My "DDR Zone" Theory

[StealthGuardian]

I recently had a thought I would like to share with the DDR Community and hear their opinions about.

Now I'm not a great DDR player (most difficult song I've passed consistently is Senorita Speedy Mix), but I've noticed a major difference from when I started the game to when I finally reached the 7+ difficulty.

When I played the game on light and standard difficulty, I thought about how my feet were placed throughout the song, and I worried about how I should move my feet to position myself for the next arrows. I spent most of my early days looking at the arrows.
When I finally started to advance to seven and eight footers, I started to take more notice of the music , not the steps. Suddenly my feet started to simply feel where the arrows are, because my mind could tell where they should be according to the music.

So, I've come to the thought that the reason some players just starting out have trouble is because they care more about the arrows, which causes them some stress and breaks any concentration they had. The reason experienced players can take brand new songs and pass them with great scores is not just because they have experience in the possible step patterns, but because they've learned how to listen to the song and judge how arrows should be logically placed according to the music.


I'm sure people will disagree with the idea and say it's just the step experience, but I've played some songs with speed changes that I would have never noticed if not for learning to listen to the music. Anyways, all comments are welcome.
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[Shippo]

I really do think thats true, so non-too expirienced players do get diconsantrated by arrows and should focus more on the beat!

[CHUCK BASS]

These are music games, and I don't think a lot of n00bs realize that.

[StealthGuardian]

Does anybody else know what I mean by the "DDR Zone" thing? You know how you're playing a difficult song and your feet seem to magically hit the arrows without requiring you to think about it? I'm sure I'm not the only one who experiences this.
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[Fabio Gonzales]

Yea that happens to me all the time. Sometimes i completely get lost in the thought and just forget how I'm doing it, but i totally agree with you about that.

[Barbaloot]

Once you've played enough, you not only get a feel for where the arrows are on the pad, but you also learn to read arrows without having to think about what they mean. I think if all the arrows on the screen were replaced by indistinguishbale boxes or circles but still kept their orientation, I would be fine; however, if you instead switched the up and down arrows so up was between left and down on the screen, it would mess me up badly. To a beginning player, the exact opposite would be true.
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[AA Bob]

[LimiteD]

my ddr zone is more like a trance. i will start playing a song and then get loose. then i would just lock on with the arrows and as the music flows through my mind, my feet just move in unison witht he arrows...


also, does anyone see that they play better with songs they like to listen too? like if a song sounds good to someone do they do better on it than say Crash?
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[Vince Mestas]

Songs are too short for me to trance, but I always do a lot better on songs that I neither like not dislike, kakumei for example. If I play a song I can't stand(stoic) I don't feel the music and mess up, but also when I play love shine I sync with the wrong beat and get a ton of good's. but that is just me
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[Zero0920]

The song really feels like more of a surrounding to me when I play (BAG sets more of an Irish thought in my head, so I tend to want to do an Irish jig of sorts. Sakura gives a Japanese forest (Spring) feel, so I feel more of a relaxed kind of way. PARANOiA Survivor MAX makes me bar rape, given the nervousness, or paranoia, of the song). I actually focus more on the notes and can still do 10's. Why am I weird. Maybe that's why PSMO is so hard for me...
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[Phr34k_TeN]

hm...i tend to listen to the music more for songs with straightforward steps. for songs with lots of chaos, i find myself both reading the arrows and listening to the song. i do get 'in the zone' at times, unless i'm trying to AA a song or something of that sort.
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[Dr. Bob]

Back in the day, yeah I made sure that I was stepping on the arrows right. But I could have lived without most of DDRMAX's music back then. Later on, I tried more songs, but I noticed the music more since my feet already knew left as here and down was there. Most of the time I just listen to the music because they steps come natural (somewhat) so I don't really have to think about them, unless something like Xenon comes up where I kinda have to think about the steps. Though, I've never 'tranced' while playing DDR.

[StealthGuardian]

Interesting thought Zero0920. I know what you mean by the music "surrounding" you. Dam Dariram and Sakura (standard for my playing ability) are songs I really feel when I play. There's been several times when I get absorbed in the music and forget about everything else for a few minutes. That's probably why I play the game: to forget how much daily life sucks .
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