Just an idle thought: "live race" (https://wiki.stunts.hu/wiki/Live_racing) is an established term in our jargon, but is there a reasonable word or expression for the opposite of that -- that is, a race with a deadline measured in days rather than minutes, in which people send replays in their own pace? The first thing that comes to mind is "monthly race", but that doesn't always apply -- the race could be weekly, biweekly, etc.
I think not. We usually call them "competition track" but it's not completely accurate
In the Wiki, I have referred in the past to "asynchronous competitions" and "asynchronous races". I created this article some time ago:
https://wiki.stunts.hu/wiki/Asyncrhonous_tournament
"Asynchronous" is pretty good, actually! ("Async" for short, maybe? Or is it too much programmer jargon to abbreviate it like that? :) )
Quote from: Cas on January 31, 2025, 07:39:32 PMhttps://wiki.stunts.hu/wiki/Asyncrhonous_tournament
I don't think I had seen that article yet! I like the lead paragraph a lot:
Quote from: Asyncrhonous tournamentA competition can be said to be asynchronous when it's not running live and so, a method has to be established to make pipsqueaks' participation competitive. Almost every tournament in the history of online Stunts has followed this pattern to the point that we tend to take it for granted, but realising this possibility was a great milestone that took Stunts not only to the multi-player level, but to competition in the distance.
Yep. I wrote the article mostly with the intention of emphasising the non-triviality of the system we use in our tournaments. I think that one thing that stops newcomers is that what seems obvious to us, is not for them. Sometimes, they just can't guess how it works and it takes a few minutes to realise. Then, it becomes very simple.
I used the word "asynchronous" because it was, well, the word I could find that meant this, but I realise it's not a nice, comfortable word like "live" is, so we could also find an alternative or a more friendly synonym. "Async" is good too. Could be "ACS" (Asynchronous Competition/Contest System) or "ATS" (Asynchronous Tournament System). Also, it occurs to me that a non-live replay could be called a "worked" replay, but this term cannot be used on competitions and races... It becomes less clear.
In chess we would call it a correspondence tournament. The term "play-by-mail" was also popular, but I think it now feels outdated.
Well, in the beginning, we actually played Stunts "by mail" in tournaments here! So it is quite appropriate, as a matter of fact
Indeed -- "correspondence" feels very appropriate,
@HerrNove ! There is a long evolutionary chain linking automated replay publishing in competitions like ZakStunts to the very earliest competitions ran through mailing lists: first, with the rise of the Web, competition managers began publishing laps sent by e-mail on websites; later on, Zak hooked the mailing directly into the site, and eventually e-mails were replaced by more convenient means. The replay posting page at ZakStunts is still called "mailer" :)
I think we are mixing up two different things:
1- the simultaneity of the race (do all drivers race at the same time like a live race or do they race when they want during a longer span of time?)
2- the sending/posting of replays and results. Live races are submitted through some form of mailing (the forum), we don't get "live results"
So a "Live race" does not necessarily contradict a "correspondence race". Maybe we can get live results once
@Erik Barros gets the lap counter up for broadcasting
That's a good observation. I'd say "live" versus "non-live" is mainly about aspect #1, which is something that several live race formats have in common:
- Hotseat live racing, WSM-style: Everyone physically in the same place, trying to get a result given a fixed number of attempts. Perhaps the pipsqueaks won't be literally driving all at the same time (especially if there's just one computer!), but it's close enough. Results are as live as they can be.
- Le Stunts: 12 minutes to post an 8 minutes replay, so everyone drives at the same time due to the tight deadline. Results aren't truly live, being instead compiled from the replays posted to the Forum.
- Stunts Online session (https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4303.0): Unlimited attempts within 10 minutes to drive a NoRH lap. Everyone drives at the same time (though the individual laps aren't in sync), and the results are live.
We can of course try to find grey zones. For instance, is a race with unlimited RH and a deadline of 15 minutes a live race? What if we change the deadline to 60 minutes?
I
Quote from: Duplode on February 05, 2025, 09:44:12 PMFor instance, is a race with unlimited RH and a deadline of 15 minutes a live race? What if we change the deadline to 60 minutes?
As a rule of thumb, if it requires some kind of coordination for a day and time for pipsqueaks we can call it a "Live race".
Coordination is an important aspect of it, and it does work as a rule of thumb. It seems to ultimately boil down to how tight the deadline is. For instance:
- A 15 minutes deadline certainly requires coordination.
- A 60 minutes deadline also requires a certain amount of coordination. While, much like in a Formula One qualifying session, we typically won't see everyone starting to race at the same time, all pipsqueaks nonetheless need to join at a time reasonably close to the start.
- A 24 hours deadline arguably doesn't require meaningful coordination in this sense, as pipsqueaks have an entire day to drive and send their replays. The choice of date for the race might make people more or less likely to join, but to an extent that also applies to a monthly race.
I like tight-deadline live races. I think that a more relaxed deadline, like one hour, would result in something that would be more like an async monthly race with less time than like a live race with more time.