Every video game positions the player against a series of obstacles. It doesn't matter what these obstacles are, or how difficult they are to overcome, because the mere presence of these obstacles is what makes a video game interactive. All of gaming asks the player to complete these tasks for the game to continue. When the player has done so and no more obstacles remain, the game is complete. The player has won and they've "beaten the game."
Traditionally, completing an objective means using only the tools a game intends for you to use. Maybe your character can jump, or has a sword, or can pick up items, or drive vehicles. Maps are designed for the player to traverse from A to B in individual but still preformulated ways. Even if the player becomes very good at using these tools to complete an objective, the game itself still retains authority. You are not doing anything the game isn't expecting you to do. How well you play is determined by how well you respond to the game's provisions. It gives you tools, it gives you goals, and you complete them in ways that the game ultimately anticipates and is designed to accommodate.
This is awesome in its own right. To crush a tough boss without taking any damage or blow through a sidescroller with perfectly-timed jumps is a mesmerizing feat. The natural evolution of this is speedrunning. The skill ceiling rises when speed is introduced. To push perfection even further and demand a flawless execution to a greater and greater extent takes a palpable passion. When you love a game, beating it isn't enough, you need to beat it
more. You need to beat it
better.
A really good "speedgame" develops incrementally. It takes hundreds of hours of collective effort to determine the most efficient and effective ways to complete a game. Players become so excellent that they uncover new tools and new rules to play with. They find shortcuts, they find tricks, they find alternate paths, and they find more powerful strategies. They gain such an upper-hand over the game that the dynamic of authority completely shifts. No longer is the player reacting to the game, the game is reacting to the player, and the rate and means of completion is no longer a predetermined path. The state of authority has shifted.
While the game still asks the player to overcome the same objective, speedrunning enables the player to achieve goals in ways the game doesn't expect. It takes the notion of "beating a game" to a completely different level. It allows you to see things you shouldn't, execute maneuvers that aren't intended, and complete objectives in ways that flabbergast a game as its code attempts to accommodate your overwhelming agency. A player is not just completing a game, they are overcoming the game itself. The game has been beaten.
Boundary breaks, sequence breaks, skips, strats, and exploits fascinate me. I love to see passionate players find ways to play games in ways I never thought of - sometimes in ways developers never even thought of. To play the same game for so long on such a deep level just to discover what is and isn't possible takes more ambition than I have personally, but I love to see the results.
I think critics of speedrunning sometimes fail to recognize two fundamentals.
The first is that, for most people, speedrunning is not a substitute for normal play. It is a different bracket of engagement. Speedrunning is not meant to undermine a person's natural relationship with a video game as a theatrical experience. Pokémon Red is cracked so far open that you can literally rewrite the game code to perform anything you could want it to do. This is something I greatly enjoy doing, but only when I set out to do it. I still play Pokémon Red normally almost every time I revisit it. My original relationship with the game has not changed. Only sometimes, when I get the itch, do I decide to push my ability and the game to its limits. While certain speedrunners who dedicate their lives to developing faster and faster methods to complete a game may never return to play at a normal pace, this is not the expectation or the habit of an ordinary player or fan.
The second is that speedrunners are actually having fun. While it may seem counter-intuitive to maximize your fun-level by minimizing your playtime, the satisfaction of overcoming a difficult challenge and setting a new personal best is very rewarding. People chase these records out of a love for the experience, and seeing the over-the-top reactions to a runner accomplishing something new really demonstrates how invested they are in game. In every speedrunning thread or in comments on a video and somebody always asks "how is this fun?" - as if to suggest the speedrunner is doing something nobody could ever enjoy. This is just not true. Nobody plays the first level of GoldenEye in 53 second increments for 17 straight hours if they aren't gaining something from their play. I don't think you have to personally enjoy speedrunning to at least appreciate the dedication and passion of its most serious players.
I enjoy speedrunning mostly from a distance. I'm not very good at it, I don't follow individual runners, I don't track leaderboards, but I love watching AGDQ/SGDQ or world record runs and learning how runners accomplish their records. For me, speedrunning is all about players repeatedly redefining what can and can't be done in video games. That's why I love it so much.
In this thread, tell me why you love speedrunning - or tell me why you don't! If you don't like speedrunning, hopefully this thread will at least help you understand why other people do.
Below are some of my favorite speedrunning videos. You can click the titles for YouTube links.
Pokémon Blue (Complete PokeDex): This video depicts a speedrun of Pokémon Blue in which the runner acquires all 151 Pokémon by rewriting the game's code on the fly. It is a long watch, but it is fascinating to see what can be done with the right understanding of how the game functions.
The World Record History of Super Mario Sunshine Any%: This video documents the lifelong history of speedrunning Super Mario Sunshine, cataloging the successes and discoveries that have been made in the game's 15 year history. This is another long watch, but is easily viewed incrementally.
Portal TAS in 5:13: This is a TAS, or Tool Assisted Speedrun, that depicts what a theoretical perfect execution of the game would look like if any human possessed the flawless muscle memory and reaction time. This is not a real person playing this video, this is a recorded script, but it is crazy and revelatory to watch if only to understand how world records are sometimes only held back by human capability.
Bloodborne Any% in 29:28 (World Record/Current Patch:Bloodborne, like the Souls games in general, are fascinating to see speedrun because they are extremely difficult games. A speedrun of a Bloodborne, even with skips, is a testament to the incredible skill the runner has to play such a difficult game at such a rapid rate. A blitz through Bloodborne means needing nearly-perfect pathfinding, flawless victories against bosses, and mastery over your choice of weapon to help compensate for all the random elements the runner can't control. Watching somebody sprint through Bloodborne is exhilarating because you get to watch somebody do something in minutes that may have taken you hours. They complete things on one try that may have taken you ten. It's a rare kind of mastery. (EDIT: This record has actually been beaten! The newest one is
here. Thanks
sym30l1c!)
The Legend of the Barrier Skip - The Holy Grail of Zelda Speedrunning: This video retrospective catalogs the history of an infamous Wind Waker barrier that speedrunners attempted to circumvent for fifteen years. This barrier, if players could find a way to cross it, would enable the player to access Ganon's Castle prematurely. Players tested theories and strategies for years until finally the HD version of the game yielded a successful trick. This video is only ten minutes long and very accessible.
Top 10 Accidental Skip Discoveries in Speedrunning: This video takes actual clips from live streams and recorded runs where players accidentally discovered game-changing exploits. The YouTuber then discusses how the discovery worked, what the implications were, and how they are used now.
Why Do We Speedrun?: This video is by Summoning Salt, which is an excellent YouTube channel with tons lots of theoretical and meta videos about this genre of play. I definitely recommend basically every video, but this one compliments the thread nicelt.
