Not too long ago I heard that speedrunning is not a sign of skill in video games. To be honest, I never really thought that as I always assumed that it was mostly skill especially when they display an understanding of the game and that they can complete a game in less than a few hours. I am not as into the speedrunning scene as most people but is speedrunning a sign of skill? How much the adage is actually true and how much is actually false?
There's definitely a 'skill' behind speedrunning, and the way to tell is to look at 'blind' events, where the players haven't played this specific game before (mystery game tournaments, blind races, etc). People who tend to be good at picking up and getting good times in speedruns tend to be faster at learning and getting through games as well.
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Not too long ago I heard that the Moon is made of grated cheese. I am not as into astrology as most people but is the Moon made of grated cheese? They also say there's also someone's face drawn on the Moon. Who's portrait that could be, do you guys know?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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Speedrunning is definitely a skill, but it can be a different skill compared to playing the game normally. I wonder if that's the point being made. If a game has a lot of skips I could easily see a speedrunner being really good at their run, without being as good at the regular gameplay. Or if the game has multiple modes and you're only speedrunning one (thinking of, say, Splatoon with its single-player campaign, most people would not call that the main game but it's the one that gets speedruns). But usually being skilled in one means being skilled at the other.
The Oxford English dictionary defines 'Skill' as "The ability to do something well; expertise."
A definition by which almost any activity could be considered a skill.
But in general, a skill is something one develops and improves through practice (learned aptitude), as opposed to a talent (natural aptitude). Talent can be a foundation for developing better skills as well as a boon to make improving skills easier, but talent doesn't negate the need for practice when improving those skills.
If speedrunning were not a develop-able skill, the first time anyone picked up a controller to speedrun a game, the resulting run would be that person's personal best and there'd be no hope to improve their time. Further, improvements to world records wouldn't happen via improved play.
Better play by a runner now than what he/she used to be able to do before = improved skill level.
It's true that some speed runners may not be very good at playing a game 'normally,' but that only means they aren't skilled in 'normal' gameplay. It's very much the same situation as a player who is extremely skilled in 'normal' gameplay, but completely incompetent at speedrunning.
Just because a runner isn't skilled at EVERY aspect of gameplay, doesn't mean they aren't skilled at all.
Not too long ago I heard that speedrunning is not a sign of skill in video games.
I honestly don't understand what that's supposed to even mean. I would be really interested in knowing what the person who said that considers "skill in video games", and why that definition wouldn't apply to speedrunners.
One has to simply watch, for example, one of the Quake speedruns in order to witness an astonishing amount of skill, both in terms of speedrunning, of course, but also in terms of just playing the game itself (such as being amazingly good at aiming and shooting at enemies with extreme efficiency).
In fact, I think that speedrunning a particular game, and being extremely good at it, can have an effect on how the person would play that game "casually" as well.
In particular, a video game developer company published a mission pack for Quake (consisting of 10 levels) in 2016 for its 20th anniversary. I watched the video of one of the world's top Quake speedrunners playing those levels for the first time, ie. a "blind" playthrough, more or less casually. Of course in the hardest difficulty. His style of play was significantly different from how eg. I would play such games. He certainly died significantly less frequently than I would have, and completed all the ten levels relatively quickly, even though the difficulty was at its maximum and he had never seen those levels before. He probably completed all the levels at least 10 times faster than I would have. Not that he rushed through the levels; he just played so efficiently, and was killed so few times (even not at all in many levels).
If that's not skill, I don't know what is.
There is bullet hell shooters, which look really hard, but with memorization you can beat them without dying. As the games have fixed patterns. However, a game like Radiant Silvergun has RNG and AI elements meaning you can't memorize your way through the game, which in my books makes it a true test of skill.
Even memorization is a skill, something which many people can't do well.
I hear this a lot, when talking about hard accomplishments in games, that "well, anyone could do that if they spent enough time, and I just don't want to waste the time, therefore your accomplishment is relative and meaningless."
Firstly, I don't find that to be true. I feel like some things are are simply out of the reach of some people regardless of practice, similar to how a person in a wheelchair can't play rugby. Secondly, even if it were true, it might take one person a year of practice, and another person 50 years to develop the same skill, and that is the difference.
Whenever someone says "get a life," I reply, "If getting a life means not doing anything novel, then I don't want one"
Not to long ago, I heard that TASing don't requiring skills, that it was dumb and incredible that peoples do that during numerous months just for watch an false speedrun who isn't manage by humans!
I don't know what is more stupid...
To believe that no one to be manage all tools of emulators and search the best route to beat the game fast, or to believe that the pc doing that alone!
I guess the whole thing with TAS/Speedrunnning not requiring skill is just complete bollocks, huh? I wonder how that even became a thing as the people who often speedrun games do know more than most people.
Anyone who speedruns and has a WR (or even top 10) thinks so? Any experienced TASer would say that TASing has nothing to do with skills (not reflexes)?
TAS is about to push the game to the limits (it's funny to see that casual people thinks that TAS is not played by humans or think is cheating/bot)
Speedrunning is about push the human to the limits (skills?)
