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VGFM
VGFM
Edit history:
VGFM: 2013-03-30 11:23:39 pm
VGFM: 2013-03-30 11:22:45 pm
VGFM: 2013-02-09 01:33:55 am
2013-02-09 01:33:33 am
UPDATE:

The paper is finished!  It can be found here.  Bear in mind that it was written in a narrative/report format for a non-gamer audience, and certain details are simplified or omitted for their sake.  Please let me know if you feel I misrepresented anyone's quotes or inaccurately described the mechanics of certain glitches and tricks (some of which even I don't fully understand).

Hello everyone!

My name is Michael K., and I'm a longtime fan of speed running.  Sadly I'm not a runner myself, though maybe when I finish up college and have more time and money I may try my hand at it.  Speaking of college, I'm currently researching communities and subcultures for a narrative reporting project in my capstone course for Technical Communications.  As of right now, the speed running community and how it ties into the broader gaming community is my go-to topic idea, and I joined the SDA forums to gain a little more perspective on speed running from community members.  My intention with this paper topic is to showcase the dedication of the runner community and how they've become a force for good in the gaming community.

I'm currently in the research phase of the project, and I'm looking for some volunteers to take a little time and answer this survey I've cooked up--the more volunteers the merrier. 
- Feel free to answer in whatever level of detail you wish
- You also don't need to feel obligated to answer every question if you don't want to. 

Keep in mind that I may directly quote responses in my paper; the paper won't be published and I will properly attribute any quotes that I use; let me know if you don't want to be quoted directly for whatever reason. 

If you guys want, I could post the finished paper here once it's completed, though that probably won't be for at least a month.

I would greatly appreciate your help.

Questions:

1. What name do you prefer to go by?

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?

Thanks again for taking the time to hear me out and (hopefully) take the survey.  I'll try to find a way to repay you down the line!
Thread title:  
gammadragon
2013-02-09 03:31:23 am
Might be magic...
1. Gammadragon. I prefer not to show my real name online because my job requires me to appear professional and I don't want anyone to Google my name and find what I do in my spare time - mainly because I occasionally make speedruns when supposed to be working from home Smiley

2. I was around 2 years old (in 1986) and my family had a 286/DX IBM PC. It had some (at the time) really awesome games, like Hangman, Adventure, Alley Cat... wow those bring back some memories. I've never owned a console but have always had a PC in the house.

3. Sometimes my brothers take an interest, but I rarely tell anyone else, mainly because nobody I know shares my enthusiasm for older games.

4. I think the first real speedrun I saw was of Morrowind. If you've never played Morrowind before, the game is meant to take a minimum of around 5 hours if you're really fast and completing every single quest in the game takes hundreds of hours. Someone managed to finish the game in under 5 minutes. Needless to say, I was pretty amazed and couldn't stop laughing for a long time.

5. Speedrunning is the act of studying the rules of a closed system, planning an approach to bend those rules to achieve your desired outcome and recording a demonstration of the results. Very much like the scientific method.

6. PC games that contain glitches - not necessarily older games but because I haven't played too many newer games they tend to be pretty ancient. Plus, there are usually already much better runs than I could create for a lot of newer games.

7. My favourite is the "Ravenloft: Stone Prophet" speedrun, which is also my first one. Unfortunately it was insubmissible because it was created using an emulator (DOSBox). I managed to finish the game in around one minute, when a normal playthrough is supposed to take over 10 hours. You can find a link to the YouTube video by searching on the SDA forums.

8. I have a genetic, non-contagious skin condition which started affecting me in 2004. It slowly worsened over time and at the beginning of 2011, I started to get quite sick. Over the period of the next year, my skin became hideously deformed and I contracted severe arthritis to the point where I couldn't lift myself out of bed. There were a couple of times where I nearly died, and a few more where I felt like I would prefer to die. During this time, speedrunning was very therapeutic as a distraction from reality and was one of the few things (besides reading and watching TV) that I could do in my condition. Fortunately, I have a loving partner and family to look after me and went to a very good doctor. After a lot of trials, we found the right combination of strong medications to massively reduce the symptoms and while I'll never be "normal", I can cover it up to the point that nobody would know any different. Going through something like that really gives you a new outlook on life and makes you empathise with people who have been through worse.

9. It can sometimes be hard to find time for speedrunning. The main thing that works for me is to keep it as a hobby and only practice when in the mood, otherwise real life starts to suffer. I mainly try to do some 3-4 hour practice runs on weekends when not doing anything else.

10. There is a very wide range of people in the speedrunning community and it's great to be part of it. The events arranged by the Speed Demos Archive community are awesome and show how passion for something which may seem silly to others can achieve a huge result - almost half a million dollars donated to cancer research.

11. No, but one day I'd really like to. It's hard because they are held in the USA, but I'm in Australia (though I know at least one other Aussie did make it over to AGDQ 2013)

12. Fun, yet passionate entertainers who love to share their contributions with the world.

13. I love finding new glitches in games. There's something about learning the rules then finding ways to break them which is really satisfying.
zewing
2013-02-09 03:42:18 am
just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it
1. Zewing

4. Late 2011 when I found out about SDA, which lead me to twitch.  After that I found out about TAS's

5. Basically I'd say "Beat the game with the intent of fastest completion time."

6. 2D Platformers (mostly Mega Man and Yoshi's Island and now a few rpg's soon)

7. Yoshi's Island 100% WR.  Why?  Cause it took about a year and a half for a westerner to take it from Japan.

12. I'd say the speedrunning community is pretty tight nit.  Almost every speedrunner is a part of Team SRL/Team SDA/Team Ludendi.

13. Best part about speedrunning is that I get challenged and I get to really bring out a game's replay value.
Axel Ryman
2013-02-09 04:20:52 am
We all scream for Eyes Cream
1: Axel Ryman

2: Early 90s, around '91 or so, when I lived at my uncle's house. He had an NES. around 93, I got my own SNES.

3: Friends are fine with my gaming considering that's what we do, and we discuss games together. Family aren't too happy about it. Don't have classmates. For speedrunning, friends aren't too interested in it but will listen, family isn't interested in it at all.

4: Probably when I was playing Mega Man Legends when I was young. The Speedrunning community itself would be in mid 2000s when I saw a topic on a Resident Evil speedrun at Gamefaqs.

5: Pretty much "Playing a game as fast as possible within the game's limitations", followed by the smaller details, such as real consoles vs emulators and such.

6: Kingdom Hearts 2, both the original Japanese version and the Final Mix versions, as well as Mega Man Legends 2 at the moment.

7: My KH2 run at AGDQ 2011. i find it memorable because of the Xaldin Blindfold battle, the Demyx battle having a clone stuck in the wall, and Riku stealing my kill.

8: Somehow managing the time to work on speedrunning. At the same time, the Language Barrier since I do not read Japanese, yet I try to play Japanese versions of some games for one reason or another.

9: I don't get to practice as often as I like. If I do, I usually stream it since I've wanted to start streaming more often. Usually I make plans ahead of time before I stream, sometimes a day or even hours in advance.

10: Well when talking about games with friends, I tend to bring up some of the things done in a speedrun, be it glitches or just strategies. It has unfortunately killed my interest in some games though, or at least seeing them be ran in a certain way.

11: Yes, AGDQ 2011. Unfortunately it's the only one I've been to but I've watched them all since(I couldn't watch CGDQ due to my internet having issues at the time). Not including my run, it would have to be Castle Crashers for all the puns, as well as meeting everyone. I hated that I had to leave a day early though...

12: Family. No other words I could say would explain it better honestly.

13: The plethora of games that are run, both ones that are on the site, and ones that aren't but are being done on Twitch, or even just practicing. And of course all the hilarious glitches.
DJS
2013-02-09 04:53:50 am
torch slug since 2006
1.
DJS

2. hmm... im guessing around 98-99, ocarina of time for the n64.

