Is speedrunning similar to gambling?

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wtfNeedSignUp

wtfNeedSignUp

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Watching speedrunners going insane playing a PS2 game no one fucking cares about made me wonder about how connected it is with gambling (in cases that there is no real skill involved). Both are autistic pursuit of dopamine while just repeating the same action over and over without any change. The only big difference (besides having cash involved) is that gambling, especially today, is instant while speedrunning can be hours per dopamine hit.

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This honestly depends on the game. Some games take a lot of skill with only a little luck involved, while others require an unholy amount of luck to speedrun. From what I heard, a lot of people prefer speedrunning games that don't require you to grind for 0.00001% of some random shit happening because it's not fun at all however there's a "special" types of people who spent literall years of their lives trying to get that random 0.00001% of some random shit happening just because they want to be first one in the world to achive that, which is quite pathetic tbh
 
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Yes because a lot of the reason for good speed in most games is the game's RNG being "good". You always see runners curse RNG. It's the same thing.
 
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Considering both are rife with cheaters? I'd say "perhaps".
 
It's more akin to something like juggling. You can become relatively decent at it with some time and effort, it can be fun and it will make some people say "hey that's pretty cool you can do that". But there's also a couple of autists obsessed with being the best of the best and wasting thousands of hours doing the same thing over and over just so they can do it slightly better. In both cases the skills gained from doing these activities have close to no value.
 
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SIMON THE PIEMAN said:
It's more akin to something like juggling. You can become relatively decent at it with some time and effort, it can be fun and it will make some people say "hey that's pretty cool you can do that". But there's also a couple of autists obsessed with being the best of the best and wasting thousands of hours doing the same thing over and over just so they can do it slightly better. In both cases the skills gained from doing these activities have close to no value.
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idk dude, getting good with juggling will at least give you arm strength and more coordination.
Rome's rightful successor said:
How much money have speedrunners lost speedrunning?
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Their entire fortune had they just worked 9-5 plus any personal relationship.
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
idk dude, getting good with juggling will at least give you arm strength and more coordination
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My argument was more about the activity itself. One could similarly argue that speedrunning makes you better at long and repetitive tasks by training your focus and patience.
 
SIMON THE PIEMAN said:
My argument was more about the activity itself. One could similarly argue that speedrunning makes you better at long and repetitive tasks by training your focus and patience.
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I feel like the diminishing gains in those are significantly higher. Plus just about every hobby will help improve focus and patience. If you can even call speedrunning involving replaying over and over until you get good RNG focus.
 
Relinquish said:
This honestly depends on the game. Some games take a lot of skill with only a little luck involved, while others require an unholy amount of luck to speedrun. From what I heard, a lot of people prefer speedrunning games that don't require you to grind for 0.00001% of some random shit happening because it's not fun at all however there's a "special" types of people who spent literall years of their lives trying to get that random 0.00001% of some random shit happening just because they want to be first one in the world to achive that, which is quite pathetic tbh
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This post has already explained that there are various types of games, some involving luck and others not. I'll take on the (((trans question))) instead since some people mentioned it in the thread.

Trans people want others to believe they are the best at games despite only being over represented in female only categories. They can dominate real women instead of competing with their fellow men, since they will always be crushed there.

Speedrunning games with minimal amount of luck, and mechanically intensive:
https://www.speedrun.com/ngnes | Every top 3 for all category are all normal men.
https://www.speedrun.com/sm64 | Every top 3 for all category are all normal men.
https://www.speedrun.com/supermetroid | Every top 3 for all category are all normal men.
https://www.speedrun.com/smo | Every top 3 for all category are all normal men.
I can go on
Hollow Knight:
A 112% clear for a 2+ hours run has all top 3 players being normal men.

An any% clear which is shorter, for around a 30+ minutes clear have 2 of the top 3 players having they/them as pronouns.

Even with games that are easily influenced by luck, will you still have trouble seeing them, example below.
Minecraft:
Any% glitch category set seed and random seed both top 3 have a total of 5 trans people out of 6 in it.

Any% glitchless category have all top 10 players in both random seeds and set seed being all normal young men.

Despite having minimal amount of luck and high to moderate amount of skills, some games will have a huge trans playerbase because of its pro trans reputation/fan base/content, examples:
Celeste (Trans dev/flag in the game)
Ultrakill (Same here)
A Hat In Time
Undertale
Meaning their over representation is because of the game itself, not speedrunning.

And to add to the topic:
For some games, speedrunning is just the same as racing for a 100m, during a race your time will be influenced by your mood, weather, diet, shoes, etc. And in the case of an official race, you can control as much external factor as you want, but you can always put things under a microscope enough that you can deduce some amount of luck somewhere.

And for other games, speedrunning IS similar to gambling, you're wishing for luck to be on your side, but it is healthier than gambling, I doubt anyone would argue about this. But it is not a speedrunning thing, it's about the games themselves.

And then you have the games that are about both. Or that will need some amount of luck to beat a certain time/reach a certain placement.
 
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I watch one Souls runner who had a few world records etc. He hasn't speedran a game in years and doesn't even mingle with those who do. He used it as a proof of skill and a jumping point towards playing other hard games casually. Those who stick to speedrunning are doomed to rest at 300 viewers or less, and they keep doing this because they'll stream a new game, enjoy it, dip to 180 viewers and go "oh that was bad" and return to fucking scooby doo on the ps1.
 
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Gambling makes you put some item of value up with the chance of losing it in return for something else, so no. But it is kinda retarded, especially when they use glitches and stuff, or playing anything involving any RNG.
 
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