The Absurdity of Speedrunning
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Life is full of Absurd choices. Becoming a speedrunner is one of them. Enjoy the descent through the Absurdity of Speedrunning. Feel free to like the video and subscribe while you’re down there.
Enjoy the video? I stream on twitch at / rubbertoe64 , consider stopping by and dropping a follow.
For Bismuth series on the history of the A Button Challenge, check out • The Complete History o...
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P.S.
Yo Slime, love the Pod
I think Sisyphus wouldve been much happier if there was a big number at the top of the mountain that incremented everytime he made it to the top, and then he could spend those points on fun stickers for the rock
Ah yes, gamification.
Yes
Horrifyingly fitting Dimentio pfp. The only thing missing is the laugh
Katamari anyone?
he could also be sponsored by G-fuel
not sure if the two are actually comparable. The critical difference is that Sisyphus' ordeal is something he MUST complete, he has no choice in the matter for it is his punishment. Speedrunners continue to grind and pursue greater records because they choose to.
Actually... why the hell does sisyphus actually does it? Like, he's in hell already, he could just say "fuck it" and give up, maybe he'd get punished but that would add a bit of variety to the torture.
So like, is there a canonical reason why he does it anyway instead of going on a strike or something?
@@Laezar1it’s hell
@@Laezar1 A. The Furies are so much worse. Even the monotony of the boulder is preferable to being a creative outlet for the nightmare torture demons*.
B. It's a parable and "canon" isn't really such a big deal for it. It's an illustration of a moral lesson and a conceptual idea. The idea of literal canonicism is a fairly modern one.
*The Furies aren't demons in the Christian sense but you get the idea.
@@BloodyAltima Yeah I know it's a parable, but like if you look at a myth like tantalus the punishment is something they have no control over.
Sisyphus however feel like he could just give a middle finger to the punishment so I find interesting that it isn't even considered as an option in the myth (as far as I'm aware).
@@Laezar1 maybe he thinks he can actually do it? I don't know if that's part of the "official" myth but in the version I heard, following happened:
After tricking the gods of death twice, some god decided to give him a fitting punishment and thus created the boulder task.
"carry this boulder up this hill and you are free"
Sisyphus was happy to have such a easy task as punishment and imagined himself to be free soon. Of course he would have to realize eventually that his task is impossible but in a Greek myth it is easily imaginable that his mind was corrupted.
Another idea I had is that just nothing surrounds him so, just darkness and silence, no punishment (->he has nothing better to do).
Also excuse bad englisch please
"One must imagine speedrunners happy" really got to me
Sisyphus was punished. Speed runners choose their boulder.
Maybe Camus had a point when he argued "one must imagine Sisyphus happy"
Okay so I wrote this before finishing the video, and I was pleasantly surprised that he was mentioned at the end!
One must imagine Bruno happy
@@OtherRuns oh you son of a gun
Any French philosophy post-Rousseau is essentially a magazine. You rube.
OtherRuns is like if Summoning Salt and VSauce collabed.
Thanks for this interesting speedrunning essay pls keep work up love it when i find such channels
at the end, my mind went to some quote about alexander the great crying about winning.
Speedrunning is a mistake for many, many reasons.
- You can never be 100% sure if the people you're competing against are really good at playing the game, or really good at cheating/splicing. Even if you decide to trust other runners, there will always be an ugly thought running in the back of your mind that those people might not be legitimate.
- You grow to hate the games you loved because of speedrunning.
- You'll always have regrets when you realize you've wasted months or years of your life on speedrunning a video game, regardless if you achieve your goal or not.
- You'll never feel satisfied, because you'll always notice imperfections in your completed runs, even if you have a WR title.
- The satisfaction from getting a WR only lasts a couple hours, a couple days, or a couple weeks. After then you grow indifferent towards it.
How do I know it? I've been a speedrunner for 2 years. I had multiple WRs in a few games that had an active competetive community. And I never felt happy about it long-term. And I wish I didn't waste my time on speedrunning.
