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Live 12-Hour Oblivion Marathon

Posted by Zonk on Mon Mar 20, 2006 04:19 PM
from the nothing-to-do-tonight dept.
Role Playing (Games)
HarvardFrankenstein writes "Gamespot's Greg Kasavin will be playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for 12 straight hours tonight (Monday, March 20th) and the entire marathon session will be broadcast live. Kasavin will be 'offering commentary about the experience as it transpires. Subscribers will see a picture-in-picture view of Kasavin as he spends an increasing number of successive hours playing the game, and they will be able to chat with each other over the course of the event.'" The event starts tonight at 6pm PST, if they get started on time.
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  • What has the world come to? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sp00nMan (199816) on Monday March 20 2006, @04:23PM (#14959915) Journal
    It's a sad, sad world when people will pay to watch someone else play a game over the internet.. ...unless of course it involves porn :)

  • Really? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ArkonChakravanti (953458) on Monday March 20 2006, @04:25PM (#14959931)
    12 WHOLE hours? Wow what a hardcore gamer...

    But seriously, making this sound like an achievement is an achievement...

  • In related news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ZombieRoboNinja (905329) on Monday March 20 2006, @04:34PM (#14959997)
    David Cross has seen remarkable success in his business model of eating barbeque pork ribs and describing the experience to Orthodox Jews.

    "Mmm, this is delicious! Falling off the bone! Too bad your God won't let you eat this, mine doesn't give a crap!"

    Seriously. I want to PLAY THE GAME, not watch some media guy play the game (and almost certainly ruin the plot for me in the process). What kind of masochist would watch this?

  • Hmm... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Opportunist (166417) on Monday March 20 2006, @04:36PM (#14960026)
    We've been watching sports for ages. It's only logical that the same happens with games.

    Today it might seem strange. Watching someone play a game, I mean duuuuh? Can't do it yourself?

    This might change. Let's go into the realm of sports, let's go to American Football. Sure, you can play it yourself. But will you ever catch a 80 yards pass? Will you ever kick a 50 yards field goal? Or baseball, will you ever throw a ball in curves like the pros? Or hit for a killer homerun?

    Today's computer games don't really lend themselves well for "pro-gaming". They're too easy. Everyone can play them at a decent level. After all, that's what they're made for: For the general audience. They have to be playable for everyone, at a more or less decent level.

    This might change, we might see the advent of "pro games". Games with a difficulty that scales up with the skill of the player, where the game doesn't "level off" at a certain point where more skill does not automatically mean better playing.

    And a more interesting game. Watching a game can be more interesting when you actually get to see something you won't see at home, because the pro player can do stunts you won't ever be able to copy. Current games don't offer this kind of experience.
    • Today's computer games don't really lend themselves well for "pro-gaming". They're too easy. Everyone can play them at a decent level.

      You've not played True Combat against me, or Descent (I, II, no matter) against a friend of mine. He practically ate us all for lunch, even when we banded together. In TC I used to go on servers without armour and only a pistol and still ruled. I've seen other people play RTS games at such a speed that I could barely follow what was going on.

      Skill's most definitely a factor.
      • Well, don't get me wrong but just because your friend ate you all at Descent doesn't mean that he's a one of a kind unique super pro player. I pretty much left my friends behind me at Grand Prix Legends on a regular base, with default settings and a full tank against tuned cars. No problem.

        Then I went online. Then I saw that I really, really suck and can't even remotely hold a candle to some others.

        But at some level, current games limit you. There is such a thing as a "perfect game" in today's games, where
        • Its been done;

          Perfect balance, but individual ability factors in many times-- Being able to accurately time everything (when is this item going to respawn? when do I need to prefire this rocket based on the noise I just heard?), precision (try keeping a lightning shaft on someone.. It's hard. Or juggle someone with rockets, etc), and a form of stamina thats hard to explain -- Most games let you rest at some point, for example at the end/begining of a round, or after a wave of attacks. In deathmatch, if you
        • Did you even watch the olympics? Top competitors in timed events are seperated by 100ths of a second. These are humans competeing at peak physical condition where things like relative humidity and cloud cover have more impact on the outcome of the race than particiants' strategy. Computer games are a lot more similar to real world sports than you think.
          • I dare to disagree. Especially car races are a perfect example of unequal equipment making a difference (I don't know about Indy, I heard they all drive the same equipment, but it is VERY different in Formula 1). There are "weaker" teams and "stronger" ones, and even a perfect driver in an underdog car would never really stand a chance against a good driver in the perfect car. Though, usually, the best drivers are also sitting in the best cars.

