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I personally did not attend this event, but the speedrun community had a few regulars in attendance. It deeply concerns me that they came back to us yesterday evening and reported that the good folks over at Penny Arcade Expo decided to show off mostly Tool-Assisted Speedruns, and some of them weren't even marked as such. For being such advocates of gaming culture and community, they sure have a long way to go in the department of understanding speedruns.

SnapDragon, a very prominent speedrunner who's done games such Prince of Persia and even Four Swords Adventures, reported that the three big runs shown off were the Legend of Zelda TAS, The Super Mario Bros. TAS, and the Metroid TAS. Apparently, the Legend of Zelda one was not even labeled, though SnapDragon asked several people in attendance about it and most figured out what it was after.

During the one that revealed it was a TAS with the warning, somebody booed. I have to agree with that sentiment. TAS makers argue their runs are entertaining, but I somehow find this contradictory. Knowing how they make them, I feel no excitement while watching them because it is "fake", there is no real challenge or suspence. It's like having a movie where the hero knows everything, can do everything, and has absolutely zero chance of failing. He can do the most amazing stuff, but it amounts to really a let-down experience (see the two Matrix sequels).

But, to the uneducated, the TAS appears like god-like ability. I remember seeing the Super Mario Bros. 3 one, and I was just flabbergasted. When I learned what it was, I had feelings of dissapointment and a bit of disgust for what the video was. We do so much work to make sure average gamer joe knows what a speedrun and TAS is, both communities, yet when a big event like PAX does something like this, it royally screws us speedrunners and sets us back.

I don't know who put together the Speedrun Showcase. I doubt it was Tyco, Gabe or Robert Khoo. I'm glad I personally wasn't at PAX this year or I would have blown a gasket watching this thing. Hopefully somebody from PAX reads this, and hopefully the fix it up next year. If they want to convince some of us they truly are trying to benefit the gaming community, and not (although probably unintentionally) trying to divide some factions further apart, they'll listen.

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Probably the most unappreciated form of media from the Zelda series is the manga. Part one of our three part segment focuses on a potential Zelda film inspired by the manga.