Drug Testing
8 years ago
Afghanistan

Hey sorry for the late reply. You are correct, there is no speedrunning authority, which only exposes the glaring holes in the system even further.

Imagine soccer with no FIFA?

But that's what we have today. A growing competitive scene with a thriving culture and no way to manage it at all. Given the scandals that break out quite regularly in individual speedrunning communities, across leaderboards, don't you think there should be a consistent standard for moderation across all games, so there isn't this cultural friction that exists between speedgames?

If someone runs a game on emulator, gets WR, and decides to play another game, only to find that community doesn't allow emulator runs, isn't that a problem? As a collective whole we should either allow or disallow emulators. This along with dozens and dozens of other issues could be solved with some kind of central authority. With such an organization in place, adding drug testing to the list of standards enforced would be trivial.

AndreaRovenski likes this
Gelderland, Netherlands

oh jesus christ please not this again

Afghanistan

I'm pretty sure this is the only thread on the site regarding the subject please don't be rude

AndreaRovenski likes this
England

"Sorry for the late reply" - Last post: 7 months ago.

Antarctica

There's a reason its the only thread on this site regarding this topic.

And there's also a reason nobody is talking about it in a serious manner.

AndreaRovenski, HowDenKing and 2 others like this
Victoria, Australia
stoot
He/Him, They/Them
7 years ago

No speedrunning authority makes speedrunning what it is. It's run by each community because of what standards they've decided on, and they generally know what's best for the game. A person that isn't invested in it does not.

And if soccer didn't have FIFA, it'd be a lot less corrupt.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
New Jersey, USA

Soccer isn't corrupt because of FIFA. FIFA is corrupt because soccer is a billion-dollar industry. It would be just as corrupt, if not more so, without FIFA. The reason that the management model of speed running (SRC) works is because the communities are small and manageable. With that said, we still need site mods and admins to deal with particular situations.

As for the soccer example, it should also be noted that FIFA is an international organization. National leagues are managed by their own, individual organizations.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
Dendris and stoot like this
Victoria, Australia
stoot
He/Him, They/Them
7 years ago

Yeah. I guess the main point is that there's not enough money in speedrunning for there to be drug testing. People get money for streaming, but they don't get money from WRs. All the popular speedrunning websites (SDA, SRL, SRcom, r/speedrun, whatever other site you want to chuck in) are not run for profit. To have drug testing, speedrunning would need to turn into a business, and I don't think that's a very good direction for it to take. Not only that, but by turning speedrunning into a business, it'd only incentivise drug cheating.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
kobepilgrim and Dendris like this
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Also drug using is by far not the easiest method to cheat during a run. People use cheat codes or just restream pre-recorded tool assisted runs. Using certain drugs might be good if you want to stay awake during a dangerously long run, but if you suck at the game then there is no way you can WR just by that. Also most drug users wouldn't even like to do speedruns while high, because in comparison to other things (music, dancing, talking, sex [...]) it seems rather boring. Don't want to go personal, but I guess doctorwoot isn't much into that topic so maybe he has no clue how much drugs might influence the runs. And how much they won't.

I'm not the first one to mention how stupid this discussion is, right?

Afghanistan

Why would we talk about things that are already policed by the community? Software and hardware cheats are already condemned and looked out for. Drug cheating is not.

I don't have to mention how dumb it is to suggest people don't play video games while high.

AndreaRovenski likes this
Afghanistan

Speedrunning in certain circles is already a business and I think it's a common aspiration for many streamers to do such a thing for a living or at least for supplemental income. The money won't be an issue when certifying runs if it's applied only to record breaking runs.

AndreaRovenski likes this
France
xDrHellx
He/Him, It/Its
7 years ago

Can we just stop with this meme though ?

Afghanistan

Feel free to stop posting in my thread genius

This thread is for people who know what they are talking about only

AndreaRovenski likes this
France
xDrHellx
He/Him, It/Its
7 years ago

how come most posts are pointless then ?

Antarctica

"This thread is for people who know what they are talking about only"

I know what Im talking about when I say this is stupid. Am I allowed to stay in this thread?

Afghanistan

If you are only here to be antagonistic why not enjoy any of the other hundreds of perfectly acceptable threads on speedrun.com instead? I don't understand.

AndreaRovenski likes this
England

Because it's fun.

England

Even if this was a serious issue/argument (And it's not, it's fucking stupid), this is based on a fallacious assumption that performance-enhancing drugs will always improve your capabilities and give you an edge over the competition, which simply isn't the case.

The analogy to real-life sports doesn't apply, because in those cases the drugs really do give you an advantage which is universal; you'll simply run faster/jump higher/whatever else. Getting hopped up whilst speedrunning won't necessarily achieve that since a lot of speedrunning tech is reliant on muscle memory. When you take something that increases your reaction times and it messes up your muscle memory, you don't perform better. You perform worse.

You could substitute 'performance enhancing drug' for anything that achieves a placebo effect of the runners performing better, such as being in a specific frame of mind, or having a lucky charm if they're of a particularly superstitious mindset. These are all things that are impossible to quantify, yet WILL make a difference on a runner-by-runner basis, as mindset and confidence are incredibly important components to performing well as a speedrunner. Since these things also give a tangible edge to specific people, you would have to lump these things in and ban them also.

Since this is a patently ridiculous thing to propose, it leads to a single logical conclusion; your original premise is also ridiculous, and people just need to gitgud.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
EddventureTime58, MASH and 4 others like this
England

As an addendum:

"we are witnessing an explosive growth in popularity that has steadily risen alongside esports thanks to the rise in popularity of video game streaming, along with events such as AGDQ, ESA and soon NASA."

You seem to be conveniently forgetting that GDQ already prohibit runners from being under the influence of ANY substance. I refuse to accept this thread is anything but a feeble attempt at baiting people.

Yonish and MASH like this