![]() Speedrunners interact with games in a way few players ever set out to, celebrating getting to know the inner workings of a game and sharing that knowledge with each other and their audiences. If you’re at all familiar with the stuff I care for and rant about when it comes to games, this is among the upper echelon of the causes near and dear to my heart. Selfishly I also really love the event because it’s one of the few public places where our culture starts tearing down the wall of secrecy behind how games are made in a way that feels constructive. When you spend your time sifting through the crap that fills so much of the lives of people who closely watch gaming communities and industries, institutions like Games Done Quick and the events they put on start looking like a beacon of light. For so many of them, putting on these showcases is the culmination of years of passionate work, because why else would you play a game hundreds of times front to back, memorizing it and the unique ways you can exploit the cracks in the surface to complete it as quickly as possible? And all that passion is especially rewarded when world records are broken (two already during this marathon!) and everyone pops off and celebrates as personal and cumulative milestones are crossed. Runners often bring on their closest friends and colleagues to commentate as they take on the task of breaking games wide open for charity and the biggest audience of their lives. They often repeat the same running jokes to each other and because of that, I’ll never say “orb” the same way. The Twitch chat, which regularly has viewer counts in the tens of thousands, all call each other cute at every chance they get. The event is great in even subtler ways than the collective good it realizes though. Such is the way of Games Done Quick, an institution so good, it canceled its live event in Florida that would’ve occurred this week over the state’s hateful legislation. As we’re halfway through the week now, I’m happy to say that this year’s AGDQ has already raised more than half a million dollars for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and by the time the marathon ends on Sunday, it’s likely to exceed more than $1 million. ![]() This week marks the return of Awesome Games Done Quick, the first of two annual major speedrunning charity events that bring out the absolute best that gaming culture has to offer. ![]()
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