1. #1

    Practice mode?

    I know this has been asked for previous versions of the game and that feedback was supposed to be passed to the devs, but checking to see if a practice or tutorial mode has been added for 2019?

    Yes, I know some have suggested watching YouTube videos, but I do not think it should be required to seek out tutorials outside of the game. Also, the suggestion to just watch the dancers in game at full speed is not helpful to all. Not everyone who plays is young or particularly inclined to pick up choreography. A practice mode would make the game more inclusive and accessible to more people.
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  2. #2
    Ubi-RealDude's Avatar Community Manager
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    Hey UBERginger, thanks for the feedback! I'll pass along your frustrations to the team. Believe me, I'm one of those people you mentioned that have a hard time picking up choreography.
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  3. #3
    In the past, I had been against the idea of a practice mode, but the idea is really growing on me now. Originally, my concern was that it would make it too easy for the top dancers to hit 13,000's, but there are already so many players hitting 13,000's on so many dances... that a practice mode would scarcely impact their scores, whereas it could greatly benefit everyone else.

    I can see two different ways to introduce a practice mode.

    One way would simply be to play the song with the added feature of navigation within the song. The navigation might let you rewind or even fast forward to a particular place in the dance so that you could practice particular sequences or try parts of the dance over and over until you feel comfortable with it.

    Another way would be to offer a slow motion version of the dance. The problem with slow motion is the audio: You couldn't play the song at its normal speed and match the dance. So maybe with slow motion the song would be muted? Many of the moves are timed with musical cues (or lyrics) from the song, so this would be lost if the song were muted. However, slow motion would really help more players learn the choreography. Once you get the basics down, practicing at regular speed then the audio could help you match the moves to the sounds.

    It seems that it would be safer to learn the choreography at a slower speed than to attempt every dance at regular speed with no idea of what's going to happen (the pictos serve as a reminder once you've learned the dance, but really don't suffice to show you what's going to happen the first time).

    I would expect that all attempts during a practice mode would be unscored. At least, no overall score would count: That should be earned in regular mode. Should the individual scores (like good/super/perfect) show up during practice mode? Maybe.
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  4. #4
    UbiSc0ttie's Avatar Community Representative
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    Originally Posted by greekphysics Go to original post
    In the past, I had been against the idea of a practice mode, but the idea is really growing on me now. Originally, my concern was that it would make it too easy for the top dancers to hit 13,000's, but there are already so many players hitting 13,000's on so many dances... that a practice mode would scarcely impact their scores, whereas it could greatly benefit everyone else.

    I can see two different ways to introduce a practice mode.

    One way would simply be to play the song with the added feature of navigation within the song. The navigation might let you rewind or even fast forward to a particular place in the dance so that you could practice particular sequences or try parts of the dance over and over until you feel comfortable with it.

    Another way would be to offer a slow motion version of the dance. The problem with slow motion is the audio: You couldn't play the song at its normal speed and match the dance. So maybe with slow motion the song would be muted? Many of the moves are timed with musical cues (or lyrics) from the song, so this would be lost if the song were muted. However, slow motion would really help more players learn the choreography. Once you get the basics down, practicing at regular speed then the audio could help you match the moves to the sounds.

    It seems that it would be safer to learn the choreography at a slower speed than to attempt every dance at regular speed with no idea of what's going to happen (the pictos serve as a reminder once you've learned the dance, but really don't suffice to show you what's going to happen the first time).

    I would expect that all attempts during a practice mode would be unscored. At least, no overall score would count: That should be earned in regular mode. Should the individual scores (like good/super/perfect) show up during practice mode? Maybe.
    Thanks for your insight on a practice mode! @greekphysics

    Hypothetically speaking, if a practice mode existed, would this be something you would utilize regularly?

    - Scottie
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  5. #5
    Thanks for your insight on a practice mode! @greekphysics

    Hypothetically speaking, if a practice mode existed, would this be something you would utilize regularly?

