Why are segmented speedruns so rare nowdays?
6 years ago

Wouldn't segmented speedruns mean that when the game is routed, you could go for optimal times much quicker?

They were common before but rarer now.

With single-segment speedruns, it's hard to search for individual runs if best segments happen to be in different runs.

England

In my opinion it's due to advent of streaming. When people are livestreaming their runs all the time, it's just expected that it's gonna be single-segment attempts. Ask yourself if you'd really enjoy watching someone stream the construction of a segmented run, it's possible that you would but a lot of people just aren't keen on it. It's in the same league as watching someone do ILs, that just tends to get fewer viewers than full runs.

Slevanas, 607 and 2 others like this

What if I enjoy watching run after it's done instead?

Valhalla

I think segmented is neat, but would be lame to run. I prefer to do RTA shrug

607 likes this
Esperanto

They are rare now-a-days because it's a lot easier and cheaper to handle and upload larger videos. To me, it just seems like a TAS lite (or appropriate for level leaderboards). I'd rather watch some using frame by frame save states than watch someone use 10 minute interval save states. The former actually produces an optimal time.

coolestto, 607, and Konato_K like this
United States

Streaming was the first step, but marathons drove most towards RTA.

blueYOSHI likes this
Texas, USA

Becoming rare doesn't necessarily mean that it's going extinct. The pendulum is on this side now, but that doesn't mean it won't swing back. Who knows? Maybe doing relay races of game segments or something will become a thing? I think I'd watch that.

ConkyJoe89 likes this
Antarctica

Another thing is that some games became so broken that single segment runs became more viable and much shorter. As games got shorter due to better routing and more people experimenting, the need to do segmented runs because of time constraints disappeared.

Plus, as timers have gotten more advanced, the work of segmented runs is done during an RTA run so to speak. If you take your sum of best for a game you’re grinding RTA, that would essentially be your segmented run time since it’s the best you’ve ever done on each segment.

I think Torje once compiled all his OOT any% best segments and spliced them together into a single video which is essentially a segmented run of the game. So doing that is much easier and more viewer friendly then just grinding segments endlessly.

Germany

Portal still has quite a few segmented run projects, mostly for fun misc categories, that top runners and routers collaborate on. Obviously due to the amount of work and people involved, this can take quite a while. I tried something like this myself and it's quite tedious, even compared to just grinding RTA like a reset addict.

Czech Republic

Segmented runs can be MUCH more frustrating to run compared to RTA runs, if you want to do a proper segmented run that is. Trust me, I've been speedrunning for over 11 years. It can really test your patience if you're restarting a one minute level several hundred times just to get the best RNG and all tricks executed as fast as humanly possible. There are also people (mostly newcomers) that dislike/hate these runs for some weird reason.

Also, some games would be actually slower, usually on console, due to necessary saving/loading or no saving at all.

Another reason is that you can quite easily cheat in a segmented run, especially on PC, and nobody would notice. You can of course cheat in RTA run as well, but not as much.

North Brabant, Netherlands

Segmented runs and single segment runs can't really be compared. It is what others said, livestreaming and marathons are the reasons runs more became single segment. And if you race another person, you always do a single segment run. Segmented runs always will have a place in speedrunning, but mostly offline till you got a video of it. And single segment requires more consistency to get a good run. While anyone can get a WR, but I think the best at a game can even have the third or fourth place on the leaderboard, but is more consistent overal. Segmented runs removes that requirement.

So: Livestream it is more fun to watch people do a single segment run. If you upload a video while recording offline, it doesn't matter as long as it is clear it is segmented.

@Jessica, that fight talk might be because nearly all your post you have an aggressive tone towards most people here? You always assume people livestream to earn money, even if I have earlier proven you wrong on that matter? In fact, youtube and monetizing is also a thing, which also works for segmented speedruns. So please stop bitching about this matter, or at least change the tone of your messages.

Valhalla

Calm down children

Zachoholic, blueYOSHI and 4 others like this
Esperanto

Segmented runs are clearly not cheating, if that's what someone is doing and they aren't trying to pretend like it's an RTA run. That being said, it would make no sense to put them on the same leaderboard if one is supposedly easier than the other.

