pre-sgdq16

I haven't had a pastebin to talk about what I'm up to in the community in a long time, so I figured I'd clear my mind a bit:

I'm very excited for SGDQ. I have a full schedule between the two runs, a technically challenging and somewhat risky run (RMZ2) and a fun race (Streemerz), and the SGDQ-pre show and my interviews. I much prefer being busy than not at the event, especially if I'm there the entire week- something I usually don't do but given my responsibilities, I will be there.

I mentioned this in a previous paste (as I was called out by our humble spikevegeta on The Final Split but he GOT HIS FACTS WRONG - I stick to what I say http://pastebin.com/KSJ5wa08)(fyi I love spike), but this SGDQ is likely the last I'll prepare & submit to a GDQ. The possibility exists that I may play & submit something I'm really comfortable with in the future, but the cycle of getting ready for a GDQ consumes a monstrous amount of my free time. Everyone has their obligations- but to be honest I work quite a lot during the week, and usually have to practice late night after work & other obligations and on the weekends just to keep up. And sometimes I don't want to spend my weekend practicing speedgames (can you believe that?). I've honestly tried to be as diligent as I can with practicing during the week nights when possible and having a good attitude, but even still it's tough to keep up especially when preparing for GDQs. I also feel that I've had a fair run of GDQ runs, and am quite happy with the resume. I think between getting ready for RPGLB'16 with DQIII (more on that below) and SGDQ'16 with these two runs, I burdened my load too full this Spring/Summer. Still, I could not be more satisfied with my DQIII run at RPGLB, and I'm very excited to showcase what I can for SGDQ.

I never formally talked about my DQIII experience besides a bit in my re-stream of my PB. It completely changed the way I look at speedgames. I took that game extremely seriously, between spreadsheet analysis, getting help from Kirkq to use scripts for practicing encounter thresholds, and just drilling every possible fight in the RTA route to be prepared for any situation. Getting 92nd place in the world was the hardest thing I've ever done in speedrunning, and that's part of the difficulty with my final result- stomaching that all that effort is still so far away from the best time, which blows my mind.

I have little doubt if I put that much effort into any another non-Dragon Quest RPG, the comparative results would be far better, yet I am really proud of the time I have. For reference: I have 11 runs (3 completed) of Final Fantasy VI, and which is 16 minutes away from the fastest time. For DQIII, I put in 8 months of consistent effort and preparation and have had over 500 runs (many resets to be fair, but of a 3 hour game), which is 19 minutes from the fastest time. In some ways, I wish I chose another game to take seriously to be known as the prime runner of, but in other ways I'm glad I chose DQIII to give me context to what really makes a truly well developed speedrun (much more than 1-2 people making a route together).

The experience completely humbled me what happens when hundreds of runners (all Japanese) put in years of speedrun experience, on top of many, many years of casual experience, finally coupled with a genuine love for a game. I hope someone else in the Western community goes through the sub-3 chase like I did. Pushing to drive down the last 5 minutes of my PB nearly drove me insane, I admit. But I'm happy with the result (and am glad it's over).

The last topic I've been struggling with is dealing with people I know in real life finding out my stream. This requires an explanation of what I mean, so I'll give it a shot. For some context, I live & work in a major metropolitan city with nothing career wise remotely related to gaming, and most people I know aren't speedgame/Twitch saavy. And it's cool to have people you know come into your stream, who you can relate with a bit. But there's a certain amount of privacy I like as an internet alias, and having an opportunity like GDQ to come together and fully hang out for a week is fantastic. But the slow leak of what I'm up to personally by streaming activity or online presence is a drag. In other words, sometimes I don't want people to know that on a weekend, I'm in an introverted mood and feel like streaming or chatting online instead of going out or spending time with someone/some people. Even just the Twitch email to a follower (which you can't turn off and is BS) that you're live is a good way of saying "Hey, you know I'm not doing anything social tonight". The worst part is that I really never advertised my stream to anyone I know, but it's just a side effect of being on live events like GDQ. Don't get me wrong, it's great to get followers & people interested from live events, but IMO it's a little uncomfortable when it starts to become people you know that really exist outside of gaming, like family members, co-workers, people from high school/college. Some people definitely take it in stride better than I can, but this is in context of me personally as a mid 20s professional. I sort of lead a double life between gaming & everything else in my life, and I know a few others are like this too.

All of this together, I'm due for a speedrun break after SGDQ, maybe extended. I've got a few speedrun things to participate in after SGDQ, but really I set out in 2016 to reach my goals and after SGDQ I'll have accomplished all of them, which is great. Speedgaming helped me transition into the working world by giving me something non-work related to be excited about, but I've got other things I wanted to prioritize in my life (specifically, playing live music, something I miss dearly).

See you at SGDQ! Check out the Pre-show. Also who's gonna lift & swim with me & ivan