3. my family doesnt really care about gaming. my friends do game quite a bit, but they dont care about speedrunning. they tend to watch my stream though Smiley

4. i think i was youtubing for a star in sm64 (i was wondering how to get it), and that led me to a speedrun of that star. then i found a link here (to sda)...

5. basically, you beat a game as fast as you can

6. super mario 64. but lately its been alot of Goldeneye 64.

7. hmm... i havent really done anything special. but for now im gonna say the first time i got a time under 1 hour in 70 star (mario 64.) i was so happy.

8. i started gymnasium (swedens response to high school i think), and because of that,  i dont have alot of time to play games.

9. i tend to speedrun during free days (weekends, breaks etc). during the school days, i get home, do homework, and go to sleep.

10. i tend to talk about speedruns with friends, but in the speedrun community, ive come across some rotten tomatoes. most people are excellent though Smiley

11. nope... not yet

12. FrankerZ ... on a more serious note, its awesome.

13. the streaming. i love just playing a game, perhaps speedrunning it, and just interacting with the viewers and chat. its what i do for fun nowadays.
Softman25
Softman25
Edit history:
Softman25: 2013-02-09 07:22:11 pm
Softman25: 2013-02-09 07:21:44 pm
2013-02-09 05:46:35 am
1. In some circles I go by Softman25, and in others, I go by Pricklyman. The reason for this is that some websites (such as twitch.tv) consider the word "prick" to be a curse word and will disallow anyone who has such a word in their name to join! My primary name due to speedrunning is however the former.

2. I remember being about 5 or 6 and getting a Game Boy Pocket with Super Mario Land and Tetris. From there it was the big 3D, Nintendo 64. I still remember the classics such as SM64, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and OoT. My parents of course doing all the hard bits!

3. Most of my friendships are based around the fact that we can talk about games, and particularly all that old stuff. Obviously that's not all I talk about, but you know...it's how the ice was broken so to speak. My parents are kind of divided. My mother is just non-caring and my father always believes that I'm a lazy bastard because I spend "half my life playing video games". For me however, it's more of a hobby. Like some people who would finish their work and go watch TV or read, I go play video games.

In regards to speedrunning, this is very much an unspoken topic. I happily will talk about breaking games (and always put my friends in shock when I perform certain glitches) but actual running is mostly not spoken of. This is primarily because no one (in my circle at least) cares a damn. My parents have the same thing as before. My mother doesn't care, my father is all "everything is speedrunning now". (Which it isn't, but if he wants to think that, fine!)

4. Like Nate, I remember those magazines with best times in them from the N64 era. Hell, I even still have some of them! You look back and realise that 12.7 on the Princess Slide isn't a new strat, but one that was made in 1998/9! They never got 12.3 though. Tongue "Modern" speedrunning was introduced to me by...dare I say it...Siglemic. For me it was the breaking of the game and not the fluidity at first. It was the insta-jaw drop that hooked me. (Funnily enough I started streaming SM64 just a couple of days later...casually however!) Speedrunning went from there. I was a little hesitant at first, but a couple of months later when I got a new computer and a controller for emulators, I started running SM64, and it all just went from there. After getting bored of SM64 I took a hiatus and came back with Goldeneye, which once I got a time I was happy with (it was emu so no one cared) I went to PC games. First Alpha Protocol, which took a good month or two and then Splinter Cell: Conviction, and now Sniper Elite.

5. Funnily enough, everyone I've met kinda gets what speedrunning is in general terms. If I was to use any phrase however, it would be "Completing a game using any and all (legitimate) means necessary, or within a certain ruleset." (i.e. good ending, bad ending, low%, any% etc)

6. I'm a very...phasing person. I move from one game to the next. See the end of Q4 for the games I run.

7. My most memorable run for me is a bit of a toss up.

I had a 22:43 emulator run of Goldeneye 64. This in general terms beat most of the top players...although you can't compare emu to console for obvious reasons! I was trying for weeks to crack sub-23, and this was one night after skyping with some mates, which I hadn't done on stream for a long long time. One of them stayed on and I was all "I won't stream for that long, but let's see what happens!" Within about 5 minutes, "teh urn" had started. It was all just perfect. The luck was flowing freely and the skill with it too. It just made my day for sure.

My other most memorable has to be my Alpha Protocol 1:44:xx. This is primarily because A) I had been going for a deathless for a long time and B) Because of the circumstances. The run was sexy, in the most literal sense of the word. There were no major mistakes. Minor little things of course but nothing that was cost any significant amount of time. Then about 2 minutes before the end, I choked a boss fight. Not gravely, but costing me about 30 seconds. I thought, "well the final fight should go well". I choked that...twice. Cost me about 40 seconds. I still submitted though, because the rest of the run was SO good. But those chokes just made me cry inside.

8. In regards to real life challenges, those that I have encountered have not had anything to do with running. As said, all the work for me is always done before gaming. It just makes things simple for me. In game, challenges have just simply been in regards to gaining skill through practice, repetition and just finding new ways to things.

9. Practice regimen...I just play when I play. As I said, it's a hobby, not a "thing" so to speak. However the only thing that I generally only speedrun when I'm streaming. The social aspect is great, and the help from chat is also great.

10. I'll be honest, speedrunning ruins games for me. For example, after speedrunning Goldeneye, I can't play it normally. I'm always strafing around and not stopping. Always using the good strats, I just can't play casually! It's the same with any other game I speedrun. At the same time, I generally don't run a game until I've already completed once or twice. But a couple of games...I just don't want to run simply because I know I'll never look at the game again the same way. Funnily enough though, I can watch others play the game, and not be "affected".

11. I'd kill to, but no regretfully.

12. The most helpful and competitive sons of bitches known to man.

13. The best thing about speedrunning for me is the clear improvement over time. It feels best when you can clearly see that you are better now than say, a month ago. It's a great feeling when you can see physically that you are getting better. It's intangible and doesn't help your life at all, but it's a feel-good without a doubt. It's a very "you can do whatever you want" thing as well. It's...brilliant.
nate
2013-02-09 09:59:29 am
1. nate

2. i'm from houston. my earliest memory is playing super mario bros at my friend anish's house down the street, probably 1988 or 1989. there was also actually a super mario bros arcade cabinet in the mr gatti's in clear lake (this was long before they expanded and got a game room). i also played some games on my dad's apple ii like choplifter, lode runner, and karateka.

3. at first my parents were like omg games will take over his mind, we won't have that in this household, crossing themselves and saying hail marys and so on (even though we're not catholic). but they came around soon enough. just typical involved/concerned parents i guess. nowadays since games have taken over the world everyone gives me a good deal of respect, even if they're just interested in cashing in. i was helping my sister run tales of vesperia last time i was at my parents' and it was just like well, it's unfortunate that it takes up so much of yalls time. annoying but not a lot you can do about it since it's the nature of the beast.

4. very good question. there were "best times" in some of the game magazines in the early 90s. unfortunately i don't have any specific memories of these like i believe radix does. i do remember people taking pictures of their tvs with completion times displayed. this was a big deal back then because you had to wait for the film to be developed and then mail the photograph in to the magazine. then around 2002-2003 when i was 18 and a freshman in undergrad my friend and roommate, adam, showed me this site where people submitted emulator replays of super metroid runs. i'm sure if we watched those videos today they would seem very boring or low-key, but at the time a lot of people hadn't seen even basic stuff in super metroid demonstrated, so it totally blew our minds. it was especially strange for me because i had never even played super metroid at that point. i was just like wow, this is really cool. this game looks really good when it's played by top players. then when i played metroid prime and fusion and got on the gamefaqs discussion boards i saw that there were best times posted, and i tried to get my own best times, especially while i was recovering from surgery and a bunch of other problems that summer (2003). this is documented in more detail here if you're curious.

5. had to deal with this a lot. i usually go for something like "videos of people playing through games as quickly as they can." the idea is that you watch someone else's video and improve on it, making your own video. it's actually the same as it's always been, since i saw those super metroid videos in 2003.

