Speedrunning Games that Don't Have Records; Yay or Nay?
5 years ago
Indiana, USA

I've noticed that while there are obvious games people like to speedrun because they are exciting to watch and stream, there's tons of games on here where it seems like any person who bothered could be a world record holder. Honestly, I feel like trying my hand at getting world records for games that people don't bother... but you don't get prestige being the World Record holder for beating some obscure GBA title. Beating the games everyone knows and loves (and Battle for Bikini Bottom, apparently) is how you get your stripes.

So... I was wondering... I'd like to build up my confidence by tackling games on the website that don't have any records. Here's my list:

*B.O.B. on the Sega Genesis *The Sims: Bustin' Out *Urbz: Sims in the City

B.O.B. is the only action one. The others are simulation games that I believe I can provide some sort of input to help the gamer take advantage of the mechanics of Simulation games, even though they make boring streaming.

If I pull these off, is this a good way to get started... or are you just being lazy?

Imaproshaman likes this
Valhalla

Your approach is wrong. Anybody can post an LP of some lesser known game and call it world record. So what? If your goal is to just pile up WRs in games no one plays, are they really world records? The title itself suggests that competition exists.

NokiDoki, Imaproshaman and 7 others like this
Antarctica

If your only approach to this hobby is “get lots of WRs” then you’re going to burn out so fast. There’s so much more to this hobby than “getting your stripes” or getting a WR. Run games you enjoy or run games that are interesting to you. Running boring games or random, simulation games (which probably wouldn’t even be accepted on the site) just to claim a WR is an easy way to get bored or burnt out on this.

WR is a fine goal to have, but making it your sole priority or thinking it’s the most important things is a viewpoint that’s probably not good to have. That being said, if you want to run a game nobody has done before because it’s interesting to you and you want to optimize it and build a community around it, then go for it because every game has to start somewhere.

Edited by the author 5 years ago
NokiDoki, Imaproshaman and 6 others like this
United States

I think your approach is wrong for different reasons. Yeah sure you could get a WR on those games, but would you enjoy running them?

Would you be happy competing against yourself? Would you run the game again and again because you like it, even if you already had the record, in the absence of competition? Would you try to build a community around the game if you could, would you try to draw others interest, be supportive of other runners who would like to run it? Basically, do you care about the game?

There's nothing wrong with going for a World Record on a game no one plays if you honestly enjoy the game, but if you're just doing it to have a gold icon next to your name, there are easier ways to get that. Like buying gold star stickers at a dollar store and writing your name next to one of them, for example. =P

And just to add, personally, what I find most fulfilling about this hobby is the routing, and the community. I likely will never be the fastest at any of this. My hands are crap and it's just an impossibility due to some medical stuff right now. But damned if I can't show some folks who are way better at execution than I am a strategy or two. I'd much rather be the guy who broke the game wide open by finding a glitch or strat than the rotating cast of WR holders!

Edited by the author 5 years ago
EmeraldAly and Tenka like this
Canada

"I'd like to build up my confidence by tackling games on the website that don't have any records"

Your confidence in regards to.... what exactly? Your skill as a speedrunner? Your "prestige" in the eyes of the community? I'm not sure what exactly you're expecting to gain by running dead games just to get free, uncontested (and thus meaningless) world records. You'd be much better off running games that you actually want to run, regardless of how contested they are or how much "prestige" you would get if you were to get the world record (which shouldn't be the first thing you're thinking about when you get into speedrunning, that's step #1 to permanently burning yourself out).

Edited by the author 5 years ago
Hako and EmeraldAly like this
United States

One reason to want to run games with no runs is to have fun routing them, and to understand the process of decreasing the time via iteration. Make a really basic route and get a max time. Then start examining how to improve it, and the time should start going down the more you run it. If you might want to go for a WR on some game that process of critical thinking might reveal ways of decreasing the time. I would say getting an WR should really be secondary goal though on popular games. Considering how disgustingly optimized some of those games are you will probably be looking at a minimum of several hundred hours of running those to even get close to the top times.

Also on games with no other records it is amusing for me to say "I have a world record in ___, but I am the only one to do any runs for the game!".

Indiana, USA

I should point out that the three games that I mentioned aren't exactly random games, but rather games that I have experience with from growing up and thus gaining an affinity to them. The Sims games, in particular, I'd like to explore a streamined process of beating the game quickly by recognizing which routes to meeting objectives are better for timing, as well as knowing what stats to have by the end of the game, which characters to befriend... or antagonize, and so forth.

I want to get records on those primarily for personal reasons as previously stated; I liked them growing up, and hope to get people to play them by figuring out how to take advantage of each game's quirks.