    - Scottie
    I would use it avidly for a month or two after buying the game, and if it made it easy to repeatedly attempt one sequence of a dance, I would use it more later to try to improve my mastery of moves that I'm still struggling with.

    I bought JD 2019 the second it was released. It took me a month to attempt every dance 2 times (once on Xbox Kinect and once on PS4 Camera). I spent some time practicing along to YouTube to learn the choreography before I attempted it on the game. Now I'm trying to improve my mastery of the dances where I hit scores in the low to mid 12,000's on my first attempt. Then I want to build up my fluency so that I can remember the moves to all 52 dances. I feel like I need to do this before I set foot on the World Dance Floor (an experience that I loved in 2018, 2017, and 2015, but I'm trying to be patient and learn the dances reasonably well first). A practice mode would certainly help with all this preparation.

    I learned the choreographies much faster in 2018 than in 2019. Maybe more of the 2018 dances were easier, or maybe more of those dances were just more intuitive for me. Another difference is that there are 6 extremes in 2019, and it takes much more time to properly learn the extremes.

    There are always some dances with moves that I struggle with. I often wish I could just rewind 10 seconds or so and try those moves over several times to try to get a better feel for them (and whatever it is that I'm doing wrong, technique or synchronization). If there were a practice mode where you could do just that, it would really help. (I guess I could shoot a video of the dance, then use a video editor to repeat the clip several times, and watch it on my t.v. It sure would be nice not to have to go to so much trouble.) If you could even have the move scored in practice mode, it would really help to master every move of every dance.

    When I look at other players' scores, I see a lot of amazing dancers who seem to have mastered all of the dances already very well. Not everyone needs a practice mode, evidently. But if you go on the World Dance Floor and see hundreds of dancers, with the vast majority struggling to hit megastars while a few put up 13,000's, it shows that there are many dancers who could benefit from some means (within the game) of seeking improvement. A practice mode could help many more players feel more competitive (and make the game seem less frustrating, if the practice helps them correct a few mistakes).
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  6. #6
    UbiSc0ttie's Avatar Community Representative
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    Originally Posted by greekphysics Go to original post
    I would use it avidly for a month or two after buying the game, and if it made it easy to repeatedly attempt one sequence of a dance, I would use it more later to try to improve my mastery of moves that I'm still struggling with.

    I bought JD 2019 the second it was released. It took me a month to attempt every dance 2 times (once on Xbox Kinect and once on PS4 Camera). I spent some time practicing along to YouTube to learn the choreography before I attempted it on the game. Now I'm trying to improve my mastery of the dances where I hit scores in the low to mid 12,000's on my first attempt. Then I want to build up my fluency so that I can remember the moves to all 52 dances. I feel like I need to do this before I set foot on the World Dance Floor (an experience that I loved in 2018, 2017, and 2015, but I'm trying to be patient and learn the dances reasonably well first). A practice mode would certainly help with all this preparation.

    I learned the choreographies much faster in 2018 than in 2019. Maybe more of the 2018 dances were easier, or maybe more of those dances were just more intuitive for me. Another difference is that there are 6 extremes in 2019, and it takes much more time to properly learn the extremes.

    There are always some dances with moves that I struggle with. I often wish I could just rewind 10 seconds or so and try those moves over several times to try to get a better feel for them (and whatever it is that I'm doing wrong, technique or synchronization). If there were a practice mode where you could do just that, it would really help. (I guess I could shoot a video of the dance, then use a video editor to repeat the clip several times, and watch it on my t.v. It sure would be nice not to have to go to so much trouble.) If you could even have the move scored in practice mode, it would really help to master every move of every dance.

    When I look at other players' scores, I see a lot of amazing dancers who seem to have mastered all of the dances already very well. Not everyone needs a practice mode, evidently. But if you go on the World Dance Floor and see hundreds of dancers, with the vast majority struggling to hit megastars while a few put up 13,000's, it shows that there are many dancers who could benefit from some means (within the game) of seeking improvement. A practice mode could help many more players feel more competitive (and make the game seem less frustrating, if the practice helps them correct a few mistakes).
    Wow. Thanks for you insight @greekphysics
    Hypothetically speaking, I would utilize practice mode the same way you described.

