Why is timing RTA a problem? Almost every single other speed run game does it, including some very long ones and some with with very long loading screens.

I think I've been swung by dekuking and Tetsuya's arguments here. Especially now having played the game a lot more. We should just RTA everything. Here's a simple example of why.

Let's say there are two players who run the same level with two different routes and are competing for an any% WR.

- Player 1's route requires getting spotted by a few enemies and entering into reflex mode. His real time run is 3 minutes, 30 seconds. But because of how the game counts reflex mode, his IGT is shown as 3 minutes, 15 seconds upon completion of the mission.

- Player 2's route has him getting spotted by no enemies. His real time run is 3 minutes, 20 seconds and the game timer shows him having 3 minutes, 20 seconds.

In this scenario, Player 1's run was actually SLOWER, but it would be listed as the faster run on the site under the current rules. This is a really big problem, in my opinion.

We haven't run into it because the game is so new and people are cutting off huge chunks of time on the levels every day. But once things get optimized and every second starts mattering, I think this will definitely be an issue.

This also, by side effect, fixes the phantom cigar controversy. There's no logical reason to ban it or make a different category for the cigar. It doesn't "break" the run per se. It just breaks the most convenient way to time runs. Better answer is to just change how we time runs then.

Optimizing for IGT is different than optimizing for Real Time, no doubt, but that's not by itself enough. The question really comes down to whether people, in doing their runs, feel that they prefer optimizing for one over the other.

MGS4 and GZ runs have optimized for IGT, mostly because the game presents a very nice results screen at the end, and while the runs are different than Real Time runs, they're not absurdly broken.

here is video showing why phantom cigar & RTA should be used especially for certain missions especially when you want to get peacenik (no kills, no alerts).
I timed as soon the inside chopper scene appears and ended once I lose control once camera angle changes just before fading to result screen.

this isn't a perfect run and could be much faster if it weren't for my driving. compared that to the one on peacenik category it's faster by about 10 seconds RTA timing speaking.

To fix this debate we would have to test the cigar and prove that the wait time during the phantom cigar is always consistent, in terms of in game timer.

We can take a run like Soliduz_snakez for example if some one using the same strats gets similar times then we can prove that its a legit mechanic.

The opinions of three people shouldn't decided the fate of something like this. (although I do agree that the cigar should be allowed) Some kind of testing has to be done.

Also I feel that IGT is the best way to measure a run time because its the most consistent way to measure the start/stop of the timer, giving every one a ''fair'' shake. In the end the fastest completion of the mission wins, regardless of Phantom Cigar or not.