6. i haven't done much. from time to time i pick something up. obviously i did metroid prime and fusion back in the day (and prime again, poorly, at agdq 2011). i did the runs of avp for the jaguar that are up on the site. i worked on sonic 2 individual levels and on pso. i ran knight of ratatosk with my sister. i also helped her with her tales of vesperia run last xmas break. recently i've gone back and forth with 072 on rosenkreuzstilette and its excellent sequel that just came out in october. if you like classic mega man you should definitely play those games btw.

7. hard to say. of course i remember going back and forth with radix running metroid prime 100% in late summer 2003. i was actually ahead of him for the first two segments or something but then i let him get way ahead of me as it went on. i had a lot of stuff going on at the time so i have weird memories like trying to get segments even though i couldn't see too well because i was crying. by the end of it he was really dedicated to the whole console speedrun thing and for me the community aspect was still #1. so you can already see our roles developing at that point even before he posted his run on his quake site called speed demos archive and later decided to post other people's metroid runs.

8. as far as in-game goes i always remember crossway. in 100% metroid prime you have to get the one missile in there without going through the whole puzzle obviously because it's slow. and i don't think anyone's ever figured out how to guarantee that you land inside the morph ball tunnel when you jump up there. that more than anything else i remember breaking down my spirit, like "this is not worth it." really can't stand random stuff like that. as far as real life goes, there have been many things, but after having my site deleted in summer 2004 i realized that i didn't actually have to rebuild. like i could just walk away from it. so i was given the opportunity to decide whether it was something i really wanted to do. that was an easy decision of course, but what came after wasn't easy, because i couldn't let myself believe that it wasn't my fault what had happened. i had to be really honest with everyone. maybe they would decide i wasn't the right person to be doing this. but radix and i rebuilt, and here we are.

9. the only thing i've done recently with the intention of submitting was knight of ratatosk, and then i helped sarah with tales of vesperia last xmas. those are jrpgs, so it's more about planning and route than execution, though there were a couple tricky things in knight of ratatosk involving the ring ai exploit. so it's just going through the game over and over and making these huge text documents like cheat sheets. they can be pretty funny because we're pretty funny people. we make up our own names for characters and other stuff in the game. i think sarah is actually posting ours along with her tales of vesperia run when that goes up on the site.

10. nowadays there are a lot of people who play games. that got started around the time speedrunning as we know it now was also getting started. so it was like you had this old school "hardcore" group that split off from the new mainstream and huddled in dark corners of the internet for years before the speed gamers showed that there was public interest in live speedrunning for charity, and then we at sda picked up on that idea and ran with it, and now i think speedrunning is better known. but that doesn't mean it's not still niche. maybe it's like the best of both worlds. elite and hardcore, but "valuable" to society as a whole too. i definitely like how you don't get the "games make kids kill people" in serious conversation anymore. i mean all it takes is bringing up sda funding autism research and cancer prevention research to shut that right down. the penny arcade guys have done a fantastic job on this pr problem also. so yeah, sda is about being a part of something great. it's the same as it's always been. it's not like playing games with random people you've never met. it's about the people.

11. yeah, obviously i helped out at the first few before we had enough people with the right experience to do everything without me. i don't know. i have a lot of cool or funny memories. one is having the guy who programmed a lot of metroid prime in the chat when i was doing my prime run. it was hard for me to really process what he was saying at the time, but i kind of figured out later what he was saying in response to some of the stuff i was doing and explaining in the game. that isn't the first or last time stuff like that has happened, but ... i don't know. metroid prime is a very important game. in at least one way, it's a very well made game, and it's historically important around here, and it was just really cool to see important people on the other side of the game turning out to support sda in what we were doing. there was no way i could have fully understood it in the moment, but when i look back on it now it's really cool.

12. a coiled spring.

13. you can become someone new. you are what you do.
I have no name
2013-02-09 10:24:59 am
Obscure games ftw
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
Name? I have no name B)

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
Probably 1998-1999 with Chips Challenge, PC version.  I played it to death trying to beat all the levels, never did, but I did get about 140 of the 149 levels.  Also did a bit of playing for time there, but nothing serious.

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
My friends think it's cool.  My family wish I would spend less time on it, except my little brother who likes watching.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
Stumbled upon SirVG's uploads of the Super Mario Galaxy "Uber Challenges" about mid-April 2011.  Remembered how cool they were mid-June, found them, saw the comments mentioned "SDA", came here, thought the site was awesome, watched a bunch of runs and found the thread so I could see what all the challenges were.  Now I'm pretty active here, though I've been less active lately-this is due to spending more time doing runs and less time forum lurking Tongue

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
Play a game as fast as possible.

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
If I had been asked this a week ago, I would have said Ape Escape.  I'm pretty much done with that game now, and moving on to other games, I'm pretty sure the next thing I'm going to be running is Jak and Daxter 100%, because that's a pretty fun run.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?

Without a doubt, my Ape Escape 100% run from a almost a week ago.  I had been making serious attempts at it for a few weeks, resetting if any of the many silly tricks/RNG-dependent things didn't go reasonably well, and I finally managed to get a stellar run going-every trick first try and really good luck on the biggest factors.  I was in a call with SwordofSeals during the last few hours of tries on the day I got the run, and after I got a near-perfect run through Dark Ruins I was in don't choke mode.  I ended up getting better final boss (any%, not true final boss) luck than even the TAS did!  I ended up having some silly mistakes on the revisits, dropping from a minute ahead of the WR to a minute behind going into Crabby Beach revisit.  From there, I got a difficult trick involving getting a monkey without it going in its UFO, saving about 20-30 seconds, and then the luck dependent monkey in Dark Ruins made the revisit route much quicker, bringing me 30 seconds ahead again.  From there...I died in Thick Jungle, putting me 2 seconds behind.  I knew I needed to save 2 seconds in the 9 minutes left in the game, Sword was telling me to do safe strats, but I insisted on all or nothing.  If I was going to WR that run, I needed to blow it out of the park.  and I did, finishing 10 seconds ahead of the old WR.
It's the most memorable because of how close it was, the roller coaster of everything, the insane luck I got at points, being in a call, and how many tries (145) it took.

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
Finding time to even do the runs in the first place.
Avoiding burnout while grinding runs out.
Losing great runs to bad luck.
That's why I'm moving from a luck/skill run to a skill run with a few moments of luck.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
"Oh, I want to do a run." *goes and does runs*

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
It's made me more aware of how mechanics work.

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
I have not attended any in person, however I was part of an online one in which I played...Ape Escape 100%!  Best experience there was discovering the monkey duplication glitch, live, and then finding out that it's pretty much frame perfect and rather precise too-so stumbling across it like that was easily 1 in a million.

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
Guys, stop being so awesome.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
Playing games fast.
Heidrage
Heidrage
Edit history:
Heidrage: 2013-02-10 12:35:05 am
2013-02-09 11:01:08 am
Willing to teach you the impossible
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
Heidman.  When in grade school I had many classes with others that had the same name, so I just went by my last name more than anything. Only biological family calls me by my first name, and most friends all me by my last name. The speedrunning community gave me Heidrage.

2. How did you first get into gaming?
Way back when I was 3-4 years old. My dad was playing Mario on the NES and could not beat a stage. He went to the bathroom and came back to me holding the controller and past where he got stuck. After that they allowed me to play to give me something to do. One new game every 8-12 months. So I got rather good at the ones I did get.

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
I get looked down upon by nearly every one. I have a few friends that are gamers and they just don't get speedrunning. Being a gamer seems to come with a bad wrap for what ever reason, at least in my experiences.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
Me and some friends were playing Morrowind back in 2002-3ish and we were racing to see who could hit level 100 first. Danny found a youtube video of some one beating the game in 12 minutes or something like that. Blew our minds. I followed the video description link and found SDA. Watched the runs of the games I "knew" I was good at... and then I realized I was not so good. Been a fan since.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
It is just like any other hobby. Every hobby has intricacies that no one really knows about unless you do it yourself or have some direct experience. Same thing applies to this. Speedruns are just beating a game as fast as you can with out cheating. But with the intricacies, there is much more to it if you know what you are looking at, like a Renascence painting.

