The Games Done Quick marathon is a biannual charity event organized by the Speed Demos Archive website, where speedrunners complete games as fast as possible, and donations are collected for several causes. It started very small, at someone's home, and the first event got something like 10 thousand dollars in donations. It quickly grew in size, getting several millions of dollars in donations every time.
I'm a speedrunner aficionado. Not in the sense that I would speedrun myself, but I watch speedruns at a semi-regular basis. For many years I was excited for the Games Done Quick marathons, and often watched them for hours when they were live.
Not anymore. I have stopped watching and supporting those events. There are three main reasons:
The marathon happening in winter, Awesome Games Done Quick, collects donations every year for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The announcers love to repeat over and over how "100% of donations go to the Prevent Cancer Foundation". This implies that none of that donated money goes to the organizers of the event, or the Speed Demos Archive website.
This is deceptive.
The Prevent Cancer Foundation is a sponsor of these events, and part of this sponsorship is covering some of the monetary costs of organizing the event. The AGDQ charity events form a quite significant portion of all the money that the Prevent Cancer Foundation gets every year. This means that part of the money donated to the event goes to organize the event the next year.
"100% of the donations go to the Prevent Cancer Foundation" may be technically true, but it hides the fact that part of that donated money will go to the organizers of AGDQ the next year. That money simply goes through the PCF organization. The claim that's so often repeated implies that none of the donated money goes to the event organizers, and 100% of it goes to cancer research and prevention, which just isn't true.
(Many donors may be completely ok with this. However, the fact that this isn't publicly and clearly divulged is deceptive.)
Most donors also don't know that the PCF organization operates solely in the United States, nowhere else. The organization also funds very little actual cancer research. Most donors probably have the misconception that it's a cancer research funding organization that benefits the entire world. In actuality most of the activities of the organization consists of awareness campaigns and the like, within the United States. These are of little benefit to the rest of the world.
Most donors also aren't aware that something like 30-40% of the money goes to running the organization, not any activities dedicated to preventing (much less researching) cancer. (Again, most donors would probably be ok with this, but the fact that this isn't divulged openly isn't a good thing, and it's deceptive. The "100% of donations goes to the PCF" deceptively gives the impression that 100% of the donations goes to cancer research, which isn't the case.)
What was once a small event among friends and aficionados, which was pretty much speedrunners hanging out and playing games for charity, has become a highly sterilized corporate-friendly and advertiser-friendly event. Moreover, it has become excessively strict and oppressive in terms of rules and behavior.
Games Done Quick has become so infamous for being banhammer-happy, for issuing bans to people for the slightest of things, that it has pretty much become a joke. In fact, some people even humorously consider it a "badge of honor" to be banned from GDQ.
Many of the bans have been quite egregious. Some years ago a runner was banned due to mere accusations of improper comments in social media, even though the organizers had zero proof of it being the case, and the runner even offering them full access to his social media account to corroborate. The organizers just refused to check if the accusations were true, did not want to hear any defense from the person in question, and simply banned him.
In another case a runner made on stream a light-hearted joke about some Canadian airline losing luggage or something. The organizers proceeded to ban the runner and issue an apology to the social media account of the airline. The airline representatives had no idea what the GDQ organizers were talking about. (Obviously no offense of any kind was taken.) The runner was still banned.
The list of examples could go on and on, with people being banned left and right for the most ridiculous of reasons. The environment at GDQ is really oppressive, as the runners need to constantly walk on eggshells and be extremely careful what they say and do. One single wrong word on stream, or even off stream, and the banhammer will strike. And sometimes even without having to say or do anything.
Needless to say, the authenticity, the people, are not there anymore. What's left is a sterile show with forced acting.
Unsurprisingly, Speed Demos Archive, and the GDQ events, have embraced the modern social justice ideology, and they are enamored with transsexual runners and presenters. For several years now they have had a presenter at the events who is quite on-your-face transsexual.
Now, let me make this clear: My objection is not how that person decides to dress, act or speak. That's none of my concern. Whatever floats his boat is fine by me, and it doesn't bother me. People should be free to dress however they like, act however they like and speak however they like, as long as they aren't hurting anybody nor breaking any laws, and I will defend people's right to do so. That's just fine by me.
My objection is to why they have that person there, year after year. The reason for it. What exactly their agenda is.
I think the reason is quite obvious: Virtue-signaling, identity politics, and social engineering. "Look how tolerant, inclusive and diverse we are!" It's precisely this "look at us, look at how virtuous we are" attitude that shines through so clearly that I detest. And, of course, there's the social engineering aspect: Giving visibility to these types of people with the explicit and deliberate intent to try to influence society.
Sure, I could be totally wrong here. Maybe they did hire the best person for the job, with zero favoritism and no agenda, based solely and purely on merit. However, I would be ready to bet actual money that's not the case, not even close. I suspect they are putting that person on the forefront precisely and primarily because he's a transsexual, not because he would be the most qualified person for the job of all possible candidates.