You’re message has fallen on deaf ears. Not many people speedrun to begin with. It just feels different because you can watch them for several hours of the day every day. It’s probably for the best that they stop but they have no intention of doing so out of willful ignorance. It’s a shame if goes on but ultimately you just have to ignore it cos there’s nothing you can do
The leading theory for the upwarp is no longer the gamma ray joke, its a crooked cartridge, it was reproduced I believe, but its not a legal strat.
What a gem of a video. Well done.
AYO. Nice edit with the fiver guy 👌🏽
On the subject of arbitrary code execution, and how it executes RAM as if it were ROM, it is totally legitimate for a game to write code into RAM and then execute it when needed. I've seen Gameboy games do this during normal operation.
Some just have fun when they win effectively.
great vid. esp the end
Really enjoyed this video, awesome job. You should slap an outro on your videos as a suggestion just to tie things up. Anyway, great video!
this was very satisfying to watch, thank you!
Very good video, take my like!
* * playing the video in 2.0x speed out of spite* *
The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion music in the background threw me off
Algorithm must be working in your favor, this was at the top of my recommended. And I'm subbing.
As one who's biased _against_ the act of speedrunning games, I still can't resist getting caught up in certain phenomenon when I stumble across it. I would occasionally check in on the TTC upwarp bounty status for a couple of months back when it was new, for example. It seems so stupid and unreasonable until something personally relevant piques my interest, then I just kinda go with it until it seems stupid again 😹
Regardless, I do respect the dedication that these people have. Good video, apt comparisons, meow meow :3
Great video. ❤
But go fast fun
Absurd how you only have 300 subs, im just playing Minecraft and I thought I was listening to a huge youthber
You forgot about golden eye runners electrocuting themselves with a broken second player controller to save time. xD
Bro there’s no such thing as half an A press you either press it or you don’t /j
Nice
Comparing Sisyphus' ordeal to a speedrunner is a literal joke, right?
Nice video
I needed this math in high school wtf
''One must imagine Sissyphus calling his WR rolling bad''
The musician life style is just pratice, pratice, pratice, go insane, and go to sleep everyday. We are making fun off speed running. It's the same life style for a serious musician who puts in the effort to become good at instrument. That's the cycle for at least 10 years, but I tried Doom speedrunning, and I don't know how people do it until they get a WR.
I like how Summoning Salt is used as a benchmark in speedrunning.
There is a way Summoningsalt has with his videos that is the pinnical of speed run reviewers, like jcs is for criminal psychology and sociology, or devs react for highlighting thr differences between the programmer designer and the runner.
Summoning salt is the OG when it comes to soeedrunning videos, he's like the tony stark of the MCU
@@masterdon187 Marvel reference, banned.
SummoningSalt is also the gold standard for Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!
I like that the hypothesis of "gamma rays did it" has been applied to both the end Ordovician mass extinction event and also a weird glitch in a Mario 64 speedrun. Gamma rays really can do everything, apparently.
Inb4 Mario 64 runners start sticking a peice of Uranium in the console.
@@fatcthulhu4904speedrunners carefully aiming a particle accelerator at the exact physical location the 3rd bit in the y position byte:
It was most likely just a crooked cartridge.
@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs pannenkoek is the ultimate chad of autism
@@jacqli69 that's not how computers work. Cartridges don't just flip random bits in the computer's memory.
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy. After all, he has that Boulder Roll Any% record on lock.” - Albert Camus
Any French philosophy post-Rousseau is essentially a magazine. You rube.
The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a mans heart
@slater666 /woosh
The most absurd thing here is you having 70 subscribers, let's hope the algorythm blesses you
I think he's being blessed
@@MrStanFungi for me to be here I would have to agree
Indeed.
Blessing received
Got me here
The most absurd thing I remember from speedrunning (as someone who only casually follows them on UA-cam) was the whole “Gamer Gunk” strategy runners were using in SpongeBob Battle For Bikini Bottom. For a while, it was believed that licking the cd at strategic spots would cause lag that would allow players to clip through some walls. I think they’ve moved on from doing that, but man it was weird.
Gamer Gunk is the best trick for gamer dudes and dudettes.
What the actual f^%k? ಠ_ಠ
@@robertlupa8273 Yep, that was my reaction too.