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
Games I really enjoy, mostly ones I grew up with. But in a general sense, if the game is not fun, I wont play it. If I like the game, I will play it a bunch. If I really like it, I will speedrun it.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
Super C Low%. Please follow this link and read my run notes. http://speeddemosarchive.com/SuperC.html#NoItems

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
Finding out who is truly a friend to me and how worthless some people really are. I had a really hard time shortly after I joined the community, and the community really showed me how good some people can really be to a total stranger. For yall that know what I am talking about, I want to say thank you again.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
I just play the games when I feel like it. My daily schedule is rather bare outside of school, so I have lots of free time. And I continue to play games rather than do drugs, watch tv, or anything else that could keep me entertained or get me in any kind of trouble.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
The community is AMAZING! But what I really learned from speedrunning is that everything, no matter how small, is amazing. If anyone has a hobby that is looked down upon, it is most likely because others don't know enough about it. It helped me appreciate everything.

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
I have attended the first two AGDQ's. I remember everyone's faces that I have met. The community is most memorable for me. ♥ you all.

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
We are like a jack in a box, we provide some cool entertainment then BAM, we produce something amazing.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
$5 goes a long long long way.
S.
S.
Edit history:
S.: 2013-02-11 09:00:11 pm
S.: 2013-02-09 11:09:10 am
2013-02-09 11:08:47 am
1) "S." and only that. My IRL name is impossible to pronounce to most people (even to those from my own country), so I don't want to use that. The only reason I still use it is because the world requires me to.

2) My brother played PC games, about 13 years ago. That somehow got me playing as well eventually. Games like GTA2, GTA:VC, Carmageddon II, Unreal Tournament and S.C.A.R.S. were among the first I ever spent a lot of time on. There was an N64 system with SM64 available at my elementary school, which we could use during the breaks, but I never really enjoyed that.

3) I rarely talk to them about it. There's a few friends who like me speedrunning, but I tend to keep Gaming and IRL separated.

4) I've waught HL2DQ , HL1 in 30 minutes, other speedruns for games I played. I was impressed by them (and I'm not easily impressed), but I never thought "I wanna do that". Portal Done Pro-er was what got me into actually trying out some glitches, but it wasn't until the release of Portal 2 and it's coop mode that I actively started learning and running, I'm not sure how that happened. From there it was only a small step into other games.

5) Finishing a game as fast as possible, usually by exploiting broken game mechanics and glitches. I dunno I am bad at explaining stuff.

6) Mostly First Person Shooters. Primarily Source engine games (Half-Life 2 and it's sequels, Portal 2 coop and to some extend Portal 2 and Portal 1 SP). I'm also fairly well at Grand Theft Auto VC and SA, although I have yet to get into
that more dedicatedly. Also I'm currently 2nd place for Octodad :p

7) Haven't really gotten anything out of the way yet. HL2EP2 is pretty sick though.

8) Having to remember said challenge was a challenge for me.

9) When I feel like it.

10) It kinda changed the way I play. I have much more difficulty picking up new games now.

11) No, although I do intend on going to AGDQ 2014.

12) I don't get attached to a community very quick, and I still don't feel that way. Most of the people here are awesome but as a community, I am unable to say anything.

13) Doing weird stuff. Nothing is more satisfying than to break a game that wasn't thought to be breakable. (Dear Esther)
Boxfat
2013-02-09 12:19:49 pm
Arbitrary forum emu
1. Boxfat is my preferred name.

2. NES was my first system- my sister let me play it and wound up giving the system to me when she saw how much I enjoyed it.

3. Mixed bag reactions to gaming/speedrunning. My parents sometimes think I'm a little too addicted to gaming (possibly true). When people ask me more specifically about gaming and I mention speedrunning, they're always pretty interested in that aspect.

4. This website introduced me to speedrunning in its 'pure' form. I'd been interested in playing games well as a kid, so to see people racing through them made me happy. Especially since old games worked very well for this.

5. When someone asks me what speedrunning is, I just say "beating games as fast as possible" and it has always worked so far.

6. I run/have ran (all NES):
The Immortal
The Battle of Olympus
Solstice
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends

7. My most memorable run was my 11:06 run of The Immortal. Mostly because it was my first SDA submission (working to not make it my last, haha). The mistakes I made cost a few seconds each, but they all felt like minutes. The part that made it so memorable was just getting the time itself and knowing that there was very little chance of beating that run with the amazing luck I had, despite the skill-based slip-ups that happened.

8. Motivation is a huge issue. It may have been an issue before speedrunning, but it became more of one after. A common theme among the games I play is that there's a large barrier right at the beginning of the game, so I often reset less than a minute into the game.

9. I don't quite have a schedule, although I feel like my runs would get better if I just practiced for an hour or two every day. I speedrun whenever I'm not doing homework and feel ready to give the game a few more shots.

10. Speedrunning showed me that I'm not the only person that loves my NES even to this day. I love how cooperative this community is - sure, everybody's competing for the best time, but at the same time we're collaborating with each other to make the best final product.

11. I have not attended any marathons, but I to intend to at some point in my life.

12.  Efficient sexy nerds.

13. Speedrunning gives me a chance to REALLY learn a game and its mechanics. It extends my enjoyment of (and frustration towards) a game. It's an emotional roller coaster, and it's totally worth it.
M
2013-02-09 01:13:53 pm
1) Nick/Nicholas Chaput/Mapler90210/mapler/Marche_Fighter_Paladin/marche/mashu/m. I've had plenty of names and nicknames and honestly I'll respond to any of them equally. If you quote me, use Nicholas Chaput.

2) My first game was Pokemon Red, sometime around 2000. Shotly after that I got the N64 and Super Smash Bros.

3) They thought I'd grow out of this interest. They thought I was playing too much. It wasn't much different with speedrunning. They respect it a little bit more after my participation in the last two marathons, since there was actually a purpose behind my playing games so much.

4) I became aware of speedrunning through Break the Targets in Super Smash Brothers Melee. I competed with the gamefaqs community for records in that mode. I also joined the sm64 community on gamefaqs shortly after, which focused on individual star times, video quizzes, and later became the most prominent group of sm64 TASers for several years. I became aware of speedrunning more consciously when I transitioned back from TASvideos to SpeedDemosArchive shortly after starting to run Sonic Adventure.

5) Speedrunning is trying to beat a game in as short a time as possible. Ideally this means you love a game so much that you can't help but play it so enough times to start doing it quickly, but there are plenty of other reasons. Beyond that, though, speedrunning is really whatever you make out of it as a runner. It might be your connection to a community, a plain old hobby, or a way to dig a little deeper into your favorite game.

6) I can't really say I'm active with anything at the moment, but usually I'm running 2 or 3 from the following list: Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, Portal, Portal 2, Castlevania: Area of Sorrow, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Antichamber, Mega Man X, Pokemon Blue, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

7) None of my runs have been all that memorable. I seem to the type that proves a game can be improved, but I always let it slip through the cracks and someone else gets the glory. I guess my Sonic Adventure run was the most impressive, since I was a few minutes ahead of the competition while I was active, but as soon as I took a break someone beat me by another few minutes on top of that...

8) Challenges....I guess I touched on this in the last response, but I haven't really ever gotten to the top level in any game, even when I was the one to show how high that level was. Technically I'm at the top in Aria of Sorrow, but that's only because nobody else has tried.

9) I run whatever I feel like running, however much I feel like running it, whenever I feel like running it. It makes my schedule pretty erratic, but I enjoy it the most this way. Usually if I'm active this means a full run or two every day plus some number of attempts while resetting. Most of my games are pretty short, so this is usually in the few hours after I get home from school.

10) For a long time, speedrunning WAS the gaming community as far as I was concerned. I only really entered communities when they were doing the same things as I was doing, which was usually some form of Time Trials or Speedrunning (Let's Plays and other casual gaming weren't a thing yet, at least as far as I knew, so I didn't think there was a reason to reach out to any sort of community for casual gaming).

