Poll of the Day > Can anyone actually explain Games Done Quick to me?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I mean, I totally support the charity angle of it, but absolutely no GDQ run that I've ever seen are...organic or fun at all. That powerup or item that's 4 pixels out of my line of travel? Ain't nobody got time for that shit. A path any human ever would take? Pfft, fuck that shit.

I kinda get speedrunning on some level as a thing.

But how is performative suffering to pull off frame perfect glitches even fun? How much Ritalin do the actual players on these runs have to consume to even pull these off? It's not like some dude just picks up a controller and does this shit organically.

I'm not shitting on the skill involved, but what sort of human actually enjoys the repetitive thousands of hours and RNG grace these runs rely on prior to the attempt?
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Different strokes for different folks.
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To me, a game done quick would be a true demon ending on SMT:N in like 40 hours rather than closer to 90. I get that literally nobody would ever watch that shit. But like...1:47:03 runs on LttP or reverse boss super Metroid runs that rely on numerous exploits and glitches...that's not how anyone would play the game ever.

I could set up a learning AI to play the game, and the universe would suffer heat death before we ever saw a sequence break, let alone many and that's a computer orders of magnitude more advanced than the software was written on or for on "the sticks".

I get the skill, but I don't get the "but why tho"?
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There are multiple categories for depending on the game including glitchless (for those casuals who demand that games be played "normally") so there isn't any one way to speedrun a game.

As for why people would go out of their way to play a game completely against developer intent using glitches and exploits, it's just because they can.
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aHappySacka posted...

As for why people would go out of their way to play a game completely against developer intent using glitches and exploits, it's just because they can.

Well I can get a good look at a T-Bone by sticking my head up a bull's ass, but I'd rather take the butcher's word for it.
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I enjoy some speedruns. I feel that it's a requirement to be a super fan of the game to both enjoy running and enjoy watching one.

I think my favourite run is the blindfolded symphony of the night run.
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It's a live speedrunning event, but you're right - speedrunning doesn't cater itself to live events, except for races.

There are glitches (most well known being 0 star Mario 64) that take a lot of randomness and luck to pull off if you were going for a personal best - but would be awkwardly stupid as you fail it 50 times in a live setting.

Typically you try the glitch once or twice and then reset the console, start your timer again.
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KeijiMaedaTiger posted...

I think my favourite run is the blindfolded symphony of the night run.

The blindfolded Punch Out run is admittedly impressive.

I'm pretty sure I could still do a blindfold run on original hardware of SMB 1-1 and maybe 1-2 on muscle memory alone because well, I'm 40.

But when I see a dude half my age doing this sort of shit on a game that's between my age and theirs...I just sigh because they literally could have learned a language or an instrument in the time they spent doing a pixel perfect run of the dam level in TMNT NES.
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WhiskeyDisk posted...

I could set up a learning AI to play the game, and the universe would suffer heat death before we ever saw a sequence break, let alone many and that's a computer orders of magnitude more advanced than the software was written on or for on "the sticks".

Because said programming is still limited by your concept of the game. Most sequence breaks, be they glitches or not, tend to get discovered by accident. By making a stupid mistake an a.i. would never make.
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I've really gotten into speedrunning in the last year. I'm even planning to speedrun a game of my own starting this summer!

But yeah as others have said, not every GDQ run is a glitchfest. It's fun to watch the awful game block to see some silly antics and the commentators who enjoy showing off these niche games. The TAS block is also impressive just to witness what frame perfection can look like in real time.
Oh, and randomizer tournaments are becoming more popular with games likes OoT and SM64 which adds another layer of strategy and replayability with retro games. Sometimes it's less about pulling off a glitch and more about remembering how the original game was meant to be played.
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I don't blame you, TC. The early days of the Done Quick thing were nice to see, but they've just become corporate, lifeless, and soulless in the last four or five years. Not the same anymore.
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sull56ivan2010 posted...

I don't blame you, TC. The early days of the Done Quick thing were nice to see, but they've just become corporate, lifeless, and soulless in the last four or five years. Not the same anymore.

