meet your makers. (d6 destroyers)

[igotrhythm]

FFR Spotlight On: (insert player here)

This could totally be a regular thing. Approval.

[bob bob]

So I just read through this thread, and I think this is a great idea, especially if it expands into lesser known players.

[j-rodd123]

i think evil smoke should do this, hes so good but completely unknown hahah

[m0de]

this thread aside, expect alot more spotlight in tournaments both official, and nonofficial. pre tournament interviews with players from every division, as well as interviews as the tournaments are played out. post tournament interviews with the winners, as well as some extra prizes depending on the tournament :]

edit: i have one more interview to add to the OP(this interview was not one of the first batch of players selected :]), along with those who have not submitted. i look forward to hearing from the next batch of interviewees as the current batch was very interesting to hear from. expect an OP update later tonight around 9pm server time. once again thank you to everyone who has taken time to answer these questions, its greatly appreciated.

[One Winged Angel]

For those who dont know you, could you introduce yourself, and let everyone know a little bit about you. Where you are from, participate in any sports, let us know!

Sure why naaaat. Rob, 22, reppin’ the shitty little town of Hamilton, Ontario (about an hour south of Toronto). Recent graduate of McMaster University with an Honours Bachelors of Commerce. Currently looking for full time work experience in order to prep for my MBA, which I’m hoping to apply for within the next three years. I’ve been playing piano for about 15 years and guitar for almost 8. Supposedly I was a big deal back during my piano-playing days lol, winning several provincial competitions when I was much younger. Got my black belt when I was 11 (lol from United Family Martial Arts, so you know it doesn’t mean jackshit in the long run), and took Kung Fu for another three years in high school. Competed in a few sparring tournaments and always placed top three, get at me. Big on math, statistics, psychology, memory, fitness/bodybuilding, chess, philosophy, poker, gambling…somewhat of a movie buff as well. Also a huge Pokemon nerd and probably know more about the game and metagame than most Smogon mods. Could probably continue but that should suffice~

What does a normal day for you consist of?

Alarm’ll wake me up, I’ll reset it another 10 minutes from now and go back to sleep. Wake up a second time. Piss, shower, wash my face, brush my teeth, and downstairs I go. Feed my retarded bird because I’m the only one in the family she doesn’t bite for some reason (why that bird isn’t dead yet is beyond me). I’ll usually bum around my house during the morning doing God knows what. If I can muster up the will to actually get in my car and go to the gym before noon, then A+ for me. Otherwise I’ll prob try and get a few hours of some sort of reading in, which has been my GMAT prep book as of late (although I already wrote a mock test and scored well enough to get into Ivy League schools, hehu). Sometimes by lunch, my retard friends will text me the stupid thing they plan on doing that particular afternoon (and usually continuing into the night), and if I’m not busy I’ll drive over to whatever location to watch them make asses of themselves (the vast majority of my friends are intoxicated almost 24/7). Otherwise, days have been pretty slow lately, but I’m enjoying the free time while it lasts. I’m anticipating securing a full time job doing investment banking and other really boring ‘bankly’ duties by the beginning of July, so had I been asked this a month from now, I probably would’ve answered with smashing my keypad randomly and moving on to the next question.

Could you let everyone know what settings you use when you play as far as speed, keys, engine, and any other settings.

95% of the time, x1.9. I only use x2.0 if I’ve just finished a long SM session and I’m comfortable using a slightly faster speedmod. SDJK is my main setup, although there’s a few songs with obviously gay spikes where I need to change that up to play well (Crowdpleaser, p4u v1, some others). Usually try to play on the Velo engine as much as possible, despite the fact that it’s been a laggy piece of merda for me as of late. R^2 runs smooth as a baby’s bottom for me, but I haven’t been using that as much because I’m OCD as fuc and like saving replays of my more difficult AAAs (anything that was a former FGO on the old system or higher). I’ll most likely be using R^2 for the Official Tourney though, with a speedmod of around x2.4, give or take five hundredths.

When going for AAAs, I’ll turn off combo/judgment and hide my raw score at the bottom of the screen by bringing up Task Manager. Helps to almost completely alleviate any nerves or shaky-hands-syndrome going into the last 150 notes of any file with the AAA. I encourage anyone that gets extremely nervous about losing a AAA after bypassing all the hard shit in a file to give this a go. Occasionally this backfires (lol like getting 2g in the first 10 notes of Mephisto Waltz without noticing and then AAA’ing the rest), but it’s really helped me out in the long run.

Besides gaming in general, what are your hobbies/intrests?

