How Watching Speedrunners Made Me Better at Playing Games

I am always looking for new ways to improve my gaming strategies and find unique and interesting ways to get through difficult sections. When I’m struggling with a boss or simply looking for new ways to explore, I often turn to speedrunners, as they are a great source of strategies to aid in overcoming difficult obstacles.

What is Speedrunning?

As the name implies, a speedrunner is someone who tries to get through a game as fast as possible. There’s a vibrant community of speedrunners who compete to post times and share strategies with one another in a bid to finish a game in record time.

There are several different types of speedrunning, some of which make use of glitches within the game to skip vast sections (which can often further complicate a run), and others who seek to complete everything (or “100%”) the game with several shades in between.

A lot of speedrunning comes down to technique, like making pixel-perfect jumps or timing an action perfectly to achieve a desired outcome. This is where speedruns can turn into learning experiences. The phenomenon of speedrunning has become so influential that there are now games designed to cater to speedrunners like Neon White.

You can find speedrunning videos all over YouTube, on dedicated communities like Speedrun.com, and tune in to yearly speedrunning events like Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) and Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) run by Games Done Quick.

Learn New Strategies

The most frequent way I look to speedrunners for inspiration is to watch how they fight bosses to learn new mechanics and discover better strategies for beating them. I can study the moves they use, the timing of certain attacks, and the way they utilize the level design and attempt to mimic them myself.

I often discover new ways to exploit certain mechanics or use a boss’s moves against themselves to make the fight easier if I’m having a hard time with it.

This can apply to other aspects outside of combat as well, such as platforming sections or puzzles that might otherwise be tedious or may have a time restriction. Many speedrunners find “skips” that let them bypass entire sections of a game, which can sometimes teach me useful tricks that might make platforming easier.

Taking My Time

Despite the fact that speedrunning is largely focused on getting through a game as fast as possible, watching people do it is a great way to appreciate the patience involved in truly mastering a game. Even though they’re trying to speed through a game quickly, doing so often requires hours of practice to nail the right strategy in order to pull it off.

Studying speedruns helps me to appreciate the time spent mastering a game’s mechanics to determine the optimal strategy. Rather than simply throwing myself at a section I’m struggling with repeatedly, I’m now more prepared to take the time to practice moves and strategies that will help me later and might even be useful in other scenarios.

Learning to Fail Productively

Learning the mechanics of a boss or a difficult level requires constant repeated attempts, which often involves dying repeatedly in the game along the way. Many speedrunners are used to this and their reactions are often more analytical than emotional as they attempt to determine why they didn’t succeed.

This is critical to improving at a game, as it not only gives me tips to prevent certain fail states but also shows the value in critiquing my own gameplay. Instead of reacting harshly, I should take a page out of a speedrunner’s book and determine exactly why I failed and what I can do better next time to inform my next attempt.

Learning to step back from the emotional reaction that failure can give you is a great way to improve your technique without getting too caught up in the heat of the moment.

Finding Useful Exploits or Glitches

Even if you aren’t stuck or looking for a new strategy, watching speedruns can help uncover quirks, exploits, and even bugs in a game that might be useful. For instance, a speedrunner might use a specific method to farm an item or grind levels that saves you time or find a way to glitch outside the map to reveal hidden secrets.

While these can feel dishonest in some cases, such as exploits that skip entire sections of a game, many simply serve to cut out the filler and get back to the main game faster. Alternatively, you can really get to know a game you love inside out by exploring things you were never meant to see.

A speedrunner might find a unique way to use enemy AI against itself to cut back on the time spent grinding, or find more efficient ways to gather useful items. In more extreme cases, they can even uncover ways to exit the boundaries of a game’s map to enter areas earlier than intended, which can lead to valuable items or gear.

While not strictly necessary to beat a game, knowing these methods greatly expands my options when exploring and provides avenues to skip content I may not enjoy. I won’t necessarily have to miss out on rare items, gear, or other content locked behind things I don’t wish to play anymore if I have the means to get through it much easier.

Speedruns Encourage Replayability

Watching speedrunners for a game I’m currently into also tends to keep me invested in it, especially if I learn new tricks that I may have missed before. Even after finishing the game, I might be encouraged to play through it again to try my hand at some of the new tips and tricks I’ve learned.

At the same time, it might also make me more willing to spend a lot of time with a game I’m otherwise eager to finish as I become invested in learning the mechanics to a similar degree.

Not only do I get more for my money this way since I’m spending more time with a game than usual, but I also tend to have a more fulfilling experience as I spend less time struggling. Now, I can actually excel at my games and become something of an expert in them myself.

Speedrunning isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. You don’t need to run a game to appreciate the dedication and skill that goes into these runs. On top of this, it can be truly illuminating to watch a speedrunner utterly break a game you love, or blitz past a section that took you hours (and you’ll learn a thing or two along the way).