Thank you for posting this reminder. I love AGDQ, but have a hard time keeping up with when it happens because I'm not on any standard social medias. I'm looking forward to having this on in the...
Thank you for posting this reminder. I love AGDQ, but have a hard time keeping up with when it happens because I'm not on any standard social medias. I'm looking forward to having this on in the background while working this week
Unless I plan to donate then I prefer watching VODs which get posted pretty quickly on their website following the run. Personally, for me to enjoy a speed run it needs to either be a game I care...
Unless I plan to donate then I prefer watching VODs which get posted pretty quickly on their website following the run.
Personally, for me to enjoy a speed run it needs to either be a game I care about or have good commentary. Sometimes I will enjoy others but it's easier to figure that out when I can just jump from run to run easily.
It's like basic cable to me. Get home from work? Flip on the GDQ and see what's running. After the show, I'll check the vods or threads to see the standouts but otherwise maybe I'll find a game or...
It's like basic cable to me. Get home from work? Flip on the GDQ and see what's running. After the show, I'll check the vods or threads to see the standouts but otherwise maybe I'll find a game or a runner randomly and get a surprise.
I've enjoyed watching the AGDQ's because players have to continue the run. It's not a 5 hour stream of someone restarting for 4, so you get to see them take the game slightly more casually and...
I've enjoyed watching the AGDQ's because players have to continue the run. It's not a 5 hour stream of someone restarting for 4, so you get to see them take the game slightly more casually and usually explain what they're doing and why.
Super Mario 64 (16 Star Drum%) This was the coolest thing I've seen in a while. The runner has an actual drumset mapped to an N64 controller. Before he starts the run, CZR gives a demonstration of...
This was the coolest thing I've seen in a while. The runner has an actual drumset mapped to an N64 controller. Before he starts the run, CZR gives a demonstration of the controls and explains how everything works, which helps you appreciate just what he's able to do.
The coolest part of the run for me? His stick movement on the Bowser throws. Mezmerizing!
Also, without spoiling anything, I recommend watching it on the direct link to Twitch above instead of on YouTube. They had to mute a very fun part of the run on YT (presumably due to copyright issues).
I can't do any of these movements even on a normal controller, this is actually nuts. I don't know any of the techniques for the 16 star besides the BLJ, so this is like magic lol.
I can't do any of these movements even on a normal controller, this is actually nuts. I don't know any of the techniques for the 16 star besides the BLJ, so this is like magic lol.
Awesome Games Done Quick is a weeklong 24-hour speedrunning marathon for charity, benefitting the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Related links: Twitch stream Schedule Bids/Incentives Prizes Donate...
Awesome Games Done Quick is a weeklong 24-hour speedrunning marathon for charity, benefitting the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
The event is now over. It raised a total of $2,515,720 (HOORAY!). As a long-time GDQ watcher, I'll say that this was the best marathon in recent memory. A couple of welcome changes that I noticed:...
The event is now over. It raised a total of $2,515,720 (HOORAY!).
As a long-time GDQ watcher, I'll say that this was the best marathon in recent memory. A couple of welcome changes that I noticed:
Donation incentives aren't driving the bus nearly as much as they used to. They were much more reasonable this year, and changing over bonus games to be based on overall donation milestones rather than their own specific categories helped immensely. Bonus games used to cannibalize a lot of the smaller, more fun ones (e.g. naming incentives).
Donation targets also seemed much more reasonable. In previous years it felt like they kept trying to stretch them further and further, which forced the hosts to keep a ton of pressure on them. This led to uncomfortable stalling in the schedule and forcing big sponsor donations to "bail out" lagging ones. My least favorite thing, however, was that the pressure to meet incentives often overshadowed the current run happening. Instead of focusing on the game itself that was currently live, the host and donations would all be about hyping up some future run that needed to get met.
Everything with the incentives felt much more relaxed this year, which helped the marathon feel more chill and fun than it has in a while. I also think some of that was because this was the first big "return to form" GDQ that we've had in a while -- in-person and without COVID restrictions.
