ShikenNuggets' Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
"When's your next stream?"
I try to stream at least once a week, but I have other life stuff going on that sometimes takes priority, so I can't make any specific promises. Joining my Discord server is generally the best way to keep up with things.
"Are you gonna play/stream/speedrun the new Lego Batman game?"
It looks pretty neat, I'll probably play it. Not sure if I want to stream it.
As for speedrunning, regardless of whether a game is good or not, it could be a bad speedrun for other reasons (too many unskippable cutscenes, could be too long, the optimal strats could just be boring, online features and game updates often complicate things, etc). I find it usually takes at least 2-3 weeks after a game launches for the hype to wear off and to get a real sense of how good the speedrun actually is.
"Are you gonna play/stream/speedrun any other upcoming superhero games?"
I am generally interested in anything superhero related, but we haven't seen official gameplay for anything else yet. Ask me again when we have. See above answer for speedrunning.
"Will you ever do Anthology 100% or 240% again? All Achievements? Other ridiculously long categories?" (!12)
I will not be attempting any more 12+ hour long runs for the foreseeable future, if ever again. Scheduling the run itself is hard enough, but the amount of time needed to properly prepare for something like this is also a significant challenge (I did over 100 hours of prep leading up to Anthology 100%, which was approaching full-time job levels of commitment, and I still wish I had more time). Even if another opportunity arises, it's unlikely that I'll be in a position to essentially drop everything and neglect my personal life for 2-3 months to make it happen.
Re: Anthology 100% - Getting sub 19 (maybe even sub 18???) would be cool I guess, but honestly the run I did was already so much better than I could have expected, so I have no real incentive to try that again anytime soon. I'd also need to get way better at Knight before seriously considering it.
Re: 240% - Nah, been there done that. This category sucks.
Re: All Achievements - Grinding challenge maps for hours is extremely boring, hard pass.
"What's your favourite game/movie/book/colour/cereal box design/etc?" (!fav)
I don't think too much about favourites, I just like what I like. I think that mentality causes people focus way too much on constantly comparing everything, instead of actually enjoying things and appreciating them for what they are.
"Why do you sometimes speedrun in Spanish/French/etc?" (!spanish, !french, etc)
For speedrunning, sometimes it's fastest to use a specific language because it gives you shorter text or dialogue. Which language is best and exactly how much of a difference it makes depends on the game/category.
"How do you rank the Arkham games? Which one's your favourite?"
For a long time I would've said my favourite was City, but nowadays I genuinely just appreciate all four games for different reasons and don't feel the need to compare them all the time. 7+ years of competitive speedrunning has also completely warped my perspective of the series, so I don't think my rankings would even be meaningful at this point.
"Do you stream anything other than Batman?"
My streams are almost exclusively focused on Arkham speedruns, but I occasionally run other games. You can see everything I've ever run on my speedrun.com profile. I only stream casual playthroughs on special occasions.
"Don't you get bored of playing Batman all the time?"
If I did, I wouldn't still be doing it! Speedrunning and the goal of self-improvement breathes new life into games that I probably would never have a reason to play again otherwise. And if I do get tired of a particular game/category, there's lots of other categories to choose from to switch things up.
"Have you ever considered speedrunning [insert cool game/series here]?"
Probably not. Honestly the idea of learning a new speed game from scratch is just not at all appealing to me at this point. Maybe like 5 years ago I could've tried some other games but realistically that ship has sailed for me.
"Do you stream/make YouTube videos full-time?"
Absolutely not. I typically only make around 10-15% of what I'd need to even consider doing this full-time. Also not sure that I'd want to anyway. It's not really a viable long-term career path, and as much as I enjoy speedrunning I do also have other things that I want to do with my life.
"Are you gonna play/stream/speedrun Arkham Shadow (VR game)?" (!vr)
No. I don't own a VR headset, and I have no plans to change that.
"What do you think of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? Are you gonna speedrun it?" (!ss or !suicidesquad)
It's just terrible, I never want to play it again. The speedrun is pretty boring, and it's too long to be a good joke run.
"How was Spider-Man 2? Are you gonna speedrun it" (!sm2 or spiderman2)
I enjoyed my playthrough, but there were some things I didn't love about it. I'm gonna wait a while and play through it again to have a more nuanced opinion of it. I was initially planning to run it but honestly I doubt I'll ever get around to it at this point.
How was Gotham Knights? Will you speedrun it again?
Overall I did mostly enjoy my first playthrough, but realistically it's a 6/10 at best with very little replay value. There's no real speed tech and nobody really cares about the game anymore. Was fun while it lasted but I'll probably never play it again.
"What are your PC specs/peripherals/stream gear"
PC:
- Ryzen 9 7950x (16 cores, 32 threads @ 4.5 GHz)
- RTX 3090 TI
- 64GB RAM
Peripherals:
- Corsair K57 RGB Wireless Keyboard (meh)
- Logitech G502 Lightspeed Mouse
- DualShock 4 Controller
- Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Monitor (32:9 ultrawide, 1440p, 240hz)
- Sennheiser GSP 600 headphones (meh)
- Rode PodMic + Wave XLR Interface
- Razer Kiyo webcam (has a ring light built into it, otherwise meh)
- Secondary ring light (random no-name brand)
- Stream Deck (15 button version)
Console Stuff
- PS2, PS3, PS5, OG XBOX, Xbox 360, Switch
- Elgato HD60 X capture card
- RetroTink 5X Pro uspcaler/deinterlacer
Chat Commands
!commands or !help
You are here.
!discord
Links my personal Discord server.
!batdiscord
Links the Batman Arkham Speedrunning Community Discord server.
!input or !inputdisplay or !overlay
Explains how my overlay switches between showing keyboard inputs and controller inputs using this program.
!kbm
Explains why I play on both keyboard/mouse AND controller.
!lastrun
Explains that the previous run died, and that runs die a lot, and that it doesn't matter why it died.
!no
"Please don't tell me what to do."
!pb
Posts my Personal Best for the category I'm currently running.
!pc or !specs
Tells you my PC specs (listed above in the FAQ section as well).
!playtime
Gives you an Extremely Precise™ and Perfectly Accurate™ number for how many hours I've spent playing Batman games.
!rules
Links to the speedrun.com leaderboard rules for the category I'm currently running.
!run
Answers the question "is the run good?" (just reads the current pace off the timer, green numbers good, red numbers bad)
!runs or !speedrun or !sr or !src
Links to my speedrun.com profile.
!sob or !sobs
Posts my Sum of Best Segments (basically the best time I can theoretically get) for the category I'm currently running.
!whatdidimiss
If you left the stream and came back, this will assure you that you didn't miss anything.
!wr
Posts the World Record for the category I'm currently running.
!youtube or !yt
Links to my YouTube channel.