James Stover Interview Transcript
Tonight I’m interviewing James Stover aka s-two. An old friend from high school who's a speedrunner, playing video games under a time limit. I decided to contact him after a bit of time away from Durham. We've grown up with each other but not recently in the past couple years or so. He’s not exactly serious about it, as he gets into it in the interview, but does it whenever he can. Being featured in a bunch of events like GDQ and the like he knows a bit about how to really get deep into the community. This interview was done over a discord call as he’s practicing one of his runs.
Hello this is James Chua, and this is my friend James Stover AKA S-TWO. An old high school friend of mine who’s also a speedrunner, which just means he plays video games under a time limit.
(Chuckles) yes it is pretty much true that the sport of speedrunning is pretty much playing a game as fast as you can.
Yep, recently in his life he’s been getting more serious about speedrunning and streaming in his life. Not fully yet.
Not full time, no way.
I’d day I read a lot but not in a conventional way through books if that makes sense. I definitely do a lot of reading through texts, guides, in terms of speedrunning. Especially a lot of technical guides for these. I’m reading a lot about my actual pursuit career which is automotive repair. I definitely read a lot of guides on those kinds of things.
I’d say I do a little bit of reading and in terms of writing I definitely do more than some people I know, I guess. I wouldn’t call myself an author by any stretch. Once again, I’m writing guides for speedruns from time to time…
You also make videos too.
Yeah, I make videos. Sometimes I’m writing a script for a video or things like that. So I do a bit of writing but not anything huge, I’d say.
Yeah, still the information flow is still there
Oh yeah, definitely.
Well, speedrunning is a little bit different I guess. Kind of a weird question but I don’t know how deep into ethics you’d really consider this?
If there’s any problem that doesn’t have a right solution, basically.
I mean, it’s kind of a silly thing, it’s obviously not anything too serious. But the idea that video games are art and they tell a story. This game for example (Racing Lagoon) you’ve already seen me skip over a huge amount of story, and in one way some people would consider this disrespectful to the art piece that is this game. Because I’m skipping over everything, I’m not playing it as intended. I’m abusing everything that I can just to get through it as quickly as possible. So I guess in a very kind of goofy silly way, this is an “ethical dilemma.”
Actually, I’d say that’s a really good ethical dilemma that I didn’t expect for you to pull out.
Yeah it’s not that serious. I’m sure there’s more serious out there in the world than if I’m playing a 30 year old game the way it’s supposed to be played. But it’s still something that people will pick an argument over from time to time when you’re doing this kind of thing.
Do you argue a lot about it or is it something that could happen?
Honestly, I try to stay out of online arguments as much as I can. I’m not one to really pick a fight like that. But people who kind of stumble into speedrunning and see it for the first time usually are confused and are like “oh you do this and that and this is weird and wrong” or whatever. It comes up from time to time. (small chuckle)
Yeah, that’s really good actually, not good but like a good example.
Absolutely not, I would not. As much as the idea of streaming and playing video games as your job is fun. I don’t think it’s a very stable thing and I’m not sure I want to be playing it more than currently either. Like I said, I’m going into automotive, I absolutely love cars. I’m playing a video game about cars right now. So I think I’m definitely happy in the current walk of life I’m in. But even more than that, streaming’s fun but it has its stresses, you do have to perform. I found that in my personal life I’ talk to myself a lot. Like when I’m doing something people are like “who are you talking to” you know? Like I’ll be sitting there making a sandwich like “alright guys now time to put the sandwich in the bread.” Not that exaggerated obviously and it’s goofy and definitely changed my habits. But there’s a real pressure to perform. Especially when you start out and you don’t have any fans you’re talking to yourself the whole time. It’s just tricky and you have to be a bit performative. Depending on what you play as a speedrunner, there’s a pressure to be good at what I’m playing you know? Like I’m going to do better if I’m good at the game and more people will watch if I’m the best in the world. So, there’s more pressure on that end too. It’s a tricky thing to think about as a job, streaming. I wouldn’t want it for myself.
