AGDQ 2020 Vods You Should Watch

AGDQ 2020 concluded on Sunday and they finished with a whopping 3.1 million dollars for the prevent cancer foundation!  GDQ holds a special place in my heart with it being the event that inspired this very website and while the last couple of years haven't really held my attention too well, this year really knocked it out of the park.  Here are a couple of the runs (that I caught live) that I think you should check out once they get uploaded to YouTube in no particular order

1. Animorphs

Strictly speaking I don't think this was a part of the Awful Games block that they include every year but every crappy game they did a run of this year was highly entertaining.  This run, however, had me snort laughing at my office computer like a lunatic.  The commentary from the runner was funny, the crowd was super high energy and there was a part where the entire room is chanting "PUNCH THE SQUID!" over and over during a combat sequence.  Bonkers game, bonkers run, worth a watch 

2. Trauma Center New Blood

I love the Trauma Center games, a series about weird anime surgery where ALIENS HAVE TAKEN OVER HIS BODY and doctors that can slow down or freeze time using nothing but the power of raw concentration.  The only thing more bonkers than the plot of these games is the INSANE level of skill put forward by the runner who was donning a nice set of scrubs during the run.  Not only did he play the game and play it fast, but he managed to get an XS rank (the highest) on most of the missions.  If you don't know anything about TC then it might be a little confusing but if you even have a passing knowledge of this game its extremely easy to tell just how incredibly skilled and precise this runner was.

3. Ocarina of Time 100%

Just when I think OoT couldn't get any more broken someone comes along and proves me very wrong.  The 100% run this year had some extra thing in its category that I think was called "no source requirement", meaning that the runner was not obliged to go to each location in the game to actually get the items he needed to fulfill the 100% requirement.  This means he's using bottles to write spritual stones in his inventory, duping NPCs to get heart containers, all sorts of far out stuff.  I remember watching the any% run of this game being done in 20 minutes or so way back when and thinking "damn, you probably aren't getting crazier than that" only to have my jaw completely on the ground every year the play this game.  It was followed up by a glitch showcase as well which was equal parts interesting and hilarious.  

4. Super Mario World "One Mind"

Some of you may have heard of doing a game "2 players one controller" where one guy takes the buttons and one guy takes the movement and they must sync up their gameplay in order to achieve victory.  I even did a 2p1c marathon with my good buddy Pithoui a while back!  One Mind however is a different beast entirely.  It's a rom hack where each player is using their own pad but they are both controlling a single Mario.  Every so often the sprite will switch between the Mario sprite and the Luigi sprite to indicate which player is in control so when he's red its p1 and when he's green its p2.  The idea is that if you are of "one mind" then the run won't look any different from any other SMW 11 Exits run but if you try to do anything even slightly different it's going to start screwing things up.  Also when I say he swaps, I don't mean every couple of seconds or something, I mean he's swapping CONSTANTLY at high speeds.  It's a really interesting run and I can't quite explain it well so just go check it out for yourself.

5. Super Metroid Impossible

The finale run of the event and the title really isn't kidding when it says "impossible".  This is such an intense run that I don't really want to say any more about it, it's basically the Kaizo Mario of Metroid but it seems that some of the stuff in that game makes Kaizo Mario look like child's play.  It stands out for me because, I'll be honest with you, I don't give a rats ass about Super Metroid speed running and yet when I saw this run in motion I COULD. NOT. bring myself to look away.  It was so intense that I even clapped wildly at my TV when he finished, I just couldn't contain myself.

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So there's five runs to start you off, go and dig through those VODs on YouTube or Twitch or whatever and find some other games you like.  There's a whole bunch of runs that I caught live that I've not mentioned in this list that were awesome and probably a whole bunch that I missed live that I'm going to catch up with as soon as I hit "post"

Roll on SGDQ, I can't wait!

Games Done Quick and Identity Gaming

I've talked about Games Done Quick multiple times on this blog but Summer Games Done Quick is currently running I'm going to talk about them yet again.  The reason I like to harp on about these guys so much is that they were so important in the creation of Identity Gaming that it's important that people don't forget to support them.

