On June 18, 2020, legendary pop culture icon and “gamer of the century”, “Billy Mitchell”, had his alleged Donkey Kong and Pac Man “world records” reinstated by the “Guinness World Records” publishing company.
Dating back to 2018, a number of YouTubers, internet forum posters, and other members of the gaming community, compiled evidence which suggested a number of Billy's alleged high-scores had been faked or cheated, leading these scores to be removed by record keeping website Twin Galaxies, as well as book publishing company Guinness World Records.
You can read Twin Galaxies' original decision on the matter in their post & statement here.
However, Billy announced via his Twitter that these records have been reinstated by the organization.
Now, it seems everyone's mind is made up one way or another on this matter. Either you believe Billy scored these records legitimately, or you believe the mountains of alleged evidence suggesting otherwise. These arguments have been hashed and rehashed an endless number of times, so there's no reason to go over them once again here.
What is perhaps worth discussing though, is the role (or non-role) of Guinness World Records as an organization, in the high score & speedrunning gaming worlds.
To understand the origins of Guinness World Records, and why they were necessary in some situations, here's what their Wikipedia article has to say about them.
On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Breweries,[3] went on a shooting party in the North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. After missing a shot at a golden plover, he became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse – it is the plover.[4] That evening at Castlebridge House, he realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird.[5][6] Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in pubs throughout Ireland and abroad, but there was no book in the world with which to settle arguments about records. He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove successful.[7]
It can be understood that, at the time, 50+ years before the internet would become accessible around the world in every setting, a reference book would be handy to settle these sorts of disputes or questions. Thus, Guinness World Records was born.
It is important to note however, that for some world records, Guinness would defer expertise to a body which had more expertise on the matter. For example, if you wanted to claim you had run the fastest 100 metre dash of all time, you wouldn't go to Guinness to claim such a record, rather Guinness would accept the world records listed by the athletics governing body, World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF).
Understandably, such bodies were not around for the first several decades of video games existing, just as they were not around for the first several years of sports existing. Thus, to claim a world record in a video game, one might go to Guinness, in an attempt to get a fancy certificate and bolster some credibility.
Here's the catch though... Guinness is not an expert in verifying the authenticity of video game records. Guinness is an entertainment and book publishing company. Not a video game high-score verification company. And at the current moment, various organizations around the world, including speedrun.com and cyberscore.co.uk have become the authorities on tracking & verifying gaming records. Just as World Athletics or FINA are authorities on tracking & authenticating world records in athletics or swimming.
It is the opinion of the authour that gaming records verified by Guinness from the pre-internet era should be met with the same skepticism as if someone claimed they ran 100 metres in 8.90 seconds back in the year 1910, before the IAAF had been founded.
Guinness World Records as a company is currently published by the Jim Pattison Group, a private company founded & chaired by Jim Pattison, a Canadian billionaire sometimes referred to as "the Warren Buffet" of Canada. The man is 91 years old, and it's the opinion of this author that it's unlikely Mr. Pattison has ever heard of the gamer, Billy Mitchell.
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What Mr. Pattison and his company might be more concerned about, however, is the publishing of their annual "Guinness Book of Records" and related books. By their own claim, the best selling copyrighted book of all time.
The Jim Pattison Group also owns the franchises Ripley's! Believe it or Not, which run various attractions, museums and aquariums, as well as Louis Tussaud's Wax Museums. (Not to be confused with Madame Tussauds Wax Museums). Along with Guinness World Record museums, they operate dozens of attractions throughout North America and around the world. These operations are probably a higher priority to them than a dispute over some decades-old claimed arcade scores.
To put it lightly, these attractions are often tourist traps. In fact, in Niagara Falls, Ontario's Clifton Hill street alone, you can find about a half dozen, or more, of these attractions, variations of the Guinness, Ripley's or Louis Tussaud's franchises.
At the top left of this image, you can see a "Ripley's! Moving Theatre" attraction. Tickets for a show here are $18.99 per adult or $12.99 per child, not exactly an inexpensive outing for the family!
At the end of the day, it's clear that Guinness & related franchise's priorities are not in ensuring that every single record in their book is legitimate. Their priority is making money from their book publishing and various tourist attractions. They no longer afford any legitimacy in the gaming sphere, and should be treated as such. In fact, the need for an overarching body to verify records is no longer needed in an age with widespread internet accessibility. The ultimate "proof" of a world record isn't some for-profit agency which prints cute certificates to their record holders; but accessible videos, displaying the entirety of a claimed gaming record.
For example, we know the world record in Super Mario 64's 120 Star is, at the time of writing, a 1:38:28 held by speedrunner Simply, not because of an outside agency agreeing this is so; but because we can all see the full video of the speedrun with our own eyes.
The innovation of the internet, and widespread video sharing, renders what Guinness was originally trying to accomplish in the 1950's, fully obsolete. World records are now self-evident. They are common knowledge. Anyone can immediately not only look up any world record they wish, but also immediately view the entire proof of the record claim. Evidence that is apparent to any viewer, leaving no need for an outside body "certifying" any such record.
In parting, it is the final opinion of this authour, that Guinness and Billy Mitchell can have their fun, regardless of what is real or not real. The evidence is all there, self-apparent to anyone who chooses to look. And that's what matters the most. Sometimes, when your uncle Bob claims he once drove a 1971 Ford Pinto at 250 miles per hour on a road trip from Peoria to Orlando, you just have to nod your head and say "sure man, sounds epic." There's no convincing him otherwise, and a by-gone era of exaggeration, unscrupulous claims and haphazardly verified records will go extinct as actual proof and self-evidence becomes more widespread.
Until then, keep on throwing those barrels, folks.
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