extra hard to add cabinets. He could have made less work for himself by capping it at just 10 contenders both times. But he did it for the players, and look at the thanks he gets for it. Instead of seeing thanks for the Kong Off Richie, he sees a bunch of grief and disgruntled attitudes. Are you really surprised that he's not jumping over a barrel for everyone, with the reaction he gets?

[Svavar]

So he's just going back to how he originally intended it. He didn't say I have this many cabinets, and need to fill them with competitors, he worked extra hard to add cabinets. He could have made less work for himself by capping it at just 10 contenders both times. But he did it for the players, and look at the thanks he gets for it. Instead of seeing thanks for the Kong Off Richie, he sees a bunch of grief and disgruntled attitudes. Are you really surprised that he's not jumping over a barrel for everyone, with the reaction he gets?

I wouldn't call it a bunch of grief and disgruntled attitudes.. I know it's Richie's competition but displaying concerns and thoughts about it should, in my opinion, not be taken as a negative thing. I think that the fact that the Kong Off exists is absolutely brilliant and how passionately people feel about it reflects a lot on its success.

[danman123456]

Ah its just people expressing themselves because we are passionate about this George

[giv]

Me too, Dan.

Plus Richie is a good friend of mine.

[Ohrami]

I don't think Richie allowed mame players in to fill out the field of contenders. He didn't think mame players should be in it, but he allowed it because the general consensus of the players he knows personally said that he should give certain mame players a chance to prove themselves, and it was based on the trust he has in their opinions that he allowed it. I don't see a general consensus about including mame players anymore, so I think it is safe to say that neither does he. So he's just going back to how he originally intended it. He didn't say I have this many cabinets, and need to fill them with competitors, he worked extra hard to add cabinets. He could have made less work for himself by capping it at just 10 contenders both times. But he did it for the players, and look at the thanks he gets for it. Instead of seeing thanks for the Kong Off Richie, he sees a bunch of grief and disgruntled attitudes. Are you really surprised that he's not jumping over a barrel for everyone, with the reaction he gets?

Richie doesn't really have to "[jump] over a barrel" to accept MAME scores, though. There's a list for US set 1 on TG (and though I'd say that using DKF's top scores list is preferable, either is fine by me) and aggregating the two wouldn't be difficult. Yes, he's gone out of his way to get cabinets together. Not to be rude, but so what? That really has no bearing on the discussion or his decision to exclude MAME players. To be frank, the thanks for the Kong Off are going to be all the dosh he's going to be rolling in after it's over; dosh which won't be diminished by deciding to include MAME scores, might I add. There are very few justifications for excluding MAME players, and I'm sure that nearly everyone in the community would say that is the wrong decision. Jeff, Dean, Robbie, Vince, and I'm sure several others very much proved the transferability of MAME skill to arcade skill. While I still think that any MAME players should of course be forced to play on a cabinet, I don't think they should be forced not to play.

[tudose]

  I sort of wanted to seperate this from my last lengthy post but I think there should be more cabinets at the kong off. Richie likes to dream big and put his dreams into action. In a dream scenario, there would be a cabinet for everyone who would want to compete. And a couple extra for the kids. Sounds like more money to me. Right? Does that get you excited? I think it should! Dream bigger! Where would more cabinets come from? I have absolutley no idea. I know Richie had to pull in a lot of favors to get the "few" he had last time. But hey I'm trying to dream big!

  Anyways, back to the topic at hand, questions about the kong off. I guess I'm going to kinda of change the subject from the MAME discussion here. But I am confused about something.

  I have no idea what a wildcard rematch is or how it relates to anything. Just the term wildcard rematch confused me. Is is something completely seperate that some people did? Does it have any effect on the kong off qualifiers?

  Also, my main question is that I am still looking for the exact dates of the next streaming qualifier event. I inquired in another thread but I did not see any answer. I am not sure what the difficulty is in setting a firm date but I have to say it is not helpfull to not have an exact date to aim for!

the dk wildcard rematch was an online tournament(twitch.tv) held by eric tessler and john salter that initially involved the wild card players from the kong off 2. wcr#2 allowed all players that hadnt yet had a verified 1mil+ point score on twin galaxies. wcr#3 was on june 23rd and was open to all competitors. wcr#4(i think they changed the name) will be sometime near the end of august. im not exactly sure how placing in the event correlates with getting on a wild card machine at ko3 though

[giv]

The thing is, without all of that hard work there wouldn't be a wonderful magical DK event in the first place. So it has bearing on any discussion related to the Kong Off. It has everything to do with everything. It comes off as rude and ungrateful to pretend otherwise.

Also like I said, Richie is my friend. And how we do it where I come from, is we defend our friends fiercely. So when you say so what to all of Richie's hard work, I can't get past it, it's all I see.

[Ohrami]

The thing is, without all of that hard work there wouldn't be a wonderful magical DK event in the first place. So it has bearing on any discussion related to the Kong Off. It has everything to do with everything. It comes off as rude and ungrateful to pretend otherwise.

Also like I said, Richie is my friend. And how we do it where I come from, is we defend our friends fiercely. So when you say so what to all of Richie's hard work, I can't get past it, it's all I see.

Yes, it has to do with the Kong Off itself, however it does not have to do with MAME players being excluded. It would require no extra work on his part to include MAME players, and there doesn't seem to be a reason for their exclusion. It's perfectly reasonable to be upset about such a rash decision, and his deeds unrelated to the decision have no bearing on it.

[giv]

Christian, not everyone agrees with you that mame players should be included.

[giv]

I think you have a small group of DK players which you share opinions with that has become insular and acts like an echo chamber. You are mistaken if you think the wider community is in line with these opinions. And it is not acceptable for you to continue to make light of all the hard work Richie has done for everything Donkey Kong. It deserves much more respect than you are giving it.

[ChrisP]

Perhaps we all ought to discuss this on the Arcade Culture show coming up?

It will be scintillating!