The co-op baby discussion got brought up again in a recent thread so I thought I'd make a new one to talk about it some more. I'm not sure if we ever had a dedicated discussion for it. I think we touched on it back when we talked about donation machine overflow but never had a discussion directly about the co-op baby usage.

I personally still don't agree with the 2-player mechanic being used for the single player run but I know there are those of you that think it's just another in-game mechanic and should be allowed.

Elad I think actually pointed out to me the other day that he thinks a speedrun is about using all the mechanics and exploits you can find in order to go as fast as possible, which seems like a perfectly reasonable perspective.

However, I don't run the game simple to go as fast as possible. I do it because I have fun with the challenge in a game that I enjoy playing and to me the co-op baby thing isn't really a part of the game I enjoy and instead takes away from it because it feels like I'd be exploiting the game in a way that, for lack of a better term, "feels cheaty".

This is a personal opinion though and I'd say is in direct contradiction to the speedrunner mentality of do everything possible to go as fast as you can.

I don't however, feel like there's anything wrong with wanting to speedrun a game for fun instead of needing to do absolutely everything to go as fast as possible. And it is a bit strange submitting runs to a category where I purposefully don't use a mechanic.

So I'd like to pose the question of whether or not the majority of runners think co-op babies should be allowed or not? If they do, then co-op babies for everyone. If not, then maybe we ban it? If it's split, we could create a new category perhaps?