The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

[justaguy]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

If less skilled players start to become the "best" because the actual best players have quit, it will be a sad day. You'll miss the old days, just like I miss the old days of when Reach, Nima, boneti, fusi0n, hayden, and a few others posted scores on the brag board. Back two or three years ago. I miss those days the most.

i do too really. those days ruled. back when the competition was good and people didn't ****ing cheat as blatantly. nowadays everyone cheats and every single file is awful. i enjoyed competing with people back then. plus the community was generally a lot more entertaining. the only piece really left of the community is vent krew on odi (some of us on vent krew). emccky, fusi0n, myself, tsutter, and some other funny guys always chill.

and vertexdude (rOfLz): everyone thinks you cheat because you never really competed with anyone or showed any remote sign of progression. you just post disgustingly good sm scores and expect people to believe you. you really have to build a reputation before you go doing that, because no one will ****ing care. so if anyone is to blame for everyone calling cheats on you, it's you. even if you make videos now no one is going to give a ****.

[windsurfer-sp]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

Are there new step authors/players who have the potential to revive the community?

[midare]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

i do too really. those days ruled. back when the competition was good and people didn't ****ing cheat as blatantly. nowadays everyone cheats and every single file is awful. i enjoyed competing with people back then. plus the community was generally a lot more entertaining. the only piece really left of the community is vent krew on odi (some of us on vent krew). emccky, fusi0n, myself, tsutter, and some other funny guys always chill.

yeah, i mean, i feel like i missed out on a lot. i only started playing about six months ago, and i can't help but feel like i'm trying to run uphill as (almost) everyone else is tumbling down. :\

but what can we do? (being completely serious, and a little bit sarcastic/defeatist)

haha.

If less skilled players start to become the "best" because the actual best players have quit, it will be a sad day. You'll miss the old days, just like I miss the old days of when Reach, Nima, boneti, fusi0n, hayden, and a few others posted scores on the brag board. Back two or three years ago. I miss those days the most.

i already miss the "good days" of ffr. there's so much drama and cheating and whatever now that there wasn't even like nine months ago. damn.

[blindreper1179]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

yeah, the cheating is ridiculous.

i've only been in the community for about 1.20 years here, and other places, but like you said, back than no one cheated as much, and there wasn't so much bs as there is now.

ps. i like comma's.

[thechild]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

Maybe 3rd style will bring back alot of people. Baha said he's coming back when 3rd style is out.

[midare]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

i'll come back to ffr as well when 3rd style is released. but that's more because of the avmisses than because of anything else. >_<

[windsurfer-sp]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

Cheating, I can live with, its the contionus calling of BS that has infiltrated every single thread. If I were a mod I would state an automatic ban for anyone who calls bs, outside of a single thread where bs calls could be made.

Any thread where Smartdude,Izulude, etc... start BSing is a ruined thread because the ratio of BS calling to prooved cheating is so damn low and is ruining the community IMO.

[Gameo]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

midare. I see your point completely, i believe i'm the danish champion, (as a hell of a young age, lol) and nobody seem to care. I get it, Stepmania IS a pointless game, but its fun, for *beep* sake. Those who don't play it don't get it. Those who try to play it quit because they think its too hard in the beginning.

I WILL KEEP ON PLAYING FOR A LONG TIME.

I'm getting better. And better. And better! I'm not gonna stop until i can get more speed and accuracy. I'm at a high level, seriously, but the pro's are even higher! I'm gonna reach them!



And, as a last surprise, when i look a few posts back and read them.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....ready?
.....
.....
.....
...........i'm going to release a mini-simfile pack i've made intirely by myself soon. Only around 10 simfiles or something, but trust me.....they are different than all others.

Some of them are stepped incredibly funny.

Peace,
- David

[itmorr]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

I think the whole arrow-game-player attitude changed a lot over the last year. It shifted from being a group of people with the same interest to being a giant community to being a selective bragging community.

[Exouds]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

I don't think stepmania is necessarily dying. I wouldn't say it's vastly different to how it was a year or so ago, but yes, there has definitely been some change.

While we do see a decrease of really good players at the moment there's always new blood coming in, even though you don't see them. The problem is in making them stick around (which, as has been mentioned already, lies with the simfiles).

[Telvanni_guard]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

Are there new step authors/players who have the potential to revive the community?

Unsure. But if they haven't made an impact on the community at the moment, there's not much chance.


As a small aside, I haven't been playing all that much SM lately. Mainly because my computer's dead, and not being able to get the money for a new one. Bit sad really.

Although it may be because of the jumpstream in the "harder files" lately. Being index makes jumpstream insanely difficult. I want a few more good fast patterns like RoaTF.

