In fact, the speedrunners who Toftness interviewed said their mental health improved because of their engagement with their gaming communities. But in his own experience, and in speaking with other gamers, Toftness found the speedrunning community had the opposite effect: It brought people together, cementing friendships and strengthening social bonds. ![]() In his research, Toftness found plenty of academic papers that suggest gaming can take a toll on a person’s social health because it’s often isolating the idea is so prevalent among health researchers that the World Health Organization recently added a gaming disorder to its International Classification of Diseases. The first and possibly most vital component to speedrunning is a sense of community, or the idea that runners are in this with a group of like-minded peers, all working to accomplish the same goal. ![]() For each milestone I hit, I knew I could do better. Not unlike an actual runner, I yearned for a new personal best, or PB, every time I played. I quickly became obsessed, jotting down times and notes in a journal. So, as Toronto settled in for yet another citywide lockdown late last year, I tried to play it through myself and see how fast I could do it-or at least, if I could beat my brother’s pace from all those years ago. It’s a game where players are intended to move quickly, spin-dashing and speeding through levels. The classic game, released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis, was a staple of my childhood: My older brother, then much more of a gamer than me, would play through the game over and over, and I’d dutifully watch each time. I started speedrunning Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in January, keen for a new pandemic pastime. When the realization sets in, I’m exhilarated. Eventually, on the official leaderboards, I’ll rank among the top players to beat this particular Sonic game in the fastest possible time. And then I stop my timer: 49 minutes, 51 seconds. I keep breathing, heavier and heavier, until it’s over, until Sonic destroys Dr. On my screen, a pixelated blue hedgehog zooms through loops and hops from platform to platform. It’s a warm May night in Toronto, and I’m hunched over my computer, clicking away at a Sega Genesis controller and trying to make personal history. I try to regulate my breath-inhale, slowly, exhale-but I have the jitters. My grip hasn’t changed in nearly an hour, but I refuse to let my wetted hands kill my focus. It's kind of an experience in learned helplessness, really.My palms won’t stop sweating, beads of moisture dripping down the buttons of my controller. As such, I've still to make any noticeable progress (I sort of sometimes get as far as the sideways house a little above the oar, at best), and any time I "lose progress" it means nothing, as I don't feel like I'd been earning anything anyway. I might just be terrible, but I found it so hard to have any control that the experience devolved into an almost random walk across the terrain. I've actually only played it on a trackpad, and I think it detracts from the experience Bennet is going for. Especially when you're lifting yourself up and finagling yourself into a position that can be key. ![]() I've also needed to make a bit of a mental adjustment early on to remind myself that I'm not controlling the guy or moving the handle but directly applying force to the hammerhead. I actually had to clear off most of my desk to play it and right before I managed to complete the game I changed the mouse settings on my PC to make everything a bit faster. ![]() I can't imagine playing this game on a trackpad seeing what huge circular movements it had me doing with my mouse hand.
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