This. It used to be fun to watch but the organizers has become so shitty.
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sull56ivan2010 posted...

I don't blame you, TC. The early days of the Done Quick thing were nice to see, but they've just become corporate, lifeless, and soulless in the last four or five years. Not the same anymore.

One of the greatest and most fun runs I ever watched was one from 2018.
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The best runs at GDQ I seen where the ones from Limit Break. For example, the run of Robotrek was very informative about game mechinics
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You say no one would play like that ever, and yet, people clearly do it
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Go watch some 100% glitchless speedruns. There are different categories for a reason. It just sounds like any% runs are for you

Greenfox111 posted...

You say no one would play like that ever, and yet, people clearly do it

TASbot says hi.
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LeetCheet posted...

sull56ivan2010 posted...

I don't blame you, TC. The early days of the Done Quick thing were nice to see, but they've just become corporate, lifeless, and soulless in the last four or five years. Not the same anymore.

This. It used to be fun to watch but the organizers has become so shitty.

I'd say people should start seeing the ESA guys. European Speedrunner Assembly. They seem to enjoy doing the speedrunning a lot more than the Done Quick morons. Fuck Mike Uyama.
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WhiskeyDisk posted...

I get the skill, but I don't get the "but why tho"?

well, GDQ specifically is a charity event, so that's the why for that.

but if you mean the technicality of it, i suppose it's probably in the same vein as competitive pro gaming; those people probably invest similar amounts of time drilling the same things over and over to be very good at it

and not every trick is just repetitive grinding either, a lot of them are basically reverse-engineering the games to figure out those frame-perfect moves. maybe you've seen those super mario 64 videos of completing a level with one A press or whatever, that sort of thing was born in the speedrunning community. it's technically fun to see even if a 30-minute video is the culmination of months of experimenting and repetition

but it's obviously not for everyone and not every game makes for a fun run to watch
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sull56ivan2010 posted...

LeetCheet posted...

sull56ivan2010 posted...

I don't blame you, TC. The early days of the Done Quick thing were nice to see, but they've just become corporate, lifeless, and soulless in the last four or five years. Not the same anymore.

This. It used to be fun to watch but the organizers has become so shitty.

I'd say people should start seeing the ESA guys. European Speedrunner Assembly. They seem to enjoy doing the speedrunning a lot more than the Done Quick morons. Fuck Mike Uyama.

isn't that one started by the guys who got banned from GDQ for wearing trump hats lol

edit: no I'm probably thinking of NASA
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Most of the GDQ runs aren't even the world records or even close to them, from what I've seen. They're performing live, with distractions, and sometimes even do stuff that adds time just because people donated money to charity to see it.

I do enjoy watching them though, but only the ones that are fun. Like, where the runner is actually entertaining and/or funny. Cause then it's someone interesting playing a game I like and...even if not the fastest completion time....is still playing at a high skill level that I couldn't reach.

I do prefer the glitchless runs, which seem to be less common, or at least runs where only minor glitches are used or it's showed off for laughs more so than to get through quicker.

I mean...it's a hit or miss thing, you can usually tell within 10 minutes if it's going to be a runner that's fun to watch or just kinda dull. Also depends on the games you like.

This is probably one of my favorite speed runs, for Double Dragon Neon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpXRe-GyKEk" data-time="&start=199
Had the devs conference called in during the run, providing background info on the game development and witnessing some glitches they didn't know about in real time :)

Speedrunning is the reals esports.

They're the world's greatest video game players. Want to see the world's greatest Mario/Portal player destroy the game? GDQ.
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Some of my favorite entertaining GDQ runs off the top of my head:

Dr. Fatbody playing Sonic the Hedgehog 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DayNOf9PkQ0" data-time="
Bonesaw577 playing Jax and Daxter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQmMR8lueA" data-time="
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Yellow posted...

Speedrunning is the reals esports.

They're the world's greatest video game players. Want to see the world's greatest Mario/Portal player destroy the game? GDQ.

Not even close to being the real esports. Even with practice, there are way more fuck ups than you realize.
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