    I've never played on The World Dance Floor before, but I have a highly competitive spirit. I would be hurt if I received a low score after dancing against anyone! That would mean I got served because of my poor dance movements LOL

    - Scottie
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  7. #7
    littlesiha's Avatar Member
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    I would LOVE a tutorial mode, especially for the extreme songs. There are some moves that are too fast to learn just by watching, which usually leads me to the YouTube videos of the full gameplays and slowing it down to 50%.
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  8. #8
    I started to dancing to JD 2019 with Switch yesterday. (Prior to that, I had only used Xbox Kinect and the PS4 camera for JD 2019.) I'm realizing that I would use a practice mode, if one existed, even more with the Switch, especially if the practice mode offered feedback (like the usual OK's, Goods, Supers, and Perfects) for the different moves.

    I find dancing with Kinect or the camera more straightforward, in the sense that I simply need to make my whole body copy exactly what I see, perfectly in sync. It's not always easy to do, but I know exactly what I'm trying to do.

    With Switch (or Wii U, or PS Move, or a smart phone), I understand that in principle I should be doing the same thing: trying to copy exactly what I see. I usually get a little too caught up in what the right hand is doing, losing a little focus on other parts of my body at times. This year, I'm focused on doing the dances exactly the same way that I do them with Kinect or the camera, trying to focus on my whole body, even if it costs me some points because my right hand is a little off at times.

    But the real problem that I have with remote/phone dancing is that I'm holding something in my right hand. First of all, when I grip the Switch Joy-Con, my hand sort of looks like a fist. But then when I watch the coach, sometimes the coach's hand is a flat palm instead of a fist. I start wondering, should the back of my hand match the back of the coach's hand? Or should my thumb match the coach's thumb? Or should I try to hold the Joy-Con with just my thumb and unflex my fingers so that they match the coach's unflexed fingers? When the coach sticks a thumb or finger out, or when the coach flexes or unflexes one or more fingers, that gets confusing, too. Like the dances where the singer is counting and the coach is holding up the same number of fingers. Even when the coach makes a fist, I find that my hand isn't quite in the usual shape of a fist, and I still wonder a little if I'm copying the move quite right.

    The picture of the recommended grip never seems natural to me. I really want to hold the remote/phone with my thumb in a different position. On top of trying to get my grip just right (and not inadvertently change it during the dance), there is the matter of how tightly to hold the grip. When I first started dancing to JD 2015 with Wii U a few years back, it never occurred to me to test this out. But in 2017, I discovered a few dances where a looser or tighter grip seemed to make a difference (and one dance in particular, I changed the tightness of my grip during the dance for different moves). I would really like to experiment with my right hand more with a practice mode. The right hand is just one small part of the whole body, and I would like to focus on the whole body more. A practice mode would help me get past my right hand quickly and focus more on the choreography.

    There have been times when I realized that my right hand was backwards compared to the coach in some way, and the change turned Good's into Perfects, so I know this matters to some extent. Perhaps it isn't as important as I make it out to be, though. I know that the dance does indirectly try to measure that my full body is moving correctly (at least for certain moves), and the motion, speed, and synchronization of the right hand are also important, probably more important than the grip, in general. But it's the grip that brings questions and doubts to my mind and hampers my confidence until I gain more experience. A practice mode would really help me with this.

    On the other hand, it's amazing how many players are hitting great scores with the Switch. Even on a Sunday, early in the week, the Dancer of the Week scores were almost all in the 13,000's, quite impressive. I'm accustomed to this with Xbox, but was surprised to see so many high scores on the Switch. It shows that many Switch dancers are figuring these dances out, offering some hope that I might be able to do much better with more experience with the Joy-Con. My own Switch scores aren't as impressive as my Kinect or camera scores yet, but with the 20 dances that I've done so far (including two extremes), the scoring seems pretty reasonable and doable.
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