It’s very fluid how it works. Like one day it’s not doing as well and it’s good to have a plan B in this sort of case.
Yeah, totally.
Hmm, I’d actually say solidly big. I have a discord that is just for people that are fans of my channel. It’s solidly big, there’s not a ton of people in there or anything. But I’m also in a lot of other servers, I think a lot of other streamers do this practice where you have our own discord server for your friends and somewhere you can communicate with your fans. I’m in lot of other people’s circles too and mine so. Because the communities I’m in are very tight knit. I’m constantly working with other people. In speedrunning especially you’ve got to collaborate with people. Like to just get through a game.
What do you usually talk about when together in a game?
Usually we just talk about what we’re playing or sometimes we’re playing a game together. Obviously this isn’t our whole lives. Obviously we’re got a lot of other things going on.
That’s something to remember, you’re not always streamers.
Yeah, this is something we do for fun. And since you’re always going to be streaming games, a lot of streamers are into video games as a whole. So like I have some streamers that I’m friends who we play other games Together . Like Team Fortress 2, a popular multiplayer shooter that doesn’t have a speedrunning scene at all. But we all play it since we’re all fans of the game through being fans of gaming. Other times when we’re in the [speedrunning] scene we do these races. Races are a very popular point of collaboration with other streamers. Where we get together and see who can do it faster or sometimes it’s not even competitive. We just get together and teach each other strats and it’s interesting because sometimes you find people who are just really competitive and sometimes you just have someone who just wants to teach and show other people how to play the game. So it’s cool you get a little bith of both.
Like my best qualities as a streamer?
Yeah, what makes you STWO.
(dumb laugh from both of us) Well that’s kind of a tricky question I guess. I think personally I’m one of those people that likes to teach others about a game. I like to drum up a community. Especially my niche is games that don’t have a very big following, I love obscure games. So what I like to do is show off something that hasn’t been seen before and drum up an interest in. That’s the sort of thing I pride myself in getting people together perhaps.
Yeah, that’s like your “thing” . That’s a better way of saying it even if it’s not as good. But how did you find your thing? Just to follow up from the last question.
Hmm, ok. Yeah, I don’t know. That’s not something put into a one size fits all answer really. I think everyone’s gonna come about it their own way. I think the way I do things are certainly not the same anyone else would do things. So it’s definitely hard to say for one answer. Especially to say “do this and do that.” There’s no great way to discover what you want to do. But, I will say for a lot of people, especially going into streaming, they have big ideas on what they’re gonna do. I think that at some point you really do have to step back and give yourself breaks often. I really think you should step back and say “oh I’m not really enjoying what I’m doing. I need to figure out what’s gonna make me happy” you know?
Mhm.
So, just go for it and try something new.
That applies to a lot of careers huh?
Yeah maybe so.
Next question, I think you already mentioned this but do you still have a day job?
Yeah so, to be fully transparent on streaming recently, I just hit my third payout on twitch. It’s not like a paycheck, you get it when you get a certain threshold of donations. In my four years of streaming I’ve only ever gotten four payouts. And as I’ve mentioned earlier I am absolutely in love with what I’m doing outside of streaming which is as automotive repair. I’m obviously a car enthusiast and I’m playing a game about cars. I dunno if I have any plans to switch over but I went into streaming very pessimistically. More so, I knew not to get my hopes up about it I said “I’m never going to go pro with this.” I actually started streaming just as a way to save storage space on my computer because I realized twitch could hold recordings for me on their website.
Alright cool. 7th question, what are big events like? You’ve been to a lot, I remember you mentioned. But how much publicity does it bring in?
So it brings in a lot honestly, A main way to advertise yourself as a streamer is to go to events, there’s even ones online, so participate in events.
Don’t forget to mention some of them too.