Pacing for the week was also on point. Apparently they now have two full setups so that they can initialize the next run while the current one is going on. I'm honestly sort of baffled that this wasn't the case before, but it meant that switching between runs was smooth and had way less downtime. Plus their new schedule page is genuinely excellent.
They also did a good job with their interstitial content, which was more structured and varied than it has been in the past. Previous ones had a lot of downtime and stalling which yielded a lot of dead air between runs as well as a lot of forcing Sent (and Shout & frozenflygone) to do constant Home Shopping Network bits of indeterminate time for the prizes. This one felt much more organized and thoughtful. Yes, some of it was still cringe, but it's always wholesome, heartwarming cringe, which is sort of a staple of GDQ anyway.
Overall I was really happy with the event. SGDQ 2023 made me feel like I was getting GDQ fatigue, and I remember wondering if some of the magic of the event had gone. This year, it felt like the magic was back in full force.
EDIT: Completely forgot to mention THE best change. We have FINALLY moved on from "ORB!"
Unclear whether these sentences are referring to previous years or this year, but as a first-time watcher, I couldn't help but notice that. It was especially noticeable between ToTK and BG3...
My least favorite thing, however, was that the pressure to meet incentives often overshadowed the current run happening. Instead of focusing on the game itself that was currently live, the host and donations would all be about hyping up some future run that needed to get met.
Unclear whether these sentences are referring to previous years or this year, but as a first-time watcher, I couldn't help but notice that. It was especially noticeable between ToTK and BG3 because they were close to a big round number. Like, yes, it's a charity event, so some amount of focusing on the charity bits is inevitable, but it got irritating. If it was worse before, that's pretty bad.
I don't know how to fix this without negatively impacting the charity side. My first thought was to do a donation drive and then do the event based on the results, but it's clear that a lot of the donations are in-the-moment, driven by live hype. (That also rubs me the wrong way. It's a benign use of advertising psychology, but it still feels dirty.)
I should probably just quietly accept it's not an event for me. I've had similar reservations toward other charity events before.
I was referring to previous years, which started to get really bad with this practice. This year felt like a breath of fresh air by comparison. It's not that there wasn't any donation pushing --...
I was referring to previous years, which started to get really bad with this practice. This year felt like a breath of fresh air by comparison. It's not that there wasn't any donation pushing -- just that it felt more compartmentalized and never seemed to completely overrun what was going on currently.
As for your mention of live hype driving donations, you're definitely right that it's advertising psychology at play. Personally, I think it's a good thing. I donate each marathon, and the excitement and group participation makes the amount I give feel more significant than it actually is.
If I were to donate tomorrow, it would feel like I gave them 50 lonely dollars. By donating during the event, however, that same 50 dollars feels more significant and part of something so much bigger than just me. I see it as exciting and affirming.
I definitely see where you're coming from though. If donation pressure bothers you, then GDQ probably isn't the event for you. That said, you might be interested in ESA's events. In terms of format they're almost identical to GDQ, but they tend to be much more relaxed and don't push donations nearly as hard. They have a more easygoing vibe, whereas GDQ plays up crowd and chat "hype" a lot more.
Watching this run and then looking over at my own pomsky fighting my pillow and losing makes me wonder if this is how my Asian parents felt while raising me. (joke)
Watching this run and then looking over at my own pomsky fighting my pillow and losing makes me wonder if this is how my Asian parents felt while raising me. (joke)
Soooo quick impromptu AGDQ celebration giveaway (if this is allowed). I ended up picking up the AGDQ 2024 Bundle on Humble (and put everything to charity besides the $1.50 that humble takes), but...
Soooo quick impromptu AGDQ celebration giveaway (if this is allowed). I ended up picking up the AGDQ 2024 Bundle on Humble (and put everything to charity besides the $1.50 that humble takes), but oh no, I have 4 of the games.
