[moches]

Originally Posted by Riotpolice

There is no game more unique than rhythm games. I feel like it is in it's own special category, aside from FPS's and MMO's. The ability for someone to create a game such as COD is straightforward. You even get paid for making a game such as COD. But what do step artists/"musicians" get for making their music/step chart? Nothing. They just do it because they want to and to contribute to the community. I know that my explanation might have a lot of holes, but feel free to input your opinion. I'm open.

That is a very good point: rhythm games seem, almost more than any other genre, motivated by self-expression.

Originally Posted by .Sapphire

Well, it sure as hell opens your music palette to not just be one genre of your surrounding malls and whatever is sold in stores locally. Stepmania has charts for tens of thousands of charts for many different genre songs. That kind of diversity gives motivation, ideas and inspiration to make music with related melodies and the sort. It really helps when a music producer/instrument player can't think of something new, so they just hop onto Stepmania and listen/play a bunch of songs and see if there's motivation after that. Other than that, I'd find it just a great way to hear a lot of different songs you wouldn't normally hear.

Not sure if that's quite an answer of relevancy, but that's what I perceived that question as.

Other than ideas and motivation for real music makers, Stepmania has no benefits in the long-run. It's just a game to other people.

Music producer TJ DeJong in the house!

I've been learning about Structuralism lately, and my thoughts keep returning to Stepmania. What I think merits reference is how similarly structured stepfiles of vastly different songs can be: you're in effect synthesizing an entire spectrum of music to a few recognizable functions. That definitely helps to broaden your perspective beyond just what genres you enjoy.

Originally Posted by dragon890x

very long post

Hehe, no need to feel sorry for me. My family is awesome about some things, ignorant about other things.

All of this is really, really good.