What happened to Etienne?

[Zyxel]

I'm just getting back into RGs recently but I realized that Etienne has been inactive on his YT. I looked in the community tab on his yt page and he speaks about what sounds like burnout and just losing passion for RGs and isn't as involved with them anymore. Is there anything specific or do we know if he'll come back anytime soon? (also i wish the best for him + he makes banger yt vids)

[Tru]

Retired from rhythm game content and started a new channel on sports stuff

https://www.youtube.com/c/RunLiftProductions

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by Tru

Retired from rhythm game content and started a new channel on sports stuff

https://www.youtube.com/c/RunLiftProductions

Oh wow, I didn't know about this! That's really cool, actually!

[ToonE156]

etienne actually inspired me to sign up for track this year.

[salAndy]

He quit rhythm games

[klimtkiller]

He was upset that the top players are more than .15x rates above his peak so went into hiding never to be seen again. Basically staiain v2

[MKIIPro]

klimt post lets go pogpogpog

[Lagrange Multiplier]

Originally Posted by klimtkiller

He was upset that the top players are more than .15x rates above his peak so went into hiding never to be seen again. Basically staiain v2

‎ ‎

[gold stinger]

Originally Posted by klimtkiller

He was upset that the top players are more than .15x rates above his peak so went into hiding never to be seen again. Basically staiain v2

[Lagrange Multiplier]

In my opinion though, he along with many other prior top players have become disillusioned towards the game because of the current state of the meta, where purely pushing speed and forcing scores has become the standard rather than consistency and accurate play (which also is reflected by the majority of new files and packs being released).

I don't blame him, and in a way klimt is correct, albeit with divisive wording, but at a point it becomes incredibly difficult to keep up with the progression of speed, and from a mental perspective, getting absolutely no recognition for your accomplishments because the average player doesn't appreciate their intricacies and is more focused on "haha when epsilon daniel clear??? x player did it faster already hahahaha" is a difficult mental block to overcome.

I doubt he has fully quit rhythm games because we don't quit, we just take breaks, but I am not at all surprised that he would find it unenjoyable now. Also consider the fact that nearly all the top players from his peak era have now also quit, it likely feels very alienating to continue to play.

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by Lagrange Multiplier

In my opinion though, he along with many other prior top players have become disillusioned towards the game because of the current state of the meta, where purely pushing speed and forcing scores has become the standard rather than consistency and accurate play (which also is reflected by the majority of new files and packs being released).

I don't blame him, and in a way klimt is correct, but at a point it becomes incredibly difficult to keep up with the progression of speed, and from a mental perspective, getting absolutely no recognition for your accomplishments because the average player doesn't appreciate their intricacies and is more focused on "haha when epsilon daniel clear??? x player did it faster already hahahaha" is a difficult mental block to overcome.

I doubt he has fully quit rhythm games because we don't quit, we just take breaks, but I am not at all surprised that he would find it unenjoyable now. Also consider the fact that nearly all the top players from his peak era have now also quit, it likely feels very alienating to continue to play.

Reasonable posts? In this economy?
I'm sorry I came here for shit-slinging and bad takes only

[mi40]

game unenjoyable -> no play
game enjoyable -> play

[kommisar]

Originally Posted by Lagrange Multiplier

In my opinion though, he along with many other prior top players have become disillusioned towards the game because of the current state of the meta, where purely pushing speed and forcing scores has become the standard rather than consistency and accurate play (which also is reflected by the majority of new files and packs being released).

I don't blame him, and in a way klimt is correct, albeit with divisive wording, but at a point it becomes incredibly difficult to keep up with the progression of speed, and from a mental perspective, getting absolutely no recognition for your accomplishments because the average player doesn't appreciate their intricacies and is more focused on "haha when epsilon daniel clear??? x player did it faster already hahahaha" is a difficult mental block to overcome.

I doubt he has fully quit rhythm games because we don't quit, we just take breaks, but I am not at all surprised that he would find it unenjoyable now. Also consider the fact that nearly all the top players from his peak era have now also quit, it likely feels very alienating to continue to play.

bruh this is literally the entire post-itg community

except it was divided in two, tech and stamina. Accuracy still has its place in Stepmania too

[Wiosna]

Originally Posted by Lagrange Multiplier

In my opinion though, he along with many other prior top players have become disillusioned towards the game because of the current state of the meta, where purely pushing speed and forcing scores has become the standard rather than consistency and accurate play (which also is reflected by the majority of new files and packs being released).

Not sure who you are, but this is definitely correct and has been an ongoing trend since probably NB3 (early 2011), but probably reached a breaking point with CCC or even earlier. I think it'd be an interesting analysis to go through which factors over the past decade have contributed to this gradual shift from all-roundedness to focusing on very specific skills both in chart content and gameplay orientation.

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by kommisar

bruh this is literally the entire post-itg community

except it was divided in two, tech and stamina. Accuracy still has its place in Stepmania too

I think over time people have noticed how bad polarization got in the American dance game community.

Fungah and Little Matt were top players that were quite arrogant, Little Matt was a lot worse though (IMO) -- both got banned from tournaments after the sexual assault situations. Syn also was a recent example, MFC'd a 16 on DDR and then fell into a similar boat.

