Speed Running: a Meditation

Every movement counts. Every twitch of the finger. Every tilt or flick of the joystick. Glitches, hidden passageways, frame-perfect jumps and loading zones.This is about urgency, precision, near-inhuman perfection. This is the speedrun.

Ostensibly, speedruns began in the early to mid 90's. They've grown in popularity ever since, accumulating forums and devoted fan communities. Certain games lend themselves to speedrunning more than others, especially games that can be exploited for maximum efficiency or "optimization."

Speedruns teach us that coding is imperfect. What appears like a polished game on the outside is actually a patchwork of numbers, textures, and inputs. If you move at the right angle or perform the correct series of jumps, you can circumnavigate things like cut-scenes, further optimizing your playthrough.


In this post, I will explain and explore the phenomenon of speedrunning, not just as a hobby, but as a genuinely worthwhile endeavor.

at a glance...
Before launching into the deeper value of speedruns, I want to take a moment to discuss its scope.

speedrun.com has a list of runs, records, and categories. Upon visiting this site, you will see recently completed speedruns. Most games fall beneath the following three main categories:

• Any % - players must complete the run in the fastest possible time. Period.
• Low % - players must complete the run amassing only the collectibles and requirements that are absolutely necessary for completion.
• 100 % - players must achieve all collectibles and requirements.

Depending on the game, there can be additional percentages or caveats. For example, Super Mario 64 is divided into 0, 1, 16, 70, and 120 star runs. Some games involve level-skips. Others must be played all the way through. The longer the run, the more stamina and consistency is needed for optimal completion. Speedruns are also divided into subcategories, such as glitchless, all/no bosses, and even blindfolded! There's no shortage of variety here.

is speedrunning reductive? 
At first, speedrunning appears to be about competitive efficiency. How fast can you get from point A to point B? What movements or glitches will save time? What is the cost or benefit of RNG?

I was initially skeptical, because I consider myself more of an atmospheric gamer. Games are experiences. They are an extension of reality. So what does it mean to breeze through that experience, sacrificing parts of it along the way?

Watching a speedrun, it's easy to forget how much practice goes into each movement. Speedrunners spend hours exploring and experimenting. During runs, they flex multiple skills, demonstrating coordination, "geographic knowledge," and an intimate understanding of the game as an instrument. The more you acquaint yourself with speedruns, the more you realize: these are not just robotic, ruthlessly efficient movements. These are movements that have the practice and grace of a virtuoso violinist. It's not just a skill, it's an art.


if not reductive, then productive?
Let's first take a moment to acknowledge the stigma surrounding gaming. I won't go too deep here, but I do want to mention how capitalism stresses the "work versus play" divide. In this false binary, everything categorized as "work" is productive, whereas "play" is unproductive or even counterproductive. The cultural sentiment I grew up with was: "video games will melt your brain." The older I get, however, the more absurd this sentiment becomes. Video games are just another layer of experience, adding complexity and intrigue to our daily reality.

This brings me back to speedruns. While playing a game as fast as possible might appear "unproductive," speedrunning actually involves both work and play. Any % speedrunners must familiarize themselves with the quirks and constraints of their game. How can the game's perceived "reality" be shattered? Where is the game's illusion (programming) weakest? In glitch runs, players jump backwards, judder, and clip through walls. Rules were made to be broken. Nothing is quite as it seems.

Perhaps this is a stretch, but speedrunners are like digital philosophers. They question, deconstruct, and rearrange the world that they have been given. This is what makes speedruns so exhilarating. Watching them feels law-defying.

Speedrunners are doing good things, too! At the semiannual event Games Done Quick (GDQ) the most skilled runners gather together to stream games and raise money for charities like the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. GDQ turns gamers into donors. Our excitement about digital realities can yield real-world benefits! If that isn't productive, then I don't know what is.

so what?
Throughout the last century, humans have approached new technologies with skepticism. Won't digital realities make us lazier, duller, and somehow less human? While these fears are not wholly unfounded, technology can also make us more human. After all, what is more human than forming competitive communities and sharing knowledge?

Video games are still a recent development, but already, they have attained enormous cultural weight. How we interact with games says a lot about us as a species. "The speedrun" is no exception. Let's all take a moment to appreciate speedrunning as something more than just a hobby, but as an art, a philosophy, and a potential source of good in the world.