Summer Games Done Quick 2019 wraps up by raising a record-breaking $3M for charity

Games_Done_Quick_logo_2018.png

Summer Games Done Quick 2019 has come and gone, with speedrunners playing fan-favorite games in order to raise money for charity. This year was an especially amazing year for the event, with SGDQ earning a massively record-breaking $3,005,203 dollars, all for Doctors Without Borders. As the final speedrun of the event--a 100% run of Chrono Trigger--was wrapping up, donations began pouring in, barrelling past the $3M mark, and shattering last year's donation record of $2.1M. At the end of the stream, it was also revealed when the next Games Done Quick would happen: Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 will take place on January 5-12, and will mark the 10th anniversary of the event.
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Izual Urashima

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Is it really though? Not that GDQ didn't have its share of controversial decisions, especially during its rough transition into the mainstream (where most of those really come from), but aside of couple side-panels and several mostly business-related moderation changes, the event is pretty much the same; maybe that's just my perspective, but whenever topic of "GDQ going SJW" comes up, I often see people intensely cherry-picking minor instances to make their point.

I can perfectly see the complaints about it not having the same atmosphere anymore though, but that has much more to do with growing popularity of the event - when you have millions of people and all sorts of sponsors supporting your event, dudebros with accordions cracking offensive jokes just won't cut it. I kinda miss those time myself (to an extent - even occasional toxicity aside, earlier GDQs were organized like crap), but charity > dudebros in my range of priorities.

It really had a change.

The first change, as you pointed out, went when the event became mainstream. Stakes were higher, runs were bringing more money, and surprisingly, they didn't lost that much fun in the process. You could see the speedrunners were still enjoying it and the general attitude around, even though some set the bar too high, be it in a lame attempt to impress the masses or be it because of the general belief that since there were more people paying, they needed to pull higher quality runs. Jokes were still thrown, fun still was there, dudebros cracking jokes were still there, and so on. And no one complained at the toxicity, even charities which could easily have done that, considering their name was attached to what was a big-name event now.

Then it had another change.

It is often said that popularity brings the bad people. And in a way, that's what happened. People began complaining about the inequality of women, even though what matters was speedrunning and not who speedruns. People began complaining about the toxicity of public, even though this "toxicity" I'm still doubting was what helped some speedrunners avoid the mistake of going too much into focus (which is part of what leads into mistakes during speedrunning). People began complaining about other speedrunners saying a bad word or two in order to get them out, even though their speedruns were still of higher quality and their "bad word" could be understood in the context (come on, you're working on a full-concentration run for more than an hour, and you missed out an important item, wouldn't you be angry ?) and still wasn't a problem to the charities involved.

And now, here we are. Much less quality speedruns because all the big names have run off or have been thrown off. Much more "correctness", which brought a heavy atmosphere both causing problem to the speedrunners (hence the departures) and the public (see this thread as a proof of it). And less interest for it.
 

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It really had a change.

The first change, as you pointed out, went when the event became mainstream. Stakes were higher, runs were bringing more money, and surprisingly, they didn't lost that much fun in the process. You could see the speedrunners were still enjoying it and the general attitude around, even though some set the bar too high, be it in a lame attempt to impress the masses or be it because of the general belief that since there were more people paying, they needed to pull higher quality runs. Jokes were still thrown, fun still was there, dudebros cracking jokes were still there, and so on. And no one complained at the toxicity, even charities which could easily have done that, considering their name was attached to what was a big-name event now.
Welp, that is kinda self-explanatory in the way. Early GDQ was more of a local geekfest with very specific audience - the kind of audience that finds appeal in said kind of atmosphere and humor (and no, it wasn't even remotely big-name at the time). Naturally, when it started gaining traction, it also attracted attention of people who could potentially be alienated by this kind of thing; and as a result, GDQ showrunners had to choose between keeping things the same and spook increasing number of potential patrons, or make rules more strict to expand their audience. So, they made their choice.

TL;DR: It's less of "no one complained about toxicity" and more of "there was no one to complain about toxicity due to event being fringe, and complaints poured in once it stopped being fringe".

It is often said that popularity brings the bad people. And in a way, that's what happened. People began complaining about the inequality of women, even though what matters was speedrunning and not who speedruns.
Speedrunning community was (and still kinda is) notorious for its degree of discrimination towards female runners, so concerns were pretty legit, even if approached not in the most laconic way. For "what matters was speedrunning and not who speedruns", you'll barely find any female runners (let alone any trans folks) on early GDQs, and not for the lack of willing participants.