Germany

[quote]I am not stop bitching and I will do my best to do this.[/quote] Yet you end your post saying you are [quote]Like I say mods call 'segmented runs are cheated'. This is bitching, and you wonder of the aggressive talk ![/quote] If you are submitting segmented runs to a leaderboard for single-segment runs, then it's your fault. [quote]Do not know why you come up again with money. But yes there are some runners here (do not say the name) they only want the highest number of Followers and scream in the chat 'give me more money', make the stream longer that it should be and come up with lets play videos and call it WR.[/quote] Personally I started streaming my runs over 2 years ago when it was 100% unlikely for me to ever earn a single cent from it. Also never has anyone ever defined a limit for stream length, other than twitch force-restarting it at 50hrs. Note that I say force-restarting it, not ending. [quote]So Aureus_Lunae, will you say me it is not true ? Do you know all runners here ? I am do this since 2006, and your argument is ZERO with all your other posts. So what did you say ''Segmented runs and single segment runs can't really be compared'' did someone say something different, is this all ?[/quote] Sentences written with such broken grammar that I'm not even sure what you are trying to say, but oh well. Might as well answer the quote: No they can't be compared. Segmented runs have the unfair advantage of you having as many tries as you need for anything, yet only the final try counts towards your time. That is not allowed in single-segment. Furthermore you may take as much realltime as you want with Segmented runs, some from the Portal community here take over a year to make, yet the final time doesn't mention that. [quote]Yeah I was think so. Maybe you should try and break some of the segmented runs and you will learn that this is the hardest and most frustrating category of speedrun. When you can not do this, than shut up. And yes I am in Bitch mode and I like it.[/quote] More broken grammar and the part where you contradict your previous statement that you are not bitching about it.

If you need any more proof that you are a toxic troll, don't fucking call me.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Aureus_Lunae likes this
Switzerland

I think segmented runs are not accepted because it's just not worth it to create a segmented category for that one segmented run someone did. If many started to do segmented runs, i'm sure some games get a segmented category. On the other hand, games that people ran for years are already near perfect so segmented wouldn't change that much anyway.

Switzerland

Super Mario 64, I know it's not perfect but almost, there's also Sunshine. It's hard to save a few seconds there.

[quote​=JessicaSix] Na hir haben wir ja einen ganz schlauen klugscheisser. oh man Deine antworten sind nur ein witz und du hast überhaupt nicht verstanden was das eigentliche problem ist. Wer hat den gesagt das segmented runs als single segment gesubmited wurden ? Da kommt so richtig die blödheit raus bei dir. Sonst noch was zu sagen ? Kommen da noch mehr weisheiten aus dir raus ? Du machst das seid 2 jahren und ja ich sehe was du erreicht hast, ich mache das seid 2006, also höre ja auf mir zu erklären was speedrun ist. Du machst dich lächerlich. Es gibt momente da solltest du lieber mal deine schnauze zu machen. [/quote​] I guess i'll translate that: "Well, here we got a real smartass. oh man Your answers are a joke and you didn't understand anything about the actual problem. Who said that segmented runs are submitted as single segmented? There you see how stupid you actually are. You have to say something else? Are you going to say more wisdoms? Your doing this for 2 years and yes, I see what you achieved, i'm doing this since 2006, so please stop explaining to me what speedrunning is. Your ridiculous. There are moments you should shut up."

I'm not that good in english so maybe some sentences aren't the exact same but it still says the exact same.

/edit because JessicaSix edited as well: If mods are rude, you should report them instead of blaming the site.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Zachoholic and HowDenKing like this
Valhalla

Not sure if bait or pure idiocy. Going with the latter.

blueYOSHI and HowDenKing like this
France
xDrHellx
He/Him, It/Its
6 years ago

Oh definitly the latter, has to be.

Lonne, blueYOSHI and 3 others like this
Germany

@JessicaSix if all you can do is insult other people and try to get around rules by using a different language, just delete your account before a mod does it.

Aureus_Lunae and blueYOSHI like this
Texas, USA

Geeez this thread is toxic af haha. But avoiding all that, a game I've started checking out recently is Turok 2, and it's essentially all IL/basically segmented at this point in time bc the majority of active runners for that game choose to do IL instead for some reason.

So, to summarize, IL/segmented is still alive, you just have to know where to look is all. For some games it's most popular, not least popular/a totally dead option.