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Re:Diablo hackers uncovered a speedrun scandal by jordigh on Saturday February 15, 2025 @12:47PM (#43060467)
It also depends on what is "fun". Major glitches in Super Metroid make you skip too much of the game and that just isn't fun to watch.

Speedrunning is a spectator sport, so spectators ultimately determine which categories are the prestigious ones.

Re:Diablo hackers uncovered a speedrun scandal by djur on Saturday February 15, 2025 @11:37PM (#43065376)
An example I'm aware of is the Lufia II No Major Glitches/No RNG Manipulation run. That game is very easy to make essentially deterministic with RNG manipulation, but like most highly technical RPG runs it's long and exhausting. The No RNG run not only bans RNG manipulation but also certain very rare drops that RNG manipulation is usually used to obtain. Why? Because otherwise, the optimal strategy would be to grind runs 10 minutes at a time until you got the rare drop from an early boss, and that's not fun. So the ruleset is designed to be accessible for runners who aren't interested in pathological optimization.