11) I went to SGDQ2012 and AGDQ2013. My most memorable moment was running Sonic Adventure DX at SGDQ2012. It was my first run in a marathon and it went really well; I had a good run, I had a lot of fun, and the audience seemed to enjoy it a lot. My other memorable experiences were usually meeting people I'd been friends with online.

12) It's like any community, it has all types of people. Find the people you share interests with and get along with, and you'll love the community.

13) It's a way to get more out of a game I love.
Manocheese
2013-02-09 02:08:33 pm
Yes, a cucco riding the ground.
1. Manocheese

2. When I was 5 or so, I got a Game Boy and a few games. I mostly played Tetris.

3. They think it's stupid and a waste of time.

4. In 2005, I saw some topics on the GameFAQs Super Smash Bros. Melee board about beating the Target Test levels as quickly as possible. I decided to join in. At one point, someone linked to the SSBM page on SDA, which had some Target Test videos. Although I was never serious about Target Test (my total is about 4 minutes, while the current total of all the records is 3:03.77), this experience got me interested in speed running. I joined SDA shortly thereafter.

5. Beating a video game as quickly as possible.

6. 3D platformers.

7. Probably my Rayman 2 run. I developed almost all the strategies from the ground up.

9. I spend a lot of time practicing small parts of a run. When I feel like I'm ready, I do some attempts at a real run. If I notice that I'm consistently having trouble with certain spots, I practice those spots.

11. I haven't attended any marathons. My most memorable experience in watching one was probably the Metroid Prime race from a few marathons ago. It was a close race until the very end.

13. Playing games I want to play in the way that I want to play them.
Dgaul
2013-02-09 03:56:04 pm
1. Dgaul, or Dgaul99 are my two handles I use on everything.

2. I first got into gaming with the Nintendo 64.  My brother and I received it as a gift for Christmas in 1998.  And I loved every game that we played on it.  Most notably I loved Donkey Kong 64 and Perfect Dark.

3. Most of my friends enjoy gaming also so there's no real conflict of interest there, my family on the other hand seems to think I should prioritize myself.  Eh, I have a job, am passing my classes what more can they want.  Most of the people I interact with have no concept of speedrunning or why you would do it.  They seem to believe that beating a game in anyway is all that should be done.  So its whatever.

4. I first came aware from speedrunning when I was searching for DK64 Let's Plays on youtube.  So back in 2007 I believe.  Man, that's a long time ago.  But anyway, I searched for these DK64 Lp's none came up and I saw the speedrun.  The title said more runs on speeddemosarchive and I ventured to the site where I watched many many games and I was hooked ever since.

5. I would describe speedrunning to someone as a way to play the game at a level that defies your normal thought process of playing the game.  You are beating the game As Fast As Possible and that should be your thought.  But you must have fun running through, as opposed to having fun watching the game unfold, you have fun watching the routes unfold.

6. At the moment I am working on a Dynasty Warriors 4 run but it's still in an infant state.  However, I've done off camera before I knew about this site runs in games like Perfect Dark, Kingdom Hearts, Call of Duty and Bioshock.

7. The most memorable thing that ever happened to me while speedrunning was in Bioshock; I was going through the game and the first time you either save or harvest the little sister there was a suitcase.  I hopped on top of that suit case, decided to hit it with my wrench and it launched me through the world and into a place out of bounds.  I like to think of that as being my most memorable "run."

8.  The difficulty that some games present when you try to go through them as fast as possible.  Some games just decide that they won't let you go that fast and are really rude in an attempt to slow you down.  The biggest challenge in real life is when my capture card decides it wants to stop recording audio or make my audio all fuzzy.  Grrrr.

9. I don't have a schedule.  That's all there is to it.  I can go a few days without practicing/experimenting and it's fine.  I just run and attempt things when I think of them or I have the time for them.

10.  Speedrunning has shown me that even unnoticed games are still being played.  The main thing it's shown me is that there can be a million people working on a Half Life speedrun and those million people love to talk with each other, the gaming community here is just remarkable for nearly every game there is someone who knows something.  On nearly every thread someone comes out from nowhere with incredible things to say that can help everyone.  And those million runners aren't upset that someone else might get a better run.  They are all happy to be of any aid to each other.  The main thing I'm trying to say is that I haven't experienced any sort detest for anyone for giving away a "secret" or finding something that they could have used for themselves.  Its always given to others to help others and be viewed by others who can in turn review it and make it better for others.  And that is what I find to be the greatest about this community at least.

11. Sadly I haven't attended any marathons myself.  However, I do have plans to at least try and stop for a day at Summer Games Done Quick 2013.  We'll see what happens.

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?  The speedrunning community is a phenomenal coalition that is always ready to accept others, provide help to those who need it, and stand strong to do amazing things.  Keep on keeping on. <3

13. My favorite thing is the sheer amount of ability that is expressed in every single run and every single player.  Everyone here, whether you are attempting a run, giving out advice, watching the runs, or just lurking without an account.  You all have the ability to do something to help and what's even more you all can be a speddrunner.  You all ARE a speedrunner.  Just get out there and play the game in the way you find fastest and you're speedrunning. 
Yagamoth
Yagamoth
Edit history:
Yagamoth: 2013-02-11 02:52:16 am
Yagamoth: 2013-02-11 02:35:05 am
Yagamoth: 2013-02-09 06:39:02 pm
2013-02-09 06:37:35 pm
INTJ
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
Yagamoth

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
My parents essentially owned an NES as long as I can remember. Playing games on basically all the consoles I could get a hold of has always been my favorite hobby. I didn't prefer a specific system, I just played what I had access to. As in: I didn't even know the console war between Sega and Nintendo was a thing - living in a small village far off cities in Switzerland didn't help in that regard.

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
My parents and sisters always were more or less gamers themselves. My classmates simply considered as what it is - a hobby, and my friends mostly are gamers as well. I'm only -actually- speedrunning games since a short time, but I've always been performing on a top level. I never compared myself to the people around me, I knew I had much more dedication to actually become good and improve myself. That's why I was always looking for people with a similar mindset - which is what I found in the speedrunning community.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
My first contact with the whole speedrunning thing was back in ~2003/2004 (dont quite remember), where a school mate was watching a Metroid Prime run during a break in IT class (If you happen to read this, NOSS Spiez Wink Thanks a ton, I wouldnt be here without you). Even though I've never played Metroid Prime before, I could immediately see that the level of execution and gameplay was on a much higher level than what I was used to seeing. He told me about speeddemosarchive.com where I came back to every now and then.
I only realized that the Speedrunning community is actually a big thing I'd like to be part of at AGDQ 2011. Before that, I've always been lurking around in the SDA and TAS forums because I love the quirks of mostly older games and how they can be broken. Even reading up on games I've never actually played myself is something I simply like doing.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
It's about completing games as fast as possible with everything available within the game, this includes glitches, bugs and AI abuse - for the most part. There are also games, where glitchless categories exist, just because running the games this way makes them more interesting to some people.

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
Precision platformers, IWBT Boshy and IWBTG:Gaiden. Well, at least that's what it is by now. I tried to run Secret of Mana, but I think I'm simply not the type of person to run such a game.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
Since I don't have many runs there isn't much to choose from. Essentially getting all the IL reconds on IWBTG:Gaiden, because that's the first time I actually made it to the top of a leaderboard.

