Well everyone, another year, another GDQ so why not have a topic discussing speedruning and speedrunning events.
Feel free to post interesting runs here and discuss stuff like GDQ/ESA/etc…
While this year had a rocky start due to a sub only chat, so far the event has been pretty great in my opinion. Stand out runs for me were Yooka Laylee, Backwards DK, Contra. (I’ll post the VODs later, it’s tough to do so while away from my PC) and pretty much any run featuring SpikeVegeta who always shocks me with his in depth knowledge of myriad speedruns.
Chat is always awful on twitch when there are that many viewers so anything that weeds out a lot of the garbage chaff is fine. I still avoid it like the plague though.
I’ve been watching chat this year to see if there are any notable differences and it seems sub only mode has improved it quite a bit, it’s still not great but they are actually moderating it somewhat effectively.
I need to go back and watch the VODs for some that I missed that sounded pretty fun, and the Donkey Kong Country ones were pretty neat.
As far as chat is concerned, I never really “got it”. In smaller streams it’s cool since you talk to the streamer , but it makes no sense (for me) in gdq. The runner can’t see what you’re writing and at best you get to spam “memes”. Hell, the chat is still there and it works the same way it did before in terms of mob mentality, except that instead of seeing 3000 messages a second when something cool happens, you see 1000 xD, not a big deal imo.
I think that the staff also addressed a lot of complaints form before, the read donations are more varied, the split between the runners+couch and the donation reading is much better as well.
I wonder how not having the “kill/save the animals” will affect donations though.
Chat has always, and will always be pretty awful for these events. Subs mode helps a little, but I’d still say you’re better off never looking at it unless you just really love meme spam for some reason.
As far as runs go I’ve enjoyed what I’ve managed to catch so far, and i"m really looking forward to the MGS runs later tonight, Risk of Rain tomorrow (though I likely won’t watch it live), Prey on Thursday and Baldur’s Gate 2 on Saturday (mostly because I want to see how exactly they do that game in under 30 minutes).
I’m impressed with how this event is being run so far. They’ve been getting sloppier and cringy-er in recent years, with some poor run choices and inevitable transphobic memes. This AGDQ has already had a lot going for it, and nothing has been super negative thus far besides some minor technical difficulties.
Among all the good stuff is a run of Silent Hill coming up Wednesday morning that’s being done by an LPer from this very forum, so I recommend checking that out.
Good start making the chat sub only but it’s currently just a mess of people spamming complaints. I figure next year chat will just be gone.
I caught the Splatoon 2 run and it was a real good watch. Also I could not stop laughing at the audio loss during the DKC Reverse run tutorial, like the one time it’s really important to have you’re audio up.
Oh and hey the current run “EL MATADOR” is excellent so far.
The Mega Man X race, commentated by Caleb and Big Jon was neck in neck until the bitter end and is definitely the stand out run for me so far Rarely, if ever, can you see such a perfect storm of excellent couch commentary, amazing display of skill, tension and community support. If there is one run you should see, it’s this one! Link
Jaguar King’s MGS3 run shows that even when a run goes south it’s possible for it to be incredibly entertaining + features an amazing performance of Snake Eater by Sumichu Link
The Serious Sam 3 run is another contender for best run, featuring excellent gameplay and commentary Link
Finally the, as of writing, still ongoing Super Mario 3D World run is incredibly fun, but the donation incentives for the playable character in the final level is probably the highlight of this run. Link
My top speedrun from AGDQ was kung fu jesus getting drunk in our hotel room and playing God Hand start to finish in front of us in the middle of the night for the third year in a row.
Rarely, if ever, can you see such a perfect storm of excellent couch commentary, amazing display of skill, tension and community support. If there is one run you should see, it’s this one!