nariette wrote:
I think it's because for playing osu mania, you need to have a good sense of rythm. Sadly, that sense can't be taught. With standard osu, looking at the hitcircles will be okay, but trying to "read" mania is just too difficult without that sense(because of the fact that you don't just have to hit it on time, but also release at the right time). I usually trust my sense while playing mania.
Though I do hope that more people will start to appreciate mania.
Both game modes require similar levels of rhythmic understanding. The difference is that standard mode has more separate visual cues to help you.
For example, in standard you can use the following separate things to help you figure out the timing:
When the hitcircle appeared
The approach circle
Sometimes, the distance between the current hitcircle and the next
In standard, to determine the timing difference between the current note and the next, you either have to calculate the timing of each note individually and compare (using the appearance timing or the approach circle of each hitcircle individually) or you can use the distance between hitcircles... When the next hitcircle is using the proper snap distance, meaning jumps are useless for calculating the relative timing between individual notes.
In Osu!Mania, the timing indication is contained in two complimentary things:
The distance between the current note and the next note in the pattern.
The distance between the current note and the bottom.
These two things work together to convey the information about the timing of the note, and the relationship of the timing between individual notes.
This actually makes it harder to determine timing information in standard, because it takes your brain more work to identify which information sources to use, and then use them. However, this process can be made automatic as a player progresses in skill, so it becomes less of an issue for players who have gotten decent at the game mode.
The big difference between standard and Osu!Mania is that in standard, you only have 1 rhythmic pattern to follow, because you only ever have 1 note at a time, whereas in Osu!Mania you can have multiple overlapping rhythmic patterns to follow, which makes that part of Osu!Mania harder.
Another consideration is that in standard, you only have 1 key you need to press at a time, ever. You could conceivably play freedom dive in standard single tapping, if you were fast enough. In mania, you are required to press multiple keys. This makes coordination much more important in Osu!Mania. This coordination requirement is the biggest barrier to people learning mania, because it takes a considerable amount of time to actually internalize the relationship between the onscreen note columns and the keys/fingers used to hit notes on each column.
Effectively, Osu! standard has a much lower entry barrier, whereas Osu!Mania has an overall higher requirement for beginner players.
I would predict that this low barrier to entry in Osu! is what is responsible for it's popularity.