Comment below if you want a copy of Celeste (one of my favorite games of all time), Borderlands 2, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, or Bayonetta. Please include a VOD link of your favorite speedrun in general (but maybe AGDQ specific if possible!)
I'll do raffle style and pick out names on Sunday or something. 1 game per person unless there's no interest pls!
Sunday edit: This is now closed! @Lapbunny and @SpruceWillis check your DM's! If anyone questions my drawing methods I will upload a gif of my drawings.
The spare keys will go towards a future giveaway :)
I don't have Bayonetta! Would be interested. I was trying to jog my memory on best GDQ runs, and doy, literally the first search result is me answering this question in a thread - it's absolutely...
I don't have Bayonetta! Would be interested.
I was trying to jog my memory on best GDQ runs, and doy, literally the first search result is me answering this question in a thread - it's absolutely Animorphs in 2016. The game is hilariously shitty already, but its complete lack of rails turns the run from a good Awful Block contender into a complete fever dream for a live marathon... Except the couch doesn't skip a single beat multiplying all of the energy, and they pull everyone into how much of a nightmare they got themselves into. It's extremely fucking funny.
I have the others but I'll take Celeste off your hands, looks like a ton of fun, I'll probably be completely rubbish at it but I'll certainly try haha!
I have the others but I'll take Celeste off your hands, looks like a ton of fun, I'll probably be completely rubbish at it but I'll certainly try haha!
Hey! I'll be drawing the names on Sunday when the event itself ends, but I'd like to emphasize this part of my comment: I love doing giveaways but I also like learning more about the community and...
Hey! I'll be drawing the names on Sunday when the event itself ends, but I'd like to emphasize this part of my comment:
Please include a VOD link of your favorite speedrun in general (but maybe AGDQ specific if possible!)
I love doing giveaways but I also like learning more about the community and what they like so please comment that in before Sunday 12am EST :)
Apologies, I'll blame it on it being early and not having had my coffee at the time. The first run that popped into my head as being a favourite was the Wild Guns run from last years SGDQ, the...
Apologies, I'll blame it on it being early and not having had my coffee at the time.
The first run that popped into my head as being a favourite was the Wild Guns run from last years SGDQ, the game itself is a fun schmup but the commentators are absolutely incredible and are quite clearly having a blast, highly suggest watching it.
I love the two GDQ seasons. I try to watch it when I can but with a 20 month old it's difficult to get the time but when I'm working I stick it on in the background and it's always great. Being in...
I love the two GDQ seasons. I try to watch it when I can but with a 20 month old it's difficult to get the time but when I'm working I stick it on in the background and it's always great.
Being in the UK I'm generally used to the smaller runs and awful block being on when I'm up and missing out on the big hitters and showcases but its nice to see there's been some big runs like Paper Mario to catch for us non-Americans this year. Although that's not a knock against those smaller, cosy runs, they're a ton of fun too!
The Baldur's Gate 3 Speedruns were so fun to watch, plus seeing the dev rooms were super cool! Not too heavy spoilers except what the bosses look like either :) The final push to $2.5mil was...
The Baldur's Gate 3 Speedruns were so fun to watch, plus seeing the dev rooms were super cool! Not too heavy spoilers except what the bosses look like either :)
The final push to $2.5mil was sooooo hype and fun to watch, I love this event.
Thank you for posting this reminder. I love AGDQ, but have a hard time keeping up with when it happens because I'm not on any standard social medias. I'm looking forward to having this on in the background while working this week
Unless I plan to donate then I prefer watching VODs which get posted pretty quickly on their website following the run.
Personally, for me to enjoy a speed run it needs to either be a game I care about or have good commentary. Sometimes I will enjoy others but it's easier to figure that out when I can just jump from run to run easily.
It's like basic cable to me. Get home from work? Flip on the GDQ and see what's running. After the show, I'll check the vods or threads to see the standouts but otherwise maybe I'll find a game or a runner randomly and get a surprise.