People began complaining about the toxicity of public, even though this "toxicity" I'm still doubting was what helped some speedrunners avoid the mistake of going too much into focus (which is part of what leads into mistakes during speedrunning). People began complaining about other speedrunners saying a bad word or two in order to get them out, even though their speedruns were still of higher quality and their "bad word" could be understood in the context (come on, you're working on a full-concentration run for more than an hour, and you missed out an important item, wouldn't you be angry ?) and still wasn't a problem to the charities involved.
For the most part, average audience doesn't want this kind of stuff, and as I said, since average audience already surpassed a rather small subset of "hardcore" speedrunning fans, GDQ makes a reasonable decision of banhammering on slur-throwing bickering in the chat and swear words on the air. Considering the $3M record, the decision paid off well. Runners are warned in advance, so it's mostly on them .

And now, here we are. Much less quality speedruns because all the big names have run off or have been thrown off. Much more "correctness", which brought a heavy atmosphere both causing problem to the speedrunners (hence the departures) and the public (see this thread as a proof of it). And less interest for it.
GBATemp threads aren't making for the greatest pool of people to confirm common opinions. Besides, GDQ still attracts a lot of big names and breaks revenue records, so it's hardly in decline either.
 
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Izual Urashima

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TL;DR: It's less of "no one complained about toxicity" and more of "there was no one to complain about toxicity due to event being fringe, and complaints poured in once it stopped being fringe".

There simply weren't complaints until people began to ask for "more inclusivity". Which I'll cover in your next point. But even in the two years before the rules came in and some speedrunners got hit by that, there was a lot of people coming and watching, and there was a lot of companies gifting money to the event. Which is why the comments about "toxicity" (which I still need to find proof for) surprised about everyone.

Speedrunning community was (and still kinda is) notorious for its degree of discrimination towards female runners, so concerns were pretty legit, even if approached not in the most laconic way. For "what matters was speedrunning and not who speedruns", you'll barely find any female runners (let alone any trans folks) on early GDQs, and not for the lack of willing participants.

There was no proof of such discrimination outside of tweets and discussions that have been confirmed as fabricated. The answer from the fabricators was to shut down their Twitter accounts because they were "menaced", which has no proofs and thus held no grounds. Feel free to post any of them if you think I'm wrong.

In addition, there is no care about the gender of runners. The speedrunning is the art of playing a game faster than anyone, and if you can run a game faster than others, it doesn't matter if you're a woman, a man, a transgender or anything else or in-between. Which is why the claims against gender equality also had no value. You don't need to have an equal number of sexes or genders to prove X can run the game faster than Y. And you don't need to care about being discriminated if you can run faster than both. Just post the proof and let the rest happen by itself.

For the most part, average audience doesn't want this kind of stuff, and as I said, since average audience already surpassed a rather small subset of "hardcore" speedrunning fans, GDQ makes a reasonable decision of hammering down on slur-throwing bickering in the chat and swear words on the air. Considering the $3M record, the decision paid off well. Runners are warned in advance, so it's mostly on them .

For the most part, average audience doesn't want this kind of stuff, but as I said, average audience doesn't care about gender inclusivity, gender equality or toxicity. They just want to have fun watching players speedrunning while having fun, which was part of the thing attracting so many people, and the fact that numbers are dwindling both in the speedrunning community and the people watching the livestreams is a glaring factor of it.

As for the $3M record, it is a logical consequence of what happened before - The more mainstream the event is, the more money has to be injected in it, for showing how generous you are. It's a shame, but it is a known fact, and the fact many charities thrive on support because they aren't mainstream enough reinforces that.

GBATemp threads aren't making for the greatest pool of people to confirm common opinions. Besides, GDQ still attracts a lot of big names and breaks revenue records, so it's hardly in decline either.

Revenue records are growing because of the mainstream effect, which I explained on the previous part, and the lot being attracted is complaining more and more about how the show lost its quality and all the fun they enjoyed having. So while it's hardly in decline, I'd answer it's hardly in decline yet. The moment a decent competitor will rise up and be as mainstream as GDQ, their inclusivity won't make them the most popular option.
 

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I'm inclined to believe it.

I love GDQ, speed running, etc but the whole thing is (and has been) way to liberal and political recently.

ESA

Speedrunning without the political aspect!
 

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