Guinness World Records Gamers edition 2017 GDQ, speedrun.com and SDA mentions.
7 years ago
New York, USA
Theguesst
He/Him, They/Them
7 years ago

Hello, about 2 weeks ago Guinness world records released their 2017 version of their gamer's edition book. In this edition there were various mentions of Games Done Quick, speedrun.com and Speed Demos Archive as well as twin galaxy records. I've recorded nearly every mention of speedrunning in the form of screenshots and scans of pages. If this is not acceptable by the staff of SDA, speedrun.com or Guinness please let me know and I'll remove it or feel free to remove this on your own. There are nearly 80 runners mentioned and I have not documented everything in writing as of yet. http://imgur.com/a/SpRvG

Germany

i think thats rediculus, i mean why would be a run this book and a different run not? But nice for the people mentioned.

French Southern Territories

vorpal's PB-WR on Super Meat Boy was on July 2nd 2015, not January 2015 : http://www.speedrun.com/run/6yj6l6dz For OoT, skater82297 got a new WR recently : http://www.speedrun.com/run/8m7ow6wy The Mirror's Edge Any% WR is inaccurate, because the run mentionned is held by my boi Phillo : http://www.speedrun.com/run/8yv0j1ez Deus Ex : The Fall WR is inaccurate : http://www.speedrun.com/run/8yvrw84z R&C WR is incorrect : http://www.speedrun.com/run/8yvlnkez Talos' WR is incorrect : http://www.speedrun.com/run/nz1kl39y Ori's WR is incorrect : http://www.speedrun.com/run/8yv09j8z darbian got a new WR recently : http://www.speedrun.com/run/9yo0jp7y

Ok, I didn't checked all the informations yet, but I did my best for a 6 am verification.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
New Jersey, USA

It is most likely that all of the information was accurate at a specific point in the publishing process. For example, vorpal does have an obsolete PB that was posted on the date that is provided in the book. The simple explanation is that vorpal has PB'd since then.

Publishing a book takes a long time, and there is a point after which the information cannot be changed. Neither the release date, nor the edition date (2017) reflect the dates that the information was actually collected. It is not Guinness's fault that the publishing process may not be suited to the fast-paced fluctuation of gaming records.

Edited by the author 7 years ago

Not their fault you say? WRs keep changing you say? Take a look at the Bastion record they cited, "12:40 on 21 Oct 2014" when in reality that run was already very much out of date even last year. The SDA record lists 12:40 as the time because of a timing difference between SDA and the actual community rules on speedrun.com. The runner in the book shold have been either mhmd or kazzadan who were the wr holders at around the time when the data for the book was being collected.

Why do I know when that data was being collected? Because the guy from guinness messaged me last year, inquiring about the record. He also actually asked about the SDA time, which I explained was slower. Based on the mails after that he seemed to have understood. Then proceeded to include this time that's both wrong and out of date.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
PackSciences likes this
New Jersey, USA

"Not their fault you say? WRs keep changing you say?"

Yes, that is what I say, thanks :D

I'm not trying to argue against the inaccuracy of the publishing. Obviously, they got a lot of the information wrong. I was trying to provide a perspective as to what may have been the cause of those inaccuracies, and it looks like my hypothesis is incorrect.

I do still think that it would be helpful to look deeper into the issue, rather than merely posting about it here. Posting here is good for awareness within the speed running community, but I think the "why" is more important than the "what". We know that Guinness published known inaccuracies, but it can't be dealt with until we know why.

Publishing books is a very complicated process, with multiple levels of involvement. It may not be wise to immediately point fingers at Guinness or "the guy" from Guinness without first contacting or hearing a statement from one or the other. Even then, there may be contractual obligations that may prevent "the guy" from sharing certain information, which could seem to incriminate him (I'm not specifically assuming this, at all. I'm just saying that publishing contracts are very in-depth, to such a degree).

From your description of your emails with "the guy", I would actually assume it wasn't his fault that the wrong times were published. If he genuinely appeared to understand and confirm what you told him, then it seems likely that it was some other factor that resulted in different information being published.

Note: I'm not arguing a point or trying to tell anyone how to deal with this situation. I'm just sharing my thoughts, in light of what I can see. Feel free to clarify anything that I'm not aware of. If anyone has already tried contacting Guinness since the book was published, then awesome.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
DarQ, drgrumble, and Theguesst like this
Mexico
Slevanas
She/Her, They/Them
7 years ago

Only the popular games are mentioned, no mention of something like Gears of War games which are always in the shadow of other shooters.

Victoria, Australia
stoot
He/Him, They/Them
7 years ago

If only they could do a little bit of research and find out how runs are verified on speedrun.com...

India

How to verify speed run record in Guinness world record

England

First - This thread is 8 months old. Second - They'll use the WR for whatever it was when writing the book up. That can be several months before the book is published and will usually have changed by the time the book is actually on shelves.

Lonne, HowDenKing, and MrVirusYT like this