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I'm a competitive Dance Dance Revolution player. nothing compares to the euphoria of being perfectly synchronized with the music, the notes on screen, and in an
by rogerclark 6y ago
I'm a competitive Dance Dance Revolution player. nothing compares to the euphoria of being perfectly synchronized with the music, the notes on screen, and in an ideal scenario, the person playing next to you.
all types of dancing and synchronized movement achieve this effect. in a lot of senses, when you perform these kinds of activities with other people, the informational content of your minds and bodies come closer together in the possible configurational space of brain states. your sensory input, mental activity, and bodily sensations all line up, creating an instant bond with another person, as you can be 100% sure that you now have common ground with each other. the psychological, social and emotional benefits are real.
watching a movie or listening to music together with someone obviously achieves the same effect, but without as many modalities involved
- hinkley 6y agoHave you read much about flow state? Lots of athletes report it but there are other routes in.
- rogerclark 6y agoyeah for sure, and that's clearly what's going on in this case. thankfully my hobby naturally facilitates/induces a flow state, so it's a great way to train getting into the zone. also very meditative
- randycupertino 6y agoDo you play at home? I was thinking about starting to play DDR for fitness (and fun) at home but haven't done a deep dive into the setup requirements. Any tips for a newb or equipment you recommend?
- rogerclark 6y agoI have an arcade machine for practice. but before coronavirus, serious players preferred public arcades (namely Round1 and Dave & Buster's) because those locations have the only official networked machines capable of participating in worldwide leaderboards. if you want to start playing at home, the cheap-but-decent option is StepMania ( https://stepmania.com https://stepmania.com ) and the L-tek "Polish" pad (looks scammy but it's real): https://maty-taneczne.pl/ https://maty-taneczne.pl/ the serious option is the StepManiaX stage (confusingly distinct from the above project): https://stepmaniax.com/ https://stepmaniax.com/ or finding a used arcade machine on Craigslist or eBay
- bradstewart 6y agoThank you for this. I love music festivals, and as strange as it sounds, one or two a year put me in a much better frame of mind. I've been struggling to explain this to my significant other who accepts it, but ultimately views them as just a party. To me "the psychological, social and emotional benefits are real". Very real.
- ksdale 6y agoI've always felt the same way about crowded sporting events. Intellectually, I understand that sports are rather... shallow?, but there's something that just seems magical about tens of thousands of people gathered in one place for a shared purpose and being so loud.
- mettamage 6y agoIf you were on the Dutch organized world championship years ago, I might've seen you. Not a competitive DDR player, I was part of the random audience that was there.
- jdashg 6y agoThat sounds awesome but none of those happen for me.
- robotresearcher 6y agoAlso playing music together. A band or orchestra that gets in the groove is a beautiful thing to be a piece of.