2020_wrap_up

2020 wrap up pastebin

It was a good year for streaming generally, had a lot of fun with some first playthroughs. In retrospect I had a bit less fun with some blind races, but it's alright. I don't expect much growth or anything out of streaming, but I enjoy it still for sure. The morning slots have been good for me, I've got some flexibility to work a bit later and I can do other things in the evening

Speedrunning was alright this year. I improved a few times, but mostly played games I already knew and was trying to learn more/marginally improve them. So even though on paper I don't have lower times in some of them, I'd rather spend the time improving some older speedgames generally. Rockman & Forte and Dragon Quest III the big ones this past year. This has been the norm for awhile for me, where I don't really grind for times long term, but I'll go through short bursts of practice & improvements. It's how I stay interested and don't burn out

Learning new speedgaming stuff occasionally is fun but I think after being around so long, the fun & magic of learning something new wears off, and that I'm pretty confident that I (or anyone who's been around long enough really) can learn anything reasonably well with the time investment, and if that's the main factor, it's a bit of a wash to me. Though this year, routing Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha and doing SM64 week to get a sub 20 16-star was a good time, but it's mostly just a personal quirky interest to do these things

Otherwise in speedgaming, I was very happy to have finished the Dragon Quest III RTA guide (which took a lot of work) and the practice hack to accompany it. It'll be not that many people who use it, but it's my way of chronicling what I know, so it felt nice to finish it

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Major upside of the year was learning a fighting game. I always wanted to but never really knew where to start. I tried Granblue out and it didn't really jive. Claude recommended Melty Blood, and as soon as I booted up the character select I knew I was in. I asked Neerrm if he wanted to learn with me, then we started a server and a bunch of people joined up. Some people come and go but we play weekly, and it's been great. I very much enjoy this game

I went from knowing almost literally nothing about fighting games to having a decent understanding of how to play. Fighting games are so much different than speedgaming, but there are a lot of parallels in how practice pays off. There really isn't anything in speedgaming quite like having to react to an ever-learning opponent, both in real time and over learning curves. Many people in our group have been very supportive for me trying to improve and I appreciate it a lot

Because of getting into Melty Blood and generally being a VN fan, I got very into Tsukihime. I watched the routes via YouTube earlier in the year, and a few weeks ago I finished playing the actual VN for all routes. I've become a big fan. I'm about to start its sequel Kagetsu Tohya (I watched a bunch of it, but it's a very complex VN so I want to actually play it). I also read most of the fan translated mangas for Tsukihime and Melty Blood. I went through a few Fate related works but I don't think it quite hits the same so I'm avoiding that entire rabbit hole mostly. As of today (how lucky), it's a very good time to be a new fan, with the Tsukihime remake actually on the horizon.

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Personal stuff, in 2020 I bought a house, adopted two kittens who are 10 months old now (here's a courtesy image https://i.imgur.com/i92kUxb.jpg), and work's good. Major downside is that I moved to an area to try to get out more often and in particular, find people to collaborate with for music performance, which unfortunately was destroyed by the pandemic. But it's alright, there are different positives out of the whole thing

I'm working on some skill development and projects in the nighttime (which is primarily why I wanted to swap to earlier streams), but largely I'll keep them to myself. I'd rather do the work and deliver the update, than say what I'm doing up front.

Realistically things aren't going to be that much different for awhile in 2021, but gonna try to make the best of it. Thanks for reading, Happy New Year~