I should probably explain them but it’s not the most straightforward thing. So there’s these organizations that get these speedrunners together and they’re like “we’re gonna broadcast you playing your game and every donation that we get will go to charity.” And so they are huge events because there are so many organizations. The biggest of them is Games Done Quick. I get whenever I can but it does require a lot of planning to become part of these. I was most recently on Awesome Games Done Quick, but I’ve done maybe 20 events but I lost count over the years. I’m either commentating other peoples’ runs or running myself, I’ve been a part of quite a few of them. That’s one of the big community things that gets yourself publicized as a speedrunner.
It’s how you make a lot of friends too.
Yeah definitely. I do say I enjoy those but they require a lot of planning. Games have to be reviewed and sent to a committee. Once they do approve it you have a month to get into the mindset of “ok I gotta practice this is my one shot.” There are tens of thousands of people at big events so you really feel the pressure. I also do races where it’s directly in competition. The stakes aren’t that high but I still want to be good at it.
Kinda like locals in a fighting game. It’s not the world stage but it’s still a big stage.
Yeah, it’s not the end of the world if you do bad or make mistakes. But you certainly want to perform well.
It’s a very healthy environment.
Yeah definitely.
Ok number 8. This is a little redundant and you kind of hinted at this in the last question. Outside of speedrunning, would you say you’re good at video games? Is there a level of stress to submitting a score or time?
Honestly, I’d say it’s 50.50. Some games I found I think I’m ok at, some games I found I’m pretty bad at them. Just the practice of speedrunning is playing a game over and over again. I certainly would say this doesn’t make me good at every game, but in specific games, particularly racing games.
So would you say you’re better than the average player?
I uhh maybe, it might transfer over is the thing. I feel that being good at video games is such a subjective thing too. I’ll just say I’m ok at video games, in my opinion.
That’s a good state of mind to be in. Alright number 9. Is there a level of knowhow for people who aren’t as attuned to “the gamesphere” as we call it, which we do not call it in fact. Basically do you need to have played a game to even enjoy a speedrun.
I’d say no..? I’d say if you’re on the outside of it, like if I could talk to everyone who’s new then I’d tell them to keep an open mind. It’s honestly confusing, but a lot of them use things that weren’t intended in the code, like glitches where you go through walls. You’ll be like what is going on, you know? I understand that, I get where it’s from, but it’s tricky to say that you don’t need to know a lot to know a speedrun. I think everyone who speedruns is very willing to explain them, and it’s not terribly hard. There are some circumstances where they are hard, but there’s no circumstance that isn’t helped by an explanation.
Cool, now number 10. Is there any tips you could give to people that want to get into speedrunning or how much of a time sink it is?
Honestly, I think a lot of people make it out to be a time sink more than it is. You don’t have to dedicate your whole life to speedrunning. You don’t have to sit down with it and be the best. Another thing I want to say you are not going to be the best at your game anyways. Just sit down and submit your times as a reference. All you need to speedrun is a game, a timer, and the ability to record it. So, if you have those three things it’s a good way to spend your time I guess. It’s as intensive as people make it out to be, there are people at those events that don’t practice but it’s cool. The very top is where all the competition is. If you want to challenge yourself it’s a good way to spend more time with a game you like. It comes down to your mentality and what you want out of it, but there’s a million ways to go about it.
Alright, so number 11. How much of a difference is there between speedrunning as a hobby than a career? When does it feel more like one than the other?
Between hobbyists, I think we poke fun at people who do it as a career. Because there’s a tiny proportion of people that do it for a career. It’s vastly different as a career, with a bunch of hours sunk a dayand their times are generally better as a result. I used to stream for about an hour and hop off and say “yeah I’m gonna do something healthier with my time.” Nowadays I do five hours in front of my computer, yeah my times are better but I get off and I just don’t want to look at a screen again.
You realized you’re human again.
Yeah it’s totally like that.
So, when does it ever not feel like that? Like that “oh shoot” moment where you spend the entire day playing a game?