Krayzar likes this
Valhalla

That's the right approach. Play the games you wanna play.

Osmosis_Jones likes this
British Columbia, Canada

I would put the community first before the desire to have WR's. I think doing some speedruns on games without any records might help the community expand. Even if you don't like the game much if you can get the ball rolling then maybe others that do like the game will do speedruns now that they have a goal to beat. So more people playing more games brings more people to the community. I am new to speedrunning because I saw people do it on Twitch. I was just looking to see if anyone was playing old games I used to play and now I want to speedrun these old games.

New York, USA

TBH most of the games I ran when I got started were ones I played casually that I saw didn't have any runs in some categories. So I decided to snag the records. Then I actually started having a lot of fun running and routing them. I'm making plans to start running some other games I like that actually have records, but I'm enjoying routing a game I'm trying to get added to the site. So yeah, if you start running those games, be prepared to find out it's enjoyable to keep working on it.

United States

There's little prestige to having a world record when there's no competition, and only a little more to holding a world record. If prestige is what you're after then speedrun something with a community to measure your run against.

The title alone is fine, and I'd encourage anyone interested in breaking ground on a game without an established run to go for it. A community has to start somewhere. Having a run in place as a baseline for what's possible may act as a catalyst for getting others to attempt the run as well. I made a game page for a game I had plans for running, but I only got as far as posting maps for it as a guide. Then four runners came along and did some actual runs. Even all you're doing is making a small proof of concept, it's a good first step to getting a run completed, even if you're not the one to get world record.

Also, those three games have some established boards:

https://www.speedrun.com/B.O.B. https://www.speedrun.com/The_Sims_Bustin_Out_GBA https://www.speedrun.com/simsbo https://www.speedrun.com/the_urbz_sims_in_the_city https://www.speedrun.com/urbzgba

Good luck, have fun.

6oliath likes this
Québec

personnaly i want to speedrun the patapon franchise bacause its a good game that deserves runs, sure im not the best and ill probably do crap time but, i want to set a time to beat, to make others (and more experienced) players go ahead and beat me

Indiana, USA

Yeah, I'm probably not going to focus too much on getting actual World Records in marquee games, or even things people will be spending months trying to either master or discover glitches. Like, I'm the 72nd best player in Sonic Mania's Titanic Monarch Zone's Act 2 (Sonic) because I'm a huge fan of that stage's gimmick, but I know that it's Green Hill Zone that people will be gunning for.

And I'm fine with that.

Krayzar likes this
North Brabant, Netherlands

B.O.B. is a great game to speedrun though. Tough as nails, not sure if there are ny glitches.

But I agree with most other responses, don't just do a Let's Play and then claim WR. Route the game, get a time you're happy with and then submit it.

Edited by the author 5 years ago
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Speaking of Let's Plays, the inFAMOUS: Second Son leaderboard's last place run is a walkthrough that still remains on the board untouched.

Edited by the author 5 years ago
Portugal

On the one hand, it's always good to see more games being speedrun, variety can only be a good thing after all, and making videos of runs or streaming them leads to a chance of creating a bigger community dedicated to beating a game fast.

But if it's only to make an easy WR or two and then abandon the game, it just feels a bit...hollow and pointless, what's the point of getting a WR just to say you have one after all, it's not as if you got a WR in a really popular game with a lot of runners like Super Mario 64 or Ocarina Of Time, you can even see it in the speedrunning reddit, people posting WR's at some indie games and maybe one or two posts saying "Congrats" and that's it.

Just run the games you like for yourself, not for easy WRs, because a lot of people will not care because they can feel the main runner doesn't even seem to enjoy the game all that much.

European Union

@SpiderHako if it follows the rules, and is a single-segment playthrough - I don't see anything wrong with that.

Sweden

Go for it, obviously. It's the only way to start competition on those leaderboards. Someone has to be first.

Canada

Well, free WRs don't stay free for long.

I did run a few NES games (such as Basewars and M.U.S.C.L.E.) that didn't have LBs, but that was to put them on the map. The WRs at that time don't really have "WR value" in a sense, and said WRs got taken not too long after. Which I think is great as generating interest in those games was my goal.

So if you go WR-hunting to build confidence up, all you're really doing is aim at the low-hanging fruit, which is something anyone can do. And those WRs will end up being gone pretty quickly.

Garlic_ and Osmosis_Jones like this

Just use the API to find boards that have one single run that are at least a few months old. Chances are, those are unoptimized runs and you'll be able to submit a better time; you'll be first out of two instead of alone on a board.

About the same amount of effort.

Osmosis_Jones likes this