            This could be a chance for games to be more interesting, where a
    • You're absolutely right.

      Halo 2 really exemplifies this with their ranking system (players level 1-something with 1 being lowest skill and going up, changing based on match results in individual gametypes, in ranked matches). I have a friend who's a level 32, and believe me, seeing a bunch of people in the 30s duke it out on Live is just freaking amazing.

      Me and my other less-skilled friends even watch it like a sport. We get excited when the action gets really intense or when someone pulls off a bad-as

      • I agree on 1 and 2, and they will most likely be the killer for "pro gaming".

        3, though, is a different matter. You can actually create games that are interesting to play at an "amateur" level, but where watching a "pro" play could be interesting. Think of sports. Everyone can hurl a baseball, everyone can kick a football and with a bit of training you can ski or snowboard. You might even be able to do a stunt or two in a halfpipe. It's fun.

        But you'll never ever do those perfect tricks that the pros do. You
  • I've got the wrong job. 12 hours Oblivion? Before it's released? And being paid to do that? Where can I apply? :)

    Seriously, I guess it stops being fun when you have to do it, and can't go "'nough for tonight, I need some sleep" when you feel like it.

    errrr... not that 12 hours is that long. I think I've had longer sessions myself...

    • Well, anyone who's seriously played something like evercrack had multiple 12-h sessions.

      And a few camps were more like 48 hours sessions...

  • because there is nothing more frustrating then watching someone else play a game you'd love to be playing yourself. It's a frustration and anger that can be tied directly to road rage. You just want to take a tire iron to someone who just can't make a certain jump or keeps shooting the enemy in the feet instead of the head. I think I'll wait until I can pick up the game itself, save myself the consternation.

  • Bethesda Nightmare Scenario #1:

    T + 1:00:00: Oblivion.exe has experienced a problem and needs to close.
    T + 2:20:54: Oblivion.exe has experienced a problem and needs to close.
    T + 3:54:29: Oblivion.exe has experienced a problem and needs to close.
    T + 7:32:47: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

    Bethesda Nightmare Scenario #2:

    T + 9:29:30: "Done!"

  • Not impressed... (Score:3, Funny)

    by dud83 (815304) <dud@NoSPAm.dudcore.net> on Monday March 20 2006, @05:21PM (#14960390) Homepage Journal
    12 hours?
    My grandmother could play 12 hours straight... Get back to me when you've played Elite for 2 days straight you damn toddler!
  • does anyone have a direct link? that site makes my eyes sore with content. i tried to look around for about 10 minutes but couldnt see any link to the video feed anywhere. Might be interesting to check out for 10 minutes or something.

    Anyone got a direct link or could point me in the direction of the video feed page?

  • Stupid idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sathias (884801) on Monday March 20 2006, @06:13PM (#14960729)
    I want to discover the first 12 hours of the game myself, not let some game media bozo do it for me.

  • Umm what? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ClamIAm (926466) on Monday March 20 2006, @06:55PM (#14960962)
    Subscribers will see a picture-in-picture view of Kasavin as he spends an increasing number of successive hours playing the game

    As opposed to what, a decreasing number of successive hours?

  • Would have been nice to know from the summary that it's being broadcast to subscribers only.
  • Ok, I understand the NYTimes Free signup, but I'm not going to pay $4 just to watch this video. I think that this would be great if it was free, but forget it now.

    First, I haven't played a game for 12 hours in years, and I'm certainly not going to watch him play for 12 hours, just to get my appetite up to buy a 360 and a $70 game.