I mean, honestly I dunno. If you set a good time and you’re excited it you just want to keep going. When you’re on that high then it’s great. But especially when you’re in a competitive game and you’re going for 1st place. You can have things go wrong at the very end of the run. I could have a run going for 7 hours and something could go horribly wrong right at the end and I’ve wasted seven hours all in a row. So that can be really frustrating. You can sink a lot of time into these things and it’s going great, but right at the end you ruin it. It’s like any sport. I don’t know how much I like to hearken video games as sports, it sounds a bit goofy. But I mean like in the Super Bowl, you can mess up in the last quarter of the game. In the competitive scene you could lose it after a good run, but speedrunning you just keep going and going.
There’s that stress to keep going, keep going to make sure you’re still there.
Yeah, right.
So this is the last question, do you have any inspiring stories that you think would be really appropriate as a last question?
Like I said, I started playing games that I had played in my childhood. I went on twitch just to save space on my hard drive. But now I’m doing this competitively. I'm really being recognized for my effort. At least enough for some guy that plays a video game. In my life I’ve had people go “whoaa you’re the guy.”
Yeah it’s still strange to think I know a guy who other people recognize.
Yeah. This is something I never thought I’ll be serious about. But now I’m very serious about it. I’m not serious serious but I do it every day now.
It definitely feels like one of those fields where it feels like a crack dream. Like you realize one day “whoa, I’m doing it.” I feel the same way when I realize I’m writing about Otaku culture.
Yeah, those fields people tell you “you’ll never make any progress.” But it’s not one of those high stakes careers. Like once you start doing it people will realize that, to kind of reference FLCL I guess, when Naoto swings the back and he swings the bat and saves the town he realizes that he can do it.
And in the rest of the series, he keeps doing it.
Yeah it’s a good confidence booster.
Yeah, well that’s all the questions I got, for the interview at least. That was all really enlightening.
Yeah for sure dude.
(virtual fistbump)
Tonight I’m interviewing James Stover aka s-two. An old friend from high school who's a speedrunner, playing video games under a time limit. I decided to contact him after a bit of time away from Durham. We've grown up with each other but not recently in the past couple years or so. He’s not exactly serious about it, as he gets into it in the interview, but does it whenever he can. Being featured in a bunch of events like GDQ and the like he knows a bit about how to really get deep into the community. This interview was done over a discord call as he’s practicing one of his runs.
Hello this is James Chua, and this is my friend James Stover AKA S-TWO. An old high school friend of mine who’s also a speedrunner, which just means he plays video games under a time limit.
(Chuckles) yes it is pretty much true that the sport of speedrunning is pretty much playing a game as fast as you can.
Yep, recently in his life he’s been getting more serious about speedrunning and streaming in his life. Not fully yet.
Not full time, no way.
- Alright so first question, these are the required questions so it might look a little weird. But how much reading and writing do you do in your day to day?
I’d day I read a lot but not in a conventional way through books if that makes sense. I definitely do a lot of reading through texts, guides, in terms of speedrunning. Especially a lot of technical guides for these. I’m reading a lot about my actual pursuit career which is automotive repair. I definitely read a lot of guides on those kinds of things.
I’d say I do a little bit of reading and in terms of writing I definitely do more than some people I know, I guess. I wouldn’t call myself an author by any stretch. Once again, I’m writing guides for speedruns from time to time…
You also make videos too.
Yeah, I make videos. Sometimes I’m writing a script for a video or things like that. So I do a bit of writing but not anything huge, I’d say.
Yeah, still the information flow is still there
Oh yeah, definitely.
- So the second question is a bit weird, but what kind of ethical dilemmas do you face when you’re doing your job.
Well, speedrunning is a little bit different I guess. Kind of a weird question but I don’t know how deep into ethics you’d really consider this?
If there’s any problem that doesn’t have a right solution, basically.
I mean, it’s kind of a silly thing, it’s obviously not anything too serious. But the idea that video games are art and they tell a story. This game for example (Racing Lagoon) you’ve already seen me skip over a huge amount of story, and in one way some people would consider this disrespectful to the art piece that is this game. Because I’m skipping over everything, I’m not playing it as intended. I’m abusing everything that I can just to get through it as quickly as possible. So I guess in a very kind of goofy silly way, this is an “ethical dilemma.”
