Some games are challenging just to play. They are difficult to get through, and can force the player to retry over and over again until frustration overtakes them and they finally quit. Other video games are just relaxing and easy to play. These ones focus on relaxing and just having fun. But how does it feel to remove that relaxing gameplay, or adding to the frustration of other games by now adding the challenge of beating the game in less time than EVERYONE else?

Speedrunning is the act of playing and completing a game, level, or just general achievements as fast as humanly possible. Some speedrunners take advantage of any bugs in the game, this is called “Any%” speedrunning, which in the world of speedrunning, is not breaking the rules. Other speedrunners place limitations on themselves, placing other goals that they have to accomplish, such as no glitches, getting all collectibles, etc. Either way, speedrunning has become an enjoyable hobby to many, and has become such a big part of gaming, that there are now hundreds of twitch streams, youtube videos, and even a website dedicated to it.

In order to get a better idea of what speedrunning is, and why it is so attractive, I interviewed a fellow Twitch streamer, and newer speedrunner, the_AIsian. He claims that part of the fun is “running through a game you really love” and can be described as being a “hobby.” It is something that people do because they get enjoyment out of it, while simultaneously offering a challenge in order to get the fastest time. A sort of incentive to get better and better at playing through the game.

We also talked about the community that is involved in speedrunning. AIsian describes speedrunning as a mix of both “competitive and cooperative,” as the speedrunning community typically shares most of the tricks that they encounter, which are then used by future speedrunners, or even improved upon by future speedrunners to better their own times. The community of speedrunners tend to practice these tricks and techniques until they are absolutely flawless, which can take dozens of tries at playing a game over and over again. Always trying to find those “slight optimizations” to shave off a few seconds, or even “one frame.” It truly shows the dedication of the populace that pursue this hobby.

Before finishing our interview, I asked AIsian about any tricks he might have for up comers for the speedrunning scene. To which he gave me two.

1. “Catch up with the community, so watch replays, or watch runs and kind of learn off of that.”
2. “It takes a lot of persistence and dedication…but if you have the persistence, you will definitely enjoy it.”