Back when happyf333tz showcased Pump It Up on Summer Games Done Quick, he had over 70k viewers live at the time. Afterwards, a bunch of people dogpiled on him saying nasty things to get attention to their channels. It was disgusting and convinced him to stop publicly posting about dance games, but I know for a fact he still likes to push himself and play the game itself. He's sent me pictures of D24 SSS's for example, that he hasn't posted elsewhere.

It's this obsession of "haha number go up" that really destroyed the community. All people cared about was taking viewers from others and then "hey I did a stream 10 BPM faster" and turning it into a pissing contest over time. And then stamina players complain about why their videos only have like, a few hundred views when all they do is shuffle their feet.

And yes, this is coming from someone who also did stamina training for a bit, and also mixed pushing myself on other types of charts.

Here are some examples:
Old Skool Luv (Challenge) [94.72%] - Crossover Stamina 14, 140 BPM
Max 300 (Challenge) [93.32%] - Crossover Stamina 14, 150 BPM
OUTER LIMITS (Hard) [83.82%] - Crossover Stamina 15, 171 BPM
KlungKung 2004 (Challenge) [76.50%] - KlungKung 2004 (Challenge) [76.50%], 175 BPM
For FFR (Challenge) [72.16%] - Crossover Stamina 16, 180 BPM

This isn't including other normal pattern charts I've passed (e.g. Still Grey SX 16 from Pendulum).

As of recently, tech files have gotten some more visibility, but it's still very closed off. Basically, anything above a tech 14 is "unfun".

So let me ask you this:
- every ITG player seems to be fine with playing anything above a 14 with normal patterns
- but once it's a tech file, all of a sudden it becomes "unfun" -- why?

I literally just showed several examples of me playing non-standard patterns, and I also played other types of charts to push myself, but then you got the American dance game community whining like a bunch of toddlers when they can't do as much stream because of harder patterns.

It's basically the social media nonsense all over again. "I passed 512 measures of this stream! Number go up!" -- and when something goes against that, their entire world crumbles.

It's pathetic. I've seen more players over time just play the game lowkey and not post scores because of the drama and clout chasing. It's better for mental health and iamchris4life has opened up to how hard DDR has been on his mental health too.

[3lijah]

Originally Posted by Lagrange Multiplier

In my opinion though, he along with many other prior top players have become disillusioned towards the game because of the current state of the meta, where purely pushing speed and forcing scores has become the standard rather than consistency and accurate play (which also is reflected by the majority of new files and packs being released).

I don't blame him, and in a way klimt is correct, albeit with divisive wording, but at a point it becomes incredibly difficult to keep up with the progression of speed, and from a mental perspective, getting absolutely no recognition for your accomplishments because the average player doesn't appreciate their intricacies and is more focused on "haha when epsilon daniel clear??? x player did it faster already hahahaha" is a difficult mental block to overcome.

I doubt he has fully quit rhythm games because we don't quit, we just take breaks, but I am not at all surprised that he would find it unenjoyable now. Also consider the fact that nearly all the top players from his peak era have now also quit, it likely feels very alienating to continue to play.

ohhhhh, so THATs why nobody gives a fuck about any of my plays unless its some fucked up dan course that's difficult just for the sake of being difficult and not fun at all! I am pretty sure this is Osu's fault lmfao

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by 3lijah

ohhhhh, so THATs why nobody gives a fuck about any of my plays unless its some fucked up dan course that's difficult just for the sake of being difficult and not fun at all! I am pretty sure this is Osu's fault lmfao

Wise word of advice: Don't play these games for views. One of the worst decisions someone can make.

[ToonE156]

Originally Posted by 3lijah

ohhhhh, so THATs why nobody gives a fuck about any of my plays unless its some fucked up dan course that's difficult just for the sake of being difficult and not fun at all! I am pretty sure this is Osu's fault lmfao

focus on those that already support and encourage you, dont trip over those who dont.

[ToonE156]

and yes I did indeed steal that life advice from someone else

[EtienneSM]

I initially wasn't going to respond to this thread, but after coming across it again, I figured why not? After all, this was practically the birth of my rhythm gaming career, so the least I can do is to provide an explanation lmao.

Lagrange Multiplier pretty much hit the nail on the head in terms of why I quit 4k specifically. As more and more players quit and the more and more the meta shifted towards a specific type of play, it became beyond frustrating to continue playing, streaming; the whole 9 yards really. Competition was a big driving force, and when you take that away after 15+ years of playing, you slowly run out of ways to stay engaged with the game at that level. It would be cool to return to top-level play someday to accomplish some lingering goals I never obtained, but finding time/energy is very difficult and these scores will likely never be published publicly (aside from Etterna's site maybe).

As for the general rhythm game community itself, I think to this day it's hard to articulate my emotions properly as to why I grew so vehemently apart from it. Whether it's how certain communities treated me, feeling socially isolated (via personality/lifestyle differences), running out of good content to make; it's a culmination of things that caught up with me pretty harshly as I got more and more into my 20's, and a mini-identity crisis eventually solidified my transition to making other content. I absolutely love what I do now, and it feels good to do something a lot closer to my true self instead of an actively waning hobby whose community I've grown terminally out of touch with lmfao.

That's more or less about it tbh. Hope y'all have been doing well.