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
Keeping up the motivation to go on, to improve. If you are running a game that doesn't have any competition, you either need to be a very dedicated person or really love the game to keep going until you actually complete a run. Having other runners regularly competing against you, driving you to improve and it's not only you yourself who finds tricks and exploits in the game is desirable.
For In-Game: I only have to say, "I wanna be the Boshy" is the single hardest, yet fairest game I have ever completed. Simply beating this game can be considered to be an actual achievement in itself, because it's that challenging. Sure, there are some troll-moments in there that are the staple of IWBTG-Games, but the focus is much more on actual precision platforming.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
Currently it's simple - I get home from work or it's a free day, I look up if others are streaming. At some point I simply start playing and practicing, sometimes I start streaming or even a race gets set up.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
It didn't change it at all. I've always been the type of player to use anything the game gives me, even if that would widely considered as "cheesing" or "cheap". I never cared about this casual/scrub attitude (not meant as an insult to people with such attitude, simply look up the definition of Scrub by David Sirlin - I realize that's "normal").
A memorable example of this would be - I played Settlers III when I was around 12. There is a map where the AI has a huge army and you have only a very short amount of time to prepare for the waves and waves of attacks, having only a fraction of the army he has. The idea of this map was, to balance generating new soldiers as quickly as possible and setting up new structures to support all while defending against attacks. My father and mother got very close to beating this map, but couldn't pull it off in the end. I simply destroyed all military structure and built 3 strongholds in a triangle with archers on top of it and abused the fact, that enemies can only attack the castles one by one while the Archers have free reign to shoot them as they please. Needless to say, I won by a landslide. Was this tactic 'cheap'? Who cares?  I won Wink

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
The mentality and dedication of the people is on such a high level trying achieve perfection and the best outcome, you won't find this in many other places.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
About Speedrunning? I can tell you what's my favorite thing about "Speedrunners". A normal person would call someone a good player if he can clear certain challanges, or hardmodes or difficulty levels the average joe can't beat. A Speedrunners standard is not on a relative scale, it uses the global scale. This means they compare themselves to the top players and "what's technically possible?" instead of looking "who is worse than me?". It is this mentality, to shoot for the best performance and perfection, which I miss in so many people.
zastbat
zastbat
Edit history:
zastbat: 2013-02-16 08:18:47 am
2013-02-09 09:52:04 pm
Lord Of The Beards
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
Zastbat

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
When I was about 2 or 3 according to the home videos of me playing the Sega Genesis.  I mostly played sonic 1,2,3, Toki, and Sub-Terrania

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
They encourage me to continue to do it as long as it does not interfere with school and stuff like that.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
I became aware of speedrunning when I looked for a walkthrough of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines and found the current run on SDA.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
Try to beat a game as fast as possible.

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and a lot of bad games.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
My Rhapsody run that was 3 minutes ahead of my time and the recording software crashed mainly because I was 3 minutes ahead and it was during a cutscene so I could save it.... but I would not be able to beat that run for a long time.  It really made me think whether I would finish a really good run that I would not possibly be able to beat or drop it and restart.  I decided to continue and still lost the run unfortunately.

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
Finding time to do longer games such as X-men legends and Lord of the Rings The Third Age since they are pretty long and I like to do my games single segment.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
I practice by just doing runs and if I notice something that could help me save time I test it.  My daily schedule is pretty much get home and work on my games if I feel like it.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
I am now able to pick up games really quickly now and it has made me realize that not every gaming community is elitist and that there are some people who will try to work together.

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
I attended AGDQ 2013 and the memorable experience I have is playing Future Cop and breaking it with the other people there.

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
We play games fast.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
I work on games harder then I normally would considering the fact that before speedrunning I would just beat a game and never play it again for the most part.  I get a lot more out of the games I play now.
MAS8705
2013-02-09 10:36:05 pm
SDA Apprentice -- (3-1)
1. MAS

2. I can't pinpoint the specific time (around 5 maybe?), but I know it was the Nintendo, but I don't know which game.  It was either megaman V or Mario Bros.

3. I admit that my family probably doesn't think I'm using my time wisely since I'm usually gaming.  They know though that as of late, I'm not really playing as much as I did previously.  As for speedrunning, my friends don't think much of it, and the few times I do mention it, they just move on.

4. During the time when G4 was TechTV (and a good gamer channel), they did this crazy thing where during one of their episodes, they had a speed run of Mario 64 playing on the bottom right of the screen.  Before and after commercial breaks, they cut back to it and before the episode ended, the game was finished.  Keep in mind, I was still a bit young mentally, so when I saw this, I was blown away.  It wasn't until later when someone on the show talked about the run and how you could watch it on SDA.  The rest is pretty straight forward.

5. Simply put, Speed running is the idea of completing a game quickly.  Easiest way to put it.

6. I speed run any game I can get my hands on.  I admit that I lean more towards the more action oriented games, and games that allow you to start a new game with max stats.  Overall, it varies.

7. My most memorable is the only run I have on the site (until CTTR was added): The Fire Man speed run of Megaman Powered up.  It was my first successful Speed run I had completed after many failed attempts with other games, and it was for the PSP, which was a system that was held exclusively to one man before I came around.  Of course, half-minute hero and Prinny came around, but for a time when it was for PSP games, it was only me and Satoryu.

8. It has been one part, "Drive" and other part, "acceptance".  Basically like any other runner: if you don't have the interest in running a game, you won't put in the time to finish the run.  Because of all the games I had, no one took interest and thus I lost interest as well in trying to do something.  Another problem was that for the few games I did complete, I know I didn't do well enough to where it was accepted to the site.  I know now that it could have been better, but sometimes when you go for it, you suddenly realize that there is someone out there that has done much better than you and thus others turn you down because of it.  I'm not going to name specific games, but it has happened plenty of times (and I'm not talking about myself here).

9. My practice regiment is when I can play games, I can do whenever.  I have a pretty open schedule right now, so I can get away with that.  Once I do get a job though, I know I will not have as much free time.

10. When you look at games from a speed run perspective, you realize just how short some games really are and how it seems that some "Blockbuster" games have some really shortcomings.  For example, Dishonored was a great game, and widely praised by everyone.  Then you realize that Dishonored can actually be beaten in under 43 minutes.

...

There are people out there that raise hell when a game can be beaten within 4-6 hours, and yet for a game to be dismantled in such a short time to be done in under an hour can get bypassed?!  Don't get me wrong, this hasn't changed my views on video games at all, but it has opened my eyes to see an angle that most people don't seem to pay attention to: replayablity.  Once a game is finished, what more can it offer the player?  If there is no multiplayer, most seem to abandon a game, thus speed runs seems to be the only other thing you can do or get rid of it (or do redicuious challenges like "All white Mages" or "Using one character only."  Also my spell checker isn't working properly for some reason... My apologies.)

11. I would like to go to one marathon in person, that's for sure.  Still, there are no "Most memorable" moments since there are too many great moments to pinpoint.  From great gameplay, to hilarious commentary, everything is great.

12. Simply put: One of the very few online communities that work together and wishes for everyone to succeed in their goals.  Or another way to put it, No Idiotic Trolls.

13. I just love to see games get dismantled.  There are some games that you can glitch your way through everything, while there are other games, (RPGs if you will) where you see a runner's hard work and research finally coming together to produce a beautiful run.  Moments in games that were near impossible suddenly get taken apart to show how easy it could have been and even how to beat it at a lower level (so that for those who want to know, they can be able to know how to properly approach it as long as it isn't breaking a game.

As for "repaying down the line,"  you don't need to worry about it.  If anything, don't be afraid to join the community and do your own speed runs.  Who knows?  you could be the next guy to do something amazing that the world has never seen before.
RaneofSOTN
2013-02-10 08:48:08 am
I want off the ride....
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
This is a bit of a question. "Rane" is my usual go to. The "of----" back end is to just differentiate but Rane doesn't seem that common its just taken here and there. I've also gone by Lynbt. but formally on sda i'm RaneofSoTN

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
Very young, NES. Learned to read+math off of Final Fantasy 1. I sucked at mario and the rest of the games.

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
At first there was a lot of skepticism. My family being rather open to things was ok with it, but they still urged me to prioritize other things and do speed running in my free time, which is fair. Friends kinda mocked and laughed at first but now they kinda see the merits and bonus' of it.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
Outside of game rewards for time in a few games? Probably right around the SMB3 TAS that came around when everyone thought it was a real play through. That got me into looking and seeking things.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
Considering i've had to do this a lot at work lately. I'll see what i can say
Quote:
Speed Running is beating a game as fast as possible while ad hearing to a few simple rules. No cheating/external modification, using whatever is in the game to best break the game, and push it as far as you can go.
Speed Running really tests you and pushes everything to the limits. Execution,planning,endurance, and sanity.


