Awesome Games Done Quick 2016 January 3rd - 10th

Hello folks. I usually make one of these topics every time there are one of these things to spread the good word. Now I know a lot of you already know what to expect BUT if you haven't watched one of these or even know what Games Done Quick is I got a mini FAQ below.

What is Games Done Quick?

"Games done Quick" is a week long marathon where a bunch of speed runners from the SDA and other speed running communities come together to play games and raise money for a good cause. There are two annual events. Awesome Games Done Quick and its sister event Summer Games Done Quick.

What is money being raised for?

All money raised during this event will go to The Prevent Cancer Foundation. Who furthers efforts in preventing and help treating cancer patients.

What games are being played?

You can check out the schedule right here.

Where Can I watch?

You can check the action out starting on the 3rd on GDQ's Twitch page or if you would rather hang out with Giantbomb Duders mod @chaser324 will be embedding the streams on Explosiveruns.com where you can hang out in an IRC chat and chat with other duders.

Where Can I Donate?

You can donate right here. You can view the donation list, prizes and more here.

Community Donation Efforts

Each event for fun the Giantbomb Community decides on a donation incentive to pool all of our money towards. Some past examples are donating to name Yoshi "Gerstmann" in Paper Mario and naming Robo "RyanD" in honor of the Rough Tough and Dangerous Ryan Davis. Once everyone collectively decides on what everyone should donate to I'll update this spot.

Old Stuff! Get yourself Hype!

You can catch up on the last event and plenty more by going over to the GDQ YouTube Page where they have playlists for entire events including the previous event SGDQ 2015.

Oh man, totally forgot about this! Sadly, this might be the first one of these I can't donate during, as I don't really have any disposable income right now. I'll probably throw at least a couple of bucks though.

I hope more moments like this happen, which they inevitably will.

A lot of people in the speedrunning circles I follow on IRC and Twitter are super down on GDQ at this point. I might pass on this one.

@bollard: Why's that? Also seems like we're never gonna get rondo of blood in agdq.

@bollard: what's the general gist of their disappointment, because I look forward to their events every time but these last two i've been a bit let down by the schedule.

Schedule kind of sucks but still have a few decent blocks here and there.

Their events keep getting bigger and I'd imagine that attracts some ... stuff that might piss people off. Personally, its a charity event I religiously watch and it raises a ton.

I was a bit disappointed with the last SGDQ schedule but this one looks pretty great. I thought Sinister had pretty much retired so I'm glad to see him doing a couple of runs. Bummer about no Super Metroid race, though.

Okay, that Bloodborne run looks like its pre-patch. Boo.

@cheddartyme: There's a lot of disillusionment regarding the games that are rejected and selected (particular questions being pointed at how games like Minecraft and Mario Maker get selected) and in general the attitude the organisers have about the participants. I've seen a lot of people tweeting things like this:

At some point selectors have to think about what games will get a bigger audience. Tough shit.

@shindig: Any Bloodborne run that isn't all bosses is bound to be boring.

Nice, excited to see an Axiom Verge run.

@bollard: How do they usually select the games on the schedule?
So many games I'm interested to see. Definitely looking forward to the Spooky section.

Also; Talos Principle, Portal 2, and Tag in the shooter block o_O

Schedule looks good to me. Theres only so many times you can enjoy watching the same games done year in, year out and this one has plenty of new games which should at least be interesting to watch. Sucks for someone who maybe wanted to run a classic but its about time new fames got a chance.

I only care about the races.

Feels weird to see SM without Zoast running it at all.

So... GDQ has become too big and corporate or what? I can't blame them too much, given the way they've consistently raked in over a million for charity the past few marathons. That said... there are definitely fewer games on the schedule that pop out to me. I'll still be in the Explosive Runs chat, more likely than not, even if it sorta looks like I'll be able to entirely skip some days. The best parts of any GDQ are the speedruns you don't expect anything out of. Like Zoo Race.

@bollard: In regards to some games returning? Honestly I'd rather see some mario maker insanity than some of the big games that get played every year, but it looks like those are returning anyways. I wish they'd run two streams, one for the big games, and one for smaller games so less known games can get the spotlight, and those of us who have been watching for a few years get to see something different. The other thing that sucks is that they're donating to the Prevent Cancer Foundation again, which I believe is only a US charity right? I remember a lot of international donors were pissed about that last year.

@gravytrain: Yep, seems like it is just a US charity. I'm definitely more inclined to give money to something that isn't so parochial. I mean, I know it's held in America, but there are heaps and heaps of people watching from around the world - especially during American bedtime.

Also, I love hearing people say "Médecins Sans Frontières".

@beachthunder: There are open submissions where any runner can submit a game they run, and they have to provide video evidence of their ability to complete it in a time close to the WR, as well as an estimate including setup time and any mistakes that could occur so the organisers can try to schedule anything.

The submissions go through rounds of cuts where the organisers decide to remove whatever game they choose (sometimes for tenuous resons) and people who cannot attend drop out until they're left with the final schedule.