I've enjoyed watching the AGDQ's because players have to continue the run. It's not a 5 hour stream of someone restarting for 4, so you get to see them take the game slightly more casually and usually explain what they're doing and why.
Agreed, definitely the best way to watch speed runs. I can't really get into "normal" speed runs for the reasons you mention.
I love the terrible games (because I'd never play them myself)! Also the insane feats of skill like blindfolded and such.
Agreed, they can be entertaining. They just usually need good commentators.
Super Mario 64 (16 Star Drum%)
This was the coolest thing I've seen in a while. The runner has an actual drumset mapped to an N64 controller. Before he starts the run, CZR gives a demonstration of the controls and explains how everything works, which helps you appreciate just what he's able to do.
The coolest part of the run for me? His stick movement on the Bowser throws. Mezmerizing!
Also, without spoiling anything, I recommend watching it on the direct link to Twitch above instead of on YouTube. They had to mute a very fun part of the run on YT (presumably due to copyright issues).
I can't do any of these movements even on a normal controller, this is actually nuts. I don't know any of the techniques for the 16 star besides the BLJ, so this is like magic lol.
Awesome Games Done Quick is a weeklong 24-hour speedrunning marathon for charity, benefitting the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
Related links:
/r/speedrun's [AGDQ] VoD Thread 2024
The event is now over. It raised a total of $2,515,720 (HOORAY!).
As a long-time GDQ watcher, I'll say that this was the best marathon in recent memory. A couple of welcome changes that I noticed:
Donation incentives aren't driving the bus nearly as much as they used to. They were much more reasonable this year, and changing over bonus games to be based on overall donation milestones rather than their own specific categories helped immensely. Bonus games used to cannibalize a lot of the smaller, more fun ones (e.g. naming incentives).
Donation targets also seemed much more reasonable. In previous years it felt like they kept trying to stretch them further and further, which forced the hosts to keep a ton of pressure on them. This led to uncomfortable stalling in the schedule and forcing big sponsor donations to "bail out" lagging ones. My least favorite thing, however, was that the pressure to meet incentives often overshadowed the current run happening. Instead of focusing on the game itself that was currently live, the host and donations would all be about hyping up some future run that needed to get met.
Everything with the incentives felt much more relaxed this year, which helped the marathon feel more chill and fun than it has in a while. I also think some of that was because this was the first big "return to form" GDQ that we've had in a while -- in-person and without COVID restrictions.
Pacing for the week was also on point. Apparently they now have two full setups so that they can initialize the next run while the current one is going on. I'm honestly sort of baffled that this wasn't the case before, but it meant that switching between runs was smooth and had way less downtime. Plus their new schedule page is genuinely excellent.
They also did a good job with their interstitial content, which was more structured and varied than it has been in the past. Previous ones had a lot of downtime and stalling which yielded a lot of dead air between runs as well as a lot of forcing Sent (and Shout & frozenflygone) to do constant Home Shopping Network bits of indeterminate time for the prizes. This one felt much more organized and thoughtful. Yes, some of it was still cringe, but it's always wholesome, heartwarming cringe, which is sort of a staple of GDQ anyway.
Overall I was really happy with the event. SGDQ 2023 made me feel like I was getting GDQ fatigue, and I remember wondering if some of the magic of the event had gone. This year, it felt like the magic was back in full force.
EDIT: Completely forgot to mention THE best change. We have FINALLY moved on from "ORB!"
Unclear whether these sentences are referring to previous years or this year, but as a first-time watcher, I couldn't help but notice that. It was especially noticeable between ToTK and BG3 because they were close to a big round number. Like, yes, it's a charity event, so some amount of focusing on the charity bits is inevitable, but it got irritating. If it was worse before, that's pretty bad.
I don't know how to fix this without negatively impacting the charity side. My first thought was to do a donation drive and then do the event based on the results, but it's clear that a lot of the donations are in-the-moment, driven by live hype. (That also rubs me the wrong way. It's a benign use of advertising psychology, but it still feels dirty.)
