BRACKET 2 - DISCUSSION

[Juub005]

Uh, the lyrics? which are basically like "it's your birthday but who cares, you're gonna eventually die anyway and so are we"

edit: okay, that's not the complete story, but that was the impression I got from what I heard before I looked the lyrics up. Kind of has that tone to it though.

[Jezendar]

A couple of replies to comments about Konamized thus far:

@jammitch! - Amusingly enough, I actually have been doing this (on and off) for about three years now; since OSC 4. However, I discovered this particular competition only four days before the due date. As such, I'm not surprised that my rushed entry isn't doing well. At any rate, after watching your friend's performance on the Standard chart, I would have to agree with your repeated statement that you should have turned the volume up. I use Stealth Mode as part of my syncing process, to ensure that the simfile properly matches the music. As such, the sync simply wouldn't be off by nearly as much as her score would seem to indicate.

@JukuGuy - The simfile does in fact have a readme. And I'm pleased that you understood, and liked, what I did with the text, despite not reading the readme. Admittedly, the song title is the only part of the graphics I put any real effort into.

[jammitch!]

@ Jezendar: I didn't know who made any of the files, sans CDtitles. "Rushed" would also explain the way the simfile felt, in which case my suggestion is "learn about the contest earlier next time through ESP or something "

@ Akira: Click the other half of the link. :p

@ Everyone else: I had to pull video 5 because some "advanced" (*cough ITG *cough*) players decided that my suggestions to remove the thirty-seconds and freezes meant that it's okay to insult me and my fiancee. Because, obviously, the only reason I didn't like the freezes and step-jumps is because I can't do them, and thus I'm a litany of dirty words. (And because Osprey plays Standard, she's fair game too... never mind that she's reviewing a difficulty consummate with her skill level.) What I was going for, and apparently missed the mark on, was a suggestion that the song would be more fun without them, and as a 9 rather than a 10, because it would balance the difficulty. If I just thought the chart was too hard for me (it wasn't) I would have tried it on keyboard instead. I understand there's a market for this kind of chart, but I see this competition as an attempt to produce a balanced, accessible, complete simfile, and this chart felt like the kind of thing that I would love to see moved to challenge. If this competition were about making a single Expert chart without presentation, catering to the top end, then it would be a different story.

As for the freezes, I think they should mostly be used when they actually have an impact on how the steps will be actually played, and if they don't, they usually just clutter up the chart - hence my hatred for short freezes. On a DDR noteskin, it also removes the timing colors, and between that and the increased density it can make things harder to read, but it's a fake kind of difficulty. I'm okay disagreeing with people who consider this valid "step rhetoric" (new phrase to me there, but it came up more than once), but demanding I change noteskins misses the mark entirely. Oh, and the personal insults again.

Note that the actual author of the simfile politely disagreed, so I'm not blaming him in any way.

Anyway, I'll be putting up an explanatory video when I get home on Saturday. But I have to ask: do you guys like the video reviews? Because I'm doing it for you, not these douchebags, and I can put up with this crap if you guys find it informative or entertaining.

If you want to see part 5, PM me your YouTube name and I'll friend you.

[Super_Ray]

@jammitch!-
I really enjoy watching your video reviews and I'm sure everyone else does, too. I hope you'll do some for the community pack, as well.
I'll pm you with my youtube name incase you decide to make the video reviews private.

[The Period]

Birthday is a really unfortunate song because it's such a downer, geez.

What's a downer? I don't understand

I guess is a music that makes you down, the opposite of a energetic song.
I agree with his comment, altought its well stepped but I disliked some parts that makes it harder.

[Hainaut]

I'm late to the release of this, but I just downloaded the pack and I will play and maybe review it if I can.

Might also send something for the community pack too, since reservations are still open.

[Dark Luke]

If this competition were about making a single Expert chart without presentation, catering to the top end, then it would be a different story.

One such competition is r21freak.com's Pad File Competitions, which is single expert only (other charts not judged), no graphics/videos allowed (they don't want presentation to detract stepchart marking), and requires step difficulty to be in the range of 9-13.

[BLueSS]

One such competition is r21freak.com's Pad File Competitions, which is single expert only (other charts not judged), no graphics/videos allowed (they don't want presentation to detract stepchart marking), and requires step difficulty to be in the range of 9-13.

...and as many gimmicky mines, handplants, and other add-ons as possible.

[Hainaut]

I'm not sure if I'll post public reviews for this pack since I'll have a very busy day tomorrow, but I will say that after playing it on the keyboard, I think this bracket is much better than the first was. Also, I thought that Gee had the best steps easily, but besides just it, there were still plenty of really top-notch entries here that I'd happily play again.

