Tool-assistance
While it is typical of generic speedruns, as described in the opening paragraph, to be recordings of skilled playing of the game, there is one particular branch of the phenomenon called tool-assisted speedrunning (commonly abbreviated TAS) which removes the need for the recording to be devised by typical means (such as recording the speedrun on a VCR tape while it is being played on the original hardware) and instead allows authors to use "tools" to aid their playing. Essentially, these tools can be anything that eases the game-play and thus improves the final result; some prime examples, commonly provided by the use of an emulator, include the usage of save states that allow the author to "go back in time" and revise mistakes (in this context, this is called re-recording), as well as slowing down the (virtual) hardware that the game is running on so that the runner can play the game much more accurately than would otherwise be viable. One common requirement of tool-assisted speedrunning, stemming directly from the abilities that said tools provide, is the attainment of "perfection"; the knowledge that it is not possible, by current abilities, to record the speedrun in any way that would warrant a lower completion time. The practical result is that human limitations, such as skill and reflex, are no longer an issue in the creation of a run; tool-assisted runs have (sometimes significantly) lower completion times than their "unassisted" equivalents.
It has been argued by members of TASVideos, a major tool-assisted speedrun community, that the runs produced by them could be considered a form of art, claiming that they significantly hold "creativity, variability, surprising outcomes, and speed", which makes them "beautiful to watch". Additionally, these members have outlined the qualities that, according to them, make a tool-assisted run entertaining: they should be interesting to watch (the play should not be slow or repetitive), they should surprise the viewer (the runner must perform the unexpected), and they must depict a very high level of play (the runner must be able to handle awkward situations efficiently and creatively). When a new run is submitted to the site, it first gets voted on by the site's members to assess whether it is suitable for publication; in case a run is found to be substandard, it is rejected.
The usage of tools to aid the player is mostly forbidden in regular speedrunning, and it is for this reason that tool-assistance is seen as controversial by some. When a tool-assisted speedrun of Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in mid-2003 by an anonymous speedrunner using the nickname "Morimoto" (originally "もりもと"), its incredible quality of play became a phenomenon; since few people knew how the video was made, it was widely believed that it was played in real-time by an extremely skilled player. When Morimoto detailed the making of the run on his website, many felt deceived and turned to criticizing the video's "illegitimacy" instead. In 2006, Joel Yliluoma, the webmaster of TASVideos, had been quoted as saying "Two years ago, I fought against claims of cheating and other bad-mouthing. Today, although I still see some people who hate the movies and consider them cheating, I see more people who recognize the value of both types of speedruns." Another point of criticism is that a properly executed tool-assisted speedrun may disillusion runners from making an unassisted version.
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