Basically Pastebin Monday for 01/07/2019

I want to make 2019 to be my biggest year in speedrunning to date.  I am back in speedrunning.  I am here.

2014 to 2017 was a decent run for me in speedrunning.  I got my start picking up Valkyria Chronicles 2 in 2014.  Making my own route for the game originally based on the work Ghoul02 did and then making it my own, I pushed the game in ways that I am so proud of.  I eventually picked up Hyper Princess Pitch for the PC, which I ended up running at AGDQ 2017.  Now that was electrifying.  I also dabbled in Valkyria Chronicles 1 and Tales of Xillia 1, games I hope to return to someday and do better in.  There was the dank memeing I did with Doritos: Dash of Destruction for the 360 too.

I lost my momentum in 2017 with IRL stuff going on mainly, even after running a game at AGDQ 2017.  I did some stuff with Bot Vice for the PC, but after that, all seemed lost.  I even lost my motivation watching speedrun streams on Twitch.

Moving around a lot, taking up a job I liked that was in a remote area, getting involved in a terrible relationship with my now ex-girlfriend who I later broke up with, and being stuck in a miserable job to help make said relationship work.  These were all things that led me astray from speedrunning, although I don't regret the second thing I said.

Not gonna lie, getting into professional wrestling and seeing how these people put on a show motivated me to eventually return to speedrunning with the same sort of passion I could bring for myself into this thing.

More importantly, I want to thank Vergil for eventually getting me back into speedrunning after I originally got back into it.  Him being enthusiastic about the streams I told him about and he found on his own, talking with him about GDQs and other events, and getting him into speedrunning Eternal Ring.  Thank you so much for your good vibes.  And for being such an amazing friend in general.

I have this project I want to embark on.  I want to speedrun crunch-free indie games to showcase all these wonderful games and to be an advocate for crunch-free game development.  The whole fiasco behind the troubled development of Red Dead Redemption 2, watching Minit being run at GDQx, and a Twitter thread made by one of the developers of said game all served as the impetus for this undertaking.  Wish me the best of luck for 2019, because I really want to do something meaningful with speedrunning crunch-free indie games and feel like I'm making a positive difference while still entertaining people.

The Twitter thread can be found here:

https://twitter.com/jwaaaap/status/1051814501639688194

The Valkyria Chronicles will still be a heavy focus for me because I love the series so much.  I'm long overdue for a new WR in Valkyria Chronicles 2 and back to running the game in general.  I miss that game so much and I want to prove that I'm still the best there was and the best there ever will be at that game.  I will come up with a route for Valkyria Chronicles 3 on Easy difficulty and eventually find the time to do a full run of the game.  VC4 I will play casually and join Sniperdog in running.  And did I mention getting a decent time in VC1?

I mentioned returning to speedrunning in full form and being an advocate for crunch-free gaming, but I also want to be a promoter for the Valkyria Chronicles speedrunning community.  I'm more or less the general manager for the series' SRC presence and the Discord, but I want to take on a more active role.  If I can get a VC1 showcase race put together and stream somewhere like RPGLB, Speedgaming, the GDQ channel, or somewhere else, that would mean a lot.

What is speedrunning without dank memes?  I want to speedrun Disney's Hercules for the Game Boy because I wouldn't feel complete without running a terrible game.  It's baaaad and jank.

WanderingMind is back.