You see the same thing everyday; players asking how they can improve and other people giving their "best" guess as to how. Community veterans often have a scripted response or have some fun with these questions, because years of giving thoughtful responses to the same question only to watch that person go farm pp and ignore the advice has worn down their patience. So it's a "play more" that the advice seeker can read into as little or as much as they like. It's a cycle that's destined to repeat itself forever - death and rebirth.
Observing this is funny in the same way watching a trashfire burn chemical colors into the local neighborhood's air is pretty, but I think it's worth asking why the same topics repeat themselves like this so often. As someone who has been in several other game communities, osu!'s stood out as alien at first for its dual nature. I felt that many people took their improvement very seriously but at the same time nothing is sacred enough to them not to be memed into the ground and disrespected because it's just a stupid, shitty game. Not even the god Cookiezi that so many pray to every night is safe from memes.
I think this contradiction in ideals comes from conflicting messages in the community.
On one hand, there is a manic obsession and love for acquiring skill which is fed by the never ending stream of top plays and the gods attached to them. The top level of osu! gameplay is very obviously glamorous in a way that other games aren't, and many newcomers are seduced into the game by top plays that inspire them to reach that level. Unlike most competitive games, which are likely entered through some concept of "fun" (see Super Smash Bros and Moba games with friends), osu's new players feed off the high of the most recent legendary plays and want to achieve that feeling themselves. What's more... It's just circles... one at at time. It should be very easy, no? At the very least, it's easy to conceive that anyone could maybe do it, given enough playtime. The giant, ever-present rank numbers glued to your name, among other things, contributes as well.
On the other hand, osu is a solo rhythm video game. To call it competitive and to see people obsessed with improvement seems backwards on a fundamental level. Guitar hero is a game played casually by millions, and it lends itself to exactly that kind of casual play. You can play as easy of songs as you want, play with no fail, or just pass the guitar to a friend that's actually good at the game. The reason that 5 year old who perfected Through the Fire and Flames on expert is so impressive is because who the hell puts this much time into guitar hero? At this point people are used to asian parents teaching their toddlers to play Rhapsody in Blue on the clarinet or Mozart on the violin before they can form complete sentences, but the idea that anyone would put so much time into something that's a mere mockery of actual music is novel and funny to the average person
It's not that it takes much less skill to become incredibly skilled in guitar hero over a classical instrument, but instruments have centuries of culture and history, as well as the fact that they take much more discipline to play (no built in video gamey reward systems), going for them in regards to being respected by the general public.
Compared to guitar hero, osu! is even less respected and known. It's also filled with anime, which makes it even lower in the public's eye (although anime is becoming less of an "outsider thing", it still very much IS). I think, in such dark corners of society and the internet, there is an element of hazing and mocking that comes with asking how to get better. "What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be doing something else? Idk, play more. Just click the circles, man, nobody cares if you get any good at this filthy anime game anyway". All things that someone who plays the game will tell another in the community.
This has been an attempt to craft an explanation of why the osu! culture is in such a way. I left out a lot of things, but I honestly find this community very interesting, and so I've ranted about it here. I'll probably do this again after another 100 hours in this game.
Observing this is funny in the same way watching a trashfire burn chemical colors into the local neighborhood's air is pretty, but I think it's worth asking why the same topics repeat themselves like this so often. As someone who has been in several other game communities, osu!'s stood out as alien at first for its dual nature. I felt that many people took their improvement very seriously but at the same time nothing is sacred enough to them not to be memed into the ground and disrespected because it's just a stupid, shitty game. Not even the god Cookiezi that so many pray to every night is safe from memes.
I think this contradiction in ideals comes from conflicting messages in the community.
On one hand, there is a manic obsession and love for acquiring skill which is fed by the never ending stream of top plays and the gods attached to them. The top level of osu! gameplay is very obviously glamorous in a way that other games aren't, and many newcomers are seduced into the game by top plays that inspire them to reach that level. Unlike most competitive games, which are likely entered through some concept of "fun" (see Super Smash Bros and Moba games with friends), osu's new players feed off the high of the most recent legendary plays and want to achieve that feeling themselves. What's more... It's just circles... one at at time. It should be very easy, no? At the very least, it's easy to conceive that anyone could maybe do it, given enough playtime. The giant, ever-present rank numbers glued to your name, among other things, contributes as well.
On the other hand, osu is a solo rhythm video game. To call it competitive and to see people obsessed with improvement seems backwards on a fundamental level. Guitar hero is a game played casually by millions, and it lends itself to exactly that kind of casual play. You can play as easy of songs as you want, play with no fail, or just pass the guitar to a friend that's actually good at the game. The reason that 5 year old who perfected Through the Fire and Flames on expert is so impressive is because who the hell puts this much time into guitar hero? At this point people are used to asian parents teaching their toddlers to play Rhapsody in Blue on the clarinet or Mozart on the violin before they can form complete sentences, but the idea that anyone would put so much time into something that's a mere mockery of actual music is novel and funny to the average person
It's not that it takes much less skill to become incredibly skilled in guitar hero over a classical instrument, but instruments have centuries of culture and history, as well as the fact that they take much more discipline to play (no built in video gamey reward systems), going for them in regards to being respected by the general public.
Compared to guitar hero, osu! is even less respected and known. It's also filled with anime, which makes it even lower in the public's eye (although anime is becoming less of an "outsider thing", it still very much IS). I think, in such dark corners of society and the internet, there is an element of hazing and mocking that comes with asking how to get better. "What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be doing something else? Idk, play more. Just click the circles, man, nobody cares if you get any good at this filthy anime game anyway". All things that someone who plays the game will tell another in the community.
This has been an attempt to craft an explanation of why the osu! culture is in such a way. I left out a lot of things, but I honestly find this community very interesting, and so I've ranted about it here. I'll probably do this again after another 100 hours in this game.
