Twin Galaxies accepting scores again....but now you need to pay $$$ to submit.

[Vigo]

http://kotaku.com/twin-galaxies-is-taking-high-scores-again-for-a-fee-476668650

Q: What does it cost to submit a score to Twin Galaxies?

A: Players may purchase Twin Galaxies score submissions based on three tiers:
     - $25.00 – One (1) score submission or up to Two (2) hours of recording
     - $60.00 – Three (3) score submission or up to Six (6) hours of recording
     - $75.00 – Five (5) score submission or up to Twelve (12) hours of recording

Glad its back, but I am not sure about paying $25 for someone to look at my pending world record 9 and 1/2 minute video in order to officially declare me the Snacks n' Jaxson world champion.

[HaRuMaN]

Pfft.

[BadMouth]

I can understand not wanting to watch hours of a game being played and maintain records without getting paid.
If already investing enough time in a game to break the world record, what's another $25?

[yotsuya]

I know they said when they came back up that they were going to charge for submissions. I guess it makes sense if you want to accept serious attempts only.

[Vigo]

I totally get that as well, and I think there should be a way Twin Galaxies has a source of income to cover that labor, sounds like a LOT of time and effort, and I get why it had imploded before.

I just don't know if charging for submissions is, in the record keeping world, ethical. I'm surprised Guinness would be OK with this. If you deny any entries that don't shell out money to be considered, it isn't really honest. I know a more than a few gamers who simply could not shell out that kind of money for a line of text on the internet.

I can see a lot of other methods to clean the trash and put some money to reviewing records. I think it would be more than fair to have tiers of membership, and charge members for their ability to submit scores more freely. All non-paying members could have a cap limit of like 1 free submission every 3 months. I'd also be fine with needing members to jump through a couple more hoops to prove who they are, so they don't have to review submissions from I.C. Wiener or Dick Cheeseburger. And I don't think anything beyond a certain mark like 25th place really needs to be reviewed.

As far as money goes, I'd think they could do the whole fundraising and promotional events route to get a good chunk of income. Maybe offer an optional $25 official record certificate to submitters, with the knowledge that the certificate is more of a "Thank you for reviewing my record" Donation. I think there would be a lot of community support, and possibly more income if they don't force a payment.

[yotsuya]

I totally get that as well, and I think there should be a way Twin Galaxies has a source of income to cover that labor, sounds like a LOT of time and effort, and I get why it had imploded before.

I just don't know if charging for submissions is, in the record keeping world, ethical. I'm surprised Guinness would be OK with this. If you deny any entries that don't shell out money to be considered, it isn't really honest. I know a more than a few gamers who simply could not shell out that kind of money for a line of text on the internet.

Very fair point, and I can see that being an issue.

I can see a lot of other methods to clean the trash and put some money to reviewing records. I think it would be more than fair to have tiers of membership, and charge members for their ability to submit scores more freely. All non-paying members could have a cap limit of like 1 free submission every 3 months. I'd also be fine with needing members to jump through a couple more hoops to prove who they are, so they don't have to review submissions from I.C. Wiener or Dick Cheeseburger. And I don't think anything beyond a certain mark like 25th place really needs to be reviewed.

Irving Charles Wiener and Richard Cheeseburger just both ran down the hall crying. 

[Vigo]

Irving Charles Wiener and Richard Cheeseburger just both ran down the hall crying. 

damn, your posts are priceless.

[HaRuMaN]

Irving Charles Wiener and Richard Cheeseburger just both ran down the hall crying. 

damn, your posts are priceless.

Don't encourage him.

[ChadTower]

I can't really see all that many people submitting any sort of quantity of scores that would justify membership.  Not many people submit scores.  Even fewer submit them with any sort of frequency.  What they are trying to do is drive people to their live events at public locations.  At this point being able to submit online is pretty much the "No Purchase Necessary" way to enter a contest that you enter by buying something.  Yeah, you can, but there's no way of knowing if the index card you sent in ever got looked at.

