Summer Games Done Quick 2019 has come and gone, with speedrunners playing fan-favorite games in order to raise money for charity. This year was an especially amazing year for the event, with SGDQ earning a massively record-breaking $3,005,203 dollars, all for Doctors Without Borders. As the final speedrun of the event--a 100% run of Chrono Trigger--was wrapping up, donations began pouring in, barrelling past the $3M mark, and shattering last year's donation record of $2.1M. At the end of the stream, it was also revealed when the next Games Done Quick would happen: Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 will take place on January 5-12, and will mark the 10th anniversary of the event.

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[Bimmel]

I love this event, but I never saw any reason to speedrun anything myself. Playing the same game twice is already a miracle in these days, but doing it over and over again? What about the other good games I could play instead?

Time, that's the deciding factor. Life is a speedrun in itself.

 

[Izual Urashima]

I enjoyed the event in the first years. However, now it's more a show of politically-correct people who want to promote gender equality over speedrunning, so I'm not interested anymore since I'm watching to see speedrunning, not people wanting other people to get their pronouns right.

 

[LightBeam]

Not really into speedrunning but it was really funny to watch, there were some great shows, just sad I didn't see Zelda BoTW MM and some Metroid runs

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I was wondering if someone would talk about Games done quick. Now I see someone did. There was some worth while watches this year, less cringe, more fun to be had.

 

[Nerdtendo]

I love the actual speedruns. They're super fun. I have an issue with the people running the show though. Super SJW

 

[leon315]

Usually all regular donations are splitted 50% between content creator and Twitch, just wonder how big the slice Twitch got this time...

 

[osaka35]

I quite like they're being thoughtful and considerate, and all around good people. Gamers tend to have a...perception problem of being a bit nasty when it comes to positive human contact. Glad to see Games Done Quickly helps with doctors without borders and the perception of nastiness.

Usually all regular donations are splitted 50% between content creator and Twitch, just wonder how big the slice Twitch got this time...

I'd be curious the deal they worked out as well. At this point, if twitch is taking too much, they're probably big enough to use a different platform that'll take less or even donate some itself.

 

[Kioku]

Usually all regular donations are splitted 50% between content creator and Twitch, just wonder how big the slice Twitch got this time...

Donations or subs? Afaik, donations are untouched as Twitch doesn't offer a donation service. Usually a third party is involved.

 

[dAVID_]

Just a reminder that a speedrunner got (probably) banned from GDQ cursing (3 times) and making Owen Wilson jokes.

 

[Hozu]

Just a reminder that a speedrunner got (probably) banned from GDQ cursing (3 times) and making Owen Wilson jokes.

Please stop posting misinformation. A GDQ staff member had stated that Air Canada had privately reached out to them about his comments regarding the corporation.

 

[Kioku]

Please stop posting misinformation. A GDQ staff member had stated that Air Canada had privately reached out to them about his comments regarding the corporation.

As someone who has been fired from a job for an illegitimate reason? I can safely say to not take that at face value. Corporations of all types can and will lie for their actions. I've seen it firsthand, and it will not change. "Privately" my ass.

 

[BORTZ]

I'm inclined to believe it.

I love GDQ, speed running, etc but the whole thing is (and has been) way to liberal and political recently.

 

[dAVID_]

Please stop posting misinformation. A GDQ staff member had stated that Air Canada had privately reached out to them about his comments regarding the corporation.

It doesn't seem like they were aware of the situation.

 

[Daggot]

I enjoyed the event in the first years. However, now it's more a show of politically-correct people who want to promote gender equality over speedrunning, so I'm not interested anymore since I'm watching to see speedrunning, not people wanting other people to get their pronouns right.

I stopped watching the year after they banned bonesaw, it just got progressively got worse after that. It's a shame because things like drunk Jak&Daxter speedruns and Castlevania SOTN blindfolded were fun as fuck to watch and you could learn a bunch about your favorite games just by seeing the speedrunners make mistakes and retry their strats over and over because the wacky ways they'd play.(They still do the castlevania thing tho IIRC)

 

[kuwanger]

My big problem with the event is basically that it's sort of gotten stale. I like Super Metroid/Metroid Prime/etc, but we don't need to see every category ran on it. I like rom hacks, but they shouldn't be taking up much in the way of time. I like TAS, but there's no real reason to be throwing TAS into it unless they're doing something awesome like their hack to stream video through an NES/SNES combo (IIRC, that was the setup) where it makes sense to demo it that way. Finally, I like RPGs, but RPG limit break does a much better job representing in that area, so I'd prefer they limit the number of 3+ hour runs. This last part really applies to all games that have estimates in the 3+ hour range, as those end up eating up a ton of time and it results in a loss of a lot of other games, good and terrible, to be ran.

In other words, the thing GDQ is most missing is game diversity.

PS - I should throw in, I do like watching races specifically. That, though, is probably more a crutch to compensate for the general staleness.

