Over the past week, I’ve been watching a crap ton of archived speedruns from the two Games Done Quick events that happen each year: Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) and Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ). I love watching these superhuman gamers destroy some of the games I love. I’m never not impressed with their optimized routes and skips.
But, not to make this a heated topic, I noticed there were almost no female runners. The only one I’ve seen so far was SanGillespie running Silent Hill 2. I’m sure there are plenty of female speedrunners out there, but I’ve not come across them yet. I did notice one female Resident Evil speedrunner on the couch commentating on a Resident Evil 2 speedrun, but that was it.
I am decent at playing games. I’m not amazing, and I’m not terrible, but I can hold my own (unless we are talking about the Crucible in Destiny which I routinely suck at). I’ve been thinking of ways lately that I’d like to forcibly push myself out of my comfort zone, and I think I’d like to try my hand at speedrunning no matter how terrible I might be at it.
I’d simply like to try.
The first game that came to mind to attempt would be a compact experience I quite enjoyed: The Park. It’s not terribly long, and I’d love to find out how to optimize a run of it. I know the vast majority of speedruns I see are on PC (which isn’t much of an option for me), but I’d like to find a handful of games to try on console. I’d also need to find a way to capture them for submission.
The Park would be an interesting one to try. Even if I came nowhere close to a competitive time, I’d love to see what I could do. I’d also like to try one of my favorite games of the GameCube/PS2 era: Disney’s Haunted Mansion. I also wouldn’t mind trying anything Destiny-related.
Right now, the record for The Park is 18m 40s. I’m sure I wouldn’t get anywhere close to that, but I’d love to start looking into optimized runs to see what I could do.
The record for Disney’s Haunted Mansion is 1h 05m. It’s been years since I played the game so I’d need some heavy refreshers. I have the game for both PS2 as well as GameCube, but I no longer have a GameCube. So I’d need to do some research into which platform to attempt it on and proceed from there.
I’d also need to look into some sort of capture or streaming device for the older consoles. I am not that brand of tech-savvy, so I’d welcome any and all help there.
As for Destiny, it looks like the speedruns are broken down by mission/strike/etc. Of any of these games, I’ve arguably had the most experience with Destiny. I could easily try to push myself to see what times I could get.
I have no illusions that I’d be a great speedrunner. I just feel inspired by these folks that crush times and I’d like to push myself to do it if for no other reason than to see if I could. If I don’t try, I’ll never know.
Have you ever wanted to speedrun a game? If so, which game? Also, what will you be playing this weekend?
I will be playing some Wolfenstein: The New Order, Destiny, and hopefully some Killing Floor 2 here and there. And perhaps Tales From the Borderlands. A buffet of differing experiences.
Cheers to all the weekend warriors!
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
Go for it :)
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Yeah!! I’m certainly going to try. I’m sure I won’t come anywhere near competitive times, but I really want to challenge myself.
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as long as you enjoy the challange it doesn’t matter if you beat the tims or not
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I absolutely agree!
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Not really a speedrun, but I tried(and got) that Gone Home trophy of beating the game in less than a minute. I once tried to play Crash 2 the fast as a I could, but I don’t really like to speedrun.
You shoul try it. It’s pretty interesting to know every damn detail of a game and going through without even thinking about it. Only speedrun I watched was a “race” between three people playing a Megaman game…it was fun to watch.
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Oh man, I remember that trophy! I never even tried to get it! Nice job!!
I’m definitely going to try, no matter how bad I will be at it. I just like the idea of challenging myself.
That sounds so fun! I haven’t seen that one. I saw that there was a four-way race for Super Metroid and I think that would be so nerve-wracking to do. Those people are unreal.
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Interested in seeing you speedrun Rebekah. I too, echo GamesandStuff sentiments about you trying your hand at speedrunning. I’d like to see you do it for the fun, experience, & the challenge it presents you. No matter the time you finish in it’s your “personal” achievement. This way you can have something to blog about every so often. I’d enjoy watching a speedrun of a Destiny mission or strike. Ijs! I’ll be playing Sniper Elite 4; picked it up during PS’ mid-year sale.
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Thank you! I’m sure it will be a good chunk of learning before I will be able to do anything decent, but I’m willing to try.
I hope you enjoy SE4!
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You should give speed running a try! Even if you don’t get a record time, it’s still fun to see how quickly you can get through a game you enjoy playing. If there is an achievement/trophy for getting through a game in a certain time I’ll usually try it to see if I can get it. I managed to beat Resident Evil Remake’s speed run time of 3 hours for the trophy after a few tries.
I’ve been pretty focused on Breath of the Wild during my play sessions, I’m making decent progress and hopefully I can finish that off maybe by next week. Have a great weekend and happy gaming!
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I definitely will try, and I am certain I will never see world record times. I am just excited to try my hand at speedrunning. It seems like such a challenge and I like the idea of pushing myself.
Holy heck! That is a crazy good time for RE!
I hope you are enjoying Breath of the Wild and this extended holiday weekend!
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I’d definitely watch you do a speed run. I’m still working on finishing Persona 5.
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Hooray! Thank you!
And I hope you have a good time with Persona 5!
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I also just got into GDQ and found myself spending literally days watching tons of runs, and I also noticed there were barely any female runners, which definitely needs to change!
I don’t know whether there are any games I’d like to try running, purely because everyone else has already done them way faster, but I do think it’d be fun.
I actually just wrote an article myself about speedrunning and whether it really counts as playing a game: https://overthinkeryblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/a-right-way-to-play/
Spoilers, though: play games however makes you happy and there’s no right or wrong way to do it!
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They are such awesome events and for such good causes; they can be addicting to watch! I love binging out on run after run. I follow many of my favorite runners on Twitter, too!
It is odd that there are so few female runners. Hopefully in the coming years we see at least a few more.
I’m guessing it’s fairly uncommon to jump into speedrunning and to set new records. I think it would just be fun for the experience to learn how to play games in such a different way than how I normally do. In most games, I like to take my time and explore everything; speedrunning is the antithesis of that, and I like exploring that idea.
I will check it out!
Agreed. I just love when people play games they enjoy.
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