God that gave me a good laugh.
yeah i remember; they eventually allowed loading the game off the Xbox's hard drive to preserve the game discs
Speedrunning might be the best real life analogy of the story of Sisyphus lol
This or becoming rank 1 (best player) in any field. Climbing that mountain, watching the others slowly reach you and having to weather the storm until someone inevitably pushes you down the mountain. Then you have to climb the mountain once again.
Speedrunners aren't being forced, they can take breaks, and playing video games is not equivalent to torturously rolling a rock up a hill. They aren't really analogous
@@a2rhombus2well, the story of Sisyphus isn’t real, and Speed running is real. They really aren’t analogous.
Life itself is a real life analogy of the story of Sisyphus
One must imagine Sisyphus happy tho
I remember seeing the "Speedlunky" achievement for Spelunky (finish in less then 8 minutes, no shortcuts) and thinking it impossible. I got addicted and now years later can run through the game in half that time yet am still far, far away from breaking any records!
I really have to respect anyone who has all the Achievements/Trophies in Spelunky HD and Spelunky 2. I have played Spelunky 2 several times a day since it was released at Steam and I still have not reached Sunken City. With Spelunky HD I have reached Hell maybe 5 times but I have never killed Yama. Both are surprisingly difficult games. I have 631 hours in Spelunky HD and 356 hours in Spelunky 2 and I still suck at both.
Ayyy, fellow spelunky enjoyer! Love to see it
Do you put those accomplishments in your Tinder profile?
4 minutes is really impressive! I can barely do sub-4 and ngl I probably can't even do sub-6 now
As a wise lad once said: "Speedrunning is the most degenerate act man has ever come up with."
true
He's LOOSE!
On my old, now lost account NintendoSegaSonyGuy, I used to speedrun Metal Gear Solid 3 as a teenager...or rather, I tried to. Could never do a complete segmented run. It was just too hard to get certain parts right, and it was too time-consuming and random-feeling to get there. I was better at coming up with strats than executing them. Some things I came up with are actually used in world record runs today, such as continuously shooting tranquilizers on the bridge guards at the beginning of the game or the fact that radio frequencies carry over after game overs or game console resets, which is helpful during the jail sequence. I'm proud of my accomplishments, however meager they may be, especially because I came up with them when I was so young.
Godspeed my dude.
The worst part about speed running is when a strategy becomes obsolete. But sometimes years later that old strategy could become viable again which is always cool to see.
I've never enjoyed speedrunning myself, but I'd never be able to put it in words like you did! But I love videos about speedrunning.
I think it's fun to either discover ways to break the game, or just watch people who've mastered the game flawlessly glide through a level. But all the speedrun jargon makes me groan.
I have no interest in ever trying to speed run myself, but I'm endlessly fascinated by these videos for some reason
I think it’s just interesting to see how far gamers can push the boundaries yet knowing we have lives and couldn’t imagine putting in so many hours to one certain thing so it’s fun to see it through someone else
No, the leading theory for the SM64 upwarp is not a "Rogue Gamma Ray". DOTA_TeaBag has stated that his cartridge always had to be tilted in odd ways for the game to function. It's well known that cartridge tilts on SM64 games can have a lot of varying effects and this is thought to be one of them.
Well, that certainly deflates a lot of mystique around that story.
@@Nyjietha I've heard many people mention the bit flip, they're the first to say otherwise. I'd take this with a grain of salt
Well i choose not to believe your theory... because the alternate is a million times better and neither one is proven to be true :]
Veritasium has a video on how cosmic rays can flip bits and uses the SM64 upward as an example. Not saying it's right or wrong but cosmic rays can and do mess with computers. ua-cam.com/video/AaZ_RSt0KP8/v-deo.html
@@timeSlidrGaming You guys are still choosing to ignore Occam's Razor. A cosmic ray is an astronomically unlikely event and has never been recorded to happen any other time.
A cartridge tilt is known to cause issues in SM64 games and is magnitudes more likely to be the cause of something like this.
Imagine hitting the lottery and throwing away the ticket, oh wait.... I did. Also I helped discovered desertenko but you didn't put that in.
