yo people Keybeat Online is still up

[kommisar]

Originally Posted by stargroup100

Well, I guess it's inevitable that I'd be replying to this.

First of all, in concept KBO is extremely promising, and still is, but there are currently some major issues that I am unable to resolve right now, such as spambots being so aggressive that I had to turn off registration. I have been and am still trying to do what I can to work on it, but it starting to look like a dead end, and it's probably completely out of my control at this point. I've made some major progress and done a lot of work, including a scoring/life system that has been balanced across all difficulties (which no one in the rhythm game industry has done yet), developed an algorithmic approach to calculating the difficulty of a chart quite accurately, planned out concepts for new forms of gameplay that no one has done yet (including 3 different multiplayer modes), and created a structure for the site that handles in-game currency and social media (with bLast). I've also done a lot of independent research and work on rhythm gaming charting in general, and the bulk of my work can even be read here: http://www.cosmovibe.com/ncguide/ So I'm not just all talk and no results.

Secondly, the tension I had in the past with the KBO community was misplaced, exaggerated, and shouldn't have happened in the first place. Due to a combination of my own inexperience, lack of resolve, and desire to maximize interaction with the community, disagreements resulted from how to approach certain design points of the game. Eventually, most of the community ended up being okay with everything, after a lot of successful compromises. My hotheadedness was a result of my determination, passion, and an unstable mental state.

And that brings me to my last point. The reason why #kbo hates me is actually due to a very particular incident. I won't go into detail about the incident in particular but I will explain why it's related. Basically, like I said before, I wasn't very mentally stable a couple of years ago, and compounded with a lot of other issues I had, such as stress, social problems, and naivete, I ended up making a mistake which deeply upset Xiao and GD, and it began to spill over to some of my other relationships as well, such as that with Kommi. There are many reasons why I took a "long hiatus": bLast had problems of his own so he couldn't continue development at the time, I needed some time to get myself sorted out, and given my relationship with the community I figured it was best I lay low for a while. Since then, I've been taking medications which have stablized myself mentally, I've been doing more productive things in my life, and I've got a lot more life experience. You guys can even look back at posts I've made in the past year or so to see the transition I've made. Clearly, however, GD has not let this go. I'd think that after a couple of years this would've dissolved, but it doesn't seem to be the case. It was an honest mistake which I have apologized earnestly for countless times before, but in retrospect it's not even that big of a deal now. Whether or not he ever gets over this, it has nothing to do with me now. I'm disappointed that someone I respected couldn't handle this maturely after all this time, but I don't hold grudges. I welcome anyone who is open and friendly. The only reason I cared about "administrative power" on #kbo was because I felt it was disrespectful to take the name of a community I had developed, and I didn't want the community to detach from the reason why it formed in the first place, which is exactly what happened. Obviously, I don't care anymore, but I feel like a lot of what has been said about me so far has been very one-sided. I never bothered to respond to it because I never felt it necessary, but since everyone's being open here I might as well too.

There have been a couple of people within this community that I've still been talking to occasionally for all this time, so if you don't take my word you can even go ask them for their opinion. At this point, I'm not too concerned with what direction KBO is headed. I'll keep trying to make it work, but if it doesn't recover, I have plenty of ways where I can apply all the work I've already done to other projects in the future. I'm always going to feel a little bit of regret that I didn't get it to work when and how I wanted it to, but I guess not everything has to work out. It's kinda sad how this one incident tore the entire community, but I'm always gonna be here in some way, shape, or form. As much as we make fun of it, there's no question that StepMania has changed my life, mostly for the better. I don't think this post can be a major factor in repairing that chronic damage, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

This is probably one of the most serious things I've ever written this year LOL

good.


if the community comes back, you aught to listen to it this time around.

[Fission]

Originally Posted by stargroup100

I'm gonna ask bLast

oh, you mean that dead guy?

[Coolboyrulez0]

whats good bufang

you sound much more confident than a few months ago; props to you

[stargroup100]

Originally Posted by kommisar

good.


if the community comes back, you aught to listen to it this time around.

There's a difference between listening to community feedback and blindly listening to the community. Yes, I do value the community, and I take anything you guys say to heart. It's always been that way and hasn't changed. I didn't make KBO for my own health. However, one of the reasons why I even started this project in the first place was because I didn't like the lack of rigorous design and integrity in FFR, and if I listen to the community when it conflicts with something important like that, then we're back where we started and not much different from FFR. Obviously, I try to come up with solutions that make everyone happy if possible, but when that isn't the case, I have more confidence in my own judgment than that of the masses. Of course, if someone actually makes a valid point or mentions something of importance that I overlooked, that's another matter entirely.

Part of the reason why there was such a huge tear in the community about this back in the day was because of you actually. When the community asked for a feature I disagreed with, and I gave my reasoning, all you did was rally people to spearhead a protest against me, rather than considering the rationale behind my design principles. Even Arch0wl, who usually disagreed with most of my ideas, at least understood why I reach the conclusions I did and attempted to come up with compromises.

