What it means to be a speedrunning ambassador, and why you might already be one

In the wake of unrest in the Metal Gear Speedrunners community last year, as well as the recent controversy surrounding the Resident Evil 4 community, I’ve been noticing a common trend in these situations regarding representation and responsibility. Whilst it’s a concern that very much reaches beyond the realm of speedrunning, having been involved in several speedrunning communities over the last couple of years, my concern centres primarily on them. Furthermore, it’s a problem that I don’t think is being properly understood and then considered by those involved and it stems from a lack of understanding and the inability to look beyond one’s immediate self.

So firstly, what does it mean to “represent” something? Basically, if you hold some position of power or authority, or you put yourself out publicly on behalf of something, you are representing that thing. In speedrunning, this takes many forms and there are many different levels of representing your game or community. At its minimum, if you speedrun a game and publicly share this action, you are representing that game, whether you like it or not. At this level, you bear no special responsibilities, but it is worth remembering that others looking at your contributions could judge that game based on them. The weight of your representation at this stage is minimal, so a dissociation from the game and its speedrunning community is very easy to argue.

But what if you go further than that? There’s so many different ways of representing your chosen game in speedrunning. You might make videos or guides for others to learn about your game. You might become a verifier or moderator on Speedrun.com. You might showcase your game in marathons, or become a highly decorated runner, whether that’s taking world records, or actively routing and proving yourself as a contender. You might become a volunteer, moderator or leader of your speedrunning community, or of your own community.

Back in September, I ran a poll on Twitter to establish whether people I could connect to considered that being a Moderator or Verifier on Speedrun.com makes you a “representative” for your game or community. Of 99 votes, 55 people said yes and 44 said no. Now that’s by no means a big enough sample size to provide any sort of definitive answer, particularly when the vote was this close. However, there were a couple things I observed that I feel are important:

1. As pointed out by @plywoodgaming, Speedrun.com rules specifically state that a game’s Moderators “will be held to a higher standard of behaviour than normal users for on-site and off-site conduct” and that they “should represent the consensus of the players of the game”.
   
   

2. @MiloSaysRelax (whom I know personally to not be a speedrunner, but simply an observer), initially explained his reason for voting “no” was because “moderating and verifying just comes down to knowing the rules of the run”. When I then asked about the consideration of the authority that such a role might hold, he reconsidered his position, stating that if “you wrote or were part of the conversation in creating those rules then I guess you are a representative in some sense since you're literally dictating the rules of the sport” and questioned further what is meant by a “representative”.
   
   

The very fact that a significant proportion of people voted yes means that there are a proportion of people who do consider verifiers and moderators “representatives” of their community. Whether you agree or not, as a verifier or moderator you have to be prepared for the fact that many people will see you in that light. For the people who don’t consider a verifier or moderator a representative, your actions don’t really matter to them in that regard, as long as you’re doing your job of verifying runs. But consider those that do, and then pair that up with Speedrun.com’s rules telling those people to consider moderators a representative of their game’s players, and you have a level of responsibility that you must consider.

Whether it’s officially attaching yourself to an SRDC board or being a celebrated runner, there’s a word I like to use to describe such a person. I know some will dislike it for sounding professional or corporate, but it’s the perfect word to describe a person who represents something in this way - you are an ambassador. Whilst most people consider this to be a word that describes some sort of political diplomat, it does also refer to someone who represents or simply promotes a specific thing. It’s a term sometimes used in retail to describe a customer that’s had a fantastic experience in a shop and then goes on to tell their friends and encourage them to shop there. That customer becomes an ambassador for that store as they are promoting that store to others. This also works the other way, where a customer who’s had a bad experience becomes a negative ambassador and encourages others to stay away.

The reason this comparison between customers and speedrunning is important is that the customer model demonstrates two things:

1. You may become an ambassador for something without even knowing it

2. You don’t necessarily have to have an official affiliation for the thing you’re an ambassador for

Speedrunning, for the most part, primarily takes place online, a place where information can be shared instantly with thousands of complete strangers in an instant. For speedrunning, this is obviously a useful and necessary tool - it’s how we share information, showcase and record our achievements and foster our communities. But it also means that you’ll never know exactly who is engaging with the activity you share, or how they’ll perceive and interpret it. You don’t know how much another person is going to consider you an influence; remember, you might not realise that you’re being an ambassador and that your comments or actions are influencing someone else.