Actually, I’d say that’s a really good ethical dilemma that I didn’t expect for you to pull out.
Yeah it’s not that serious. I’m sure there’s more serious out there in the world than if I’m playing a 30 year old game the way it’s supposed to be played. But it’s still something that people will pick an argument over from time to time when you’re doing this kind of thing.
Do you argue a lot about it or is it something that could happen?
Honestly, I try to stay out of online arguments as much as I can. I’m not one to really pick a fight like that. But people who kind of stumble into speedrunning and see it for the first time usually are confused and are like “oh you do this and that and this is weird and wrong” or whatever. It comes up from time to time. (small chuckle)
Yeah, that’s really good actually, not good but like a good example.
- So, third question. So in the future one day, if you ever do this full time, do you think it’s a stable way to make an income?
Absolutely not, I would not. As much as the idea of streaming and playing video games as your job is fun. I don’t think it’s a very stable thing and I’m not sure I want to be playing it more than currently either. Like I said, I’m going into automotive, I absolutely love cars. I’m playing a video game about cars right now. So I think I’m definitely happy in the current walk of life I’m in. But even more than that, streaming’s fun but it has its stresses, you do have to perform. I found that in my personal life I’ talk to myself a lot. Like when I’m doing something people are like “who are you talking to” you know? Like I’ll be sitting there making a sandwich like “alright guys now time to put the sandwich in the bread.” Not that exaggerated obviously and it’s goofy and definitely changed my habits. But there’s a real pressure to perform. Especially when you start out and you don’t have any fans you’re talking to yourself the whole time. It’s just tricky and you have to be a bit performative. Depending on what you play as a speedrunner, there’s a pressure to be good at what I’m playing you know? Like I’m going to do better if I’m good at the game and more people will watch if I’m the best in the world. So, there’s more pressure on that end too. It’s a tricky thing to think about as a job, streaming. I wouldn’t want it for myself.
It’s very fluid how it works. Like one day it’s not doing as well and it’s good to have a plan B in this sort of case.
Yeah, totally.
- Alright, number 4. I did this one after I saw I think Hibinox that you were with? Yeah, how often do you talk or collab with other streamers? Like how it elevates your platform?
Hmm, I’d actually say solidly big. I have a discord that is just for people that are fans of my channel. It’s solidly big, there’s not a ton of people in there or anything. But I’m also in a lot of other servers, I think a lot of other streamers do this practice where you have our own discord server for your friends and somewhere you can communicate with your fans. I’m in lot of other people’s circles too and mine so. Because the communities I’m in are very tight knit. I’m constantly working with other people. In speedrunning especially you’ve got to collaborate with people. Like to just get through a game.
What do you usually talk about when together in a game?
Usually we just talk about what we’re playing or sometimes we’re playing a game together. Obviously this isn’t our whole lives. Obviously we’re got a lot of other things going on.
That’s something to remember, you’re not always streamers.
Yeah, this is something we do for fun. And since you’re always going to be streaming games, a lot of streamers are into video games as a whole. So like I have some streamers that I’m friends who we play other games Together . Like Team Fortress 2, a popular multiplayer shooter that doesn’t have a speedrunning scene at all. But we all play it since we’re all fans of the game through being fans of gaming. Other times when we’re in the [speedrunning] scene we do these races. Races are a very popular point of collaboration with other streamers. Where we get together and see who can do it faster or sometimes it’s not even competitive. We just get together and teach each other strats and it’s interesting because sometimes you find people who are just really competitive and sometimes you just have someone who just wants to teach and show other people how to play the game. So it’s cool you get a little bith of both.
- Yeah, ok os number 5. What would you say are your best qualities as a person who does this stuff? (yeah I kinda stumbled on the wording) Could they carry over to other people.
Like my best qualities as a streamer?
Yeah, what makes you STWO.