Music’s up there. I really enjoy playing shows and gigs, hoping to play a lot more now that I’ve finished my schooling for the time being. I’m also really big on MMA, despite the fact that I haven’t been part of any sort of ‘dojo’ within the past four years. Aside from that, everything else I’d mentioned while answering the first question.

…actually hang on, one interesting little hobby of mine as of late has been seeing what’s the hottest thing I can eat without killing myself. I like to go to grocery stores, markets, and those crazy little Punjabi huts that have batshit crazy hot sauces and buy the hottest thing I can find. Then I’ll come home and eat it. My dad will proceed to call me a ****ing retard for the next several minutes as I run around the house (like a retard) seeing how long I can last without drinking any milk. Eventually I’ll succumb to the milk but that only makes things worse for my stomach because I’m lactose-intolerant. Within ten minutes, I’ll end up on the can taking the gnarliest shit imaginable (I’ll spare you the details). After I’ve calmed down, sometimes I try to show my new poo baby (more often than not, babies) to Maggie (DarknessXoXLight) over Skype, but she always manages to hang up before I get it on cam. I’ll get her one day

How long have you been playing rhythem games, and who got you started?

Haha there used to be this really shitty arcade by this really shitty mall by my house (it’s now a giant Telus booth, rip). Me and my elementary school friends often derped around at the mall/arcade, and one friend of mine was obsessed with this foreign dancing game they had there. I think it was called Dance Dance Revolution. Lmao I remember watching her pass Love Shine [Standard] and I thought she was some sort of demon (a demon for passing a 4, lmao). Anyways, she tells me specifically out of all my friends to give it a shot, just to see how I’d do because I was the video game prodigy of the group (and I guess this was a video game to her lol). Surprisingly passed a bunch of 4s and 5s on my first go, and was no longer impressed with Cheyenne’s Love Shine play (she was mad as hell rofl). Worked my way up to passing 10s over the next few months, and eventually got to the point where I managed to high AA/AAA some of them.

So that was…9 years ago? Then they got rid of the arcade less than two years later and we were all mad -.-

Found FFR in 2006. I either Googled ‘DDR for your fingers’ or found it on addictinggames.com, I honestly forget which, but I’m pretty sure it was the former. Didn’t make an account till 2007, casually played until I found out about Tokens/Skill Tokens, at which point my OCD for ‘collecting all the things’ took over and I started to play more often.

Never played PiU, played ITG maybe three or four times (I’m garbage). Guitar Hero, Rock Band etc. I’ve played casually (read: drunk as fuark at high school parties) so I’m not that good at either or.

When do you feel you have reached "expert" so to say level of stepmania/ffr?

You’re probably an expert once you can read higher level files without mashing like a tard during some sections. I’d say something around the level of Kidney Stone is a good benchmark for measuring that.

Personally, I don’t consider myself a very good player. Maybe I am in comparison to others, but I’m positive I haven’t plateaued yet; I know I’m still capable of much better scores. This is my cue to insert the immortal words of darkshark, but I’m far too lazy to find the post in order to quote him word for word. I believe it was something along the lines of ‘the moment you start thinking you’re good at this game is the moment you stop getting better’. There’s always room for improvement when you’re playing a game like this. That’s why it’s so addicting for some people; it has almost infinite replay value. You can’t ‘beat’ FFR. (skype_sun.gif)

About how much do you practice/play ffr/sm a week?

Lol nowadays? I’m almost down to playing FFR just once a week when new songs are released. I’ll try to AAA all of them and maybe play for an hour max afterwards but that’s it. SM I’ll maybe play two or three times a week, about an hour max each session as well.

During my first two years of playing, I probably played FFR at least six hours a week, sometimes more. But lol, I can say with absolute certainty that I haven’t played as much as my grand total indicates. My friends used to play on my account all the time (and still do from time to time), I don’t even think 70% of that total belongs to just me hahaha.

Who would you say your rival is?

There’s a good handful of people that are pretty close to me in skill. I’m inclined to say subin, but God knows where the hell he is nowadays (and I was kinda half-assing that entire rivalry, oops [lmao love you Subey~])

Yeah, I think I mostly play for myself. Trying to fill up my AAA bar as much as I possibly can for myself is more fun/rewarding (and far less frustrating) than if it the main motivation behind that was just to try and outdo someone else's scores haha.

With the official ffr tournament coming up, where do you see yourself placing?

Relatively high now that I’m almost completely nerve-free and have access to an engine that runs much smoother. Realistically hoping for at least top 8, although I might be able to sup a few of the more elite players if things go well. We’ll see.

Can you give any advice to those who are trying to improve?

Isolate the weaknesses in your skillset and practice playing more files where that weakness is exploited. That’s as simple as I can put it. Do that and you’re sure to improve.

If you could change, or add something to ffr what would you change/add?

