Speedrun with glitch, that are cheating?
8 years ago
Veneto, Italy

I have see a ps2 speedrun where the guy skip A big zone, running trough the walls By a glitch. I really hate these things! That is cheating! One thing is if you go in to a secret ufficial way To skip a zone, or jumping/climbing for a shorter way, but using a graphic-tecnical error it's cheating, because the game ufficially don't hallow that. Looks like you use console commands. I hope someone remove speedruns like that from here. Who also thinks this?

f1, Arctice, and Elgu like this

As long as he didn't use any cheat codes or devices to manipulate the game it's totally fine.

Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

That's the point of speedrunning. You can take full advantage of the game AND it's glitches to achieve the fastest time possible. Cheats and Glitches are a totally different topic. Glitches are allowed, cheats not.

HowDenKing and xDrHellx like this
England

"Who also thinks this?"

Basically nobody who actually speedruns.

f1, Lance_, and pld like this
Cambridgeshire, England

Grr, I know right? Makes me so mad knowing that people just use things in games that make them finish them faster. ARGH! I bet speedrunners purposely prematurely ejaculate just to finish as fast as possible without enjoying the experience, you feel?

f1, iden and 9 others like this
Veneto, Italy

Yes, PurpleSunDeryl. The point is, if a speedruns is complete the game in the fastest way, that tipe of glitch allow you to EXIT FROM THE GAME LEVEL and re-enter in to another point. So, you go in a place that ISN'T in the game. And that looks like cheating.

England
Dendris, Lance_ and 5 others like this

So, you go in a place that ISN'T in the game.

but...glitches ARE in the game and when they ARE in the game, why not using them to your advantage to beat the game as fast as possible? Do you want to speedrun or do you want to get an award for beating a game not as fast as possible just to impress Twin Galaxies?

England

I could give you a lengthy, reasoned explanation on why glitches are allowed in speedruns because it's not just that way arbitrarily, it's that way for a lot of good reasons. But I'm not going to, I'm instead going to point out the likely problem:

http://i.imgur.com/t9LNalb.png

actual short-hand explanation: Defining what should be in a speedrun as "if the game allows it" is pretty subjective and open to a lot of interpretation and bitching back and forth and it's a lot simpler for everyone involved if you just declare open season on glitches and go from there because trying to work off authorial intent for decade old video games is a ridiculously impossible endeavour.

Also, speedrunning is about going fast. Glitches are fast. That helps as well.

f1, HowDenKing and 2 others like this
Veneto, Italy

Glitches are ERRORS, Who make the game don't want it and want avoid it. The glitches are games faults, it is not cleverness, is using game's fault to finish it.

Veneto, Italy

I want do a speedruns video, but i dont'cnow how Record it, i dont'think that recording the TV screen with my phone is a good idea...

England

cool thanks for ignoring my post explaining why we use them to repeat your own dumb opinion

real talk you will probably not enjoy speedrunning much if you are of the opinion that glitches aren't to be used in runs. Maybe consider a different hobby?

xDrHellx likes this
France

Plot twist : letsplay.com exists already

Lance_ and xDrHellx like this
England

Plot Twist #2: It's not for what you think it's for.

xDrHellx likes this
California, USA

@Smakkohooves The first time I saw a speedrun, my thinking wasn't too different from yours. I found a speed run of Commander Keen 1 on YouTube that used a ceiling clip in one of the levels, but I decided not to use it in my own runs (which were relatively casual at the time, and not even streamed). I managed to beat the game in 5 minutes flat after about a week of practice, but my time could have been better if I had simply been willing to learn a challenging trick. (I've since come back to Keen 1 and improved my time.)

One thing you may not have realized is the fact that most glitches actually make the speedrun ¤harder¤, not easier. If you're not very familiar with speedrunning, this may seem extremely counter-intuitive. From a casual perspective, performing a glitch that allows you to skip part of the game makes it easier, because then you don't have to play that part of the game.

However, a large portion of the glitches that speedrunners use are actually difficult to perform in the first place, which typically makes it ¤more¤ difficult to pull off the "perfect" run. And that's what makes speedrunning interesting and competitive! Say you have a glitch that you can only pull off 1% of the time, but it allows you to save 5 minutes. Then people will have to practice specific techniques to pull it off, and if they're successful, they're rewarded with a run that is 5 minutes faster. :)

Another thing to consider is that a game is just a bunch of computer code. You say that "Glitches are errors, [and those] who make the game [want to avoid them]. " But how are we supposed to know what the programmer's original intent was? (The game certainly doesn't know... it only does ¤exactly¤ what the game code says, not whatever the programmer was hoping the game code said.) The word "glitch" does not have any meaning unless the programmer provides you with documentation describing exactly what the game is supposed to do, in which case a "glitch" refers to any behavior that does not agree with the documentation.

This may seem very strange or theoretical if you've never thought about it before, but there are countless examples of game "features" that may or may not have been intended (and we have no way of knowing unless the original programmer tells us). For instance, in Super Mario Bros. for the NES, Mario can actually touch the piranha plants (among other enemies) without getting hurt, depending on where he touches them. Also, if Mario is in the air and moving downward when he touches an enemy, then the enemy is the one who will take damage, even if the enemy is above Mario (despite the idea that Mario is "stomping" on the enemies). Personally, I believe the game was intentionally programmed this way to make the code simpler (due to hardware limitations at the time). But ultimately, we have no way of knowing for sure without talking to the original programmer(s). Because of this, determining whether certain game behavior constitutes a "glitch" or not is completely subjective.

As a result, it is up to the community for each individual game to decide which game behaviors constitute "glitches", and whether or not they are allowed. Some communities (such that of Pokemon Red/Blue) prefer to do "glitchless" runs, whereas in other communities, pretty much anything goes.

(Pokemon does have glitched runs as well, but the "glitchless" runs are much more popular, so most people will typically go for that category. Another interesting thing to note is that even the so-called "glitchless" category allows certain things such as using Escape Ropes inside buildings, as well as using the Pokedoll "glitch" in order to skip the Rocket Hideout in the Game Corner. Although, whether or not the Pokedoll trick is actually a "glitch" is somewhat debatable.)

In fact, even the idea of glitches being "allowed/not allowed" is flexible. Each category for a game has its own rules, so even if the most popular categories for a game don't agree with your sensibilities regarding glitches, you're always free to start running a different category that does. Of course, that doesn't guarantee that anyone else will actually be interested in your new category and start running it, but you're perfectly free to do it anyway. Being able to compare your time against other's is nice, but for me personally, beating my own time is what's most important. As long as I am improving and coming up with new ideas/techniques, then speedrunning remains an engaging activity.

So in summary... Despite the fact that your natural (casual-based) instincts say that glitches are "cheating", they are very much a part of what makes speedrunning so awesome. I think each person has their own tolerance level for how much "glitching" they can handle in a run before it becomes too much. For instance, a glitch that allows you to warp to the end credits in only 1 or 2 minutes would typically be seen as a pointless category by many, yet some people may still perform such a speedrun because they find it to be an interesting challenge (assuming the glitch isn't trivial to perform). In other words, glitches are not nearly as black and white as they may appear at first, so why don't you give them a chance? Take a look around at runs of different games, and eventually you'll find a "glitch" level that appeals to you as well. :)

Dendris, SageMistress and 2 others like this