SMS - Timing & Community Talk

Okay this is my rant as someone who used to actively run this game but doesn't anymore.

My opinion may mean something to you or nothing, doesn't matter to me because at the end of the day I just feel like talking about this because I can. Take my two cents as it is.

I'm going to start this rant with this: I am in favor of using file select. I personally think starting a speedrun with race file timing is ridiculous. Why? You're skipping actual gameplay from the start of the game.

I'm not gonna bother listing other games that have lengthy cutscenes that are unskippable right at the beginning because I'm sure there are also games that the community decided to start at a different point for that isn't File Select or Title Screen. I get it. The cutscene sucks. I had this mindset when I first started running, I still do now, fucking 4 years later. In the first 10 minutes of any run you do other than 20 Shines, you're probably playing for maybe 4 minutes of that. Maybe. That being said, I still think it should be required to start from File Select and do Airstrip. There is mandatory movement to be done. The game will not complete itself without moving Mario to get FLUDD, then defeating the Polluted Piranha Plant and collect the first fucking Shine in the game. This isn't a skip like GBS or EYG done through the game, this is literally starting after the first shine because people are so impatient to not be able to do Airstrip + 5 minutes of cutscenes. Everytime I'm doing something productive. Talk to chat. Look at Twitter. Text someone back. Get water/food. Use the restroom. SOMETHING. Other than just complain that the run sucks because it's cutscene heavy at the beginning.

This is well in difference than RS (Reset Timing) too. Fucking RS could be argued there's gameplay in the FS screen to move Mario to select a file to proceed with the game. The difference is that FS is standard through a good majority of speedruns. I know of very few runs that don't start on FS or Title Screen. Occasionally some, skip through an immediate opening cutscene and start time as you start moving or whatnot, but not just completely skipping a portion of the run.

Furthermore, I've never seen people actually.... race from race file. Never. Ever. I'm sure it happened before I came around in 2014, but in my time since then, I've never seen a race actually start from race file. I've seen a bingo or two start from there to make it harder for the competitors (less time to route), but never an actual race. The only time it's used is 20 Shines.

That's that for the timing part. Now the community part.

It's no secret I'm not a fan of the Sunshine community. I really dislike it, in fact. That's why I left the Discord long ago and stopped associating with certain people because it was toxic to me. The toxic mindset of "top level runs aren't good" and "WR isn't good" isn't healthy. It made me unhappy as a speedrunner and as a person. Sunshine was the first game I ever speedran and met people through. I had that mentality for a while until I got into the mid 1:20's and realized... this. fucking. sucks. I'm not happy. I don't enjoy running the game. Every PB run I did felt like it was worse than my last PB, even though I actually beat it. Why is that? I want to have a competitive drive and a motivation to have self-improvement at something I enjoy, and understand what sets me apart from someone who has a better time than me, and someone who has a slower time than me. And I couldn't find that in Sunshine or the community.

Beyond that, back on the actual subject. If, the outcome of the poll were to use Race File in favor of timing methods, I'm damn sure that would just alienate the Japanese community even further. I wouldn't be surprised if they boycotted the speedrun.com leaderboards and hosted their own again.

If RF is selected in light of the "community" decision (which is ridiculous cause it's hardly a community decision when you just throw a poll on Twitter and say "vote and be happy with whatever happens."), I HIGHLY recommend to the community moderators that they should just separate the current Any% with FS timing and the RF into two separate categories. Any% (File Select) and Any% (Race File). Subcategories is fine, it doesn't even have to be a separate tab. Just so there isn't all this conversion garbage or not converting and suddenly there's a 1:10 on the leaderboard because one top level runner did a run with Race File. Please, please, please, make it two separate categories if Race File wins. Even if it doesn't, consider it. Even consider making it a miscellaneous category like Fast Any%.

Now, I'm probably extremely biased when I say this, but I'll say it anyways: Moderators, do your job. Moderate. I can't say that I've ever seen it when there's drama or heated discussions or whatever. I see people just trolling, blocking left and right on Twitter/Twitch, hardly a care in the world to improve the community and make it a suitable place for someone who's willing to learn the game. I really dislike the fact that this was just a poll on Twitter (sure you had to login and verify you had a previous Sunshine run but cmon). It doesn't feel involved. It felt like the situation became an impasse and the mods were forced to deal with it in some way. I'm sure the mods go through a lot too, as they are humans, but I've just seen it so... lawless. It's not that hard to go "let's have a decided community night or a dedicated chat where people can voice their opinions on the matter" (in a kind way that isn't screaming "fuck you, you're wrong and you should feel bad" for 4 hours), discuss, and see what the results are. If it's 50/50 even, or even 60/40, the mods need to band together and find a way to make the situation work other than "welp majority rules, fuck the 40% lmao." I won't demand you be there and fix everything, nor lead the way to have a sparkling clean community and be a goddamn saint, but if you want to be a moderator, then do the job of a moderator. Try and consider what it's like never having run the game and seeing what the run and community look like on the outside. "It's a pretty fast pace run with lots of cool glitches, tricks, and tech! .... but all the people I see complain about how hard everything is and how it's unfair and why you shouldn't run this game, so maybe I shouldn't try to learn it, even if I am interested..." These are conversations I've had before.

I can't ever claim to know what goes on in the Discord or in chats, who says what, who does what because I left that behind in order to not be so unhappy all the time when viewing it or being around there. I'm sure I've said dumb things too. It is what it is. I've made friends through Sunshine. Even met someone at this past SGDQ that I used to not be a fan of because of Sunshine but at the time of meeting them and talking with them, I found out that... they aren't a shitter like I thought they were. They're actually pretty cool. So we said we're cool and we're friends (I think? at least mutuals lmfao).




There you have it. The deathline rant on something that shouldn't even have to be ranted on but he did it anyways. Feel free to yell at me if you don't like my opinion, I'll just yell back but in a more constructive way.

I honestly miss running Sunshine from time to time. And every time I want to come back, I stop because I'm afraid of becoming super toxic and harmful to myself or to others through my actions or words. Silly, I know. Thanks for reading if you read this far.