The legend 👀I probably could have mentioned that, my B
@@OtherRuns your vid got posted to the mk64 discord server so I seen it from there, nice vid though.
Celebrating a victory with some fried meat is pretty based, ngl.
This is why I like TAS videos. I know they take a lot of time to put together but they eliminate the wastefulness of runners going for a billion attempts just for that one miracle run where it all comes together. We all just want to see what the game can do, after all, so why cheer on the death of a man's hands for it?
Using the Myth of Sisyphus to frame the video is a fantastic idea and works really well! Thank you for the quality content!
Also, eating meat out of the hot plate you used to get WR is such a power move, I love it :'D
I see Speedrun as the embodyment of nothing is impossible it only takes dedication and community effort.
Speedrunning is pretty dang cool tbh. I might be biased though
Yeah, I'd say it's pretty swell man :)
My biggest problem w speedrunning is the time wasted. People can spend dozens or hundreds of hours to learn a single trick only for it to become obsolete by a new discovery. It ultimately shows that if you spent that time to become an engineer you could break any video game, which is usually the most time efficient way to find new tricks other than randomly doing things in a game you really like. I understand its all for fun and competitiveness and its their own time/life. But it reminds me of a skinner box and its ironic someone whos never even touched the game could find an exploit that makes all their "skill" obsolete. But to each their own, I guess.
Dude, this video is amazing. As someone who has experienced the pain of a long grind, literally everything you said is true and relatable. This is informative, deeply meaningful, I love the connections to greek mythology and Camus, its honestly everything I want to see from a video like this. I really can’t express how much I love this video. Keep up the great work, 10/10.
I am so pleased that this video randomly popped up in my recommended. This is INCREDIBLE work, man. Subbed, rang the bell, and even loved it enough to comment. Please keep up the excellent work!
The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
@@zxylo786 Nothing could possibly bring "real" rewards or consequence. The richest man and the poorest man both end up as worm food in the end.
Even if humanity persists for a billion billion years, at some point something is going to wipe us out, whether heat death or big crunch or our own stupidity.
That's what nihilism/absurdism is; the realization that nothing matters. What you do with that information is up to you.
@@zxylo786 I'm going to answer the second paragraph first, since I think the answer is less interesting: I don't base my ideology on anything any particular person says, I looked up words for what I am and learned that nihilism is the name for it. My beliefs are based on the reality I observe; the universe seems to be meaningless based on all of my perceptions of it, so until evidence to the contrary appears that's what I'll believe.
But now for the more interesting part. What makes those short term rewards you mentioned "real"? I swear I'm not trying to be contrary, I genuinely don't understand why people put their instinctual desires on a pedestal and act like they "matter" somehow.
I am a mass of atoms, a computer made of meat. I am programmed to like certain things and dislike certain things, but that programming is based on the iterative process of natural selection; on whether the behaviors that those likes produce are useful for reproduction, not whether they are "real."
Why should I pretend my existence has more value than, say, a random insect's, or a piece of art, or a stone at the bottom of the ocean? I value myself subjectively based on my instinct to self-preserve, but that instinct isn't any "realer" than any other reason. There's no truth value to it; I can say "I exist," that's demonstrable. "I matter" is merely a statement of opinion.
I hope that we can have a real friendly discussion about this, since I find this sort of thing interesting. I don't think either of us are going to convince the other (saying you find nihilism stupid doesn't make me confident, but I can definitely admit that I find non-nihilism stupid as well, heh heh), but I hope the back-and-forth can at least be entertaining to read.
@@Grass-Moss he sits inside and argues on UA-cam comments. Nothing he does has any meaning, he's lashing out rn lmao
absurdism is an excuse for the weak to shirk off the responsibility and moral accountability that they know they have. something they tell themselves for comfort so they can do whatever they please as their own soul rots away
@@shawcrow5780 "Morality is an excuse for the weak to ignore the terrifying pointlessness of their own existence."
So how easy it is to turn something around? If you want to convince someone of something, try having an actual argument.
There have been a lot of Sissyfits in speedrunning, that's for sure.
This would have been a perfect video is you have mentioned that people used Arbitrary Code Execution in Ocarina of Time to do a credits warp in Paper Mario 64 using Stop and Swop.
