Skill Analysis

There are many ways to differentiate skill in the game, and different players will have different strengths. When analyzing different kinds of skill, one has to consider the game mechanics and how various traits of a chart, when altered, changes the behavior of the players and the scores they get.

Of course, this does not mean that there is only a single way to categorize rhythm gaming skill. We will present a categorization that is intended to be slighly more generalized to VSRG's in general.

Here is a categorization of skill for KBO:

• Reading Ability: This is defined as how well a player can process the patterns in the mind and be able to react to them. Because this category involves the interpretation of patterns, any skills related to general patterns would fall under this as a subcategory. This is often times a matter of muscle memory and across players in general, takes the longest time to improve on.
  • Stream
  • Chordstream
  • Holdstream
  • General combo ability
• Physical Limit: There is a difference between reading high speed patterns and hitting them appropriately. For instance, jacks may be very easy to read, even at high speeds, but being able to execute them can be substantially more challenging. Any specific patterns that involve pushing the limit of physical ability would fall under this category.
  • Jacks
  • Trills
  • Brackets
  • Endurance
• Accuracy: Specifically referring to timing, this category alludes to different metrics related to timing accuracy and consistency.
  • Flawless/Perfect Accuracy
  • Accuracy in consistent rhythm
  • Accuracy in irregular rhythm
• Flexibility/Translation/Learning: The ability to effectively tackle a chart with irregular features, as well as being able to adapt to these features quickly. The key feature of this category is being able to react mentally and having fast reflexes.
  • Modifiers
  • X-mod charts
  • Tackling anything new (different scroll direction, playstyle, etc)

Some of the listed items can technically go into several categories, depending on their context. For example, mines, if new to the player, fall into not only the Reading Ability category, but also the Flexibility/Translation/Learning category. Depending on how fast or what patterns bursts are, bursts can go into the Reading Ability category and/or the Physical Limit category.

Also note that for specific rhythm games, you can introduce more subcategories based on the mechanics of that particular game. The more general categories can be applied to the rhythm simulation genre as a whole. This is the advantage of dividing the skill categories in such a way: it allows for general analysis of rhythm simulation skill and describe the specific skill points of a particular rhythm game. Different rhythm games will require a different combination and balance of various skill categories. This is one of the major reasons why certain people are good at certain kinds of rhythm games but not others.