2017-06-28 Summer Games Done Quick 2017

It’s that time of the year again. Summer Games Done Quick 2017 (or #SGDQ2017) starts this weekend on Sunday, July 2nd.
Source: https://cdn.mobipicker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/red.png
For the uninitiated, Games Done Quick is a biannual conference where people from all over the world come together and play video games quickly in order to raise money for charity. It started back in 2010, and has become a massive undertaking since the early days. Across every event, the conference has raised over $10 million. Awesome Games Done Quick 2017 raised over $2 million alone.
To a lot of people, watching speed runs is nerdy and pointless. “Why watch them play when you can just play the game yourself,” is something I’ve heard more times than I can count. My rebuttal is typically, “why watch sports when you can go outside and play them yourself?” I won’t go so far as to praise video games with the same sort of athleticism as sports, but people who are particularly good at video games are impressive to watch. These guys do stuff that I could never manage, and that’s pretty incredible. They are genuinely the best of the best, often having the best times in the world for certain games and modes.
I realize that not everyone enjoys video games. That’s fine, but don’t knock this conference just because it isn’t your cup of tea. These people are raising money for good causes, and rally behind a common purpose. Whether the donation money is going toward Doctors Without Borders, the Prevent Cancer foundation, or any other charity, it’s helping people do good things for humanity. That’s pretty admirable.
Personally, I’m excited about the EarthBound run at the very end of SGDQ2017. I specifically finished EarthBound recently in order to be able to watch that run without spoiling the story. Beyond that run, I’m excited to see several returning runners. SpikeVegeta is just a super entertaining guy. I hate that Bawkbasoup and Bonesaw577 won’t be there, but here’s hoping they’ll be back for AGDQ2018.

If you’re even remotely curious about Games Done Quick, check out the schedule. Even if you can’t catch the stream live, the recordings are uploaded to YouTube afterward. This is a genuinely entertaining event, and these guys are capable of some very impressive feats.

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