[Rebirth0]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

Third style won't do ****. This is a thread for Stepmania, not FFR.

The community made its first huge change when Zagh and Blurk came around and got really well known. Releasing a ton of simfiles in Fall 2005. They and maybe Exige were the ones that seemed to have started theh layering simfiles ****. That was the trigger for the progression of how simfiles have changed over the years.

Can the community be saved? Yes. Can new, good files be made? Most likely. We all run this community, and we decide how we all are going to be when people make simfiles and post scores.

As for simfiles.. it is going to be increasingly difficult to make good, original files because we've all pretty much gone through all of the good music that there is to step.

[MrRubix]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

This might be a bit long, but you should probably read it.

justaguy: Just because someone comes out of nowhere does *not* mean they cheat, so it is unfair to say it is their fault for not being more active online. It is logic like this that kills off so much of the community, in my opinion (not necessarily attacking you here). The BS calls are a detriment to a larger concept of community cohesion. People create these false logical constructs to gauge so many things, one being skill as a function of how much time is spent making an online reputation. All it means for incomers is that the community has less information on them. I think it's a bit silly. It's like people who call BS because "They don't act happy enough when they get an AAA on camera." Under your logic, really good players who never post should never post at all because it's simply too late because "nobody will give a ****." Do you see the problem with this? They are actually good players, and you're attempting to exclude them!

This community has become full of the wrong type of interactions. People like myself may be viewed as elitist, but in reality, I would argue the community itself revolves around a fair share of elitism when it comes to legitimacy. It is the "elite" who dictate the rules of conduct with Stepmania as well as the "limits," and this is where many things fall apart. The truth is, there are are good players everywhere who don't care about going online. I've personally seen people shoot from island-stepping to 9-footers in a matter of 3 months, or going from Butterfly basic to Vertex Beta in a year, and none of them care to sign up online because it isn't necessary to be good at the game, and there are plenty of people to play with in person that make it worthwhile.

New skill can't enter the community if people are going to act like two-year-olds and mindlessly flame and call BS, especially when they provide proof of skill like myself. Just because you aren't some kid who spends every waking moment playing Stepmania posting scores and chatting online doesn't mean you can't dominate the game. The DDR/Stepmania communities aren't very welcoming anymore, in my opinion.

In my opinion, it is skill and competition that helps keep the fuel going in certain cases. However, if the "elite" and their artificial limits and constructs wish to constantly call BS and drive away incoming skill, then what you ask for is what you're going to get. And this is what you have been getting. A community run by a small pre-existing group of high skill. And what will happen? The high-skilled players will eventually get bored and leave due to the lull of activity. Has this happened? Of course. The community interactions are a huge part of this. As a result, you're left with a hollow cavity where the Stepmania community used to be. Warm communities that facilitate competition have always been long-lasting, and the Stepmania community has gone about it all wrong, in my opinion. You have to look at how communities work and what keeps them going. You must keep old members and allow new ones to enter. The new skill is being barred and the old skill is getting bored.

The ironic thing is, I've actually been around the SM community for longer than most people have as a forum-lurker, not necessarily posting. But this is how I've seen the community change over years. The interactions were much more pleasant back then and people were not so callous.

Anyhow, the community can be saved, sure. However, it's going to take some serious reconstruction with respect to how people treat each other here, and we're going to need to see some new creativity in the simfiles if we're going to experience a rebirth in activity.

[PsYcHoZeRoSk8eR]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

That was a lot of reading. We need more of how it was 3 years ago. That was the best. There's probably more to say, but most of what I was going to say has already been said. My opinion, to save sm, we need more people creating files and distributing them outside of packs. These files can't just be more generic 16th streams, or jumpstreams, or overlayered **** files, or whatever. Spend some time, make sure it's sync'd well, then step it to the music. If the file is going to be one of those generic files, you might want to look for a different song. If we can start making files interesting again and if we can start to produce files again, then, I believe that we will start to improve the community. All this stuff about who is bs and who isn't is always going to be. People need to see if for what it is. Hell, I've been around a while, and there was bs calling way back when. Sure, this is going to turn a few people away, and those that aren't turned away are going to have to live with it, but this doesn't need to change that much. Yes, we could ease up a bit, but isn't it almost like a right of passage? Haven't most of the good people either slowly worked their way to the top in the past few years or had bs called on them at one point? In my opinion, yeah, its a small problem, but if we want to promote the community, I think that we would need to produce more quality files outside of simfile packs.

/bored in class /wallotext

[Lain_Iwakura]

Re: The continuation of Stepmania as a competitive whole.

you guys are the hugest trendwhores

you step sharpnel even if it's not meant to be stepped

you jerk off to the worst songs

and your gfx look like something that would've been cool in 03