Really enjoyed this, look forward to more!
great video! While I was watching this I just assumed this was a big well known channel, from the quality of the video.
I'm subscribing because I want to see what other great videos you'll come out with in future
also your twilight zone mario sound joke cracked me up
This was the comment I was waiting for Lmao, thank you
Exactly what Ludi said!
I just wanna say that you have single-handedly created the *BEST* summary of _everything_ that's cool about speedruns into one *extremely* well-collated video. This is the sort of thing which _should_ catapult you into favor with the speedrunning algorithm gods of UA-cam. Keep going❣
This was very nice, thank you :)
I'm always impressed by how the speedrun communty works, like the amount of information every single runner has about game coding etc to be able to train the manipulation, I barely know base knowledge
Most runners do not know much on their own, its generational community knowledge and pillars of people who know the advanced workings to pull apart and share, most runners only know so much because others told them about Why doing X and Y magically causes you to skip half the game, rather than figuring it out from scratch
I think what makes speedrunning more appealing is the fact that there is more to it than getting a perfect run or not. The prestige of being the first one to finish in under xx minutes or set the first record that uses a specific skip/strategy can be enough of a reward for trying over and over. Also, like we all know, its not only about the destination but about the friends, we make along the way. After all most speedrun communities I experienced are incredibly wholesome.
Speedrunning is when fun turns back into homework. Still, if you like it, you do you.
Looks like the algorithm has shown you great favor. I hope this leads to good things for you in the future!
Subbed, I can see you put alot of work Into the video
Hope you get more subs and looking forward to similar content bro
The music during the parallel universes explanation reminds me of the vice north Korea travel documentary
"Paralell universes were discovered to save half of an A press"
Speedrunners are something else.
Yeah, speedrunners convinced me to never speedrun. I am unhappy enough as it is
Speedruning is cool in games like crash bandicoot 3 aka the time trials where there is a set goal that you want to break and earn some kind of reward but the ones that uae glitches i find just stupid and something someone came up with because they sucked at the regular game or had to low of a attention span so they had to find a way around it by breaking the game. Frankly i cant belive ppl are proud of breaking a game and claiming they beat it not to mention beat it in world record time its absurd and everything the devs were against to begin with.
only a speedrunner would spend thousands of hours on a video game to try and beat it in 3 seconds less time
Me: *gets carpetless*
Also me: *resets the stage before I can process I got the ground pound*
The good and bad of mussel memory.
There's a joke to be made here about mussels instead of muscles...
@@digitalunity followed by potential yet unfulfilled haha's
@@yemek4684 It would be shellfish to keep these jokes to ourselves
I dislike speedrunners for two reasons:
1. They make me feel like I suck at video games by widening the skill gap, while
2. they provide pretty much nothing meaningful to gaming as a whole.
One might argue that they teach people how to finish their favorite games quicker, but in actuality they don't because the amount of practice and narrow focus required exceeds the time saved. The only reasons they practice speedrunning anyways is for twitch donations and e-fame. It's vanity.
Even if you look at some of the worst games ever made that runners themselves wouldn't recommend anyone play (even though they dump the most amount of time into playing them), you will find examples of them getting world-record times on the EASIEST DIFFICULTY LEVEL (without a category for higher difficulties) simply because it's faster to play the game that way. Like, WTF. That is not skill. Getting "world record" does not make you special or even "good" if you are cutting corners, copying what other people have done, paying them to study the game for you, spending an utterly deranged amount of time doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a marginally better; but unlikely result, and then posting said result somewhere where people arguably more skilled than you (in a classical sense) can't compete.
If everyone played games the "normal" way, there would still be more than enough room to share accomplishments with the world, hence no need for all the stuff about WR, shortcuts, glitches, etc. Yet runners cannot help but ruin everyone's favorite games (and worse) with unnaturally improbable nonsense. Speedrunning has absolutely no need to exist whatsoever.
