What has rhythm gaming become?

[ddrxero64]

I can't wrap my head around this. I used to come to this site years ago in hopes of playing a game and talking to those who shared my love for this game. Now it's become some sort of exclusive group where you get shunned for speaking another language. This is taken way too seriously, the focus of FFR as a site has drastically changed over the years. A site that was known to attract players looking for a great game is now a place where any one action can get you banned. This isn't some legal site, it's a gaming site. Since when does breaking a rule get referred to illegal?

Rhythm gaming is dying out. People who know about CEOs like Bobby Kotick will agree with me. GH was ceased because he didn't think it made enough money, and he shifted to money making games like CoD. This is an opportunity for an online revival of rhythm games, bringing whole new opportunities to those who are avid rhythm gamers. Making exclusive sites or banning foreigners is ridiculous. To think I might get banned for making a thread that speaks the truth. That is just sad, compared to how people behaved on this site years ago.

I could care less about how SMO looks if you want to accuse me. I'm in favor of bringing games like DDR and GH back in business, not making SMO the best site. We welcome people of all languages, and whether or not they are posting certain comments, we could care less. We ban spammers, and we don't tolerate lewd images. But if someone is swearing in German and no one complains, then it's not a problem.

People are taking their job too seriously. This is FFR, not a Konami Company. Ban me if you'd like, delete this thread, it doesn't bother me. I don't respect excluding people because they're english isn't exactly the most proper. I rather have a great game and userbase than have a game that isn't friendly to new members. It's only a matter of time before the regulars become too old for gaming, and by then there will be one who'd want to join.

This thread is going on other forums, so delete it if you want.

[Izzy]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

I don't particularly agree with your first paragraph, but yes. Rhythm games are becoming less popular at the moment.

[Staiain]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

I agree, rythm game sites is nowdays exclusive to elitists and new members are ignored or never given a chance to prove themself nice.

People think like "Who's this new ******" instead of like "Oh that guy might actually be a really nice person"

[Zageron]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

I'm all for the ethnic expansion of FFR, and I support it 100%. I may disagree with the state of mind that two certain admins have, but they have extremely valid points. Having people speak in a different language, in a public board, is dangerous if you have no way of understanding what they are talking about. The point was brought up that illegal activities could be undertaken without the English administration having a clue.

- As was suggested, this can and would be brought under control by having bilinguals moderating a special forum for foreign languages.

Thus brings your point:

Since when does breaking a rule get referred to illegal?

If the issue you are referring to is as I believe, then yes it wasn't exactly as it seems. However, your point stands... it will be considered illegal activity unless it can be proven not. (In the current moderator-administrative state of mind, which I do not believe in.) Because we are unable to understand what is being discussed things could be going on.

This doesn't apply to every rule. 1m sur3 t|-|at I'm not breaking any laws here, and it would NOT be called illegal.

You bring up a semi-valid point, which I hope is discussed and brought into consideration during the, hopefully soon, rule revamp.

[Velocity]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

edit:
Losing battle is losing.

[ddrxero64]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

I do understand that illegal activity may happen. I'm focusing on pros and cons, because nothing is ever fully beneficial. Of course people could speak of illegal activities, it's possible, but here's my practical view.

You could put one language for now and see how it fairs. Have one or two temp mods who speak it watch the threads carefully. Mind you, the odds of the whole community speaking a certain language and talking about illegal activities are ridiculously small. An entire community, and not one has the mind to tell an admin that illegal activity is going on? Whatever happened to the PM system? I'm dissatisfied because it wasn't given a chance and assumed it would be bad. Even when lots of members agree they would want it, they are listening to themselves rather than the members. Maybe it could turn out bad (which I honestly highly doubt) but you won't know until it happens, right?

FFR won't go from cool site to drug deals in one week if another language was added. It's being taken too seriously to the point that people aren't allowed to speak other languages.

[Velocity]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

FFR won't go from cool site to drug deals in one week

What else would you use this site for.

Ontopic:
The thing is, what's the real percentage of users that only speak a language besides English.

How can we have temp mods to watch the whole spectrum of world languages.

How will it affect FFR in the long run.

[foxfire667]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

I can't wrap my head around this. I used to come to this site years ago in hopes of playing a game and talking to those who shared my love for this game. Now it's become some sort of exclusive group where you get shunned for speaking another language.

About this language thing you keep referring to, chances are that this rule wasn't set into motion to shun away those who wanted to speak another language. I would think that it would have been put in place as FFR is a English speaking majority by a vast percentage, so it would make things less confusing for everyone if certain things were generally spoken in English. I personally don't feel the need to BAN anyone for using another language (that is just overkill), but I do feel that threads and other things directed to everyone in the community should be posted in English (as that is what the majority understands). Not saying that posting in other languages is bad in any way, but if everyone understands English compared to a much smaller percentage speaking Spanish, French, Chinese, etc (while those that do understand these generally know English on here) then English is definitely the preferred language to post in.

While speaking to a small group, or specifically to those whom know the language, it should be 100% acceptable to post in any language (if that is against the rules it shouldn't be). I feel more like, if someone feels comfortable speaking in a different language, to use an online translator to English under their other language so that others who might be able to contribute to a subject but might not know the language will be able to. Just as those who might replay to them may attempt to respond in their language via translator if they cannot speak English well (I know translators aren't amazing but they will get the general message across).

