Thoughts on Bar Hugging

I've been a DDR player since 2nd mix came to my arcade and absolutely everyone never used the bar mainly because they knew they would look gay playing with it so I follow like the kid I was and now I thing the bar is gay to use but I do accept it for the original players but I'm strongly against it when newer players use it because they don't learn the basics like afronova crossovers or butterfly spins. what I'm trying to say is start no-bar, then when you get good, see what the bar can do for you and make your decision from there.

But god (oh god) don't use the bar for 7-9's and max 300 because I've noticed in players that if they don't follow this golden rule, they can't do squat all w/o it.

ex: player (A) started with the bar on ITG and an average tournament is playing without bar. player (A) gets kicked out of the first round because he/she couldn't pass a song (cough*Cartoon Heroes*cough) on heavy.

keep that in mind because he could pass VERTEX (a 12) with bar but not a simple level 9 w/o bar on EXTREME.

pretty sad when you think about it.

OPINIONS on this anyone.

Why were they not using the bar on Extreme, would be my question? If they need the bar for 9s then they should have been using it, and it's kinda their own fault :p

I was a strict nobar DDR player up until I found ITG (and subsequently actually met other people who played!). I saw that using the bar was such a great help when it came to harder songs and I now use it any time that I'm aiming to get a high score, since I'll always do better with the bar unless it's something easy like an 8. For the record, I've passed all of the ITG 12s without the bar.

Using the bar isn't some bad habit that players pick up, it's just a more efficient style of playing the game. If they can't play without the bar as a result of that then that's fine, as unless someone is using some strange ruleset there's no reason why they can't use it whenever they want. It's not like not being able to play without the bar is a bad thing, since nobar play isn't going to help you in any serious competetive setting (unless you're a serious PIU player).

As a side not, anyone who's really good with the bar is usually really good without it too. Most of the top US players are good examples to look at here.

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Oh good, Wildfireskunk said all the stuff I thought of saying.

I'll just add a couple things.
1. maxninja09 needs to learn written english. You only made it worse when you tried to explain.
So, you use the bar pretty much all the time then? Or you don't use it when you need to get a high score or it's a hard song?

2. The bar makes my arms and back hurt on doubles, and I've heard that you can build stamina and balance faster by playing no bar. Then you can cash this in for huge gains when switching to playing with the bar, and minimizing movement.

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scratch everything i said previously

I don't use the bar, only for hard songs. If i want to get a higher score on a song, i use the bar.

End.

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I don't like the whole thing with posting OPINION at the end of posts. It's like a fake veil to hide behind, sorta like "Oh no, you can't challenge me at all, because this is an OPINION."

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I usually don't mess with people who use the bar except for my friends, in which case I'll pick on them a little, but I'll still count any accomplishments they get. Getting a AAA with the bar is still getting a AAA as far as I'm concerned.

As for myself, I don't use the bar.

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I make fun of the people that use the bar in my area because they're the same group that ruined that pads. So whenever I see someone playing with the bar while I'm waiting, I pick R3 and mock them by using the bar.

I also make fun of my friends when I see them hold on to the bar. I slap their hands as soon as it touches the bar. I got a friend to play Cutie Chaser(Morning Mix) with the bar. He got a nice crowd and then he failed on purpose and made a fit. You know, for the laughs.

I don't play with the bar. I only bounce off of it when I lose balance when playing Doubles.

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It doesn't always work that way, though. One example is snaking in Mario Kart games. Some tournaments allow it, although most don't. It's like for DDR; tourneys may or may not allow bar use.

If you're allowed, but you simply feel like you can do better or as well without it, that's perfectly fine. What's important is when it goes the other way around and someone has to do without something they tend to use as a crutch.

Playing with the bar is okay, but it's also good to be able to play without it.

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It's your money; do what you want with it.

/thread

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I don't know about other people, but I'm not trying to protect myself by emphasizing that it's an opinion. I put my opinion out there to see what you guys think of it, and give you guys a chance to influence me, which apparently some of you are trying to do, and I don't see that as a bad thing... o_o

In any event, I'm agreeing with roughly half of the input that says "Bar hugging is fine as long as you can actually play without the bar".

btw, no offense ninja, but commas are not a substitute for semicolons or periods.

