I see two opposing stances prevalent here as well as well as quite a few people compromising, when I ask myself what I think, I find myself compromising too. There is no right or wrong, there is no reason why the average user should be expected to step up their game, but that's not important or difficult subject, what matters is
more people doing so would benefit the community.
You (you) personally don't need to justify why you don't have the time or ability or motivation, because anyone with any common sense understands that time, ability, and motivation varies from person to person. There really is no need for this. If someone legitimately wants to git gud, nobody here will stand in their way, nor will anyone here be someone they should expect to rely on. STG is niché. Strategy guides are all well and good but when it comes down to it you need to work hard at the game you want to learn and understand all the nuances, for any game worth a damn, this can take a very long time if you factor in actually playing as well as understanding it. For most users I imagine this task is insurmountable due to the cheer difficulty of these games. Damn near everyone gives up by default whether they know it or not.
As someone who puts in several thousand hours of time on these games and plays a large amount on most days, no doubt I would be expected to blindly agree with what Icarus, Eaglet et al are saying. Generally I'm in full agreement and what they say makes sense, but I have my own point of view. Naturally I have my own skill level and experiences so I can't see through the eyes of someone else, such as someone who spent less time but got better, or someone who spend more time but is not as good, but I have been a casual myself at some point, so it's not like my experiences from that time have somehow dissolved.
"Time" and "Effort" and such things are not the be-all-end-all to improving. Many people assume that, if you just put in enough time, you will get better than someone who puts in less time. I'll tell you right now this is false. This is delusional and an egocentric point of view. People are not equal. A lot of people use this as an excuse for why they aren't good and assume they never will be. You're not only selling yourself short this way, but also reducing top level players achievements down to a mere timesink, even though competitive games have many, many players that invests enormous hours into them, fewer players still reach the top. Why? Think about that. Whether you call it better practicing, better mindsets, more smarts, or better ability, either way it reinforces the truth that people are not equal. What works for someone may not work for someone else. Find out what works for you, know yourself.
Moving on more specifically to what people are saying:
This. Not all of us are men-children with enough free time and fixation for 1CC's.
Although crudely worded and talking about 1cc instead of score as if 1cc is difficult, this is still something I firmly believe in. Not everyone has the free time or fixation. With less free time, that doesn't mean you can't get good in the long run, though. Someone who plays efficiently many hours every day for half a year can easily be on even ground with someone who plays only only a bit on weekends for 5 years. Fixation (drive, motivation, whatever) is still essential and as long as that's missing you'll be a casual. I said before that time spent is not all that matters, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. It matters a lot, but if there is a will there is a way. I know there's superplayers that play for a long period of time instead of every day.
A great start to the community "growing up" would be to stop fetishizing 1ccs. 1cc is a basic goal, that to anyone with basic ability, won't require a lot of work in most games. There's of course exceptions where even highly skilled players may need to sit down and learn the game properly and struggle quite a bit to 1cc (DOJWL 2ALL for example). A 1cc is generally a personal goal and milestone and understandably a satisfying achievement to many people, but fooling yourself into believing that most 1ccs requires big skill or time committment is laughable.
Just aiming this generally towards the forum, if you think this is elitist what I'm saying now then, if you're someone who thinks 1ccs are difficult and you actually have put in a lot of effort to get them, IMO you are doing something wrong. My advice would be to change your approach completely, play more games, get more serious, analyse your games, work on your reading and your movement. Eventually most games will feel like a walk in the park to just try to 1cc. And if you have no inclination to put in effort to begin with and thus don't have 1ccs then well I see no reason for you to be bothered.
What I really play these games (and other types of games like fighters and whatnot) for is the moment to moment sense of excitement during the game, not any minor or fleeting sense of satisfaction when it's over. The sense of achievement from actually winning is a minor bonus that doesn't really matter to me that much. For me, it's about the journey, not the destination.
This and being "hardcore" are not mutually exclusive. Of course, do the same thing over and over enough and that very excitement can easily lead to boredom and frustration, but make no mistake, at the core it is still an excitement. Pushing yourself and your game further and further is exciting in the moment-to-moment gameplay and not just when you get what you're after, because (pressumably) you would be playing a game that is, well, inherently exciting to play well. This is what good STGs are.
Honestly I wouldn't call anyone that actual plays SHMUPs for a 1CC (regardless if the game is "easy" or not) a casual.
I suppose there's different tiers of casuals. From my point of view damn near everyone here is a casual, but I'm not damning any one of you for it. I have other interests myself that I've pushed aside just to play more videogames, and some day I'll have to stop and only past that point will I know if I'm happy with how I spent my time.
This idea people have that you require months of hard grinding to get even slightly decent is ridiculous. Besides, the breaks taken are just as important as the long sessions.
From the general Farm perception, I would agree with you, it is a ridicuous notion. But even if it doesn't take months of hard grinding to be slightly decent, what about actually decent? what about actually good?
That being said, I'm a lot better at these games than I used to be. Maybe if I continue to play, one day I'll be at the point where clearing Dodonpachi et al won't be an insurmountable task. I think I owe some amount of this accumulated "general" skill to the fact that I'm playing different games. For example, Zanac and Zanac Special are just incredible games to gain general shooter skills on, as they have randomized enemies and patterns that make for very solid core skills. Not to say that I wouldn't be better off sticking with one game, but... well, that's just not a draw for me.
Playing multiple games is a good way to improve your skill level, generally better than playing just 1 game. Playing 1 game is more about being good at that 1 game, but this will require more basic ability. Broadening your horizons and playing more games can definitely help, but don't take them lightly, try to get serious, take improvement seriously, motivation and mindset is a big deal.
Also I agree:
