Gaming - Gotta Go Fast!

For the longest time, I completely ignored videos that were primarily watching other people play video games (so called "let's plays" to be exact.) However, during my senior year at college, I was a little bit more charitable. One of my favorite channels (The Completionist) was affiliated with its own LP channel. I discovered that (good) LPs were more than JUST gameplay, but commentary and incidental humour.

Then I discovered GDQ.

I'm sure I hadn't heard of speed-running up to that point, but it was probably for the best. Anytime a GDQ is going on, my sleep schedule is completely wrecked. But I'm getting ahead of myself! GDQ, or Games Done Quick, is a charity marathon run twice a year. Just a few days [weeks now] before this article went up, the winter GDQ, Awesome Games Done Quick, just wrapped up. (Mercifully, they finished around 3:00 AM this time.)

Particularly, I enjoy GDQ for commentary and glitches. If a game is large in scope, chances are there are some wonderful glitches allowing large portions of it to be skipped. For instance, the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past can be completed in mere minutes by the use of a out-of-bounds glitch. On longer runs, I enjoy when the runner, or the group on the couch behind him or her, provide amusing and insightful information on the game at hand.

(I dunno why, but this was one of my favorite runs this year's AGDQ.) Plus, the charities they do the marathon for are good causes. This recent GDQ ran for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Speedruns can be beautiful, such as Super Mario 64 runs - specifically, the poetry of motion that occurs in any of the Bowser levels. Anything with good controls can lead to masterful exhibitions of dexterity and finesse. But enough talk.

Here is the current WR for Super Mario 64 0-star (as indexed on speedrun.com):

Stuff like that is probably why Super Mario 64 is at GDQ so often.

Anyway, that's just a few thoughts on speedrunning and what not. Thanks for reading.