(dumb laugh from both of us) Well that’s kind of a tricky question I guess. I think personally I’m one of those people that likes to teach others about a game. I like to drum up a community. Especially my niche is games that don’t have a very big following, I love obscure games. So what I like to do is show off something that hasn’t been seen before and drum up an interest in. That’s the sort of thing I pride myself in getting people together perhaps.
Yeah, that’s like your “thing” . That’s a better way of saying it even if it’s not as good. But how did you find your thing? Just to follow up from the last question.
Hmm, ok. Yeah, I don’t know. That’s not something put into a one size fits all answer really. I think everyone’s gonna come about it their own way. I think the way I do things are certainly not the same anyone else would do things. So it’s definitely hard to say for one answer. Especially to say “do this and do that.” There’s no great way to discover what you want to do. But, I will say for a lot of people, especially going into streaming, they have big ideas on what they’re gonna do. I think that at some point you really do have to step back and give yourself breaks often. I really think you should step back and say “oh I’m not really enjoying what I’m doing. I need to figure out what’s gonna make me happy” you know?
Mhm.
So, just go for it and try something new.
That applies to a lot of careers huh?
Yeah maybe so.
Next question, I think you already mentioned this but do you still have a day job?
Yeah so, to be fully transparent on streaming recently, I just hit my third payout on twitch. It’s not like a paycheck, you get it when you get a certain threshold of donations. In my four years of streaming I’ve only ever gotten four payouts. And as I’ve mentioned earlier I am absolutely in love with what I’m doing outside of streaming which is as automotive repair. I’m obviously a car enthusiast and I’m playing a game about cars. I dunno if I have any plans to switch over but I went into streaming very pessimistically. More so, I knew not to get my hopes up about it I said “I’m never going to go pro with this.” I actually started streaming just as a way to save storage space on my computer because I realized twitch could hold recordings for me on their website.
Alright cool. 7th question, what are big events like? You’ve been to a lot, I remember you mentioned. But how much publicity does it bring in?
So it brings in a lot honestly, A main way to advertise yourself as a streamer is to go to events, there’s even ones online, so participate in events.
Don’t forget to mention some of them too.
I should probably explain them but it’s not the most straightforward thing. So there’s these organizations that get these speedrunners together and they’re like “we’re gonna broadcast you playing your game and every donation that we get will go to charity.” And so they are huge events because there are so many organizations. The biggest of them is Games Done Quick. I get whenever I can but it does require a lot of planning to become part of these. I was most recently on Awesome Games Done Quick, but I’ve done maybe 20 events but I lost count over the years. I’m either commentating other peoples’ runs or running myself, I’ve been a part of quite a few of them. That’s one of the big community things that gets yourself publicized as a speedrunner.
It’s how you make a lot of friends too.
Yeah definitely. I do say I enjoy those but they require a lot of planning. Games have to be reviewed and sent to a committee. Once they do approve it you have a month to get into the mindset of “ok I gotta practice this is my one shot.” There are tens of thousands of people at big events so you really feel the pressure. I also do races where it’s directly in competition. The stakes aren’t that high but I still want to be good at it.
Kinda like locals in a fighting game. It’s not the world stage but it’s still a big stage.
Yeah, it’s not the end of the world if you do bad or make mistakes. But you certainly want to perform well.
It’s a very healthy environment.
Yeah definitely.
Ok number 8. This is a little redundant and you kind of hinted at this in the last question. Outside of speedrunning, would you say you’re good at video games? Is there a level of stress to submitting a score or time?
Honestly, I’d say it’s 50.50. Some games I found I think I’m ok at, some games I found I’m pretty bad at them. Just the practice of speedrunning is playing a game over and over again. I certainly would say this doesn’t make me good at every game, but in specific games, particularly racing games.
So would you say you’re better than the average player?
I uhh maybe, it might transfer over is the thing. I feel that being good at video games is such a subjective thing too. I’ll just say I’m ok at video games, in my opinion.