I dont like begging so i paid a guy to do it for me
I absolutely LOVE this video, I’m a Dark Souls speedrunner and I actually always named my character Sisyphus because of how repetitive the bkh reset is
The two *WORST* Achievements/Trophies I hate doing: 1.) *Multiplayer Trophies* 2.) *SPEEDRUNNING Trophies*
Nearly 1000 subs with 2 videos, that’s impressive 👏
You finally get the boulder to the top of the hill. From the summit you see a woman gazing into the river styx, transfixed by her reflection and unable to move. Horrified, you realise that you are her
this video came out 8 (12/4/22) days ago, when i was making this analogy about my life feeling super down about things. weird coincidence
The idea that the first known use of ACE was early seasons brony content is honestly not surprising, that fandom basically led the charge in the evolution of the YTPMV With stuff like Avast Fluttershy’s Ass
"The true knowledge of good and evil, as true, cannot thwart any affect, but only insofar as it is considered as an affect." - Baruch Spinoza
"regardless, one must imagine speedrunners happy" Big-brained reference there. To what you just cited but still. :P
rip albert camus you would've loved Super Mario 64: TTC Stomp on the Thwomp in 0x A Presses
This channel is the best thing since Summoning Salt. I am completely hooked on your vids
"Would you discover Parallel Universes just to skip holding down a button?"
Well, according to your logic, athletics is also absurd. And probably life is absurd too if you think of it...
he absurdity is that 80% of your speedrunning career is spent doing the same shit over and over again until the game allows you to win.
I still don't understand the speed run community, it's about the journey NOT the destination. Sure, you can beat a game in a couple minutes but thats like masterbation without the payoff.
As a speedrunner myself, it’s unexplainably fun
When the brain is developing, it like permanently keeps important information preserved. Since alot of our childhood memories we're no danger thrills, alot of people adapted some skills from games thus the HUGE nostalgia factor. I was like 6-7 years old when I was running to the store to rent Ocarina of time =_=. So even as a 30 year old man I can boot that crap up and side hop to the end of the game in one go.
I still don’t understand people that don’t understand the speed run community that claim that.
They have experienced the journey you talk about so much way way way more than any regular player.
@Flariz you mean a micro section of a game in most cases and a repetitive action that can almost be described as a stuttering condition. By all means experience it that way butndont claimnits a sport or anything grand.
@@clinicallyproven2554 Well it has certainly grow a lot in recent years so it will probably get reconized as an sport or something bigger eventually. It’s certainly a competitive scene that is for sure.
I am not a speedrunner myself, but I do understand them and respect them a lot so I am glad they are getting recognition.
Yea the Minecraft UA-camr joke was amazing. You sir have earned my like and sub
You just glossing over how ACE might've been first used in Pokemon Yellow to recreate the MLP:FiM theme song genuinely gave me JK Simmons-tier whiplash. Truly absurd.
The difference between Sisyphus and speedrunning is that you can quit the latter anytime.
Why climb everest? Because it is there.
Sly Cooper, Oblivion, and Kingdom Hearts music? This guy's got taste.
Heard Sly Cooper background music at the beginning. I liked.
Great overview video. The parallel universes and the snake game in Mario are definitely great infamous stories. Especially in the arbitrary code execution is great example how hard IT security is, e.g. when you want to train AIs in virtual environments.
Watch for Sisyphus's Rolling Rocks in 0.5x A Presses
Why is Sisyphus absurd? He's forced to it, isn't he? He himself doesn't see a point in it?
@10:50 you sadist! Pointing these innocent viewers to that "day killing blackhole of a video series" Bismuth created about the A button challenge is just evil! Well played! And to the people about to look them up: have fun in the next 8 mind blowing hours!
That series is amazing,
@@brandonporter8509 Jaw dropping! Couple of months ago I had a discussion with 2 friends that saw speedrunning just as practicing a lot (like a sport). I tried explaining that speedrunners are even more psychotic than professional athletes and then Bismuth came to my rescue and I watched the first one with them. Both guys have now watched all of them and both enthusiastically texted me when the latest one dropped. People outside the community (even many within) have not the slightest idea how creative and dedicated it gets and Bismuth captures this perfect, in my opinion(-:
Nice video! Thank god this video and this channel appeared in my Up Next feed! You have a lot of potential my friend! I wish you great amounts of happiness and success! :)
The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
-Albert Camus