as it stands, the rule in question says "However, when the OOB, clipping, or warping glitches let you skip large chunks of the game, including whole stages, such as Metroid Prime's secret worlds … will be a separate category." I claim that the metroid prime series does no such thing, and secret worlds should not need a separate category. As reference to those not familiar with secret worlds in the prime series, check out the recently created prime wiki: http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/Metroid_Prime/Techniques#Secret_World_Tricks.
In the entire trilogy, there is (as far as i know) a single instance where you don't have to follow the room layout (including transitioning between rooms at doors) exactly. This is in echoes, where you can cross between the upper and lower level of dark torvus. In the light version, there is an elevator connecting the two levels, but no such room exists in the dark version. However, some residual memory or something allows you to move between them.
While entering light upper torvus, riding an elevator, and re-entering dark torvus may very well be considered a "large chunk" of the game (i personally think that's still silly), this is an isolated incident. Beyond that, secret worlds only let you do the same sorts of things that "in bounds" sequence breaks allow you to do. I could argue that most of any modern speedruns (at least as far as prime and echoes are concerned) are done entirely out of the creator's intended bounds. That seems frivolous though so i'll instead turn to more concrete evidence.
Consider Majora's Mask. That game uses plenty of OOB tricks that skip far more "large chunks" than anything in the prime series. Sonic videos also do all sorts of weird OOB things. While these games obviously don't have the baggage prime does, it's time for some consistency here.
There's also the argument that "secret worlds are slow and not fun to watch." Unfortunately it's tough to use facts to combat that one, so i'll give some evidence.
Those are the two wallcrawls used in the current fastest metroid prime route. i admit that they are slower than 'standard' play, but secret worlds have much more intense technical requirements. The "large chunks" of the game skipped are a wave door (or alternately, two ice doors) in the first video, and two spider tracks in the second. All secret worlds are used for these types of skips. There's no way to use a secret world to enter the impact crater without any artifacts, for example. There's nothing akin to beating lttp in 5 minutes. Everything here follows the same spirit that resulted in m2k2's creation.
Finally, one valid complaint is that it will be possible for "worse" runs to out-date "better" runs that weren't allowed to use secret worlds. In prime it isn't so much a problem because secret worlds make a route that's only ~30 seconds faster, so if you have a faster time then you have at least about 30 seconds of other improvement (in corruption they apparently save 4 seconds). In echoes though, there is significant improvement. Thus, i propose grandfathering in the current runs unless the verifiers unanimously decide that the play quality of new runs is noticeably better. If they don't come to that conclusion, then the runs can be listed side by side until eventually a top-quality run exists. It may result in some clutter at first, but once fast enough runs get put up it won't be an issue anymore.
tl;dr version: secret worlds are not evil.
In the entire trilogy, there is (as far as i know) a single instance where you don't have to follow the room layout (including transitioning between rooms at doors) exactly. This is in echoes, where you can cross between the upper and lower level of dark torvus. In the light version, there is an elevator connecting the two levels, but no such room exists in the dark version. However, some residual memory or something allows you to move between them.
While entering light upper torvus, riding an elevator, and re-entering dark torvus may very well be considered a "large chunk" of the game (i personally think that's still silly), this is an isolated incident. Beyond that, secret worlds only let you do the same sorts of things that "in bounds" sequence breaks allow you to do. I could argue that most of any modern speedruns (at least as far as prime and echoes are concerned) are done entirely out of the creator's intended bounds. That seems frivolous though so i'll instead turn to more concrete evidence.
Consider Majora's Mask. That game uses plenty of OOB tricks that skip far more "large chunks" than anything in the prime series. Sonic videos also do all sorts of weird OOB things. While these games obviously don't have the baggage prime does, it's time for some consistency here.
There's also the argument that "secret worlds are slow and not fun to watch." Unfortunately it's tough to use facts to combat that one, so i'll give some evidence.
Those are the two wallcrawls used in the current fastest metroid prime route. i admit that they are slower than 'standard' play, but secret worlds have much more intense technical requirements. The "large chunks" of the game skipped are a wave door (or alternately, two ice doors) in the first video, and two spider tracks in the second. All secret worlds are used for these types of skips. There's no way to use a secret world to enter the impact crater without any artifacts, for example. There's nothing akin to beating lttp in 5 minutes. Everything here follows the same spirit that resulted in m2k2's creation.
Finally, one valid complaint is that it will be possible for "worse" runs to out-date "better" runs that weren't allowed to use secret worlds. In prime it isn't so much a problem because secret worlds make a route that's only ~30 seconds faster, so if you have a faster time then you have at least about 30 seconds of other improvement (in corruption they apparently save 4 seconds). In echoes though, there is significant improvement. Thus, i propose grandfathering in the current runs unless the verifiers unanimously decide that the play quality of new runs is noticeably better. If they don't come to that conclusion, then the runs can be listed side by side until eventually a top-quality run exists. It may result in some clutter at first, but once fast enough runs get put up it won't be an issue anymore.
tl;dr version: secret worlds are not evil.
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