Gaz Deaves, Editor of Guinness World Records Gamer Edition 2010, gives his view on the third installment of the series devoted to the latest and greatest in video gaming.
Why publish an offshoot dedicated to games?
There are lots of reasons. Firstly, there was always a lot of support for making this book internally because so many of us at GWR are fanatical gamers, which made it much easier to make the first edition. Secondly, there’s so much you can say about games and gaming. The Gamer’s Edition doesn’t just contain high scores and speed runs, but also record about games, like best-selling, fastest-selling, most popular, as well as loads of interesting trivia.
How would someone decide what record to attempt?
The important thing to remember about world records is that they’re not easy. You have to be the best in the world, so if you’re submitting a time or score make sure that you’ve got the skills to back up the claim. We get a lot of applications from people who think they can get a record just from being the first person to apply for something. They usually get sent home disappointed.
Is there anything you wouldn't accept as legitimate?
For a record to meet our standards it has to measurable and breakable. For example, ‘The World’s Most Awesome Games Collection’ is rubbish because you can’t measure awesomeness. But ‘World’s Biggest Games Collection’ is fine because we can count the number of games and say with certainty that it’s the biggest we’ve ever seen. The record is breakable because someone else could come along with more items in their collection and prove that theirs is the biggest.
What are the weirdest you've had to turn down?
A lot of the ones we have to reject are because they aren’t measurable or breakable, but some of them are too silly even for us. We’ve rejected claims for naked high scores, upside-down gaming marathons and the fastest time to kill Mario. You have to wonder how people come up with this stuff, but reading through the weird claims is one of the best things about working on the Gamer’s Edition.
What would gamers have to do to become a record holder?
They’ll need to head to our website and register there to get the specific rules for the record they want to do. Once they’ve got the rules, they can go ahead with the attempt and send us the evidence. For in-game records like high scores and speed runs, we need good quality video of the entire attempt and a signed statement from an independent witness who is familiar with gaming and can swear that the attempt is real, for example someone who works at your local games shop. Alternatively, we attend gaming events from time to time so keep an eye on the website and you could get your record adjudicated on the spot.