 

[Pipistrele]

I enjoyed the event in the first years. However, now it's more a show of politically-correct people who want to promote gender equality over speedrunning, so I'm not interested anymore since I'm watching to see speedrunning, not people wanting other people to get their pronouns right.

Is it really though? Not that GDQ didn't have its share of controversial decisions, especially during its rough transition into the mainstream (where most of those really come from), but aside of couple side-panels and several mostly business-related moderation changes, the event is pretty much the same; maybe that's just my perspective, but whenever topic of "GDQ going SJW" comes up, I often see people intensely cherry-picking minor instances to make their point.

I can perfectly see the complaints about it not having the same atmosphere anymore though, but that has much more to do with growing popularity of the event - when you have millions of people and all sorts of sponsors supporting your event, dudebros with accordions cracking offensive jokes just won't cut it. I kinda miss those time myself (to an extent - even occasional toxicity aside, earlier GDQs were organized like crap), but charity > dudebros in my range of priorities.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

My big problem with the event is basically that it's sort of gotten stale. I like Super Metroid/Metroid Prime/etc, but we don't need to see every category ran on it. I like rom hacks, but they shouldn't be taking up much in the way of time. I like TAS, but there's no real reason to be throwing TAS into it unless they're doing something awesome like their hack to stream video through an NES/SNES combo (IIRC, that was the setup) where it makes sense to demo it that way. Finally, I like RPGs, but RPG limit break does a much better job representing in that area, so I'd prefer they limit the number of 3+ hour runs. This last part really applies to all games that have estimates in the 3+ hour range, as those end up eating up a ton of time and it results in a loss of a lot of other games, good and terrible, to be ran.

In other words, the thing GDQ is most missing is game diversity.

PS - I should throw in, I do like watching races specifically. That, though, is probably more a crutch to compensate for the general staleness.

That one I agree a lot with, honestly - same old rotation of Super Metroid, Mario 64 and Donkey Kong, with very occasional obscure goodies that barely get any audience. Though it's still unclear whether GDQ is to blame, or speedrunning community by itself became very complacent with its primary disciplines; other speedrunning events are becoming just as much of a snore lately, which is why I opted out from most of them and switched to more refreshing alternatives (like Kusogrande, a "game racing" tournament dedicated solely to poorly made games).

 

[osaka35]

My big problem with the event is basically that it's sort of gotten stale. I like Super Metroid/Metroid Prime/etc, but we don't need to see every category ran on it. I like rom hacks, but they shouldn't be taking up much in the way of time. I like TAS, but there's no real reason to be throwing TAS into it unless they're doing something awesome like their hack to stream video through an NES/SNES combo (IIRC, that was the setup) where it makes sense to demo it that way. Finally, I like RPGs, but RPG limit break does a much better job representing in that area, so I'd prefer they limit the number of 3+ hour runs. This last part really applies to all games that have estimates in the 3+ hour range, as those end up eating up a ton of time and it results in a loss of a lot of other games, good and terrible, to be ran.

In other words, the thing GDQ is most missing is game diversity.

PS - I should throw in, I do like watching races specifically. That, though, is probably more a crutch to compensate for the general staleness.

I agree. Fan favorites are fun (I like the zelda+metroid randomizer and any zelda speedrun), but some variety would be brilliant. Speedruns tended to be just the most popular games in the far flung past, but now are done with so many obscure titles they could easily have mostly new titles at each GDQ. I wonder if it's because the more popular games they do every year tend to still get the most donations?

Learning about previous strats and the pros/cons while watching are the main draw for me. I quite like learning the history of a speedrun category and each trick explained in real-time.

 

[godreborn]

they do have "awful games done quick" as well. I'm not sure if it was classified as an awful game or not, but I remember one of those events forcing everyone to sit through the mega man 8 cut scenes (with the horrible voice acting) if the donations got over a certain amount. can you guess what happened?

 

[kuwanger]

I wonder if it's because the more popular games they do every year tend to still get the most donations?

I'm almost certain that's it. I don't recall the stats at all, but kill/save for Super Metroid almost always makes up a considerable percentage of donations.

Learning about previous strats and the pros/cons while watching are the main draw for me. I quite like learning the history of a speedrun category and each trick explained in real-time.

I as well. It's why I can at least understand why they want to re-run some games after a couple years. If you check Twitch out, you'll find a lot of games being ran by a lot of people, but few have a lot of views. Or you can check speedrun.com, and use that as a launching off point. The problem, as I see it is, is that GDQ is now popular enough that they're flooded with applications which means they likely aren't searching out as much for games.

So, the vocal people who likely have ran before or know someone who ran is more likely to involve themselves. There's also the cost to actually go, but that's pretty unavoidable given the nature of the event. That's, of course, only as true as it's made an event to attend rather than an event to involve oneself in. I'm sure other people who were interested could organize a totally virtual speedrun event, and probably there are some I'm not aware of. *shrug*