Can a speedrun category be made for a book?
3 years ago
Canada

No. From the Game Request Rules (bold added for emphasis): [quote]At this time, we are not adding the following: Short/Trivial Games, Generic Puzzle games, Visual Novels, PvP-related activities, High-Score based submissions, and Non video-game activities.[/quote]

Going beyond the site, I don't see how you could possibly have any sort of fair competition around a... book... like, the mechanics of having enforceable rules that make any kind of sense with that just seems completely unmanageable.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
ThatBox likes this
United States

Now that i think about it, i probably should've read the game request rules. I've deleted the initial post, but for some reason the thread is still here so that's why i'm replying. (I shouldn't have done that and i feel like a complete idiot for even posting this in the first place.) For those who didn't get to read the original post, it was referring to scholastic's I Spy book series. Now that i've stated that, if you still care you can read my pointless ramblings on how i'd go about creating an unofficial category for this.

I Spy is one of the only book series i can think of that could have some sort of speedrun category arranged (even if not on this site) due to the nature of it being a hidden object book series, and not requiring any reading. It's really not much different from the games, except for two aspects that i think could be a problem, the first of which being difficult objects. The series has a history of including many specific difficult objects. There'd have to be some sort of confirmed location for each object to combat this problem. Secondly, multi-objects. Sometimes the books ask for more than one of the same object, and it can be kind of hard to keep track of how many you've found. My idea for this is a bit of a stretch, but maybe placing some sort of small object to keep track could help.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Colorado, USA

Deleting your original post doesn't delete the thread if it's been responded to. Your question will remain here for eternity.

Symystery, Hako and 2 others like this
United States

Even so, I'd think speedrunning I Spy wouldn't be entirely satisfying. It would be impossible to prevent people from memorizing item locations in advance, so the run would quickly turn into "point at 100 items as fast as you can." Not the most interesting video.

United States

Can't you memorize locations for the PC I Spy games too? I'm sure some runners have banked on memorization for their runs.

Canada

To elaborate a bit on what I said before, an immediate problem with that that I can think of is, what counts as "finding" an object in a book? Physically touching it? What counts as a touch, if my finger was one nanometer away from the paper does that still count? How do you verify that someone actually touched the paper through video? How can the runner be sure they did that? So if touch doesn't work, then maybe you have to place an object. How big/small can those objects be? How close does the object have to be placed to count? How do you verify that?

You see, we haven't even defined what it means to speedrun this book yet and we're already running into arbitrary decisions and verification issues. And these are just immediate surface-level concerns, that you would absolutely need to figure out before you could make any sort of attempt to track this. You're going to run into all sorts of potentially unsolvable problems like this if you seriously try to regulate this form of competition. Maybe it can be done (I don't see it happening without like in-person referees, and/or requiring pro-sports quality video footage), but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to attempt to create competition in an inherently non-interactive medium.

Imaproshaman likes this
United States

I think that logically, the proper move to do here is for me hold off further discussion on this thread, and if i feel like this discussion should go any further i'll put together some form of proof-of-concept video. About the "what counts as finding an object" question, i think i'll figure out something eventually, but if it ends up being too specific of a solution then i might have to call this entire discussion off at the proof-of-concept stage. Also, i don't own a single book in the series, i've always borrowed them from the library (which i probably won't go to anytime soon). Don't expect updates on this in the near future (i don't know why you'd care, i don't really care that much either).

In summary, i consider this post to be in my top 3 list of the worst forum posts i've ever made.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Valhalla

Yeah it's up there.

Speedrunning is based around video games. You can do other shit fast but no one really calls it speedrunning.

Lol like, track and field runners don't call it speedrunning. They don't scream pogchamp when they get a PB lmao

Hako, Moorea, and Imaproshaman like this
Valhalla

Oh yeah, emotes are a thing, not even case sensitive, thanks i hate it

United States

Isn't there like, a speedrun category on this website for sharpening pencils IRL? I'd think speedrunning a hidden object book would be more reasonable than that.

Valhalla

Uh there's this https://www.speedrun.com/pss/full_game which is a video game.

edit: i guess there's a MISC category for IRL sharpening, but it's still a leaderboard for a game.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
United States

Does this mean that if a category for an I SPY book is made, it could be made as a sub-category for its game counterpart? I never thought about it that way.

Valhalla

Maybe? It's honestly stupid either way. Content mods should probably eliminate game categories that don't feature the video game in question.

It's like playing a game of Monopoly really fast and recording it, and arguing that it should be put on one of the various leaderboards for video game versions of Monopoly. It's slippery slope for sure.

If I recreate the mushroom kingdom in my backyard and have someone record me goomba stomping through it, is that a speedrun that should be put on the SMB board? Probably not.

New York, USA

Honestly I'd like an IRL version of SMB I could run through.

Hako, Krayzar and 3 others like this
United States

I agree, although there's no point in doing a speedrun of a made-up game because that would be impossible to replicate for other runners to play.

West Yorkshire, England

❝You can do other shit fast but no one really calls it speedrunning.

❝Lol like, track and field runners don't call it speedrunning. They don't scream PogChamp when they get a PB lmao.❞

I dunno. When I wake up before my alarm goes off I scream that I shaved a few seconds off my sleep time.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Hako and QueenVanræn like this
Texas, USA

❝Lol like, track and field runners don't call it speedrunning. They don't scream PogChamp when they get a PB lmao.❞ Eh they certainly are proud to get new personal records. Their popoffs get kind of stunted for medium and long distance running because they need to cool down and catch their breath, though.

No one's stopping you from poking every listed object in an I Spy book as fast as you can, it's just not a speedrunning record. Also once you memorize them I don't think it would be that interesting.

MinecraftGaming likes this