this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Key Points:

  • Suigi has secured all five major speedrunning categories in Super Mario 64, effectively declaring the game's speedrunning community 'dead'.
  • Suigi's dominance is so profound that his records in all 5 main categories remain largely unchallenged.

The Five Star Categories:

  • 120 star: Completes every single star in the game.
  • 70 star: Completes all normal requirements to reach the final level.
  • 16 star: Uses glitches and techniques to significantly reduce required stars.
  • 1 star: Further optimizes the 16 star run for a single star collection.
  • 0 star: Eliminates stars entirely, focusing on time.

Background Details:

  • Some of Suigi's records were set over a year ago; his 16-star record alone still leads by 6 seconds.
  • Suigi estimates it could take up to a couple of years before someone else beats his current world records.

How do you feel about the dedication and skill demonstrated in these ultra-optimized speedruns? Do such efforts bring value to gaming or are they more of an academic exercise?

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

i don't get the nihilism angle. it seems to be all about selffulfilment and pushing oneself to see what one is capable of. simmiliar to triathlets, race car drivers or climbers.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Speedrunning is competitive QA.

Prove me wrong.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Their action do not assure any quality, they actually advocate for keeping bugs in, the opposite of what any QA wants.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Meh, debatable. QA finds the bugs, what to do with them is more a development/production call.

But I can compromise: Speedrunning is competitive QA testing. How about that?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If a bug makes the run take longer they don't investigate it.

Actual counterexample, plenty of optimization came from random guys popping up in the community explaining something they found about the code, that was overlooked for years.

More? A huge emphasis is put on mechanically pulling the run off, which is pointless from a QA point of view, now we can maybe make an argument for TAS in that regard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nah, I'd say you're mostly making my point. Optimizing getting through the game fast is absolutely part of the skillset, and random people noticing something obvious everybody had been ignoring is bread-and-butter for testers.

I mean, for testers that care and are going hard, which is where the "competitive" part comes in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I'm glad you've never done QA in a bank, but in jest, sure, there's a surprising amount of overlapping.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Debatable by dudes with ponytails who use the word "fallacy" 200 times a day, not by people with common sense.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Well... They're not paid to do so, so. Yeah.

I've seriously learned a bit about computer architecture from OoT speedruns.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Making your own valorial framework is a close cousin to accepting there is no inherent one.

This is true for many things (all things?), but I think we can agree that as pointless or challenging being fast driving a car, it still welcomes the intended use of the car, is surrounded by a broadly shared and accepted economical advantage.

Esports would be the equivalent, pushing to be the best at a game, the way it's meant to be played.

Speedrun is getting into a racing car and mastering with an iron will getting in and out as fast as possible.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Making your own valorial framework is a close cousin to accepting there is no inherent one.

That's absurdism rather nihilism, isn't it? "One must imagine Sisyphus happy"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

That's how Nietzsche answers those that blame him for bringing forward relativism, and I don't think speedrunning is absurd, just egregiously arbitrary.