Before I get into my little story, fire up this link in a tab so that you can go watch them the second you've finished reading.

https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

Right now they are doing a marathon for Doctors Without Borders by speed running an insane number of games over the course of 5 days.  If you read this article after it's finished then don't worry because they do another marathon around January for the Prevent Cancer Foundation called Awesome Games Done Quick.  These are fantastic events and you should show your support.

But just how did an event like Games Done Quick help inspire Identity Gaming?

Well a handful of years ago, around the winter time, I wake up super early one morning to find a text on my phone from my mother telling me that my father had passed away.  It was a sad time as you would expect, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease so understandably I became interested in Alzheimer's charities and how these organizations help sufferers and their families.  Just after that passing of my father, Awesome Games Done Quick started.  It was an event that I had watched in previous years and having something like that to enjoy after such a sad period was nice.

When it finished they had raised over a million dollars for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and that had me thinking that maybe I could try to emulate some of the work that they do.  Of course, I'm just one guy, a nobody with a blogger site, a stream and a YouTube channel so I knew going in I could never reach that kind of money if I only attempted something like this for 5 or so days.  So with that in mind, Identity Gaming was born as a sort of long term project.

Things were shaky at first, as you can see if you watch my early playthroughs and see videos of my early streams but thanks to the help of a number of friends and the people who donate to the Alzheimer's Society keeping me motivated I'm here today, still writing and improving in order to raise money for a charity that's rather close to my heart.

Sure, I'm not raising the million dollars in 5 days like the GDQ guys are but thanks to all the support £3000+ has been raised in a few years and that's fantastic.  I really owe it to the GDQ guys for inspiring me like that.  I get the feeling I'll be doing this for a long time going forward and it's all thanks to them.

Why AGDQ is so Awesome

At time of writing, Awesome Games Done Quick is on RIGHT NOW! So go watch it!

https://gamesdonequick.com/

But I want to take a quick moment as to why this event is so damn good. 

For those who may not know, Awesome Games Done Quick is an event that happens twice a year.  Speed Runners from all over gather together and Stream a large number of runs in an attempt to raise money for charity.  Awesome Games which happens in January raises money for Prevent Cancer Foundation and Summer Games raises money for Doctors Without Borders.

The event is awesome for a number of reasons so I thought I'd just share why I think it's such a great event.  First, raising money for these charities is an awesome thing to do.  The amount of planning and money spent on renting out/going to the venue must be pretty big.  Not to mention all the practice that these guys do for this event is staggering so it's really nice to see so much effort being put into such a great cause.  The donators even get to play their part in adding to the entertainment with various incentives, prizes and their comments being read live during the runs, it's awesome.

Another reason I think AGDQ is awesome is because it directly inspired this page.  I saw how much money these guys raised for charity and I thought that charity gaming might be worth doing.  Thanks to that, the Alzheimer's Society now has about £1800 more than it would than if this page didn't exist, which is awesome.  I owe a lot to the people who support me, but without the speed running community introducing me to the concept of gaming for charity, this small time effort of mine wouldn't exist.

There's one more reason that AGDQ is awesome and this is a more recent one.  Right now, gaming is going through a sort of tough time.  There are arguments all the fucking time about gaming being inclusive or gaming being misogynistic or whatever, you've heard me rant about that shit before.  What AGDQ proves, at least for me, is that all these people who complain about things like "gaming isn't inclusive" or "gamers are violent" are chatting complete bullshit.  Fire up the stream and you'll see all sorts of people at the event and everyone, providing they are bringing a run with them, are allowed to attend.  Doesn't matter if you're black, white, gay, straight, whatever, if you have a speed run that you are good at and it fits into their schedule, then you can go.

The same is true for the speed running community as a whole and gaming in general.  Doesn't matter who you are, where you're from or even how good you are, as long as you're here to play, you're welcome.  AGDQ is awesome because it illustrates this point so beautifully all while raising money for a worth while cause.