To give a real world example, in 2021 the Metal Gear Speedrunning community was blessed by an event dubbed ‘The Boba Skip’, in which Boba of YogsCast shared that she’d accidentally discovered a new glitch in Metal Gear Solid. The glitch saved about two minutes in nearly every speedrunning category for the game. It was very big news that hit major gaming news websites and saw activity on Twitter from Konami and Hideo Kojima. I posted two videos on YouTube related to the event: first, I recorded the world’s first sub-30 minute run of the game’s Very Easy category, and later I published a documentary on the discovery and replication of the skip. At time of writing, these videos have had 82k and 55k views respectively.

In releasing these videos, I put myself out as an ambassador of Metal Gear Speedrunning. I specifically advertised that my Very Easy run was a world record and the world’s first sub-30 minute run of the game. By doing so, I highlighted the run’s importance and by reflection of that, my importance. Similarly, in my Boba Skip video, I used the MGSR logo and shared information from within the community, acting as an authority on that information and the community. I certainly at no point suggest I am just an onlooker.

It would be very difficult to watch either video and have an uninformed viewer not think I have an affiliation with the community. Considering the large viewer counts, it’s fair to claim that many of those viewers would be experiencing the Metal Gear Speedrunners community for the first time and as such, I am their first impression. That is a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly - we’re taught from a young age that first impressions are of great importance and that a bad first impression can irreparably tarnish someone’s opinion. Take the case of the recent Resident Evil 4 rule change and the overwhelming backlash from those both within and outside of that community. For a lot of those on the outside looking in, and I include myself in that group, this is likely their first impression of that community which is now forever tarnished with sentiments of gatekeeping and elitism, something that likely won’t shake easily even if there is a shake up of the moderating team.

People, particularly those online, are impressionable and often easily influenced. Newspapers and online media have been taking advantage of that fact for many years. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube - these are all spaces where strangers online can be influenced by other strangers online, disconnected further by the fact that in a lot of cases, said users can hide behind a pseudonym and set their profile pic to anything their heart desires. The anonymity of these spaces often leaves trust and accountability wanting, hence the importance of providing a healthy first impression. It is often all too easy to be duped into thinking that someone who comes across as a well intentioned authority in a community, doesn’t follow that through in other spaces and that person you put your trust in has left you in a vulnerable situation. Sadly, I speak from experience on that particular subject.

Such experience demonstrates my own impressionability with ‘ambassadors’ of speedrunning. When I first hit the scene a couple of years ago, I came across names I recognised from tutorials, GDQ appearances, and world record holders. Being as naive as I was then, these people held a celebrity like status in my mind, as I assumed holding that level of pedigree in speedrunning was held in the highest regard. I remember the first time such a person joined my stream and started talking to me about the game I was running - I was genuinely starstruck. Someone of such calibre would take the time to interact with little old me? What an honour! It was only after getting more involved with the community and starting to interact more with these people, participate in events with them and eventually volunteer alongside them that I made the realisation - they’re just normal people like me, with jobs like me, and lives like me, enjoying a hobby just like me. Suffice to say, the aforementioned ‘celebrity’ who joined my stream is now someone I chat to regularly and consider a friend. I will withhold disclosing their identity, more to save my own embarrassment rather than theirs.

My experience is an example of the influence that just having your name attached to a speedgame in some form can have. I’d consider myself a mentally healthy 33 year old and I’d like to think that at my age now I’m not overly impressionable - my prior starstruck experience comes more from naivety than anything else. It is not unfair to claim that there are many people out there far more impressionable and easily influenced than I am and I’ve seen plenty of examples of people in speedrunning communities treating those with influence or authority as role models or dare I say in some extreme cases, as some sort of infallible prophet. 

The point I’m trying to make is that if you put yourself out there as an ambassador or representative of your game, whether intentional or not, you have to accept the notion that there are some people who will see you as an influence. As such, assuming you have a love for your game and community, and a desire to see it be welcoming to all and allow it to grow, you have a responsibility to act in good faith on behalf of your community. You have to be able to look beyond yourself and your own interests and consider the interests of your community and the people who may wish to become a part of it. Whether you like it or not, you will influence others. Abusing that position, acting negatively or with hostility tells those you are influencing that this is the norm in your community. Turning a blind eye to poor behaviour when you’re the one people see as the authority suggests to those people that that kind of behaviour is acceptable - if the person with the most authority doesn’t feel the need to act on it, it’s not a problem right?

But, being a positive influence in your community is one of the best ways you can thank it for being there for you. Leading by example, standing up to discrimination and hate, and simply showing that you care about the community you are a part of can go a long way, and of course, influence others to do the same. I look forward to continuing to try my best to be a positive influence in any speedrunning communities I am a part of. Heck, I’m trying to influence you right now with this article! Here’s hoping you took something positive from it.