WHY is it called a black flag? PS. I hate them

[Strikingvipr]

Title says it all... I get them ALL the time but I don't really know why one good on a song is called a black flag. Please enlighten me!

[duddychuck@yahoo.com]

Cause we're racist.

[TC_Halogen]

You'd be looking way back into rhythm gaming history here to know why that term was coined. It seems to carry over from a lot of rhythm games, but many people leave out the color and tend to generalize a single non-perfect judgment as a "flag."

It's something you might be able to look up, though.

[DossarLX ODI]

Because you'd probably black out from the shock of your AAA getting ruined.

[Evnoir]

I also have the same question.
Why are blackflags and whiteflags called upon as that?

[Hakulyte]

Potential interesting read even if i'm not sure it's completely related.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchi...ism#Black_flag

[igotrhythm]

Originally Posted by TC_Halogen

You'd be looking way back into rhythm gaming history here to know why that term was coined. It seems to carry over from a lot of rhythm games, but many people leave out the color and tend to generalize a single non-perfect judgment as a "flag."

It's something you might be able to look up, though.

Pretty much this. The way I heard it, the term was originally applied to having a perfect score tarnished at the last possible moment, but later expanded to mean any run where one unfortunate judgment holds a player back from the highest possible score on the song. Later, the "flag" terminology spread from DDR (?) to other rhythm games, since there's a fair amount of overlap in the larger community.

To be more specific to how it applies here:
Blackflag is 1-0-0-0.
Avflag is 0-1-0-0.
Missflag is 0-0-1-0.
Booflag is 0-0-0-1.

[DossarLX ODI]

"Additionally, as a white flag is the universal symbol for surrender to superior force, the black flag is a symbol of defiance, an opposition to surrender."

I'm assuming white flag and blackflag are interchangeable in FFR since there's no marvellous. The "opposition" part may be that you find 1 good to be a lot worse than anything else - even maybe a missflag or booflag. As for the "white flag" being a surrender, you'd probably just give up playing the file (aka surrendering) since the good was probably random and you don't feel like playing it again. An averageflag may not be as bad because it looks a lot more interesting. Then again, you could go back to the "blacking out from shock" explanation lmfao.

I can definitely see a whiteflag being called a whiteflag in stepmania though - 1 perfect away from a quad. You'd probably just say "fuck I give up" if you're sick of trying to quad a song lol.

[dore]

I was under the impression that originally a whiteflag meant a non-perfect on the last step of the song, a racing metaphor that refers to the fact if you lose a race after the white flag, you fucked up on the last lap basically. Then blackflag meant a non-perfect anywhere, because a blackflag is a penalty flag in racing (which occurs at any time you fuck up).

or maybe thats just cuz im a redneck nascar fan

[Strikingvipr]

Apparently everyone is just confused as I am, maybe some questions are better left unanswered. At least this sparked an interesting discussion and many interesting points were raised; thanks everyone for your responses!

[Doug31]

A very long time ago, I heard in some rhythm game (I think it was DDR), when you got one great or good or something like that, it actually showed a flag. Sorry I really don't remember the details, but that's where this all came from, and then the names of all the other flags slowly spawned from that.

[LJRoX]

Originally Posted by igotrhythm

Pretty much this. The way I heard it, the term was originally applied to having a perfect score tarnished at the last possible moment, but later expanded to mean any run where one unfortunate judgment holds a player back from the highest possible score on the song. Later, the "flag" terminology spread from DDR (?) to other rhythm games, since there's a fair amount of overlap in the larger community.

To be more specific to how it applies here:
Blackflag is 1-0-0-0.
Avflag is 0-1-0-0.
Missflag is 0-0-1-0.
Booflag is 0-0-0-1.

You forgot an omniflag/rainbowflag

1-1-1-1

[Oni-Paranoia]

Originally Posted by igotrhythm

To be more specific to how it applies here:
Blackflag is 1-0-0-0.
Avflag is 0-1-0-0.
Missflag is 0-0-1-0.
Booflag is 0-0-0-1.

That is how it applies to FFR specifically. I remember it use to be more like this....

Blackflag is 1-0-0-0.
Redflag is 0-1-0-0.
Blueflag is 0-0-1-0.
Whiteflag is 0-0-0-1.

Everyone here invented the Avflag and Missflag concept just from learning that having one note off in a song was considered some type of flag.

[sakura080789]

Originally Posted by dore

I was under the impression that originally a whiteflag meant a non-perfect on the last step of the song, a racing metaphor that refers to the fact if you lose a race after the white flag, you fucked up on the last lap basically. Then blackflag meant a non-perfect anywhere, because a blackflag is a penalty flag in racing (which occurs at any time you fuck up).

or maybe thats just cuz im a redneck nascar fan

This. by the way the last part made me laugh.

[kmay]

my guess is it happened when ITG came out and it could no longer be a great flag(from DDR) so they made the universal black flag... idk just my guess

[Ziergdsx18]

Originally Posted by LJRoX

You forgot an omniflag/rainbowflag

1-1-1-1

Lmfao thats a good one. XD

Multiflag.

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by dore

I was under the impression that originally a whiteflag meant a non-perfect on the last step of the song, a racing metaphor that refers to the fact if you lose a race after the white flag, you fucked up on the last lap basically. Then blackflag meant a non-perfect anywhere, because a blackflag is a penalty flag in racing (which occurs at any time you fuck up).

or maybe thats just cuz im a redneck nascar fan

Interesting. I never would have thought of it that way.

@ kmay: a single great on a song was a black flag in DDR times - this term was coined a while ago, it was just considered a non-colored flag (i.e. I flagged MAX 300 would signify a score of one great). If a score had any non perfect/great judgments, it was no longer considered a flag.

[PanStyle]

Kinda what Halogen just said.

I don't really know where this term came from but it has to be from DDR since everything started with this game.

I mostly use the term "Flag" instead of "BlackFlag" (too long maybe).

A Flag/BlackFlag, on DDR, is an FC with all OK (freezes) but with one great.
On ITG it's the same, but with one excelent (perfect).
If you get all fantastic (marvelous) on a song on ITG but with one great, the game will call it "Green flag". Because of the color of the judgement. Great is green.
So you can have blue, purple, red... with good, average ("almost" on ddr) and miss.

I don't know how you call a perfect full combo but without all the OK.
Like you get all the perfects but got one NG.
FreezyFlag ? Ahah.

The WhiteFlag is a song from Dido, nothing to do with an arrow game (but i like what you said about it. It also make sence).

The great on the last step, for some people, is called "True Black Flag".
I call it like this too.
I got this twice in my DDR Arcade gamer life. And... it hurts, more than a standard flag.

[Reincarnate]

The term came about from years and years ago.

The "flag" terminology came about because it used to be associated with first/last step metrics. For instance, a "whiteflag" didn't mean "all Marvs and one Perfect" (esp. since marv timing didn't exist), but it meant getting a Great on the first step and Perfects on the rest -- "white" because you were intentionally "surrendering" your AAA with the knowledge you had already lost it. A blackflag, in contrast, was all Perfects but a Great on the LAST step (black = death association -- having everything perfect and then screwing up right at the end. REALLY frustrating).

Of course, over time there were more flag terms added that generally just meant "screwing up with 1" -- blueflagging meaning one Good and purpleflagging meaning one Boo and redflagging meaning one Miss (greenflagging actually meant getting one freeze NG). Blackflagging, having already been associated with getting a really undesirable Great, managed to stick to the tune of "getting 1 Great" (some people would call traditional last-step Greats "True Blackflags" but almost no one uses this anymore).

[Reincarnate]

obligatory </thread>