Games might be cut because they're just too long, they've been run before, or the runner isn't good enough. In the past though there have been games that have had huge changes to their route because new glitches were found getting cut in like the first round of cuts. At the same time other games which haven't changed at all get selected due to the communities or runners involved, which always riles people up.

@gravytrain: I agree it being disappointing that the charity is US only, it would be nice to see them spread some of the publicity they get around to other lesser know foundations.

The problem with Mario Maker is less to do with it replacing a game that usually gets the spot (I think a lot of people, myself included, dislike the favour given to the large games that always get run, but you have to consider Zelda, Mario and MegaMan do bring a lot of viewers) but more with the fact that it, like Minecraft, isn't possible to "speedrun" in the technical sense of the word. There's no start or end, so any category you apply to a run of that game is arbitrary and considered less meaningful.

Maybe you're right, GDQ is certainly big enough now it could support 2 streams, heck, ESA manages it on a fraction of the budget every year.

Last year felt oddly devoid of life and energy - like it went from being run in your friend's basement to being held on school grounds with teachers monitoring the fun. I hope this year vets that old feel back.

Any news on why they decided not to go with Médecins Sans Frontières again? It's a damn good org.

I thought AGDQ was Prevent Cancer and SGDQ was MSF?

They switch up between charities. AGDQ is Prevent Cancer and the summer event is for MSF.

As always, donation incentives are the key to everything. I suggest we decide what we all want to donate towards and try to make it happen. Work together and all that.

@bollard: Yeah after all the flack they caught last year for only donating to a US charity I would have thought they would do a better job. I also completely agree, having games like minecraft is worthless, I think they ran that last year as well and it was pretty meh then as well. I don't know, it just doesn't seem like GDQ is evolving as they should and learning from prior mistakes (including games that make no sense again, donating to a US only charity again, etc.) which is eventually going to burn them as runners feel disenfranchised.

Huh? MSF is a French organization.

@demoskinos: They only donate to MSF during summer games done quick. Awesome games done quick (which usually brings in more money) is donating to the Prevent Cancer Foundation again this year. They make no attempt to mention that the Prevent Cancer Foundation is only a US based charity.

@demoskinos: But it operates across the globe. I'm suspecting the Prevent Cancer Foundation does not.

I saw most of the last SGDQ and thought it was solid, seemed to have a good variety and a good mix of popular and obscure stuff whilst still grouping things into blocks with common interests/communities.

On the other hand, the AGDQ schedule doesn't seem to have as much jumping out at me as SGDQ did. Or maybe it's just that, whilst a fair few interesting games jump out at me, there aren't as many obvious coherently organized blocks. iuno, hopefully it's still good.

@gravytrain: The last SGDQ brought in more money to date than any other. And I don't see the issue with it being Prevent Cancer being a US charity. Helping people is helping people no matter where they are at. And considering its an american event with mostly western attendees I'm not sure whats the issue tbh.

@demoskinos: I apologize if I wasn't clear in my response. I have no issue that they choose the organization that they do, simply the way they go about not mentioning it is a US only charity. It's only an issue because it is not clearly communicated to those who may be donating from other countries.

MSF started out as a French organization, but that's no longer true.

I've been watching these for a couple years now, and I still enjoy them, but the lists of games are starting to get kind of stale. I get they want the big headlining "staples," but I wish they had more variety sprinkled throughout.

Let's talk about donation incentives...

There's one for naming a Super Mario Maker level... perhaps name it to something Anti-Patrick?

@turboman: That sounds solid.

Also, YO GET HYPE. This starts tomorrow.

Oh no, I remember that, what a train wreck

@flstyle: Then there is the guy who ran... I think Crash who was making really awkward and awful domestic abuse and suicide jokes and was asked to leave. >_>

Aye, Crash 2. The gimmick was suiciding to save time so his quips were all suicide related.

Pinned this. Good luck to anyone involved.

Yeah it was very unfortunate. A lot of those guys are under a ton of pressure to be funny and so they just say whatever comes to mind. His process involved suicide to save time so he made a lot of very bad and very awkward jokes about that. Personally I cringed out of the stream for a little bit so I missed the part where he joked about snapping and killing everyone one day. That was the comment that got him thrown out. It was just... rough.

The only problem with AGDQ is that I usually don't have any time to actually play any games while their marathon is going on. Going by the schedule it looks to be another varied marathon full of many different types of games. I'm surprised they let A Hat In Time in since it isn't done yet.

So there's a level name bid war for a Super Mario Maker course and a character name bidwar for Castlevania 3, those are the only two related to GB that I see.

Mario Maker is the best option out of the two, so we can try to name it something Anti-Patrick. We have 32 characters to play with. Here's a couple of ideas from the top of my head.

• Kleptastraphe
• Patrick Is Too Slow
• Dan Ryckert > Patrick Klepek
• Breaking News: Patrick Stinks

@turboman: My vote goes to the first one.

...And we're live!

How about Ten Page WWE Book Report?

I hope we all have a common donation goal (or common donation goals).

Some of the ones I see so far this one might be interesting for us:

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/run/1698

Super Mario Maker level name - https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/run/1677