Texas, USAI am loving reading all of these. I don't know why, but it makes all of you seem just a little more human, hearing how all these names came about. Sometimes I forget how big and complex this world really is, but it's fun hearing all the events that went into forming these titles. In short, mine is the derby name the skaters gave me when I first started reffing roller derby.
In long, I honestly can't remember what possessed me to join derby. I'd like to say that I was so fed up with all these petty fears I had in my life that I decided to do something that really scared me, but the truth is likely much less heroic. At first, I was just the clipboard guy who kept track of the stats; I didn't think anyone really noticed me, but after one practice, someone was having this birthday dinner, and they invited me out. It was completely weird because although we shared the same rink, I always felt like I was in a different world from the rest of them. It was sometime during this particular birthday dinner that they unanimously decided that I needed a derby name like the rest of them. I never really felt like one of them, so this was also completely weird. I happened to be reading a book at the time that was third or fourth in a series by Dean Koontz featuring a character called "Odd Thomas" that I've always admired for his humility. They all agreed that "odd" was more or less the perfect description, and "Odd Thomas" was fairly quickly shortened to "oddtom".
I've actually made people call me by nicknames for as long as I can remember; even before the internet was a thing, if you can imagine that. I've never really liked the sound of my real name and nobody ever spells it right anyway, so nicknames are kind of a natural compromise. I got the idea from a book called "Stargirl" that I read back in the Cretaceous Era. The main character always made people call her some nickname instead of her real name, and I liked that idea. For about a year after that, I made everyone call me "leaf" instead of my actual name because it reminded me of my favorite care-bear (the green one). It was nice that the internet allowed us to make up our own monikers. I was "Helloinator" through the Half-Life and Warcraft II era and I was "abmjotto" through the Starcraft era. I played all of those games multiplayer online basically all the time when they were big, so if you played any of those games for any significant amount of time, there's a decent chance we played with or against each other. I picked up "Sesamehoneytart" in college and it's still my Wikipedia and DeviantArt name, but anything "Oddtom" is within the last three years.
I didn't know you could do that either. That's pretty nifty! Good to know, thanks!
Netherlands didn't make the qualifing cut, and now Super Metroid didn't make the qualifying cut... what is going on with this world?
So... you're here because it's free advertising? Um, okay. There's really nothing you can do in a forum post here that wouldn't be easier via twitter or discord, but even so, you might want to consider having social media links associated with your profile if you're recruiting.
I think an ethernet cable will solve your problems. Streaming via Wi-Fi is just asking for trouble IMHO.
(edit) ^adding to above, this kind of thing only happens to me when one of my roommates decides to upload a video to facebook or start up Netflix during my stream.
You can find a lot more info about specific games in their respective forums. For glitches in Pokemon RBY specifically, here's a good place to start: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnredblue/thread/79cq3/1#im2d9
It also just occurred to me that if you're writing a program for machine learning, you might want to look at some old learning games. A while ago, Winslinator and a few others were working on optimizing a certain one called "Treasure Cove". Normally, you have to solve clues to find the pufferfish (that allows you to go to the next level), but there are patterns in its appearance, and if you recognize the patterns, you can bypass the hint solving step altogether. If you're going to use screen-reading, this game uses a pretty simple layout with a predetermined number of fixed frames you can move through. Wins has a running list of the pufferfish locations here: https://www.speedrun.com/Treasure_Cove/resources
I think some of the earlier pokemon games might have what you're looking for. Fairly simple and straightforward input and output, and you can math it out in as much detail as you want. Maybe even Pokemon Stadium as a turn-based alternative if you find programming for a real-time game difficult.
My point is how important is it to you? Is it more important than what you're currently spending your time on? If so, then replace what is less important to you with what is more important to you. It doesn't just apply to speedrunning; it applies to anything. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day. If having hours upon hours to practice is necessary, then pull things that are unnecessary out of your schedule until you have room for it.
Someone once told me that there's no such thing as not having enough time for something, but it's all about priorities. It might help to do a time audit on yourself and see just how much time you're actually spending on everything in your life. I do it from time to time and kind of surprise myself on how different my actual schedule is from what I thought it was or want it to be.
Worst case scenario- if you can't cut time on any task- try to mix two together. My first speedruns were done from a laptop squished in with other commuters on the light rail to and from work. Keep an open mind; a little creativity can go a long way!
I think that one's a common misconception too. To be fair, we wouldn't be streaming if we didn't want people to interact / watch our streams, but you can't say that's the ¤only¤ reason we're here.
Community's a big deal. I feel like the biggest reason this hobby gets so much flak is because the focus is on "playing games" and not on "a way to hang out with friends / like-minded people", but the friendly competition and encouragement is what I like most about it. Sometimes I enjoy watching and encouraging someone going for a WR or PB just as much as I enjoy going for one myself.
Imagine someone responding to your post with an unrelated jab at your slight grammar error in your second language
Maybe not talking about users specifically, but having a baseline for what does and does not result in a ban should be a safe question to ask.
You literally just used "literally" correctly, and it gave me the warm fuzzies.