I miss the 06/07/08 regs. If some of those dudes became active again today, I’d be so content. That’s all ;_; (ending on a sad note )

[Jerry DB]

Rob has the most in common with me so far, this is pretty interesting to see

[Zyphoror]

I'm currently on vacation in California, so I'll write my answers when I get back home. Sorry!

[m0de]

OP has been updated with new interviews. i'll be editing it a bit to my likings so be patient. i really hope everyone enjoys this thread! really cant express how happy i am with the responses that i have received from those interviewed. great answers to all who have taken the time to participate. thank you guys so much :]

[icontrolyourworld]

for those who dont know you, could you introduce yourself, and let everyone know a little bit about you. where you are from, participate in any sports, let us know!
I'm Nick! And I guess I like to ride my bike sometimes xD


what does a normal day for you consist of?
Waking up and getting on the computer to play video games, watch youtube vids, and make simfiles. I need a job.


could you let everyone know what settings you use when you play as far as speed, keys, engine, and any other settings.
On stepmania I use C735, on FFR i use 2.0x. As long as my keysetup is close together aka asdf I'll use that and I switch around every couple of months. I use 3.95 for SM, and I use velocity for FFR. I use default noteskin on StepMania, and I use Stepmania noteskin on FFR. I wish ffr had the default noteskin from sm 3.95


besides gaming in general, what are your hobbies/intrests?
I used to build up a pretty big rubber band ball about 6 years ago, I got another bag of rubber bands last week and I already added them to the ball. Generally if I ever get rubber bands I like to build my ball bigger. I also like watching anime/tv a lot. And I collect hentai pics :3


how long have you been playing rhythem games, and who got you started?
About 4 and a half years now. Well my friend Mark got me to play Dance Dance Revolution first, so him. We're still best friends xD


when do you feel you have reached "expert" so to say level of stepmania/ffr?
When I stopped taking it as seriously as I used too, so about a year or 2 ago. I also don't improve very much as a result.


about how much do you practice/play ffr/sm a week?
For a solid session I'd say once a week (maybe less), but recently I've just been playing other games. I used to play every day though. I do play in MP a lot though, I won't get better by playing in there because i get random goods all the time, but it is a lot of fun just playing with other people and chatting. I miss smo


who would you say your rival is?
Elite Ninja is probably the closest to me in skill on FFR, and I guess MetzgerSM would be my rival in SM if we both still played xD


with the official ffr tournament coming up, where do you see your self placing?
14th-30th in D6 (out of like 40 to 50 people I'm guessing, kind of like last year)
D6 is totally unfair, there's no way I have any chance of coming in 1st. Oh well I'm really just playing for the fun of it anyways


can you give any advice to those who are trying to improve?
Relax, tap your keys lightly. Get good at 1 hand thrilling with both hands, and get good at wristjacks. Overall have fun when you play and play often!


if you could change, or add something to ffr what would you change/add?
I'd like to see more variance in FFR charts in general. Most upper level songs are upper level simply because it has some weird burst or some weird set of jacks in it. I'd like FFR to have files that are consistently 1 difficulty and not just spiked. I'd also like to see more Stamina draining files in FFR

And as for easier charts in FFR. There needs to be way better song selection, and the charts need to be more basic. As in don't use 32nds, 48ths, and 64ths for 90% of the chart. Always use 4th/8th/16ths to get new players familiar with how to time their keytaps.

If you want mine xD

[bmah]

m0de, be aware that posts seem to have a word limit. Not a specified number of words per se, but a data amount that will cause a database error if exceeded. When that happens, talk to me and I'll see what can be done about it.

[m0de]

Originally Posted by bmah

m0de, be aware that posts seem to have a word limit. Not a specified number of words per se, but a data amount that will cause a database error if exceeded.

thanks for the heads up.. should have reserved a post following the OP :/ i guess if it comes to it i can update the OP with a link to a new post in this thread even if its on a different page. i'll figure it out.

[bmah]

Well I -could- replace TC_Halogen's post with yours so you can have a second one, but only if he doesn't mind. Anyways, shouldn't be a big deal for quite some time.

[m0de]

well we will cross that bridge when we come to it. as of right now, i think it will be fine.

edit: ICY's interview will be added to the OP soon. also i have included 2 new questions into his interview that i think some might find pretty interesting :]

[igotrhythm]

I was thinking perhaps link the individual replies in the OP, in regards to the post size limit. Should stave off the problem for a while longer.

[m0de]

more then half of the interviews were sent via PM, and some were posted in the thread itself.

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by icontrolyourworld

And as for easier charts in FFR. There needs to be way better song selection, and the charts need to be more basic. As in don't use 32nds, 48ths, and 64ths for 90% of the chart. Always use 4th/8th/16ths to get new players familiar with how to time their keytaps.

