Welcome back, and a few questions for discussion

[_Zenith_]

Hello FFR! I have been working hard the last few days to finish up the points grind for Vet status and I achieved that today, so I am feeling awesome right now, but I also wanted to take the time to ask a few questions that you folks might be able to answer!

Why are we struggling to keep people entertained on this site?
Is there really a new site in development for the future of FFR?
And lastly, in general, we need some new friends, am I right?

I want to help FFR thrive once again just like it's prime, but I need some help from the community, and I'd very much like to discuss other things besides the questions I have posted. Feel free to say anything as long as it pertains to the site rules. Thanks!

[Hakulyte]

Originally Posted by _Zenith_

Hello FFR! I have been working hard the last few days to finish up the points grind for Vet status and I achieved that today, so I am feeling awesome right now, but I also wanted to take the time to ask a few questions that you folks might be able to answer!

Why are we struggling to keep people entertained on this site?
Is there really a new site in development for the future of FFR?
And lastly, in general, we need some new friends, am I right?

I want to help FFR thrive once again just like it's prime, but I need some help from the community, and I'd very much like to discuss other things besides the questions I have posted. Feel free to say anything as long as it pertains to the site rules. Thanks!

Why do you think we're struggling to keep people entertained?
Velocity is working on a new theme for FFR.
What do you mean by new friends? Like website partnership?

btw, grats on vet status!

[_Zenith_]

Originally Posted by Hakulyte

Why do you think we're struggling to keep people entertained?
Velocity is working on a new theme for FFR.
What do you mean by new friends? Like website partnership?

btw, grats on vet status!

Well it seems like back a year ago, a lot more people were active, not only for the game but with the community, I just want to see more people and more events to tell you the truth!

New friends exactly like it says, just meeting new people I guess, it kind of relates back to above statement. And thank you!

[Hakulyte]

Oh, expect a lot more activity when the 10th Official Tournament happens. People are probably just enjoying the summer or doing other things. FFR has a lot of ups and downs, but that's still nothing out of the ordinary. As for friends, it's pretty much just browsing around, saying hello or making a thread like this to see who's active. I think the site is doing alright for it's age.

[_Zenith_]

That's true, like any other online game, they always have the seasonal times when things go outstanding and other times when it's bleh.
Also this thread isn't only for answering my questions, but for just discussion about anything else, just a place for people to add their opinions or bring up an excellent point!

[MarioNintendo]

Sadly, a lot of the best FFR players... don't even play FFR anymore. Or Stepmania, for that matter! When people dedicate such a huge part of their life to just one hobby (in this case, a rhythm game), it's normal they move on for a while.

I'm not the best player at all out there, but I felt this way for the last year. After having been playing more FFR and Stepmania than anything else for the last 7+ years, when I eventually switched computers, I didn't even install Stepmania, out of interest. Strangely enough, fast-forward to today, I met a girl IRL who used to play Stepmania when she was young. So we played some MP for old times sake, and I remembered how much I loved this game. In the end, I've been waisting the last two days redownloading Stepmania 3.9, customizing it, finding my old songs back, and adding backgrounds to them. Nostalgia blast. I expect something similar could happen to the site if we all leave it at the same time for a long enough period; Eventually, this home is going to die (and we're probably going to lose everything we posted, made, etc., on it), but the love for the game is in all of us, and it cannot die. It'll always rush back in the least expected occasions. I predict we'll all abuse the internet archive at some point to come back to this very day, when the site was alive and well, despite the fact a lot of people left it.

tl;dr FFR might die, but the game will survive one way or another. Just not the way we might think it will!

[_Zenith_]

Wow, there's a lot of truth in those statements, and I've been a part of FFR for roughly 5 years now, and when I was younger playing this, it was awesome. Getting my friends together to play a game that we all enjoyed and competition isn't heated like it would be if you invited your friends to play some FPS on console I've always wanted to rebuild and be a bigger part of FFR's future but I've never had the chance. This game is very fun, in fact, I'm currently playing on this iBook G4 which is absolutely horrendous, but I still find the game fun and amusing, because it has the visual power to show you that you, as a person, are improving.

[rushyrulz]

DDR was a popular fad which interested a lot of people. This fad has since died down. Since this site is a DDR simulator game, we are targeting the DDR audience, which has greatly dwindled since FFR's hayday. If we were to attempt to get more users to join and stay, we would need to restructure the game to be something more initially addictive. Possibly a story mode or something might work that gets the ball rolling with the new players so that they don't play death piano right off the bat and think the game is impossible and leave forever.

[_Zenith_]

Ooh, there's a lot of content in your post that I like, starting with the Story Mode. I think that if the game were to develop a story mode, it would bring in more players and also increase the confidence of those who might think the game is impossible as you stated.

I could picture this game having a kind-of Rock Band story mode implemented, where you play songs for credits, playlists that are created by the community to increase credit gain just as if on Rock Band where you get more stars and money from playlists.

EDIT: Also, going more on this idea, it would help fit players looking for competitive play by taking their scores and calculating what division they should be for tournaments.

Good Ideas! Keep them coming! 8)

[Killrodx]

Hello Zenith,

first off congrats on obtaining that ever elusive Veteran title. I am an oldie myself and I just started poking around the site after being inactive for a long, long time. I'm glad the site is still around as I remember hearing about it back in high school when Tech TV was entertaining.

Moving along, I am sure some older faces will pop in from time to time, real life interests tend to get in the way

Also, interesting ideas you folks are posting.

[_Zenith_]

Thank you! And Welcome back yourself!

I know that people aren't going to pass up an opportunity in their lives to sit on a website, which I would encourage that you go out and live life before it's too late! But I consider this a hobby of mine, taking breaks, coming back stronger than ever, etc. On other games that I play, I love to brag about FFR, how stable the game became after years and how professional some of these players can play.

Shoutout to Samurai on the 1hr 54m challenge, only 2 greats!

[MinaciousGrace]

guys osumania is better than stepmania so that's why nobody comes here anymore

also playing osu makes you better at any game involving your mouse and also any activity involving your fingers

[MinaciousGrace]

and just in case there are people reading that post who wouldn't necessarily expect abject sarcasm from me, playing osu makes you better at osu and nothing else; it would be seriously remiss of me to aid in permeating any ridiculous notion to the contrary

also on a slightly less unrelated note im pretty sure i qualify for vet status

[_Zenith_]

Indeed~ Yet many people from FFR play Osu! as well, it's still nice to see older members come back to a new site

[Narshe_Delvar]

I've never seen the charm of Osu. Many of the charts I've played are either garbage, out of sync or just plain unfun. I don't know how far Osumania has come along since I last played (almost a year ago) but to be honest, I think BMS and other Bemani games are more fun than Osu. Just my personal opinion.

I stopped playing FFR a very long time ago due to computer issues I had with flash on my old computer (even with standalone). I've been playing Stepmania for a very long time since then. I tend to lurk around from time to time but never really became attached to the community for various reasons, esp now a days. I know FFR runs a lot better now, and probably more so on my new computer, but I prefer playing Stepmania because it's more difficult and, because I have strange tastes, the range of music is a lot better.

Also, your name looks familiar. lol

[_Zenith_]

Everyone has their own tastes, but before I got into the SM or Osu game, my home was here, FFR. I have no idea just like you if Osumania is any good since I haven't played in years

Also like you, I'm currently playing on a Mac iBook G4, which has to be one of the oldest models because I can't play a song without some form of a lag issue occuring.

I think FFR would be big as Stepmania if people gave dedication to progressing forward in this digital era, and it also doesn't help it takes months for a song to be potentially put on this game