Originally Posted by
greekphysics
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You opened a can of worms. Scoring frustrations: I could write an encyclopedia. :-)
It's fascinating that dancers of all levers from newbies to experts can get frustrated with the scoring. Being frustrated with all perfects is an experience that hundreds of dancers would like to have. With most dancers, the frustration is with a few tricky gold moves or with taking X's and OK's.
I understand what you mean though, as it's happened to me. It was more extreme in 2017. I hit all perfects on Bang one time, yet my score was in the 12900's. But eventually I learned something about the scoring. I was hitting all perfects on Bailar, yet my score at the time was never about 13,250, and then I realized that even though I was getting all perfects, there were a few subtle motions that I had been missing, and when I started doing these subtle moves, I finally hit 13,333 on that dance.
In 2018, the problem didn't seem as pronounced. I don't remember hitting less than 13,300 on a dance where I hit all perfects. Perhaps the introduction of the Super move helped. Or perhaps I had become better at trying to copy all of the moves I saw, instead of trying to figure out the most efficient way to hit a perfect.
I wish the scorecard that we see after the dance on the WDF would also show up in regular game play (perhaps not for Sweat Mode, but for just dancing to one song off the WDF it would be helpful). For many of the moves, my head isn't facing the t.v. and I don't even know what my score is. If I could see the scores tabulated on a scorecard after the dance (like it does on the WDF), it would really be helpful.
If a scorecard appeared after the dance, and if the scorecard included a few improvements, it would be really be helpful and alleviate a few scoring frustrations. Here are a few ways that the scorecard could be improved (and hopefully it would show up off the WDF too):
1. A breakdown of scores for each Gold Move. Right now, we just see YEAH or an X. If it's a YEAH, how well did we hit each gold move? Was it Good, Super, or Perfect? How many points did we earn for a gold move? We might see something like this:
GM1: 181/300
GM2: 247/300
2. For players who sometimes miss Gold Moves, this can really cause frustration for some players, especially competitive players, both kids and adults. My daughter has literally turned the game off immediately after missing a Gold Move. Occasionally, a Gold Move is looking for something rather subtle, too. First of all, I would say, for the sake of kids and recreational dancers who enjoy the game, don't give an X on a Gold Move for subtle issues: Make it fairly reasonable to hit the Gold Move, but give fewer points to players who "barely" hit it and more points to those who nail the subtlteties. Secondly, it would help to offer some feedback about how well the gold move was hit (like Good, Super, Perfect, or by giving a score as I suggested previously), as well as a reason for why the gold move was missed (a few of them can be tricky, and not everyone will devote the time needed to solve the puzzle). For example:
GM1: X (early)
GM2: X (late)
GM3: X (technique)
In my example, I would be able to tell if the main problem was timing or technique. That at least narrows it down a bit.
3. Include the number of X's. Right now, I see OK's, Good's, Super's, and Perfect's. (Well, that was for 2018. To be honest, I haven't ventured onto the WDF yet in 2019. I still need a week or two to feel more comfortable with all 52 dances.) As I mentioned before, sometimes I'm not facing the screen when a move is displayed. Am I taking X's on any moves where I'm not looking at the t.v.? It would help to know (without having to record the screen).
4. Are there any other reasons why the score might be less than 13,333 even if you hit all perfects? If so, some indication of how many points were lost and where those points went would be helpful. This would help address Imperial Draegon's issue.
It's the scoring that makes Just Dance so addicting. It gives you a benchmark to try to improve. It lets you compare your dancing with other players from around the world. Some of the issues that make scoring frustrating are what challenge us to keep improving.