Thank you

[m0de]

little side question that goes out to everyone, not just the elite players..

- how do you feel about the recent difficulty change?

- who would you say surprised you the most this year as far as "skill boost" goes?

- what feature would you like to see added/changed, and why? (let the community speak, and im sure it will make FFR better :] )

[DossarLX ODI]

How do you feel about the recent difficulty change?

It had the right idea of changing the scaling, but the 1-99 scaling basically becomes subjective at that point. Consider files like AIM Anthem and Crowdpleaser. It doesn't bother me as much though because what matters more to me is that a file is placed within the 1-20 scale properly. All I care about is which files are considered for the high end of 1-20, such as A Quick Death being the high end of 18 and so on.

I would've preferred the old system names to be used, there isn't anything wrong with using the same difficulty name over a range of more than one difficulty number to make things make more sense and allow the discussions over the past 9 years to be comparable. Some of the old names are still used in the 1-20 system, but I feel that the names are an unnecessary addition that will cause confusion.

I myself will still certainly think of files as FMO, FGO, etc.

Who would you say surprised you the most this year as far as "skill boost" goes

Jerry DB certainly has surprised me with how much he's improved. Of course, you have yo man im awesome and several others who have shown surprising increase in skill this year.

What feature would you like to see added/changed, and why? (let the community speak, and im sure it will make FFR better :] )

- Fix the combo scoring system. Add a 'best raw score' field, or change scoring to something like (1550*Perfects)+(1275*Goods)+(1055*Averages)-(310*Miss)-(20*Boos).
- Fix Otaku Speedvibe [Oni]
- A "save score" feature to eliminate a lot of unrecorded scores. An unrecorded score but having the replay of the run is absolutely aggravating and certainly unfair in the case of an official tournament.
- While not really being a physical feature, frame inspection before releasing files.
- WIDGETS. Why were these removed again?
- Others I can't think off the top of my head.

[EzExZeRo7497]

How do you feel about the recent difficulty change?
I feel that the difficulty change would be a nice idea since 1-13 isn't really precise enough for most people. Though, the 1-99 scale is all about subjectivity at that point. I mean, people might see A Quick Death as 89 for example, but I would see it as 88.

The 1-20 scale however, is a pretty good idea since it's more precise than 1-13, and it isn't as subjective as 1-99. The only thing that bothers me about the 1-20 difficulty scale is the naming. I feel that the names aren't really necessary, and most of us would still be using the old names like For Gurus Only or For Masters Only.

Who would you say surprised you the most this year as far as "skill boost" goes?
Too many to decide. Zyphoror definitely surprised me with his improvement rate (Mid-low D6 to high D6 in 2 months?!?), Jerry DB surprised me with his skill boosting as well (rip 1x screencut fo life!), yo man and a lot of other people actually.

What feature would you like to see added/changed, and why?
- A raw scoring highscore list (I wouldn't mind if this doesn't affect your average rank) Combo scoring is kind of flawed, and most players would be just mashing for an FC to be high on the high scores.
Even a simple missflag can be much worse than a heavily mashed FC, so I feel that raw scoring would be more accurate in terms of showing actual skill.
There's probably a lot more, but that is the main thing I could think of.

[dragonmegaXX]

Recent difficulty change:

I actually thoroughly enjoy the new 1-99 system. I probably like it more than I will a 1-20 scale, just because now I can scroll through ascending difficulties and know exactly what is harder than other songs near it, and set goals for myself easier. I just like the preciseness of it.

Who has skillboosted?
Havent been as in touch with the gaming side of the site for a couple months so I cant really say right now. Yo man kinda pisses me off just because I was matching a lot of his scores during the last official and now hes way beyond my reach xP.
Hopefully Ill be someone people see as a booster soon.

What features would I like added?
-F**king ditch combo scoring already... My record on little god channel is still a mashed fc from like 3 years ago and I cant even see it replaced with a respectable 40~ goods 1 miss run I get... Just stupid.
-I actually like the "Amazing" accuracy thing in R^2. Anyway we can get it in the regular velocity engine? Only thing is make it the same color as perfect so it doesnt distract as much as it does now.

-Increase the number of files released weekly I mean, there is obviously no shortage of files, batches fill up in like 2 days. Why just do 5 files per week?

-I think it would be neat/nice if we released files with priority given to new stepartists. I think it's encouraging for us to see our creation and see the response, so that we can know better for our next files, instead of having to wait 2-3 months for it to come out.
(I say this because my first file is in queue, and I really want to see public response, and havent even started another keyboard chart because I want that response first.)