Z-I-v Summer Contest 2017 [GAME OVER, YEAAAHHH]

Oh my god, yes.

---

I've been voting based on the hardest chart in each simfile, since I expect it to be the most refined and judge-ready. I avoid looking at the chart description (which traditionally stores the stepchartist's name) to reduce voting bias. "Crossovers are arbitrary" didn't seem jocular to me. I wasn't impressed enough with Hard to change my ranking for the file (which was about middle of the pack).

I don't want to discourage you from having fun - but given the complete lack of reception, you may want to change your presentation.

---

---

For the sake of discussion, and because i'm curious about different viewpoints on this topic: If a file has multiple charts, and you only judge based on one chart (assume hardest chart), how do you know everything that file had to offer when you didn't look at everything?

Should note that I don't care how anyone votes, it's a simfile contest for fun, just throwing the question out there.

---

I'm just set in my ways, I guess. When the difficulty requirement was only through , I still only played . I just assume everyone participating is capable of making lower difficulties that are not abominations (lol). Even though the rules have changed now, I still only play though my reasons are different.

First, most of the time, I'm simply not interested in the charts of files because they're rated 10 or above. I like to play fun files rather than files that attempt to step to every sound in the song. That's just my personal preference. Second, I don't feel qualified to judge charts of those difficulty since I rarely make them. Lastly, I really don't like to assume the worst of people, but it's possible that someone who made a chart could've put less effort into , because they assume everyone goes right to the hardest difficulty.

I guess the only way to make sure a person really knows everything that a file has to offer is to require 1 difficulty only and turn away any files with more than 1.

---

Well this is just my viewpoint, but every week there are usually at least 20 entries, if not far more. Even when only playing one chart per file, it's a pretty big time commitment to go through all of them and judge them on top of doing everything needed for our own files every week. In other words, to play through every chart for every file would require committing a large amount of additional time to something most of us are already committing a lot of time to. I would love to play every chart in every file and provide feedback and critiques on them but realistically I just don't have the time to do that. Playing one or two charts in every file isn't what I'd do in a perfect world, but it does ensure that I take a look at every file and get my votes in on time.

Here's the way I see it. Anyone that can make good and charts is perfectly capable of making lower difficulties that don't suck, and sure enough when I do look at the lower difficulties of good files the lower difficulties are perfectly fine. Inversely, the people that make crappy and charts usually make crappy lower difficulties too. If someone doesn't know how to avoid double-stepping, that's going to be a mistake they make in every difficulty, not just the highest one. That's why I don't normally bother looking at stuff lower than . (The last time I did, it took way too much time, so there's another reason.)

If you really want advice on and , you can always ask for people to give feedback just like with and and I'm sure someone will respond.

in other news i'm having a total brain fart on what to step this week yaaaaay

---

I think that if you're not going to play a chart, you also probably don't weigh that chart particularly heavily regarding how many points you'd give it, so it all kinda works out. If you don't care about playing a light chart, the amount of points you'd give the file probably wouldn't change much based on the light chart anyway.

I guess the obvious exceptions are when someone clearly fudged a chart and made it either intentionally easy or hard, or used copy+paste from another chart, etc. just ways to prove they clearly didn't put forth any effort.

In my opinion, lower difficulties are only there for people who still want to play the chart but are not skilled enough to pass the higher difficulties. However in a contest like this one, virtually everyone can pass charts with a difficulty of 9 or lower, so the lower difficulties don't really serve the same purpose. An experienced player will view a beginner/basic or even difficult chart differently than a novice player, so judging them harshly is unnecessary. (For example, while double-steps are frowned upon by advanced players, novice players don't mind them). After all, since lower difficulties are no longer required, a crummy basic chart is better than not having one at all.

My advice is to judge the difficulty your most comfortable with, and if you decide to judge more than one difficulty, than rate the charts based on the difficulty you enjoyed the most.

As for steppers, don't include a chart that you didn't put at least a decent amount of effort into. I remember throwing together basic and difficult charts last minute only because they were required. That is no way to make a simfile

Bloody hell. This is why I don't like stepping high speed songs. Anyway, I find it a bit difficult to place it on where the rating for to be a 9 or 10 because it is played as a stamina chart.

This was actually released a year before I was born (December 31st 1996) and is from their album Ixnay on the Hombre. You might have also heard this song from the game Crazy Taxi.

Anyway, the custom .zip contains .mp4 video, so I separated between that and those who wants a videoless version of this simfile.

---

In response to the question Mokou put out; as of last year's Summer Contest, I generally looked at the lowest difficulties only when I didn't have enough time to look at every chart, since I assumed that nearly everybody else was judging based on and only. This, in turn, likely spurred conversation about the former necessity of , , and charts for each file, which resulted in the current rule of needing only one chart for each file.

Regarding Appaloosa: for those who haven't looked at it, I feel that is intentionally overboard; be sure to play the if you are expecting a more reasonable chart.

I have a submission planned for this week, but I still wish to add graphics/doubles/a .LRC file before publishing it.

---

I guess I'm in the minority who still looks at all of the singles charts when voting regardless. Usually, it is the case that the number of points I give to a file based on the charts don't change even after I play and below, but there have been times when the lower difficulties do matter. For instance, FEMBOT was a file I considered giving points to after I played the chart, but was bumped down to an HM after I noticed that and were copy+pasted from each other. I'm not saying that people shouldn't bother to put any effort into these charts at all (not including them at all is an even bigger turn-off for me); I'm just saying that they do matter to at least some people.

Also, I play all of the charts to make sure I get the complete experience anyway; I think it's silly to believe that the hardest chart is representative of the rest of the file (case in point: my 月光乱舞 file).

---

If we're discussing about how each of us judge a file, for me, I'll attempt to look at all, if not, most of the charts available to a simfile. Like, for example, ddrstepper's file for [Short], I wasn't too keen on because of the use of crossovers (or how it was patterned) during the chorus of the song, but playing for that file, I was more engaged to the song simply for its constant flow and that bumped from an HM to a point from me. Even the chart for it I preferred more than just a little bit more.

Yeah I imagine a lot of people would value the harder difficulties than the lower, but I do think the lower end of the charts ( often the case would be - ) can affect how one might judge a file. That's just my view on simfile judging anyway.

---

I agree that the lower charts can influence the overall rating of the chart, but only in a good way. I can't imagine someone docking down points from a file because their basic chart is a bit wonky even though their expert chart is really good. After all they could have just not included the basic chart to begin with. Honestly, the lower difficulties should only help the overall chart's rating, not hurt it.

However, I do realize that that could easily happen, especially if it's a higher difficulty chart ( - :cha. I had that happen to me where I included a great expert chart but a challenge chart that turned about to be really crappy. Almost everyone graded off of the challenge chart, so my simfile didn't get any points.

Thanks to chewi for the banner (and the styling on this post)

Yoooot, this is one of my all-time favorite songs
I almost stepped this one, but then I ended up settling for one which I could do more with~

---

---

So I once again stepped a song and found it it violates the rules for this week (has female vocals in the background). So don't expect anything from me this week.

---

Yeah here's how this week went for me, I know the feeling pandy:

Hey I have this great backstreet- oh, 2001

Oh hey what about? - 2000, oh

Nsyn - oh 2000 again

I wanted to restep - oh 2001

I have something now and I think I even found some potential r21 to start testing things now but man finding something was a struggle.

Also quick note, if something about kirby smash broke for you, PM me and I can do tech support for you. (feel the need to say just in case, sorry)

---