Just as "..." is not a substitute for "," (That targets myself...)

Take this, for example. Yesterday I actually went down to Milpitas Golfland (they have ITG there, not at Sunnyvale, for some reason...). I met these three kids (a tall indian, a skinny white kid, and the palest hipster girl you'll ever meet, which makes up the typical ITG crew I usually meet in my area) who were screwing around on the PIU machine they had. I started loading some simfiles I wanted to test and the girl stepped back a little to watch me.

It was kind of quiet for that game, and then I felt like having a little fun so the next game I decided to load some of my finished ones and ones I'd gotten over the net. Well at this point they'd all seen me play 8s and 9s, and they told me what they thought about me by mocking me and pretending to use their toes and heels to conservatively play, even though their movements were complete BS.

In the middle of an original Konami simfile I had, one of them got onto the pad and and started copying me. Well, he didn't know there was a triple spin, got lost, and just sort of stood there disoriented for about 3 seconds before picking up where he left off. I could tell he was confused, but he tried to brush it off and make me feel even worse.

We never really said anything to each other. I just sort of moved on to the gun games, and they focused all of their attention on ITG and DDR as if to keep me away from the game.

God, I mean, I wasn't even getting in any of their business...

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I don't know what area you live in, but the players in my area that do use the bar aren't the people who play R3 on Standard while holding onto the bar for dear life and smashing the pads. I'll use the bar when I'm either tired or if I'm trying to get a good score.

And mocking the players that use the bar doesn't teach them anything. Unless they're douches, just saying to them "You don't need to use the bar" should work.


This is the way I also look at it.

Speaking of R3 I never understood why it is so overplayed.... I mean seriously there are other songs on Extreme other than R3, butterfly, love shine, and A .Even though I do like those songs, its sad when you can guess correctly every song a random person is gonna play before they play it.

I guess it's because they're all relatively easy but look impressive to certain onlookers.

And that's why I play unpopular songs. The popular ones are too easy.

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I play unpopular songs (by this, I mean unhyped, not hated) because they're unpopular.

Which makes sense, because the popular songs are too easy, but the boss songs are also popular, so that leaves the 8s and 9s (old scale) in the middle.

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How popular is DAM DARIRAM?

I play that all the time

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( A really funny post used to be here! Get mad at what you were doing or who you were with for making you miss it! )

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I think the funny post is still there.

Anyway, I see a common trend here. The people against using the bar are the people who don't play competitively. Those who do play competetively have realized that they need to use the bar to get competetive scores, and thus have accepted its use. Both sides have elitist snobs who think their way is the only way the game should be played (silenttype01 and RTCB). Oh wait, nobody has posted here saying that with bar is the only way the game should be played. They've just said that it's the only way to get up to passing the hardest songs with a reasonable time investment.

I think I understand why some forums have a delete on sight policy for threads like this. It's completely pointless and only serves to raise ire on both sides.

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I live in Florida!





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Clicking on my profile will show the arcades I visit if you've been down here before.


The players I mock are douches. I don't talk to people when I play at an arcade. I only talk to people if they're brand new to the game or if the have general questions.




As long as we understand that I play with no bar you can call me whatever you want

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I guess i should have made stuff a bit clearer but player A does use the bar on extreme but (A) has completely stopped playing conventional DDR since ITG came out and became totally immersed in it and the way bar huggers play. tourney time came for DDR and the specific rule was NO USING THE BAR AT ANY GIVEN TIME UNLESS FOR BALANCING ISSUES IN WHICH YOU CAN HOLD THE BAR FOR 3 SECONDS.

In the end, I think that if you use the bar and can beat Paranoia survivor Max w/o bar then you are definitely good and you deserve praise.

The ONLY thing I STRONGLY argue about is the heal-toe thing because they make the game seem less fun and are total douches for doing that. Mainly because if a new person who wants to learn sees that and attempts it and fails will only feel discouraged.

I'm a Canadian DDR Player and I approve this message LOL