Final Fantasy 14 charity speedrun turns into a 23-hour marathon, as donators give $20 for the chance to lay down commands its players have to follow

pcgamer.com:

Final Fantasy 14 isn't a typical game to watch people speedrun—while certain parts of the game do have a speedrunning history, and there is a dedicated community running the game, completing it in record time still typically takes hours. These cutscene-skipping blitzes are impressive, sure, but they don't exactly make for great viewing unless you're really into the nuts and bolts of the game.

If you want to speedrun for charity, like how gamers at the European Speedrunner Assembly (ESA) have been this week, you might be stuck on ways to make Square Enix's flagship MMO watchable for hours on end. As it turns out, all you have to do is give viewers the power to screw you over for 20 dollars.

While raising money for the Swedish Alzheimer's Association, speedrunners Nashlax, Metako, Leonis and HabKeineName sat down for a gruelling marathon run of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. The only catch is that the run, affectionately named "$20%", can be derailed at any time by a $20 donation.

As long as they shelled out the cash, viewers could give the game's poor runners a new rule they had to follow. Granted, all donations were pre-screened as per the ESA'sguidelines, but whenever a new donation was read aloud, it became law. It took them 23 hours to finish.

I've only just scratched the surface with my trawling through this admirable marathon of self-punishment, but here are some of my favourite moments from the VOD:

It's an excellent example of the kind of punishment people are willing to put themselves through for a good cause. Speedrunning has a long history of providing support for charities, and I'm glad to see that continue in such spectacular fashion—even if I am a touch worried as to what 23 hours at the mercy of Twitch