Originally Posted by Fission

oh, you mean that dead guy?

I hope he doesn't care about me posting this bit from our Gchat.

Pedro Pedrosa
i'm leaving my current job
probably at november 4th
or something like that

Which was yesterday. We're hopefully gonna have a chat tonight and get things rolling again.

[Fission]

coolio, looking forward to it

[kommisar]

Originally Posted by stargroup100

There's a difference between listening to community feedback and blindly listening to the community. Yes, I do value the community, and I take anything you guys say to heart. It's always been that way and hasn't changed. I didn't make KBO for my own health. However, one of the reasons why I even started this project in the first place was because I didn't like the lack of rigorous design and integrity in FFR, and if I listen to the community when it conflicts with something important like that, then we're back where we started and not much different from FFR. Obviously, I try to come up with solutions that make everyone happy if possible, but when that isn't the case, I have more confidence in my own judgment than that of the masses. Of course, if someone actually makes a valid point or mentions something of importance that I overlooked, that's another matter entirely.

Part of the reason why there was such a huge tear in the community about this back in the day was because of you actually. When the community asked for a feature I disagreed with, and I gave my reasoning, all you did was rally people to spearhead a protest against me, rather than considering the rationale behind my design principles. Even Arch0wl, who usually disagreed with most of my ideas, at least understood why I reach the conclusions I did and attempted to come up with compromises.

Although we gave you a million reasons why it was a bad idea. It wasn't just one idea though, it was a combination of things that drove most of the community to leave back to FFR.

don't blame all this on me lol

it's ultimately your game and everyone understood that, but any suggestions that the majority of people made would get "considered" and never really implemented. The main thing that got your staff all riled up was adding mines which nobody agreed with but again, it's totally your game but it was your own design team you were arguing with, not me. You also had a massive ego back then and though you would say you were open to suggestions, I quoted you saying "I'm the game designer what I say goes" and that's an unfortunate stance to have on a game. If you're not catering to your main crowd, people will evidently get upset.

counter-strike global offensive consults all kinds of professional gamers that play the game for changes, which they actually do. I don't see how that would be detrimental to KBO. I'm hopeful your game gets completed with a nice interface because it definitely has tons of potential, but you got to learn to accept criticism instead of lashing out at people who disagree with you.

[stargroup100]

Originally Posted by kommisar

Although we gave you a million reasons why it was a bad idea. It wasn't just one idea though, it was a combination of things that drove most of the community to leave back to FFR.

don't blame all this on me lol

it's ultimately your game and everyone understood that, but any suggestions that the majority of people made would get "considered" and never really implemented. The main thing that got your staff all riled up was adding mines which nobody agreed with but again, it's totally your game but it was your own design team you were arguing with, not me. You also had a massive ego back then and though you would say you were open to suggestions, I quoted you saying "I'm the game designer what I say goes" and that's an unfortunate stance to have on a game. If you're not catering to your main crowd, people will evidently get upset.

counter-strike global offensive consults all kinds of professional gamers that play the game for changes, which they actually do. I don't see how that would be detrimental to KBO. I'm hopeful your game gets completed with a nice interface because it definitely has tons of potential, but you got to learn to accept criticism instead of lashing out at people who disagree with you.

I never blamed everything on you, but I wouldn't be honest if I said you had nothing to do with it. As for things being "considered", not only is implementation not in the scope of what I do, we have never implemented anything that goes against a suggestion we said we would consider. The mine situation was also resolved with a compromise but clearly you didn't follow up.

Yes, I did say something along those lines back in the day, and while the attitude was not quite right, I do have a final say, and it's not because I'm simply doing what I want, but because I know what the community wants and needs. The issue is when those two conflict. But you cannot name a single example where I have disregarded community input without rationale or just because I could. And since when did any large project not have one or even a few people have final say?

I've explained in pretty good detail already that I didn't handle things well before, and I'm certainly open to criticism. The difference is that what you're referring to is not my response to criticism regarding the game, but how I conducted myself, which does matter as well, but misses the point that ultimately I still listen to the community and do what I confidently believe is best for the game.

[kommisar]

I think it was a bit of both your views on the game and how you ran things, but this would be a good time to prove me wrong.

Originally Posted by stargroup100

Part of the reason why there was such a huge tear in the community about this back in the day was because of you actually.

sounds like you're putting most of the pressure on me. I simply expressed my displeasure at your way of running things and if people followed suit it's because they felt the same way as well.

but again, good luck, and hopefully things turn out better this time around.

[Kraezymann]

I remember this site. I wish we could continue that tournament that choof started, where 3 people chart the same song.

I have the last post in that thread, its spooky =/

[Fission]

Originally Posted by Fission

coolio, looking forward to it

so much for that, as usual

Originally Posted by Kraezymann

3 people chart the same song

this was done recently on FFR (stepwars). i'd like to see another one as well though.

[NocturneAunamic]

Just played a couple songs on the site, I remember how much fun this place was. Might visit more frequently now