Describing stepping/mapping styles

[bmah]

I've decided to write a bit about my ideology in stepping/mapping that I think more accurately and wholly portrays the general landscape of styles. I think this explanation is beneficial to more than just steppers/mappers.

The purpose of this explanation is:
1) to help existing and new steppers become aware of their stepping styles and make helpful, deliberate decisions based off of this awareness.
2) to help judges of FFR and public packs to become aware of the range of stepping styles (become aware of where any given file lies within the spectrum), provide more focused guidance based on this awareness, and to decrease bias in their judgements.
3) to decrease the stigma of any one stepping style, particularly "technical" stepping.
4) to help the general public appreciate the scope of the artistic visions of the stepping community with greater clarity.

I think stepping/mapping a song falls within a range of two extremes: on one end, you have stepping with a focus on the number of sounds present. This is often referred to as "technical stepping" resulting in "tech files" but it's a term I'm trying to stay away from because it is now sadly stigmatized. Recently, a newer terminology has arisen without that stigmatism and so I'll refer to this as "additive-oriented."
The other end is a focus on the nature of the sounds, which I'll just say is "aurally-oriented." Notice how people have already made a term for one extreme ("technical") but not the other. I wouldn't be surprised if this was due to their preferential bias, or what the community at large prefers over the other.

"Additive-oriented" stepping: stepping based on the # of sounds present at any given moment. Because FFR is a rhythm game with only four inputs, creativity is required to best represent a song with the limited number of columns. Additive-oriented stepping is very discrete with little ambiguity. Following it too closely creates a greater likelihood of playability issues through awkward patterning and overlayering.

"Aurally-oriented" stepping: stepping based on the nature of sounds, most commonly the loudness of sounds, which translates to "prominence of an element." Creativity obviously comes with the very subjective interpretation of what sounds are considered worthy of being acknowledged (layering choices) and how they are acknowledged (e.g. jump vs. hand vs. quad). Aurally-oriented stepping is subjective and can range from non-ambiguous to very ambiguous. Following it too closely creates nebulous gameplay that becomes harder to follow or musically appreciate, and can result in underlayering. Homogeneiety in steps increase and distinction decreases.

Most people fall between these two extremes, though of course there is a propensity towards falling more towards aurally-oriented stepping in the name of dumps, especially midare-type dumps. The reason I illustrate stepping styles as a range between two end-members is because I think it better illustrates the vast range of stepping styles without stigmatizing people into black and white thinking of only two stepping styles. The goal is to reduce labelling, such as "you're a technical stepper" or "you're an artsy fartsy stepper."

Ideally, people would want a healthy proportion of both types of stepping, hence being neither too close to either extremes. But this is rarely the case and naturally the stepcharts will wander towards one endmember.

What judges should avoid is to view files from their favored perspective and instead become more aware of stepping styles falling between these two endmembers. An example of a misinterpretation is when an aurally-preferred judge criticizes an additive-oriented file for having layering that "isn't justified" by how the music sounds. Stepping densely in a quieter song is frequently frowned upon for example, but disdain should be reserved. What if the stepper wants to avoid the same song and dance of low-nps quiet sections in favor of a more novel approach that is not frequently done? In this day and age where tens of thousands of charts have been created to date, seasoned steppers especially want to find new approaches and not be constrained by this overarching bias. To be clear, the current bias is heavily trending towards aurally-oriented stepping, both for regular charts and of course dump charts by nature. To quote April, whom I've heavily discussed this topic with:

I think informing judges and stepartists about these two styles is a particularly good idea, though i do want to give some clemency to some judges who started much later than you did that "aurally-oriented stepping" is something that they've taught is the only correct (or at least most logical) way of stepping. the reason for that is simple -- it's just that prominent across all 4K rhythm games except FFR.

The meta that "aurally-oriented stepping" is the only correct/logical way of stepping is incorrect and MUST be amended.

To judges:
I'm not saying judges should avoid criticisms of either endmember styles of stepping. Rather, a greater awareness of these two endmembers should help guide them to understand the minds of the stepper as well as provide better guidance. It's hard to provide guidance when judges themselves are in the dark about understanding where their own ideologies stand in the world of stepping/mapping.

To steppers:
With this awareness, you can better appreciate the stepping styles of other steppers, as well as perhaps better mould your stepping style with more deliberate decisions.

To the general public:
I hope you can appreciate the diversity of stepcharts across FFR, Stepmania, Etterna, and osu. The activity of stepping/mapping has shifted from being a backend element of rhythm games to one where the community is now heavily involved. It provides an additional avenue of fun and creativity.

Thank you.