I should probably just quietly accept it's not an event for me. I've had similar reservations toward other charity events before.
I was referring to previous years, which started to get really bad with this practice. This year felt like a breath of fresh air by comparison. It's not that there wasn't any donation pushing -- just that it felt more compartmentalized and never seemed to completely overrun what was going on currently.
As for your mention of live hype driving donations, you're definitely right that it's advertising psychology at play. Personally, I think it's a good thing. I donate each marathon, and the excitement and group participation makes the amount I give feel more significant than it actually is.
If I were to donate tomorrow, it would feel like I gave them 50 lonely dollars. By donating during the event, however, that same 50 dollars feels more significant and part of something so much bigger than just me. I see it as exciting and affirming.
I definitely see where you're coming from though. If donation pressure bothers you, then GDQ probably isn't the event for you. That said, you might be interested in ESA's events. In terms of format they're almost identical to GDQ, but they tend to be much more relaxed and don't push donations nearly as hard. They have a more easygoing vibe, whereas GDQ plays up crowd and chat "hype" a lot more.
Gyromite run by Peanut Butter the Dog, and his assistant human, JSR_ in 26:24
Watching this run and then looking over at my own pomsky fighting my pillow and losing makes me wonder if this is how my Asian parents felt while raising me. (joke)
Soooo quick impromptu AGDQ celebration giveaway (if this is allowed). I ended up picking up the AGDQ 2024 Bundle on Humble (and put everything to charity besides the $1.50 that humble takes), but oh no, I have 4 of the games.
Comment below if you want a copy of Celeste (one of my favorite games of all time), Borderlands 2, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, or Bayonetta. Please include a VOD link of your favorite speedrun in general (but maybe AGDQ specific if possible!)
I'll do raffle style and pick out names on Sunday or something. 1 game per person unless there's no interest pls!
Sunday edit: This is now closed! @Lapbunny and @SpruceWillis check your DM's! If anyone questions my drawing methods I will upload a gif of my drawings.
The spare keys will go towards a future giveaway :)
I don't have Bayonetta! Would be interested.
I was trying to jog my memory on best GDQ runs, and doy, literally the first search result is me answering this question in a thread - it's absolutely Animorphs in 2016. The game is hilariously shitty already, but its complete lack of rails turns the run from a good Awful Block contender into a complete fever dream for a live marathon... Except the couch doesn't skip a single beat multiplying all of the energy, and they pull everyone into how much of a nightmare they got themselves into. It's extremely fucking funny.
There's a part 2 in 2020 that's a fantastic follow-up, with a neat twist at the end.
Bunch of others I could throw around, but I'll let others get them.
I have the others but I'll take Celeste off your hands, looks like a ton of fun, I'll probably be completely rubbish at it but I'll certainly try haha!
Hey! I'll be drawing the names on Sunday when the event itself ends, but I'd like to emphasize this part of my comment:
I love doing giveaways but I also like learning more about the community and what they like so please comment that in before Sunday 12am EST :)
Apologies, I'll blame it on it being early and not having had my coffee at the time.
The first run that popped into my head as being a favourite was the Wild Guns run from last years SGDQ, the game itself is a fun schmup but the commentators are absolutely incredible and are quite clearly having a blast, highly suggest watching it.
I love the two GDQ seasons. I try to watch it when I can but with a 20 month old it's difficult to get the time but when I'm working I stick it on in the background and it's always great.
Being in the UK I'm generally used to the smaller runs and awful block being on when I'm up and missing out on the big hitters and showcases but its nice to see there's been some big runs like Paper Mario to catch for us non-Americans this year. Although that's not a knock against those smaller, cosy runs, they're a ton of fun too!
The Baldur's Gate 3 Speedruns were so fun to watch, plus seeing the dev rooms were super cool! Not too heavy spoilers except what the bosses look like either :)
The final push to $2.5mil was sooooo hype and fun to watch, I love this event.