GDQ + Speedrunning

[maru]

Well, I'm at GDQ. It's been really cosy? I feel like when you're actually here, you don't feel this push to watch a lot of the runs in person. A weird amount of people just ... watch it on the in-hotel TV channel (they piped it direct into the hotel feed??) in their rooms with their friends. That is to say, it's more of a "people in the scene hang out at the Schelling point," and the actual stream is intended as a demonstration of the space for outsiders. There's a few runs that are fun to watch just because it's high-polish, high production value versions of the same runs. This is why I mostly just wanted to see the weirder runs, and why I prefer SGDQ. You get to watch old DOS games, lesser known SNES and Genesis titles, romhacks.

You also see the same people a lot. It's a much smaller con than the bigger hobbyist conventions; only 2,000 people, and the amenities are quite basic. You have a board game room, a practice room with tons of CRTs and loaner consoles, a PC room for LAN parties and provided gaming PCs, and the stream room itself. I kept wondering why it was hard to talk to people, but it's easing up. I think there's a lot of nervous or socially scared people (and they literally just tell you this, a lot of the time).

[maru]

Okay, so, this is over now. I figured I'd talk a bit about runs.



This Halo 2 run is just impeccably done. It's got great tech, explains a lot. The entire time I felt mesmerised.



This is a run of a fan-made remake of Sonic 06? That I didn't even know existed? Apparently the devs snuck in a preview of the next level at the end of the run for GDQ and it was their first time playing. Haven't watched yet.



Paralogue user "Lapis" is on the couch for this one and it apparently is accidentally a really good run. A few seconds from WR, a 3 minute PB or etc. Personally I couldn't tell what was good or bad — so many things come down to RNG and it seemed high anxiety !



I'm fond of this run because I was in the audience at 5am watching it and everything seemed funny.



This is a spiritual successor to Marble Blast and I don't know why there's a little guy in the ball but it seems ... you know. Fun.



This Halo 3 4-player Legendary co-op run is just amazing. It's primo "guys being dudes" content. These guys love each other. They go through Halo like a squadron covering each other's backs. They have plans B through Z. It's amazing to watch. The energy was amazing.



It's Bubzia! From the hit film!

[watermoon]

i ended up watching this gdq during euro hours, which made things slightly more interesting, maybe. i caught more than a few of the early-morning runs live that i usually would watch the vods of later on, and instead i now find myself working through the evening hour "highlight" runs afterward…

there was so much kaizo in the schedule, or maybe that's just my perception, yet the feeling i got was different this time around. they made kaizo and custom levels seem very personal, with the creators and the players all seemingly knowing each other. the runners and couch would mention how they were talking to the creator while they were making these levels, or how a certain creator was known for making a certain type of level, or i think one of them (super sonic saves the world world?) had the creator on the couch so that the runner could roast them directly for what they had done?

i have a documented thing for niche communities who make content for themselves and each other and these runs hit that spot in my heart just right.

[maru]

there was so much kaizo in the schedule, or maybe that's just my perception, yet the feeling i got was different this time around. they made kaizo and custom levels seem very personal, with the creators and the players all seemingly knowing each other. the runners and couch would mention how they were talking to the creator while they were making these levels, or how a certain creator was known for making a certain type of level, or i think one of them (super sonic saves the world world?) had the creator on the couch so that the runner could roast them directly for what they had done?

i have a documented thing for niche communities who make content for themselves and each other and these runs hit that spot in my heart just right.

yeah! I did notice that. there's a gradual amount of attention to communities between creators and players. whether that's romhacks, kaizo or fan projects there was just a surprising amount of unofficial stuff. between that and the relays, co-ops, organising blocks by tight knit communities (see Castlevania Legends for an idea of what I mean), it was more about representing an entire scene.

[thursday]

it's not really something i keep up with often but i'm usually happy when i do. going to the event in person seems pretty fun. i'm mostly interested in the history of a run or particularly interesting tricks. this tetris history one by summoning salt is one i liked recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOJlg8g8_yw[/youtube]

it makes me wonder if i could have been into sports if my life was slightly different, although the actual live execution/competition/etc is only somewhat interesting to me. i like jon bois - i guess he's covering the pannenkoek-like parts of sports lol.