GeekNights Tuesday - Speedruns and Videogame Exhibitions

MrPeriod

Tonight on GeekNights, while Summer Games Done Quick 2016 is ongoing, we talk about how we first discovered "speedruns" and the rapid growth of this community. In other news, Counterstrike streamers are laundering money to gamble on sham sites (that they own) through Steam, some people are a little too on-the-nose in their complaints about competitive mode in Overwatch, and Ubisoft doesn't appear to think women can be gamers.

The GeekNights Patreon will surge forth aplenty after ConnectiCon (where we will be performing), which is this coming weekend! The GeekNights Tshirt is a thing you can buy!

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Matt

Sometimes I also get the roller coaster itch. You are correct that Cedar Point is the place to be for that action, but Six Flags Great Adventure is a close second, and 25min from my house. Unfortunately, I have no fucking patience for waiting on those lines, so you'll never see me there.

Naoza

The secret to great adventure line issues is to go on a misty, foggy, terrible day. I swear to you I went on Superman 3 times back to back, all in, I'm gonna say, 20 minutes. It was just me and maybe 30 other people who had the same idea. Place was empty, best time I've had at a park. Apparently the rest of the park going world is made up of babies who only like sunny days. Only managed this feat once though, every other attempt I've made has been a bad time with the waits.

Rym

When I go back to Cedar Point, it will be after a 15 year gap. I know the park so well that it's frightening. But, my knowledge is a snapshot from the 80s and 90s. It'll be weird to go to a place that I know so deeply, so intimately, evolving slowly over time, after the accumulation of a decade plus of change.

Matt said:

Unfortunately, I have no fucking patience for waiting on those lines, so you'll never see me there.

I'm just going to pay for the "skip to the front of the line" passes.

Matt

I often had season passes to Great Adventure as a kid. Hell I had them one year in my 20s even b/c we were renting a place 10min away. My knowledge is such a 90's snapshot that I forgot you could even throw money at the line problem. Knowing that, you probably should hit Great Adventure at some point if you've never been. Their roller coaster selection is top tier, and I am assuming there is some form of 1hr or less express bus from midtown, or just Zipcar it.

Everyone has the story of the one time they went to Great Adventure and basically had the park to themselves. When I was a senior in high school, there was something on the calendar called Senior Day, so me and my buddy drove ourselves there. There was consistent drizzle and fog that day (these stories always start that way), but most importantly, it turned out that the park was closed to public unless you were part of an official high school class trip. Nothing but school buses in the parking lot. We talked our way in, and the crowds were very light to begin with, but then something funny started happening. Around 7PM, all of the class trips started rounding their kids up and loading onto buses. But the park was open for full normal hours...

I would estimate that only two schools wound up staying until close. We rode the coasters on repeat passes, much of the time by ourselves, occasionally with 2 or so people joining on at a stop.

Naoza

Matt said:

I would estimate that only two schools wound up staying until close. We rode the coasters on repeat passes, much of the time by ourselves, occasionally with 2 or so people joining on at a stop.

That easily tops my story, I bow to a guy with a better experience than my own. I will say that I was much younger when we had the park to ourselves, and I was on a trip from camp. Maybe a similar sort of thing happened. Though I remember there being more than just people from my camp present so perhaps not.

MATATAT

One of my buddies in high school was really into speed runs. He had one of the fastest times on Metroid Zero Mission. That was several years ago and it looks like a cursory glance it looks like it's been beat by ~6 mins. He had a pretty fast time in Metroid Prime too. He doesn't really do that anymore but he used to just record with a camcorder piped through the TV.

pence

I remember finding Quake Done Quick... and Quake Done Quicker. But that SMB3 TAS was my first exposure to speedruns. I specifically remember how people reacted when they found out it was tool-assisted. We had never heard of a TAS, and it was treated like a betrayal of trust, like they cheated.

I don't remember how I reacted, but I hope I thought it was cool.

MATATAT

Apparently the dude went back to try and cover his shit up

Naoza

There were 2 youtubers who coowned the gambling site. This guy is totally the one getting all the attention, what about dumbass #2?

Starfox

Wait is R Scott Bakker misogynistic IRL?

Apreche

Starfox said:

Wait is R Scott Bakker misogynistic IRL?

If you read the shit on his site and such, it appears so.

Cremlian

Oh? is there a link?

Apreche

Cremlian said:

Oh? is there a link?

https://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/the-problem-of-r-scott-bakker/

http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=1495.0

Churba

Bonus points - His reaction to Sad puppies was basically "I disagree with their methods, but everything they say otherwise is correct" with a little sneering at anyone who studies humanities instead of glorious STEM, and Gators basically think he's the best thing since sliced bread.