Games Done Quick runs a summer event called, aptly, Summer Games Done Quick. It ended just this morning, breaking its own record after raising over $1.2 million for Doctors Without Borders.
Last Year’s summer event “only” raised $700,000. Games Done Quick has held other speedrunning events that raised more—$1.5 million during Awesome Games Quick this January, for instance. But the summer event has brought in almost twice what it did last year. (Donations are still coming in.) A total of 22,000 individual donors contributed $43.29 on average, though Polygon notes that one donor who gave $21,498 probably skewed the numbers.
Speedrunning, or the practice of making your way through a game as quickly and efficiently as humanly possible, can be exciting to witness. Players have to rely on an encyclopedic knowledge of the game. They use tricks and even known glitches as shortcuts. Different competitions or events may have different rules for what constitutes a successful speedrun. Practiced speedrunners might get through a game that took me 36 hours—BioShock Infinite, for example—in less than three. (BioShock Infinite was the last game on the roster for the Summer Games Done Quick.)
If you have 20 minutes to spare, check out this Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time speedrun from Cosmo Wright. Well, technically, it’s 18 minutes and 10 seconds. Wright offers commentary on how he does what he does.
Speedrunning isn’t for everyone, of course. Personally, I enjoy dawdling, sometimes to an extreme. I’ll spend minutes at a time just staring out at the open sea in Dragon Age: Inquisition, imagining the ocean spray on my face. I’m also a huge completionist, so if I don’t find every single item or complete every single side quest I start to feel like I’m missing out. Regardless of personal gaming style, though, I think we can all agree that finishing Ocarina of Time in just over 18 minutes is pretty impressive.