6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
Final Fantasy 4 is what I am kinda known for. Sweet Home I've also done. ofSoTN refers to Symphony of the  Night but... i'm more or less a "challenge artist" to that game and not a speed runner sadly. I'm soon picking up FF5/6 and also have plans for Ninja Warriors (SNES)

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
Memorable run? uhm... I dont have an opinion on this. Probably my AGDQ'11 marathon run of FF4. Mostly cause it was all theory finally being put into live full practice. I mean i had played the game really regularly and developed strats but I hadn't (before then) sat down and done it all in sequence in one sitting and NOT screwed up. There is also the clutch finish to the marathon that kinda set a precedent and followed a precedent.

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
Finishing School, re-evaluating myself, and coming to terms with some social problems I have. Details are not something i wish to publicly share at this point.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
Play the game, smash the game, reform game, return to drawing board. Play the game and smash it some more... return to drawing board.
There isn't really a way for it to fit in my schedule at the moment. I'm still adjusting to life with a focused job. But i'll get back to you on that.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
It really hasn't. Its changed others around me i think though.

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
I've been to CGDQ ADGQ'11,'12,'13. And my most memorable experience is just going to each one. As I said... "SDA feels like Home". its just something you have to be there to really understand. to quote duckfist from this past AGDQ('13). "Your coming back next year right? I mean this thing is for life!" and I dont think there would be a person here who would disagree

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
Really really fast, Really Really Skilled, and Really really chill. Honestly ask someone how they'd deal with having imperfections in what they do, and how'd they overcome it. and They will give you some of the best answers i think. they all learn to cope with whats given very well and what is and isn't acceptable.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
Overcoming the challenges that the game set forth, in intended and unintended ways to show that any situation is just... simple if you let it be so.
Ghostwheel
2013-02-10 01:02:23 pm
The artist formerly known as Qxy
1. "Ghostwheel", "Ghost", or "Qxy" is fine

2. After playing a few pc games as a kid, when I was 9 or 10, I started with an original (no backlight) GBA. Pokemon Ruby was a game I got early on that ended up being one of my favorites. Then about a year later, I got a Gamecube, and some classics like Mario Kart: Double Dash, Melee, Wind Waker, and Sonic Heroes. Those were some good times.

3. Seeing as I've had an interest in gaming for a while, my friends for the most part share my interest, if sometimes not in the same type of games. My family is supportive of my hobby even if they don't share or understand it. For the most part, people are either impressed by or uninterested in my speedrunning. I recognize that most people wouldn't care so I tend not to mention it.

4. I first became aware of speedrunning when about 3 years ago, I wondered what the world record time on Pokemon Emerald was. I the happened upon Mouldy Cheese's SDA run of Pokemon Sapphire in under 2 hours. I couldn't believe this was possible, but sure enough, with some excellent strategy and luck, it was done. Back then, I had no idea that that moment would lead me here three years later.

5. You play a game as fast as possible. Of all the types of gaming challenges you can take on, this is one of the most self explanatory. Outside of timing standards and categories, there isn't anything more to explain.

6. I'm currently working on a Kingdom Hearts 2 100% Segmented run, but once I finish, I will move on to other projects. I would like to learn Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Megaman 9, Pokemon Sapphire, and Sonic Heroes to start off with, provided I end up having the skill to do so.

7. As my first run, the KH2 one I'm working on has been very memorable. I've had some crazy moments, unexpectedly hard segments, and a few moments of perfection that I'm incredibly proud of.

8. In real life some of the biggest challenges I've faced have had to do with the college experience. Trying to balance graduate level work in mathematics with research in physics and everything about my social life make working on the next segment a complete breather.

9. During the week, I usually just practice a level or a boss, taking about a half an hour out my day to do so. By the end of the week, I'm ready to get some solid attempts in, hopefully getting a few segments done over the weekend.

10. As has been said, the gaming community is the only truly civil communities that I've seen. Twitch chat is another story, but on SDA, I don't feel like I'm on the internet, but interacting with other human beings. That is saying a lot.

11. I have not, but I would love to attend the next marathon. It's my goal to garner a repertoire of game knowledge and reputation worthy enough to have me playing something at a future event.

12. Some very interesting and respectable people.

13. That feeling when I've discovered something new about the game, or found a strategy that gives me an edge is a truly satisfying one indeed. Gaming at times truly slakes my thirst for a mathematical challenge.
frokenok3
2013-02-10 03:11:15 pm
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
~"frokenok3", "froken", "fro"

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
~When i was 3-4 years old my parents got me my first gaming system. It was Sega Megadrive with Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. I absolutely love my megadrive and i have it until now in a working condition Smiley

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
~They react pretty normal about my gaming passion. Parents are reacting normal without telling me anything(they trust in me to not overdo it). Classmates were pretty much awestruck with my knowledge to games but my close friends understand me the best since we are into it together. About the speedrunning...my parents and classmates dont have an idea but my friends are rooting for me and always care to hear how i do. Wink

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
~3 words. Sonic The Hedgehog. My favorite gaming hero show me the way to speedrunning since his games are about speed.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
~I'd say to them in simple words that speedrunning is about beating the game as fast as possible.

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
~I love to speedrun Sonic games and recently i started speedrunning Klonoa 2 Lunatea's Veil. Aiming to claim the World Record for that game.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
~Its really hard to say which one is my most memorable run but since i have to choose i'd say Sonic 4 Episode 1 Lost Labyrinth since it was my first World Record run that i achieved.

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
~In game the counteless times i have to restart the game/stage. In real life the time passing by before you even know it Tongue

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
~I dont have a schedule to be honest. I go with my feelings. Funny i know but its like something telling me that today i have to sit down and practice my run or i usually play until i beat the time i want.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
~Speedrunning showed me that there are many possibilities to beat a game and introduced me into another community of gaming that is truly one of the best i've seen!

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
~Unfortunately i havent attended any...but i wish and i hope to make it real in the future because that would be one of my best moments in my gaming and real life!

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
~Truly a respectable and great community that anyone should be proud to be part of it

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
~The moment when you finally achieve your goal after spending countless minutes/hours on finding/practicing and running the same game again again.
tjp7154
2013-02-10 11:05:31 pm
#Casual
1. What name do you prefer to go by?
* "tjp" is fine.

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
* I started as a kid when I got a NES.  I had the original Super Mario Bros., then expanded to SMB2 and Legend of Zelda, then others...

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
* My coworkers and non-gaming friends usually have a slightly apathetic response.  I don't usually advertise myself as a speedrunner unless the person is sufficiently into gaming.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
* I was aware of speedrunning when I saw videos of Metroid Prime being speedran back in the day when Samus.Co.Uk and Metroid2002 were very active.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
* I would say, "It's just beating a game as fast as possible, using whatever I can without cheating devices."

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
* I primarily speedrun Nintendo system platforming games like Donkey Kong Country and the early Super Mario Bros. games.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
  My most memorable run was my first submission to SDA -- a 32 min. segmented (played to the nearest save, perfecting each segment of the game) DKC run (which can now be beaten easily w/out segmenting)!

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
*  The biggest challenges I face are avoiding getting frustrated when I speedrun and record runs for submission, and finding the time to play games a lot to get good enough to compete with World Record times.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
* My practice regiment usually involves individual level practices followed by no-reset full game runs -- when I have the time.  I have a lot in my daily schedules and so lately I don't have the time/energy to play games every day in a consistent enough manner.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
* To me, the global gaming community before the Gamefaqs and Speed Demos Archive speedrunning cultures were all about competition and hiding strategies in order to gain advantage over competitors.  The SDA, SpeedRunsLive and similar communities have shown me that collaboration makes for such a better group of people to be around and do similar things.  This community makes room for people of all skill levels and even different talents and backgrounds.

