If you happen to be a long-time reader of this blog, you might have noticed that I occasionally write about speedruns. I'm quite an avid viewer, especially when it comes to certain games. You might also have noticed that I have a strong aversion towards certain speedrunning techniques which I'm not very fond of, as I think they go against the spirit of what speedrunning should be about.
The spirit of speedrunning is playing a game from beginning to end as fast as possible, showing extraordinary playing skill that only very few people have attained. Big emphasis on the word "playing", in both cases I used it there. Once the speedrun starts using techniques that are not part of actually playing the game, that's when I start growing a distaste.
The more removed from actual in-game gameplay a technique is, ie. the more of a non-gameplay "metafeature" something is, and the more heavily it influences the game, the more I dislike it. Some of them might be tolerable (especially if used rarely), others are more obnoxious.
Opening the game's pause menu and selecting "restart checkpoint" is one of the mildest examples. (One could argue whether restarting a checkpoint from the game's pause menu is part of the actual gameplay, part of actually advancing in the game, but in my opinion it's not. The more heavily it affects the actual advancement in the game, the more I dislike it. For example if it's used alongside an out-of-bounds glitch to skip an entire huge level, I don't like it very much. I don't mind the out-of-bounds glitch itself that much. I dislike the metafeature of "restart checkpoint" being used in conjunction with it to skip an entire level. In milder cases I find its use tolerable, especially if it's not used constantly.)
One of the more obnoxious examples is, in the middle of the game, going to the game's menu, deleting a save file from there, and then trying to load it, allowing a skip that wouldn't otherwise be possible. (This is a common technique in Half-Life 2 speedrunning.) Deleting a save file is most definitely not part of gameplay.
Equally obnoxious is, in the middle of the game, going to the graphical settings menu and deliberately lowering the framerate of the game (usually to be ridiculously low), in order to trigger a glitch that wouldn't normally be possible (a technique that's used in several games, which have support for this in their graphics settings menu). Most definitely not part of gameplay.
Perhaps the most obnoxious example I have ever seen is a technique used in some Minecraft speedrunning category where the runner at one point will alt-tab to Windows, start the Task Manager, kill the game from there, and then restart it. This is so obnoxiously far removed from actually playing the game that it isn't even funny.
But what is the speedrunning technique that I detest most of all? Abusing a rule that exists for fairness in order to gain cheap time advantage.
With many games loading times are not counted towards the completion time of the run. This rule exists for fairness. Runners with super-fast computers with SSD's, fast RAM and so on, would have an unfair advantage over runners with slower computers, since there can be a big difference in loading times (even if the game proper runs at equivalent speed in both machines). To remove this unfair advantage, often loading times are not counted towards the completion time.
And then, with some games, this fairness rule is abused for cheap tricks.
In one Half-Life 2 speedrun route (I haven't checked if it's in the absolutely latest route, but it might well be), the runner at one point will spend a whopping three minutes doing nothing more than quick-saving and quick-loading about a hundred times in succession. None of these three minutes is counted towards the final completion time. And this isn't the only place where this is done (just the longest one.) The actual wallclock time for the run is over three minutes longer than what's actually shown as the official completion time.
In Dark Souls 3 speedrunning the exact same rule is abused for even cheaper artificial time-saving.
Pretty much constantly, and I mean constantly, the runner will, in the middle of the run, go to the game's pause menu, quit to the main menu, and then load the latest checkpoint. This whole process takes something like 10 seconds in total. None of which is counted towards the final completion time of the run.
The kicker is that in most cases this is done to save something like 2 to 5 seconds of in-game time. When you resume the game from the main menu, the game seldom spawns you exactly where you left, but at a nearby location. This is used to, pretty much in essence, "teleport" to that nearby location. Running to that location from the player's then-current location usually takes somewhere between 2 to 5 seconds (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the distance).
(In some cases this is done to eg. skip a cutscene. However, the majority of uses is to do the above.)
In other words about 10 seconds is used in order to save something like 2-5 seconds of gameplay. Those 10 seconds are not counted towards the completion time. And this is done dozens and dozens of times throughout the run. Which once again means that the actual wallclock completion time of the run is significantly longer than what's officially recorded.
Once again a rule that exists for fairness is being abused for a cheap tactic, making the run actually longer and more boring and annoying. And I really do mean that. In fact, it's so annoying that I can't even watch Dark Souls 3 speedruns.