I suppose special language exclusive sections could be added, although I would only think they would be truly beneficial if we had a huge amount of users who could not speak English in the forums (which I don't believe we do). Of the few that actually cannot speak English, again a simple online translator can get the basic points they are trying to make across.

I do wish that the community was a bit more welcoming at times, and yes it does look like rhythm games are beginning to fade out, especially in mainstream games like Guitar Hero.

[ichliebekase]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

The thing is, what's the real percentage of users that only speak a language besides English.

This brings up a valid point. I know for a fact that in Germany, students are forced to learn English in school since it is the most dominant language [for the time being] in the world. I think in either Japan or China students are taught English in school too [saw it on the news a year or so back]. Yes, there are people in this world that have no idea what English is, but the probability of it being a mass amount of people on this site is slim to none.

Is this thread about rhythm gaming or about getting a language section into the forums? I'm confused

[HammyMcSquirrel]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

Would people settle for a designated room in prochat for multilingual conversation at least? I don't think the whole moderation issue would be as much of a concern there since we already have the "This Profile" room which is pretty much impossible to moderate.

[ddrxero64]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

What else would you use this site for.

Ontopic:
The thing is, what's the real percentage of users that only speak a language besides English.

How can we have temp mods to watch the whole spectrum of world languages.

How will it affect FFR in the long run.

Percentage of users is unknown, because it's clear that you don't support other languages. Let me give you an example.

It was known that a lot of our users that played on the server were japanese. But not once did we see them on our forum. One day randomly the other admin found a japanese post. Instead of ignoring it, he tackled the problem. Eventually, he found out our server developer spoke japanese, and had lots of japanese friends. They communicate in their own forums. We created a japanese forum, to show them we showed support. Our server developer became a mod for that forum, and using trust, asked a friend he knew was trustworthy to become mod. Now we have a japanese section, relatively dead. Of course, there isn't a lot to stimulate japanese discussion. Until, of course, our other admin put up an announcement regarding the Japan tragedy. We randomly got a post by a japanese player who used a translator saying how much he appreciated the announcement. He had no clue we had a japanese section, and the fact that we showed our concern for users beyond the game made him happy. He told his japanese friends (players) about it.

You won't know the percentage until you provide an opportunity for people to show themselves. Why would a french speaker post here? He only knows french. What if he saw an announcement regarding the french language? It would attract his attention.

As for the whole spectrum, no one is saying to put over 40 languages. We have some russian players on SMO that I've met. But we don't have a russian section, because the demand isn't too high. Part of knowing what the demand is is to listen to members and actually get to know who's really playing your game. I'm not just an admin of SMO, I'm a player.

Also, our user count is in the 18,000s I think. You guys have WAY more. I don't think finding some trustworthy users to be temp mods would be a hard thing. You can easily limit privileges, but I'm sure you guys know. Even if they didn't help, they would just be demoted back to regular user.

How will it affect FFR in the long run? Is that a question anyone can honestly answer?

Edit: @ichlie to respond to your post, I created this thread because the other one was locked. I also pointed out that it's things like this that will contribute to the downfall of rhythm gaming. Unlike Super Nintendo, it has plenty of opportunities to excel. Graphics and hardware aren't the issue, motivation and innovation are.

[Cold Kitten]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

Okay. Normally, I don't post in threads like this because they just turn into a giant shitstorm. However, I have a valid opinion on this, so oh well.

New players on this site aren't "shunned" because they may speak another language, because they're new, because etc, etc. They're "shunned" because they tend to act like complete idiots. Now, this may just be a personal opinion but, too bad. If you think FFR is bad about new people *now*, you should have seen pre-death FFR. It was even worse.

[BethanyBangs]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

I have to agree with Tiff on that. Before FFR died people would treat this place like a myspace. Coming on solely for attention. There's still a few of those people now. Or the 12 year old girls that would go on webcam in vc~ Ah the old days. People get banned for being stupid, that is all. I do agree the regulars on here should be more welcoming to the noobies.

Rhythm gaming HAS died down. Unfortunately. People are becoming more interested in games that use your body to move, i.e. Just Dance. Horrible music i would have to say. Let's bring it back.

[ninjaKIWI]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

Derp.

Oh.

[ichliebekase]

Re: What has rhythm gaming become?

Edit: @ichlie to respond to your post, I created this thread because the other one was locked. I also pointed out that it's things like this that will contribute to the downfall of rhythm gaming. Unlike Super Nintendo, it has plenty of opportunities to excel. Graphics and hardware aren't the issue, motivation and innovation are.

So it should really be "What have the forums become?" correct? Plenty is being done a little at a time to make FFR the game better and more compatible with more computer software. People with vista can play fine with Gamebooster and the standalone. Velocity just recently updated the look of the engine, reinstalled replays, brought back prochat, etc. The actual game of FFR has been excelling more now than it has in many years.

As far as my opinion goes, the forums don't truly have much to do with the game. There are so many people on this site, pre and post death, that don't post on the forums. Plus, while the site was down, a lot of people still played SM, found the LD engine, even DF made their own engine to continue playing.

Short version; I don't think the forums will contribute to the downfall of FFR or forums for any other rhythm games.

I hope you don't take this as me trying to downgrade or attack you. It just seems like you're trying to make two problems out of one.