[SammyWI]

I'd also be fine with needing members to jump through a couple more hoops to prove who they are, so they don't have to review submissions from I.C. Wiener or Dick Cheeseburger.

Hey now!  What did I do to deserve that?

[patm95]

I think it makes sense to charge to submit a record.  It has to suck for them to sit there for hours watching a game to make sure everything is on the up and up.  Charging will weed out the non serious entries and if you think you have a world record for a game, paying up to 75 bucks is not that much money in the grand scheme of things.  About the price of buying a new game anyway.

[DaveMMR]

Yeah, I can see it really making sense to have to charge people now. I watched those documentaries (e.g. Chasing Ghosts, King of Kong) and wondered why some dude spent his entire day watching someone play Pengo or something for no pay. There's got to be a finite number of people who'd be willing to sacrifice that kind of time, especially considering there are probably more submissions than ever.

Guinness does have support from a beer maker, as well as sale of print books and television shows so that's why they wouldn't have to charge like TG now does.

Let's put it this way, if I knew I had the high score and I was so determined to be recognized for it I wouldn't mind coughing up the dough.

[yotsuya]

I think we should do a Kickstarter to raise the $25 to get our very own Vigo recognized as the ---smurfing--- World Champion of Snacks n' Jaxson.

[lordnacho]

Pledge $5 or more
Signed clown nose

Count me in

[michelevit]

Now that video sharing sites like youtube.com are so easy to use and also allow up to ten hours of upload, couldn't all the high score competitors upload directly to youtube and be reviewed and judged by fellow compettors?

The videos would automatically be time stamped by youtube.

All it takes is a simple webcam or smartphone to upload directly to youtube.

for example...

make a youtube channel for donkey kong (or any specific arcade game)
upload your winning donkey kong high score setting game.
allow others to view/enjoy it.
allow comments/responses for viewers to comment/respond.

i know i would enjoy watching it.

[Vigo]

I think we should do a Kickstarter to raise the $25 to get our very own Vigo recognized as the ---smurfing--- World Champion of Snacks n' Jaxson.

  

You know that I go on about the platitudes of keeping Twin Galaxies free, but lets be honest. I only care because of the Snacks 'n Jaxson world record. 

Now that video sharing sites like youtube.com are so easy to use and also allow up to ten hours of upload, couldn't all the high score competitors upload directly to youtube and be reviewed and judged by fellow compettors?

I do like that kind of thinking. It might cause some conspiracies and debates as too many people try to pick apart score attempts,  but that in itself is entertainment, and would solve a lot of problems with having to pay for a guy to watch every video.

[sharpfork]

I think we should do a Kickstarter to raise the $25 to get our very own Vigo recognized as the ---smurfing--- World Champion of Snacks n' Jaxson.

I'm in for $5

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Gray_Area]

TG went down?  Hmmm. Did Robichek get a girlfriend?....or step down or something?

Every time I've been there, to the front page, in the almost ten years I've known about it, I've by and large seen current/recent games - things I don't consider video games really - and a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----ton of it. Especially console stuff. Plenty of kids are wanting to post scores on every little game that comes out.

I think they should 'reduce' it, and only add new scores to games before '95.  Make it mostly a Hall of Fame archive.

[1500points]

don't most people perceive it as a historical archive of Walter's era of gamescore keeping, anyway?

Of the various forums, I've yet to find a thread on this topic that has a positive bent.  Seems like if it isn't causing great accolades that there may be some discrepancy in the plan.

Most wise thing I've seen written is the person above that stated the price outrageousness involves pushing people to their occasional live events, ie the Kong Off series?

--->And the most exciting thing to come of all this is that any group of "players" can make their own grassroots scoreboard and immediately have fun using YT (don't forget MARP for top tier MAME playbacks, which is probably a better cross section of verifiable top tier scoring, anyway)

The coolest thing I know of is a Facebook group called the MAME event where they have weekly fun competitions on 2 chosen games.  seems to have some top level people from multiple countries having fun in the competition. that's the spirit, boyeeeeee.