      • I don't see how using a comfortable wireless controller that fits nicely in your hands while relaxing on the couch is less comfortable than hunched over a keyboard and mouse, less than 2 feet from the screen. Especially for 12 hours.
        • [...] while relaxing on the couch is less comfortable than hunched over [...] Especially for 12 hours.

          It's the "Especially for 12 hours part that really kills any chance at a point that you may have had. I can see that somebody's parents didn't teach them about proper posture.

          Nobody will be comfortable in the same sitting position for 12 hours, so I assume a few well timed breaks for a stretch (and maybe a bit of exercise) are to be included, but if you're not more comfortable sitting up straight in a prope
      • Can you explain to me what features are not included in the xbox 360 game?
        • Do you want the list that matters for this particular purpose, or the complete list? How about both:

          For the purpose of this particular marathon, the ones that seem to matter are the increased progressive scan resolution, view distance, and just about everything that requires the input of more than one word of text. (For example, in the PC version of Tribunal, you could add textual markers to the world and local maps, but you couldn't in the Xbox version. There's probably a similar distinction for Oblivion.
      • What I really find interesting is that, though he has the choice, he picked the 360 version instead of the PC version. I'm sure they have some sweet gaming rigs over there at Gamespot.


        I can't say I'm surprised. The big advantage a console has over a regular PC is that the hardware is more predictable, so there are fewer bugs.
        • The PC version makes you pick one or the other.

          I'd like to see it try. The game doesn't have to know you turned on AA. It can't force you to pick "Application controlled".
          • > I'd like to see it try. The game doesn't have to know you turned on AA. It can't force you to pick "Application controlled".

            Perhaps it uses a floating point frame buffer that the hardware can't anti-alias?
            • I replied again to the parent after more research. You're exactly right.... for older ATI cards, and nVidia cards. The Radeon X1xxx series cards (which is what is in the 360) support both at the same time, and should allow both at the same time with Oblivion. When the restriction was originally mentioned it was that the GeForce 7800GTX wouldn't support both, not that the PC version wouldn't support it.

        • Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by ivan256 (17499) * on Monday March 20 2006, @05:37PM (#14960503)
          I looked into it more.. The HDR lighting and AA combo restriction is only on older cards and nVidia cards because both functions use the same hardware. If you have a Radeon X1xxx you should be able to enable both.

          The consensus seems to be that the maximum view distance is farther on a high end PC though.

    • Re:erm.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Babbster (107076) <aaronbabb@gmail.PARIScom minus city> on Monday March 20 2006, @05:17PM (#14960356) Homepage
      Wow, you and others are really bitter about this for some reason.

      I don't think the point is that playing for 12 hours is an achievement of note. I think the interest comes from the fact that a game reviewer is playing a game and, essentially, demoing it for folks for 12 hours live on the Internet. I can see where people might find that interesting, especially if they're one of the people - the many people if online talk means anything - who are considering buying an Xbox 360 or new PC components specifically for this game. For those people, the cost of a month's subscription to the site in order to watch the proceedings (perhaps not all 12 hours) might be well worth the money. It could also provide some insight into the thinking of a professional game reviewer while he's actually playing a game.

      Again, playing for 12 hours is no achievement at all. Like many, I've done 24+ hours stopping only to let caffeinated liquid out of my body. But that doesn't mean that this event isn't worthwhile or interesting.
      • I think a demo of the game would be much more useful that watching some 'professional' game reviewer play. Most 'professional' game reviews suck. Games get a 7 out of ten even if they are complete crap. Does anyone give any real credence to 'professional' game reviews anymore?

      • Re:erm.. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Reapy (688651)
        I for one, have been looking forward to Oblivion since I heard it's annoucnment, and the only picture was that silly little picture of the name.

        I've been holding off watching videos because I remember running off the ship in morrowind and standing with my mouth agape looking at the fucking amazing water. I jumpped right in that, and ran around in it for a good 15 minutes watching it splash and move around different ways.

        Then I remember picking up and throwing silverware and forks and all the "junk" all ove

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