Here is the result when only a few people manage the most important on the site.
From what I've seen it's not even a real game but rather something to learn. And it looks like the only "competition" is guessing as fast as possible and then just hope your right, if not you need to reset and try again which isn't that good either. Keep in mind that you can speedrun the game without it being on SRC, just create a google docs or something, or actually just use the discord since there's already a server.
Yes, there are a lot of mediocre browser games on here, that's because the rules of accepting games changed a while back so theyre not allowed anymore and deleting them would be dumb since some maybe still run it.
/edit: @lolman-0027 That's not really a result of not having enough staff members, it probably would've been rejecting even if there were more staff members
@blueYOSHI well if anything, your post makes me realize how people that haven't been provided with information might look at it - which also makes me believe that whoever looked over the request denied it either without reading the information added at all or just glancing over it.
There's not just "only competition" by "guessing". We use set seeded pools, official semi-random pools and unofficial random pools for competition. The guidelines are clear since every single run is scored. The most competitive category and the one we are applying for requires a perfect score of 25k (5*5k) and nothing less than that for a valid run. The "resets" arent different from literally any other speedrun where you reset if you invalidate the run. The seeds aren't worse than any Minecraft random seed run (which a couple of runners are familiar with) and we basically were looking at rules from communities where seeded pools and random-seeded pools exist.
The whole "just create a google doc" argument is the worst argument to not accept a game ever. The main reason this site exists is based on the fact that a community of speedrunners doesn't have to rely on a google doc being updated to track times.
This isn't even a piano-tiles like game where the run time is exchanged for "scores" - it's literally a timed run, just like any other regular speedrun as well.
Seeded pools doesn't make it much better imo because then it's literally just clicking at the right point on the map as fast as possible, if you miss you reset. At least if I understood that correctly. Yes, in other games you need to reset too if you do a mistake, however, in most games you don't need to reset for even the smallest mistake.
Minecraft does have a seed system too, however, in Minecraft it's more than just clicking on a map, there's actual movement which is the most interesting part about speedrunning, one of the reasons why Odyssey has so many speedrunners. So Minecraft has way more to it than just the seeds.
The google doc part wasn't a argument but rather a reminder.
Piano-Tiles was likely accepted before the rule change, I'm sure now it would get rejected.
The seeded pools are about 10k-15k individual locations deep, repeats are pretty rare. I mean, I get that there's some worries but everything is sound and reasonable once you're actually reading up on the rules and the functionality.
We're partially using the /r/geoguessr discord server for general talk and a private group between (most) runners for now (we would have loved to have the srcom page to share guides and tricks but oh well)
this is my fave geoguesser speedrun I watched I don't really want to say it should or shouldn't be on the site just mentioning my favorite run ^^ idk if it is really a speedrun but yeah I would count it as such because well I would ^^
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haha yeah sorry I just wanted to post something I found exciting from the game but I do think it is like cludo (clue) a bit after a while people will just hope to get lucky you know and spam the map but idk ^_^
yeah that's about 3-8 times slower than a regular run ^^ good to see people care tho lol
BlueYoshi your argument is pretty weak, there are many games that revolve around RNG. The point of the speedrun is to test skill and playing around the cards you are given. And also just saying it's boring is dumb considering there is an entire community that wishes for this srcom board. Also, insanely hypocritical to say is boring considering you speedrun Mario Party.
Mario Party is by far not just just RNG, and you definitely don't need to immediately reset if you get bad RNG. Yes, there are other games on here too but usually it's the same case I would say. From what ive seen this wouldn't be the case with this game.
Geoguessr has more followers on Twitch than most Mario Party games. It might not be appealing to you, but I don't think you can lump it in with those 400 trash browser games. (That's not to say that I think it makes for a good competitive speedrun.)
For better or worse, we don't choose what games are allowed by committee, so there's not much you can hope to accomplish in this topic except to cause a stir. Make your own temporary leaderboard, run it like SRC, build your case, resubmit in a while. If it's still rejected, then stick with your own leaderboards. Plenty of games have gone this route.
The best thing you can do at this point is try to prove its legitimacy as a speed game. Instead of dragging browser games through the mud, maybe link to an already-existing leaderboard?
I don't wanna argue about the complexity of geoguessr since, yes, admittedly, it is "just a browser game" and relies on google maps.
The argument that the quality control has grown is weak if you take a look at the recent (https://www.speedrun.com/donalduganda) additions (https://www.speedrun.com/Hovercraft_-_build_fly_retry/full_game) to the site. And I don't wanna argue against those either.
The point is, if there's an active community for a game and they can prove the merits of it, it should deserve a spot on this site, regardless of how simple the game is.
"When the staff see a game like Geoguessr their immediate thought is gonna be it's just Google Maps with some kind of stipulation. Which is what it is. Can't fault them for rejecting it."
So what you are saying is, the staff shouldn't bother looking at the speedrun aspect of the game or even read the commentary or watch the videos provided if they dont immediately get what the game is about.
But a game where the only speedrun element is running into a wall within 5 seconds to kill yourself as fast as possible is totally legit, despite there being a single run ever recorded - because it's "designed as a game".
You seem to think the number of people running a game matters, and that if enough people are running it, it should be added to the site regardless of what the game is. I very much disagree with this. For example, the site has a policy of not adding visual novels (which I fully agree with, since visual novels are not interesting speed games), but if a new popular visual novel comes out and a lot of people are speedrunning it, should it be added to the site just because it's popular, even if it's just as uninteresting as any other visual novel out there? I would say no.
Based on the rejection message you got, the site seems to have a policy of not accepting games that are built around Google Maps. So the question here needs to be, should games based on Google Maps be allowed on the site? Personally, I don't think they should be, and this game shouldn't get a free pass on that for the same reason that a popular visual novel shouldn't get a free pass.
I mean sure, maybe there are some games on the site that shouldn't be here, but that's really not the point, and it isn't a good reason to add another game that maybe doesn't belong here.
I mean, what you say @ShikenNuggets is true, those are the rules of the site. I am merely arguing that those rules may not be the best. You're still disallowing runs by default without looking over if the request wouldnt actually warrant the game to be added after all.