Save states are a cheat tactic. Playing games in slow mo are also a cheat tactic. Using stage exploits are also a cheat tactic. Using invincibility, also a cheat tactic.
TASes never use cheat codes. The end result is always just a stream of inputs, that theoretically could be put into the console, and play the game perfectly. In some cases, the
Also, you mention stage-exploits. The World-record Speedrun (not TAS) for Ocarina of Time is 25m27s. It warps from the first dungeon to the final battle using a corrupted pointer and corrupted inventory items. Is that also cheating to you?
You may not consider a TAS to be on the same level as a legitimate speed run, ....
We haven't, never have. Speedrunning is about practice, and honing a skill. The two are not comparable, for the most part. TASing is about planning, and making perfection, by finding the fastest possible, not the fastest possible for a human. They aren't on the same level, and comparing the results is not fair, beyond a supposed max limit for a human.
That said, many members of SpeedDemosArchive are members of TASVideos, and vice versa. I'm actually practicing Dungeon Explorer, and have gotten my time down to 27:30. The TAS of Dungeon Explorer in no way replaces the need for a speedrun, and vice-versa. They exist for totally different reasons.
But being able to acknowledged the such does not suddenly make the appliance of the word "cheat" null and void concerning the matter of using said cheats, nor justify calling it something other then what it actually is. You can rename them to "tools" all day long to make it sound better to you, but in reality, they will always be cheats, and any normal person would be able to acknowledged this without issue. I'm not going to whitewash it in order to make you feel better by calling it tools, because in most games you were already provided the tools necessary by means of which to win the game, via earning power-ups, maps, extra lives, etc. Call a spade a spade. Cheating is cheating, regardless of the goal, or the purpose of reaching it.
Your carebear picture, and other posts seem to say the same sentiment, repeatedly. Yes, a TAS is not a comparable playthrough, nor is it meant to represent one or feel like one. Its just a different challenge, a different way to play the game, which is actually quite a bit of fun. I can give an example, from a recent one I was playing with, Final Lap Twin.
Now, the goal of a TAS is to produce the shortest time. Thus, you want to have as few random encountered as possible. Additionally, you want to make the random encounters as productive as possible, which means fighting the enemy with the best returns. Now I had to figure out how random encounters worked (its a step counter, which decreases by 1 every step, and is reset to a random number every time you get an encounter.) I had to figure out how to beat the first enemy and boss with no upgrades (an impossible feat in real-time - you have to basically bump him off the road.) The end result of this test TAS was... meh. Not very interesting to watch, so I won't be continuing it. However, it was a fun time to make. It was fun to see how the internals of the game worked. It was fun seeing if I could beat the first boss with no upgrades, something I originally thought impossible.
A similar situation happens in Dragon Knight 3, which was my next planned TAS (I don't have much time for TASing these days). When you are in the first section, you can skip encounters by hitting zero on the step counter at the exact step you interact with a skeleton in the first cave. The planning for that isn't easy. It isn't at all comparable to the stuff you do for a speedrun. But it certainly is fun to do. It turns games into brain teasers.
I'm starting to realize, I don't really care if you call it cheating. It doesn't make them any less interesting, and if it helps you sleep at night, call'em whatever you want. TASVideos has enough people who enjoy them, that it is a thriving small community. No one there considers them cheating, and no one there considers them on the same level as speedrunning. No one in either the speedrunning community or the tasvideos community feels the way you do about TASes. Each has its place in the world, and we can all live in harmony, or some other hippy crap.
In short, I've had a blast trying to find the fastest way through a game. If you feel that is cheating, your choice. You are missing out on a cool and different perspective to games. Think outside the box.
Oh yeah, also, I never compared you to Lex Luther, nor did I mention Lex I believe. Actually, I compared the people in the thread you linked to to the The Legion of Super-Villains, of which Lex Luther was not a member of if I remember right, though he did collaborate with them. You read into it a bit too much there.
That was included just for joking purposes. You mentioned JLA, which includes Superman, so I assumed that Lex by default would be an enemy of JLA.