That’s a good state of mind to be in. Alright number 9. Is there a level of knowhow for people who aren’t as attuned to “the gamesphere” as we call it, which we do not call it in fact. Basically do you need to have played a game to even enjoy a speedrun.
I’d say no..? I’d say if you’re on the outside of it, like if I could talk to everyone who’s new then I’d tell them to keep an open mind. It’s honestly confusing, but a lot of them use things that weren’t intended in the code, like glitches where you go through walls. You’ll be like what is going on, you know? I understand that, I get where it’s from, but it’s tricky to say that you don’t need to know a lot to know a speedrun. I think everyone who speedruns is very willing to explain them, and it’s not terribly hard. There are some circumstances where they are hard, but there’s no circumstance that isn’t helped by an explanation.
Cool, now number 10. Is there any tips you could give to people that want to get into speedrunning or how much of a time sink it is?
Honestly, I think a lot of people make it out to be a time sink more than it is. You don’t have to dedicate your whole life to speedrunning. You don’t have to sit down with it and be the best. Another thing I want to say you are not going to be the best at your game anyways. Just sit down and submit your times as a reference. All you need to speedrun is a game, a timer, and the ability to record it. So, if you have those three things it’s a good way to spend your time I guess. It’s as intensive as people make it out to be, there are people at those events that don’t practice but it’s cool. The very top is where all the competition is. If you want to challenge yourself it’s a good way to spend more time with a game you like. It comes down to your mentality and what you want out of it, but there’s a million ways to go about it.
Alright, so number 11. How much of a difference is there between speedrunning as a hobby than a career? When does it feel more like one than the other?
Between hobbyists, I think we poke fun at people who do it as a career. Because there’s a tiny proportion of people that do it for a career. It’s vastly different as a career, with a bunch of hours sunk a dayand their times are generally better as a result. I used to stream for about an hour and hop off and say “yeah I’m gonna do something healthier with my time.” Nowadays I do five hours in front of my computer, yeah my times are better but I get off and I just don’t want to look at a screen again.
You realized you’re human again.
Yeah it’s totally like that.
So, when does it ever not feel like that? Like that “oh shoot” moment where you spend the entire day playing a game?
I mean, honestly I dunno. If you set a good time and you’re excited it you just want to keep going. When you’re on that high then it’s great. But especially when you’re in a competitive game and you’re going for 1st place. You can have things go wrong at the very end of the run. I could have a run going for 7 hours and something could go horribly wrong right at the end and I’ve wasted seven hours all in a row. So that can be really frustrating. You can sink a lot of time into these things and it’s going great, but right at the end you ruin it. It’s like any sport. I don’t know how much I like to hearken video games as sports, it sounds a bit goofy. But I mean like in the Super Bowl, you can mess up in the last quarter of the game. In the competitive scene you could lose it after a good run, but speedrunning you just keep going and going.
There’s that stress to keep going, keep going to make sure you’re still there.
Yeah, right.
So this is the last question, do you have any inspiring stories that you think would be really appropriate as a last question?
Like I said, I started playing games that I had played in my childhood. I went on twitch just to save space on my hard drive. But now I’m doing this competitively. I'm really being recognized for my effort. At least enough for some guy that plays a video game. In my life I’ve had people go “whoaa you’re the guy.”
Yeah it’s still strange to think I know a guy who other people recognize.
Yeah. This is something I never thought I’ll be serious about. But now I’m very serious about it. I’m not serious serious but I do it every day now.
It definitely feels like one of those fields where it feels like a crack dream. Like you realize one day “whoa, I’m doing it.” I feel the same way when I realize I’m writing about Otaku culture.
Yeah, those fields people tell you “you’ll never make any progress.” But it’s not one of those high stakes careers. Like once you start doing it people will realize that, to kind of reference FLCL I guess, when Naoto swings the back and he swings the bat and saves the town he realizes that he can do it.
And in the rest of the series, he keeps doing it.
Yeah it’s a good confidence booster.
Yeah, well that’s all the questions I got, for the interview at least. That was all really enlightening.
Yeah for sure dude.
(virtual fistbump)