(To be fair, with a few games at least speedrun.com will list both "time without loads" and "time with loads" for each entry. However, the list of entries will still be sorted by the former. Also, this is not done with all games where this technique is being abused.)
The spirit of speedrunning is playing a game from beginning to end as fast as possible, showing extraordinary playing skill that only very few people have attained. Big emphasis on the word "playing", in both cases I used it there. Once the speedrun starts using techniques that are not part of actually playing the game, that's when I start growing a distaste.
The more removed from actual in-game gameplay a technique is, ie. the more of a non-gameplay "metafeature" something is, and the more heavily it influences the game, the more I dislike it. Some of them might be tolerable (especially if used rarely), others are more obnoxious.
Opening the game's pause menu and selecting "restart checkpoint" is one of the mildest examples. (One could argue whether restarting a checkpoint from the game's pause menu is part of the actual gameplay, part of actually advancing in the game, but in my opinion it's not. The more heavily it affects the actual advancement in the game, the more I dislike it. For example if it's used alongside an out-of-bounds glitch to skip an entire huge level, I don't like it very much. I don't mind the out-of-bounds glitch itself that much. I dislike the metafeature of "restart checkpoint" being used in conjunction with it to skip an entire level. In milder cases I find its use tolerable, especially if it's not used constantly.)
One of the more obnoxious examples is, in the middle of the game, going to the game's menu, deleting a save file from there, and then trying to load it, allowing a skip that wouldn't otherwise be possible. (This is a common technique in Half-Life 2 speedrunning.) Deleting a save file is most definitely not part of gameplay.
Equally obnoxious is, in the middle of the game, going to the graphical settings menu and deliberately lowering the framerate of the game (usually to be ridiculously low), in order to trigger a glitch that wouldn't normally be possible (a technique that's used in several games, which have support for this in their graphics settings menu). Most definitely not part of gameplay.
Perhaps the most obnoxious example I have ever seen is a technique used in some Minecraft speedrunning category where the runner at one point will alt-tab to Windows, start the Task Manager, kill the game from there, and then restart it. This is so obnoxiously far removed from actually playing the game that it isn't even funny.
But what is the speedrunning technique that I detest most of all? Abusing a rule that exists for fairness in order to gain cheap time advantage.
With many games loading times are not counted towards the completion time of the run. This rule exists for fairness. Runners with super-fast computers with SSD's, fast RAM and so on, would have an unfair advantage over runners with slower computers, since there can be a big difference in loading times (even if the game proper runs at equivalent speed in both machines). To remove this unfair advantage, often loading times are not counted towards the completion time.
And then, with some games, this fairness rule is abused for cheap tricks.
In one Half-Life 2 speedrun route (I haven't checked if it's in the absolutely latest route, but it might well be), the runner at one point will spend a whopping three minutes doing nothing more than quick-saving and quick-loading about a hundred times in succession. None of these three minutes is counted towards the final completion time. And this isn't the only place where this is done (just the longest one.) The actual wallclock time for the run is over three minutes longer than what's actually shown as the official completion time.
In Dark Souls 3 speedrunning the exact same rule is abused for even cheaper artificial time-saving.
Pretty much constantly, and I mean constantly, the runner will, in the middle of the run, go to the game's pause menu, quit to the main menu, and then load the latest checkpoint. This whole process takes something like 10 seconds in total. None of which is counted towards the final completion time of the run.
The kicker is that in most cases this is done to save something like 2 to 5 seconds of in-game time. When you resume the game from the main menu, the game seldom spawns you exactly where you left, but at a nearby location. This is used to, pretty much in essence, "teleport" to that nearby location. Running to that location from the player's then-current location usually takes somewhere between 2 to 5 seconds (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the distance).
(In some cases this is done to eg. skip a cutscene. However, the majority of uses is to do the above.)
In other words about 10 seconds is used in order to save something like 2-5 seconds of gameplay. Those 10 seconds are not counted towards the completion time. And this is done dozens and dozens of times throughout the run. Which once again means that the actual wallclock completion time of the run is significantly longer than what's officially recorded.
Once again a rule that exists for fairness is being abused for a cheap tactic, making the run actually longer and more boring and annoying. And I really do mean that. In fact, it's so annoying that I can't even watch Dark Souls 3 speedruns.
(To be fair, with a few games at least speedrun.com will list both "time without loads" and "time with loads" for each entry. However, the list of entries will still be sorted by the former. Also, this is not done with all games where this technique is being abused.)
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