[NIQ9]

...and as many gimmicky mines, handplants, and other add-ons as possible.

Yeah, that's the stereotype that we get by you and everyone else that probably only played the main 2 site packs and assumed everything else was the same way.

I've played about 3000+ simfiles from r21freak. The files aren't as bad as you think. Though, most of the files are at least 9 feet. w/e

k...

Yes, I made a simfile for ITG.

ITG's freezes are a million times easier to read than DDR freezes. It didn't even occur to me to take them out.

I posted the video on r21freak, yes with less than pure intentions, but I didn't expect anyone to leave comments like THAT.

Instead of making the video private, why not just disable comments?

"advanced" (*cough ITG *cough*) players

D:
You know, a lot of us play DDR too
D:

tl;dr: stereotypes suck :<

[Xythar]

Isn't r21freak that site that was paying out DDRMAX3 because the steps had "too much double stepping" or whatever despite being basically authentic DDR? Those people suck and should be banned from the Internet.

[will-i-am]

Haha, can't forget that.

r21freak doesn't really bother me, but when you guys say that we're the ones throwing stereotypes, I can't help but think you're being at least a little hypocritical.

"Horrible 7-foot trend'' gets to me every time.

Anyway, I hope people at r21freak have given you plenty of constructive criticism on your file, NIQ9, because even for an ITG step chart, it wasn't the best. Saying that the freezes are more easily readable in ITG doesn't justify you using them to that extent. You can use a lot of them, as seen in Oasis and Disconnected -Mobius-, but at least keep them organized and don't extend every other arrow in the chart so that it becomes an unnecessary freeze note. Trust me, I've played ITG charts in the past (I even bought the darn PS2 game), and that wasn't quite the chart that I would expect to see. Although, I haven't really played much ITG since, so my recollection of some of the better charts I've played might be a bit faded.

[Juub005]

"Horrible 7-foot trend'' gets to me every time.

Oh, I love that one. Expert players afraid of 7 footers. I seem to remember something about the Ultramix series getting better and then all some people could think to remark upon was the number of songs that were a Heavy 7 being large.

Edit: I should note that this is not a remark about people from the aforementioned site, as much as it is about groups of DDR players who I think deserve partial blame for the series becoming what it became with Supernova 2 when Konami got the idea of finally listening to them.

[BLueSS]

I do not wish to start drama with this post: only to call out those who deserve to have their crap mentioned.

I didn't see the r21freak thread dissing jammitch! and (as it's related) BEST-mix until now.
Link

I start this out saying I have never had nor done *anything* against r21Freak nor its memberbase. I have, as above, pointed out that they are *very* into ITG simfiles from my experience of the files I've played from there.

To r21Freak:
Are you guys really that immature and insecure over there?

Notable quotes:

Is it worth it to download the Worst Mix brackets as they come out?

this is why I don't ever make any charts for obscure packs
stupid incompetent judges

Sup guise. I've been playing DDR 4 months now. Am I eligible for the judge panel yet?? huh?huh?huh?

Also I didn't enter this contest because any contest where the top x are decided by fractions of a point and "presentation" (that is, graphics) is 20% of your grade isn't worth being in, because at that point it's just "what competent stepper has the best GFX abilities?

Someone else who doesn't get the difference between what he thinks the Presentation score is and reality.

Next time these people hold a contest, I'll have to autogen something and submit it. And just regenerate it with slightly tweaked rules depending on what revisions they suggest.

Could you explain why you submitted a quality chart to such a noob contest?

Please tell me you all aren't elitist ITG jerks over on r21.

ahahahaha

the video is private now

what a dick

NIQ9, did you get a low score and then run to r21 to complain/get sympathy? Or was it to make fun of someone who was trying to help the community here with his video reviews because he isn't "as awesome at dancing games" as you are? I'm just trying to figure things out here. I mean, it wouldn't be the first any of time this has happened. jammitch's review is not what is going to make/break your score, so it appears like you were trying to be a dick to someone because your ego was hurt.

I really would like some explanations about this.

Also note: if r21 members come here just to start shit, I have no problems banning them and deleting the posts. If you want to come and post something, do it with some respect and I have no problem leaving it up.

[BLueSS]

Part 2:

I posted the video on r21freak, yes with less than pure intentions, but I didn't expect anyone to leave comments like THAT.

That's crap; you were encouraging people to make fun of him, his girlfriend, and the video.

Instead of making the video private, why not just disable comments?

Because he was trying to dissolve the situation by removing the source of it from the idiots with nothing better to do than make fun of him.