Live 12-Hour Oblivion Marathon

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.

What has the world come to?

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?

12 WHOLE hours? Wow what a hardcore gamer...

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

erm..

So what? Some guy plays for 12 hours, just like most gamers have done several times in their life. It's not exactly a difficult thing to do or anything.

Re:erm..

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.

The Koreans do it better

50 hours
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2005Aug/bga20050 810031766.htm [geek.com]

Second gamer dies after massive binge
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2120472/second-g amer-dies-massive-binge [vnunet.com]

etc.etc.

In related news...

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...

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.

Wrong job

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...

I won't be tuning in...

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.

This can only end in tears.

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!"

Don't laugh

Bethesda Nightmare Scenario #2:

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

Morrowind 5 segment Speedrun in 00:07:30 [speeddemosarchive.com], and that for a game which you can play for days and weeks without ever touching a story quest.

Not impressed...

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!

feed link?

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

I want to discover the first 12 hours of the game myself, not let some game media bozo do it for me.

Umm what?

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?

Oblivion?

Huh? What's that?

Umm, yeah...

Would have been nice to know from the summary that it's being broadcast to subscribers only.

Just a big advert for a pay site!

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.

12 Hour Marathon

Yep, that's what I had last night - right after I purchased the game.

Everything went fine

The 12 hours are up, and everything went perfectly. He hit a few difficult snags in gameplay here and there, but came up with some neat ways to solve the problems. The Xbox 360 hung up one time during loading, but it seems to have been the console's fault, after 10 hours of straight use.

I have to say, I was not impressed with the game until I watched this marathon. Now I'm seriously considering buying it for PC.

I could almost see watching this

I might watch this, for the same reason I'd watch an auto race. Not for the game, not for the sport. I just want to see the crashes. Looking at the history of the elder scrolls series, I don't think I'd have to wait 12 hours...

On to Fallout

Now Bethesda can move on to full production of Fallout 3. Hopefully, it will retain the spirit of the Black Isle originals. The bleak setting, humor, nuanced characters, and option rich gameplay made the game remarkable.

HINT: To please fans, all they have to do is add an OPTION for top down view of turn-based action. Yeah, sure, make it a tactical, story-rich FPS in the Fallout universe. That's fine, BUT include the OPTION for old school play.

Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

Controller-wise I agree with you completely. The mouse and keyboard combo blow away any gamepad for 1st-person games.

Visually speaking though the 360 version of the game will allow both HDR lighting and anti-aliasing. The PC version makes you pick one or the other. I'm sure none of us will be able to tell either way considering the quality of your average webcast.

Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

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:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

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.

Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

Nobody will be comfortable in the same sitting position for 12 hours

Hi, I'm Nobody. Pleased to meet you.

Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

Can you explain to me what features are not included in the xbox 360 game?

Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

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.

Re:Twelve hours is nothing

I think it's even more impressive that a bovine was able to handle a mouse and keyboard.

Re:Well, remember, this *is* Greg Kasavin.

I'm curious to see what his shot and spell accuracy looks like after 12 hours.

Hi comic book guy.

You're saying that of using a controller designed to fit well in your hands, designed solely for games, you should use a keyboard designed for typing, not playing games? Whereby using it for games requires awkward unnatural positioning of your fingers and wrists? Or a mouse which puts undue stress on your wrists?

Instead of sitting on a sofa, you should sit at a computer chair?

Instead of sitting 10-feet from a large TV, you should be hunched up in front of a 17" monitor?