I'm a speedrunner aficionado. Not in the sense that I would speedrun myself, but I watch speedruns at a semi-regular basis. For many years I was excited for the Games Done Quick marathons, and often watched them for hours when they were live.
Not anymore. I have stopped watching and supporting those events. There are three main reasons:
1: Deceptive donation policies
The marathon happening in winter, Awesome Games Done Quick, collects donations every year for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The announcers love to repeat over and over how "100% of donations go to the Prevent Cancer Foundation". This implies that none of that donated money goes to the organizers of the event, or the Speed Demos Archive website.
This is deceptive.
The Prevent Cancer Foundation is a sponsor of these events, and part of this sponsorship is covering some of the monetary costs of organizing the event. The AGDQ charity events form a quite significant portion of all the money that the Prevent Cancer Foundation gets every year. This means that part of the money donated to the event goes to organize the event the next year.
"100% of the donations go to the Prevent Cancer Foundation" may be technically true, but it hides the fact that part of that donated money will go to the organizers of AGDQ the next year. That money simply goes through the PCF organization. The claim that's so often repeated implies that none of the donated money goes to the event organizers, and 100% of it goes to cancer research and prevention, which just isn't true.
(Many donors may be completely ok with this. However, the fact that this isn't publicly and clearly divulged is deceptive.)
Most donors also don't know that the PCF organization operates solely in the United States, nowhere else. The organization also funds very little actual cancer research. Most donors probably have the misconception that it's a cancer research funding organization that benefits the entire world. In actuality most of the activities of the organization consists of awareness campaigns and the like, within the United States. These are of little benefit to the rest of the world.
Most donors also aren't aware that something like 30-40% of the money goes to running the organization, not any activities dedicated to preventing (much less researching) cancer. (Again, most donors would probably be ok with this, but the fact that this isn't divulged openly isn't a good thing, and it's deceptive. The "100% of donations goes to the PCF" deceptively gives the impression that 100% of the donations goes to cancer research, which isn't the case.)
2: Sterile and oppressive corporate-friendly environment
What was once a small event among friends and aficionados, which was pretty much speedrunners hanging out and playing games for charity, has become a highly sterilized corporate-friendly and advertiser-friendly event. Moreover, it has become excessively strict and oppressive in terms of rules and behavior.
Games Done Quick has become so infamous for being banhammer-happy, for issuing bans to people for the slightest of things, that it has pretty much become a joke. In fact, some people even humorously consider it a "badge of honor" to be banned from GDQ.
Many of the bans have been quite egregious. Some years ago a runner was banned due to mere accusations of improper comments in social media, even though the organizers had zero proof of it being the case, and the runner even offering them full access to his social media account to corroborate. The organizers just refused to check if the accusations were true, did not want to hear any defense from the person in question, and simply banned him.
In another case a runner made on stream a light-hearted joke about some Canadian airline losing luggage or something. The organizers proceeded to ban the runner and issue an apology to the social media account of the airline. The airline representatives had no idea what the GDQ organizers were talking about. (Obviously no offense of any kind was taken.) The runner was still banned.
The list of examples could go on and on, with people being banned left and right for the most ridiculous of reasons. The environment at GDQ is really oppressive, as the runners need to constantly walk on eggshells and be extremely careful what they say and do. One single wrong word on stream, or even off stream, and the banhammer will strike. And sometimes even without having to say or do anything.
Needless to say, the authenticity, the people, are not there anymore. What's left is a sterile show with forced acting.
3: Pushing identity politics and social engineering
Unsurprisingly, Speed Demos Archive, and the GDQ events, have embraced the modern social justice ideology, and they are enamored with transsexual runners and presenters. For several years now they have had a presenter at the events who is quite on-your-face transsexual.
Now, let me make this clear: My objection is not how that person decides to dress, act or speak. That's none of my concern. Whatever floats his boat is fine by me, and it doesn't bother me. People should be free to dress however they like, act however they like and speak however they like, as long as they aren't hurting anybody nor breaking any laws, and I will defend people's right to do so. That's just fine by me.
My objection is to why they have that person there, year after year. The reason for it. What exactly their agenda is.
I think the reason is quite obvious: Virtue-signaling, identity politics, and social engineering. "Look how tolerant, inclusive and diverse we are!" It's precisely this "look at us, look at how virtuous we are" attitude that shines through so clearly that I detest. And, of course, there's the social engineering aspect: Giving visibility to these types of people with the explicit and deliberate intent to try to influence society.
Sure, I could be totally wrong here. Maybe they did hire the best person for the job, with zero favoritism and no agenda, based solely and purely on merit. However, I would be ready to bet actual money that's not the case, not even close. I suspect they are putting that person on the forefront precisely and primarily because he's a transsexual, not because he would be the most qualified person for the job of all possible candidates.
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