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
* I have attended all East Coast SDA charities in person.  My most memorable experience was meeting the first speedrunners at Magfest 7(?).  I didn't know what to expect when I first called Mike Uyama that first time.  The first meetings were awkward at first, but we really warmed up and it became such a highlight that I always wanted to come back.

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
* The speedrunning community is a group of people who (for the most part) work together to run games quickly and they have fun doing it.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
* My favorite thing about speedrunning is watching new tricks and breaks from games we previously thought were unbreakable.

Thanks again for taking the time to hear me out and (hopefully) take the survey.  I'll try to find a way to repay you down the line!
theseawolf1
2013-02-12 10:56:53 am
SGL Scrublord
Questions:

1. What name do you prefer to go by?
Cory is fine, or theseawolf1, or TSW1, or just seawolf. Yep, not really picky.

2. How did you first get into gaming? (when, and what system/game)
My dad bought an NES the first day it came out. It was all Ghosts and Goblins and Legend of Zelda from there.

3. How do the people around you (friends, family, classmates) react to your interest in gaming?  How do they react to your speedrunning?
Most people are fairly interested in it, and since many of my friends played in the same era, its become kind of a running joke to call me or ask advice on games. I’m good at like 5-6 games at speedrun level, but I am AWFUL at so many other.

4. How did you first become aware of speedrunning?
Like many people have mentioned, the SMB3 Tas took me to discover TASvideos, then I stumbled upon SDA looking for a Guardian Legend Tas. Lucky me, I found the mother lode.

5. If you met someone who had never heard of speedrunning before, how would you best describe it to them?
Either “sustaining yourself on the tears of programmers” or “developing muscle memory, skill, and a bank of reactions to randomness to play a game to the best of anyone’s ability.” Yet some nights after CV2 Heart Luck, I’d describe it by simply doing the Japanese SotN’s Dracula death gurgle.

6. What games do you primarily speedrun?
I hold the record for The Guardian Legend, have worked on Demon’s Crest and am actively running Castlevania 2. I have interest in Vice: Project Doom, Plok, Xexyz and hopefully an RPG in the future.

7. What was your most memorable run?  What made it memorable?
My most memorable run was my CV2 run at the 2012 Summer Games Done Quick. Shout outs to night crew, Worlds of Power and double KOs.

8. What are some of the biggest challenges (in-game and/or in real life) you have faced since you began speedrunning?
Basically, tempering my drive to get involved with marathons and donating, but being quite poor. I’ve probably put too much money out, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything. Though this year I have to skip SGDQ, I’m too damn poor right now to attempt both marathons again. Trying to be a teacher in NJ sucks right now.

9. What is your practice regimen for a speed run usually like?  How does it fit into your daily schedule?
Every couple of days I’ll sit down and crank out a few attempts. Then I’ll play something casually or play another game. It’s hard to not get burned out on a game when you play it non-stop. I can’t do it daily like I used to in college, alas.

10. How has speedrunning changed your view of gaming and the gaming community, if at all?
It has proven to the world that we can use these “useless” talents to do wonderful things. I chafe when people blame problems on things like games and TV, and though some people are going to be swayed into bad choices by something they see, I bet those people would be equally swayed by anything else out there. I don’t see too many political puppets or talking heads mentioning our charity work.

11. Have you attended any speedrunning charity marathons in person?  What was your most memorable experience from a marathon?
I’ve been to AGDQs in 2011 and 2012, and SGDQ in 2011 and 2012 as well. My best experience is either becoming a Whalebro or that first SGDQ night shift with Darkwing Duck, Aftermath, Arrow, Dessyreqt, Romscout and Duckfist. Now THAT was a thing.

12. In one sentence, how would you describe the speedrunning community?
Home sweet home, but not Sweet Home because its horrifying.

13. What’s your favorite thing about speedrunning?
You always get more bloopers than rage moments.
Stormknight
2013-02-12 01:58:08 pm
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
!.
I go by Stormknight here.

2.
I've been gaming ever since I can remember. When I was just a baby, my parents had a SNES and played it a lot.

3.
I don't know. I think that they just know that it's part of who I am and accept it.

4.
My brother first showed me SDA at least a couple years ago and I just went from there.

5.
I would tell them that "speedrunning is playing through a game as quickly as humanly possible without cheating." Then I may cite a record or two that I know off the top of my head, to give the person the full scope of what speedrunning means.

6.
I'm a bit of a newbie at speedrunning. The one game I have actually made a serious attempt at so far is Prototype for the Xbox 360. I will definetly expand that list in the future.

7.
Again, still a newbie. Don't have a very memorable run yet.

8.
Going through college would be the biggest challenge I've had since I started speedrunning.

9.
I practice my run just when I feel like it. I always try to do at least a couple segments and make sure that they are at least satisfactory.

10.
Since I have joined SDA and watched the AGDQ marathon, I have seen that this is just another facet of the gaming community. In terms of gaming, I know that if I wanted, the game that I'm playing could be done SO much better.

11.
No, but I hope to in the future.

12.
An intelligent group of people with a deep sense of camaraderie and love of games.

13.
The planning that is required to do a run. It takes so many hours and dozens of playthroughs to make a speedrun perfect. 
RabidJellyfish
RabidJellyfish
Edit history:
RabidJellyfish: 2013-02-12 06:41:52 pm
2013-02-12 04:18:09 pm
1. Usually RabidJellyfish over the internet

2. Earliest I can remember is playing Lego Racers on PC when I was in Kindergarten/1st grade. Which I'm actually working on a speed run for...

3. My family can get kind of annoyed at my gaming a lot, but I think they've gotten used to it for the most part. As for speed running, I think most people think it's strange when I play the same thing over and over again, but then they think it's insane when they see the final product.

4. Portal. My friend said he beat it in half an hour, I didn't believe him, and then I looked on youtube and saw DemonStrate's run.

5. It's semi-inaccurate, but I would just say that it's playing through a game as fast as you can.

6. I like platformers for the most part, but I usually just run what I enjoy. I've done Cat Planet 100% in 4:25, LittleBigPlanet individual levels which came to a total of 56:59, and my current Lego Racers record is 49:41 (which I'm hoping to improve by about a minute or so). I've also casually run Portal, Braid, LBP 2, and Antichamber. Also, I have the Not Pacman world record (30.9 seconds), but no one knows about that.

7. Cat Planet, because it was a deathless 100% world record Cheesy

8. Well I just started college, so there are a lot of non-gaming challenges there. On the gaming side, though, I can't bring my PS3, so that means I can't run any console games :/

9. It depends on the game. For Lego Racers, I've been trying to do one run before I go to sleep every night.

10. I used to think games were getting too easy, but then I discovered speed running and it's added a whole new challenge to what I play. I also love the community. There's so much skill and competition around here, but everyone is so polite and supportive of everyone else.

11. Nope, but they're fun to watch Cheesy

12. I'd describe the speed running community as having all the reasons to be arrogant about how great they are, but maintaining modesty.

13. Having something to work on. Also they're awesome to watch Cheesy
ljackstar
2013-02-12 04:31:30 pm
1. LJackStar or Sgt. Flathers
2. 3 or 4 playing N64 at a cousins house, 5th birthday got one for myself
3. Almost all of my friends I am only friends with because of gaming, though none of them speedrun or are interested in speedruns (with the exceptiong of the youtube power videos like portal done proer)
4. Was watching an LP on youtube when he started talking about a marathon on a different site, while watching this marathon I heard them talk about SDA timing, then I found SDA and the rest is history.
5. Beating a game as fast as possible.
6. Portal and Skate 2
7. My portal PB I got during a race last week. Just feels awesome to get a PB
8. Keeping up with school work
9. I speedrun when I feel like playing the games that I speed run. Nothing scheduled at all.
10. Not much, I'm still a huge gamer, just now I'm involved in speed running news as well.
11. Nope.
12. Awesome!
13. Getting PB's