[ScylaX]

Originally Posted by Trumpet63

I think you're asking, why don't people play using the meta-game's style. The short answer is, it's fun.

Another way of thinking of it, if a player is unsuccessful using the meta, i.e. spread, they might find themselves more at home using a different style or a different set of rules. In that case, they reduce the number of people that they are competing with, the implicit seriousness of what they're doing is reduced, and they are still being challenged by what they're doing. All signs point to a more enjoyable experience.

You can't really criticize the way a person plays a game.

Index is an alternative way to play, just as pettanko was, just as any restrictive rule you can apply to yourself to explore new aspects of the game
But that's about it. It's a restriction. And it asks more experiences to be skilled in index than what it takes to be skilled in spread.
That's why I was really surprised to see how popular it was and how seriously some people seemed to take it back in the days and stuff. It's actually quite fascinating how the "keyboard community" evolved from the traditional DDR. Dark times.........a very conflictual era........it was war back then..........

Originally Posted by MrPopadopalis25

I don't think it ever occurred to me to try spread when I was starting out. I began playing FFR and SM because I was on a DDR craze and was waiting to buy a pad, and one-hand was what came natural due to other computer games having you put one hand on the arrow keys. Then the switch to index was to replicate pad play since most of the files I played were pad files anyhow. I guess I stuck with index moving forward into KB files because I was accustomed to the style already and the files I liked (streamy stuff like CIA Rave, Rose, Gradeus, For FFR, etc) were more fun when played that way.

Yeah usually one-hand is the second style I see people naturally adopting, but index? I have yet to witness that miracle

Originally Posted by noname219

The game didn't allow to assign keys until much later, around 2008 if I remember correctly. And a lot of people moved to spread around that time.
Before that, people used programs like Autohotkey to simulate spread play. Spread may seem more natural now, but it wasn't possible back in the very early days. There's tons of threads in 2003-2004 about the best finger position and playing style, you can find some answers there.

Actually I still don't know if it's a good/decisive argument, as I personnally started playing spread with my arrow keys too, just like playing one-handed may come naturally. It's not obvious how it makes playing with both your indexes more practical or how it was a decisive reason to foster index style, you clearly restrict yourself from laying the fingers that you keep over your keyboard on your arrow keys.