Hey everybody,
It's fair to say my outlook on speedrunning (and glitchrunning, score-running, etc) has changed drastically in a short span of time. The first such transformation, which occurred shortly before watching AGDQ/SGDQ for the first time (some four years ago), was the most significant. Prior to that point, I held a largely negative view. In essence, I didn't like speedrunning (et al), for the simple reason that it bypassed, broke, or just plain insulted as much of the "intended" gameplay as possible. Surely there was no case to be made for shunning such a large portion of so many games!
But, as it turns out, people really like watching that stuff. And, if people will watch, then that viewership can be leveraged for incredibly positive, certainly awesome causes. So, now instead of grumbling, AGDQ and SGDQ are very much highlights of my year, in terms of raw entertainment and generating good feelings about the human race in general.
Nearer to the present, I have started holding a very deep respect for those alternative play styles - as much for the amount of skill it takes to effectively, as for just the sheer attitude of the participants. Even the best speedrunners are so, so humble and down-to-earth, due in large part to the fragility of their records. There is so much competition that no one is ever "the best" for a long time. And, being nice human beings certainly makes exchanging pro-level strategies a bunch easier, even if you're giving up your advantages for the slim chance of swiping another's.
Even closer to now (say, two weeks as of this writing), I find myself an active, contributing part of a speedrunning community. What have I gotten myself into?!
To be clear, I never expected that to happen. Ever. Sure, I feel like I'm good (massive air quotes) at a lot of games, but given the sheer skill of everyone else, the expectation that I could slide into such a community at any point seemed impossibly out of reach. Though, this truly is a case of "you never know until you try", and try I did - and that has resulted in a respectable (still rather large air quotes) number of submissions, including top rankings (!!) in a few categories.
I don't like to shoot my mouth off too much, so this will be the only time (for now) - I am a speedrunner for Assault Android Cactus. Like all the communities I've observed in the past, this one is just as friendly and fun. I'm glad I found it - er, was told of it - and even more glad I managed to shimmy my way in.
Oh, and I should mention that I have set up a more-or-less permanent weekly stream to practice speedrunning - Sundays, 7 PM CDT / CST, on my various streaming channels.
That's all for now.