@Phillotrax

5 years ago

Hey hbomberguy, I'm Phillotrax (Mirror's Edge World Record holder), thanks for making this video, it's always great for speedrunning - especially Mirror's Edge - to gain a wider audience. I'd just like to respond to some of the points you made about Mirror's Edge because I think it would be interesting to compare how the views of a more casual viewer of speedruns might differ from those of a more "hardcore" runner and the Mirror's Edge speedrunning community. 18:00: "Use [out of bounds] to get to places meant to be reached through harder or slower means" At least in Mirror's Edge, the intended route is never harder than performing an out of bounds skip to reach it faster. What you don't see in this clip is the precise timing of each action I take, and the invisible walls and death triggers that I have to navigate around. You seem to imply that using glitches makes playing the game easier, when it's really the opposite. 18:13: "It also runs counter to the sort of principles that make Mirror's Edge the game you'd want to see speedrun, doesn't it?" I'd have to disagree with you here. Yes, Mirror's Edge is a game all about motion, finesse, clever use of controls, and timing - and the techniques we use take these principles from a casual playthrough of the game and amplify them to the extreme. Implying that to "clip through it and then just win" does not use these aspects of the game, contrasts my view that the speedrun of Mirror's Edge takes the precise inputs, pinpoint timing and deep movement mechanics that made the game so amazing in the first place, and turns it up to 11. 18:30: "Part of the fun of speedrunning is watching a game being played very skilfully" The tricks you see in an any% speedrun take an absurd level of skill and knowledge about the game to execute. Some people don't enjoy watching them, which is fair enough, but it is just wrong for people to say that they do not require skill. 19:20: "Maybe not the sort of stuff it's fun to see specifically in a speedrun of this type of game" As you say this is subjective, but my view here is that these precise movements are exactly what you'd want to see in a speedrun of this type of game. The beauty of the movement mechanics of Mirror's Edge is that they all flow beautifully into one another, even using wallboosts, sidesteps and kickglitches , and the reason, for me, that the speedrun is so good is because every action you do needs to be precise and calculated. 19:28: "The community seems to agree with me.." General fans of Mirror's Edge might agree that glitches are less interesting, but the speedrunning community most definitely disagrees that these movement focused and precise glitches are not what you'd want to see in a game focused on movement and precision. 20:06: "All kinds of segments that are completely avoided by fairly easy tricks in any% have to actually be played and routed properly in glitchless" The tricks that skip segments of the game in any% shouldn't be generalised as being "fairly easy". Typically they are much, much harder to do that it would be to go through the section of the level. 20:35 The message here again seems to be that using glitches takes less skill than using glitchless techniques. Whilst this jump might be hard for a new player, it really isn't that difficult compared to "abusing the wall kick jump [kickglitch] to effectively fly over the challenging gap" which requires precise timing to control your speed, angle and jump input. I think the reason for the common misconception that because something is a glitch, it must be easy to abuse, is because players familiar with the game don't understand what is being done. 21:35: "Maybe clipping through walls should be seen as just a valid a strategy as not doing so" My opinion here is that both any% and glitchless are valid ways of running the game, but can be considered entirely separate. It doesn't need to be a 'which is the right way to beat the game' debate. To me, it's like asking whether a sprint or hurdles is the most valid way to run along a 100m track. There's no point comparing them because they're entirely different, equally valid ways of covering the distance. You agree with this point later on. 23:00 To me, the reason you seem to like 69 stars is the same reason I love the any% runs - it requires 'great performances' of 'really precise movements'. The way you say "It's Awesome" here is so great. I can hear the same kind of awe and wonder I felt when I got into speedrunning Mirror's Edge. I just think it's a shame that people discount any% runs because they don't think it requires the same level of precise movement as glitchless or 69 stars does. 23:23 Voh - tee - em 25:20 I love the focus you put here on the community of speedrunning - this is often overlooked, but especially in Mirror's Edge the community of runners is great and the primary reason the game is as optimised and fun to run as it is. Overall I really enjoyed this video, but am just disappointed that it seems to propel the notion that any% runs which require glitches and not skill, whereas glitchless runs require skill and not glitches. Glitches and skill are not mutually exclusive and most of the time, glitches take more practice, understanding, and skill than the intended route would. I would love to answer any more questions that you might have about speedrunning as a whole or Mirror's Edge speedrunning specifically.

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