Has the DDR Era ended?

[stuffmonger]

[Travelsonic]

[Suko]

A buddy of mine made a good observation, or perhaps it's more of a theory. He noticed that the "hot spots" for DDR or ITG activity migrate. In the US, many could agree that the DDR scene really took off in California, specifically Southern California. A few years later (2001-2004) it was centered in the Pacific NorthWest, in the Seattle/Tacoma region. Though I feel that now the "hot spot" is a bit more vague, it seems like it's now in the midwestern areas of the US. This might have some truth to it; Roxor tested ITG and ITG 2 primarily in the Pacific NorthWest around 2004, and Konami tested for both SuperNovas in Illinous, in 2006 & 2007.

It's an interesting theory, and perhaps this is why some people (myself included) noticie a decline in activity at all the dance machines in a region, and others seem to be doing just fine, it not even better.
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"Arcades have gone away but the culture is not gone."

DDRecall | Groovestats | Beatspace | UI Bemani Club | Suko's Shirt Shack

[littlekev0]

BTW, there was an announcement on May 15th, 2008 for the release of 3 new DDR titles and for something else called "Rock Revolution"(GH or RB wannabe?). PS2 will have "DDR X"; Wii will have "Hottest Party 2"; Xbox 360 will have "Universe 3". They are all expected to be released by the fall in time for DDR's 10th anniversary.

[FwAnkY Bouy]

Well DDR in montreal, from what I have heard, has been dead since ITG2 came out, and most of the players that began when ITG2 came out(about 20-25) are still playing. My brothers and I added to the mix in mid-late 2007. But since then, I haven't seen any other hardcore players starting playing dancing games. The only other players I have seen play are susking one who bring tricky disco 3 times in a row with mods like beat and they think thair cool, but they end up with more greats and exelents then fantastics.And I am not in the best phisical shape ever, in my health weight range, but a bit high in it XD, but I can still do songs with steps rounding 2000, and there are guys who look 10 times healthier than me, but die on like 6s, out of breath, and then they say that it's just a geme, that you don't need physical skils to play it.

And what people who want to close arcades don't understand is : If you close them, gangs will just migrate somewhere else, thats just moving the problem, pointless, why don't they just try to fight crime instead of moving it.

And I had the chance to try some of the newer DDR mixes, and I personally think that they will only appeal 12-14 year old girls, I don't think that we will see a lot of new hardcore players in the future. They missed the puck with Hottest party(see mike from santee's video on the subject), Fcked it up with the non FPC AAAs, and the online mode of universe sucks.

Just my 5$ bill, sorry for typos or sentences with no sense, don't want to read it all again XD
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If God gives you lemons, find an new god.

[Jimmybuffett]

[DJX]

As was already mentioned, I think a big contributor to the decline in the DDR scene is the decline in the arcade business in general. I think there are probably more people playing DDR at home now than there ever have been before with there being versions on three different platforms now; however, there is no intuitive reason for someone who owns the game at home to know that there is an arcade version or that there is an entire culture rooted in playing the game socially and competitively.
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[Travelsonic]

[littlekev0]

I live in the bronx, just 15 minutes from New Roc by metro north. I go all the time with my 9yr old son and the Extreme machine is always malfunctioning, and the last time I was there (April 15th, in the early afternoon), the Max machine was acting up as well. Everytime we go there is zero wait time and we have the machines to ourselves. We usually go on weekdays in the early PM. I know that the weekends may be more busy, or maybe on wacky wednsday, with the 4hr time slots for only $25 bucks, and unlimited pizza and soda! We will be back within the next couple of weeks!

[CHUCK BASS]

God damn.
I haven't posted here in awhile.

I'm still playing all that junk, but in regards to the total scene.
We still have a good number of machines around here. Are all of them in the best condition? Definatley not. There's still a HUGE group of us that plays, but we're pretty much restricted to one DECENT machine. I think the condition of machines is going to die off before the players do. Considering any support for dedicabs is virtually impossible these days.

The other thing I see at my arcade, is theres a few of these 10 year olds that come in with parents every so often just to go play. There's a new generation of players coming in, I just don't think it's going to be enough. They aren't really going to have a good condition of machines later down the road, unless dedicabs revive themselves somehow.

I can just compare it to skateboarding kinda. By the time you quit, theres going to be some little kid, who's already doing everything you could, and doing it better.

[littlekev0]

That was so true! Like I said before, I have a 9yr old son who plays less than I do, but I could see he could possibly get better than me! He even has his friends over and they all get hooked as well. As for the machines in the arcades, who knows, it seems like no one cares to fix, maintain or replace them. Like someone said before, maybe more people are playing at home instead, it does come out to be cheaper than to travel to the arcade, feed the machine, then get hungry, buy food, something to drink, then travel home again. You wont have to worry about if when you get there, is the machine in working order? You can be in the comfort of your home, have the fridge available, rest when needed, invite whoever you want, and the variety of game consoles. Did I mention no business hours to worry about? We play how and when we want!

[The Legend of LOUIE]

[littlekev0]

And don't forget Guitar freaks, and Drummania!

[The Legend of LOUIE]

[pleasedon'thurtme]

[A. Phillips]

I used to work at an arcade so I know how the decline really looks. I would spend my 8 hour shift cleaning and such and watching to see if anyone would even come into the arcade. At most there was only 1 or 2 people in the arcade at any given moment. And the DDR was never played on. I worked on that machine every few days to make sure it worked for me. (Had to get those AAA's)

Arcades as a whole have lost their appeal. Most people just buy a PS3 or XBox 360 or even a Wii. These people will play all their games at home and never come to the arcade or sign up here or at itgfreak.
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< some words here >

[yukihime]

Trends do fluctuate, and they do that in different parts of the country (and world).

Right now the whole arcade thing just doesn't seem to be quite as popular - not just DDR. There's only 1 arcade in our neighborhood and we live near a major University! And that one arcade, when it's crowded, it's crowded with screaming, running, rude, "gimme a quarter, lady" little kids. Annnd, they don't even have a DDR machine.

Konami, imho, I think needs to make more of themselves here in the US. With the new games coming out this fall (you can already pre-order CS DDR X) and the fact that they're testing DDR X machines in Japan, well they should be pushing for more places to get arcade machines, do more advertising ... really make their presence known, have someone "famous" do a couple short TV ads playing in an arcade even.

I don't think DDR is "dead", I'm not sure arcades are truly "dead" - some are busy. Just depends where you live and I think also how involved the arcade owners and staff are with the arcade gaming community. As in, do they listen to what people want? Do they keep their machines in good working order and the place itself clean? That kind of thing.
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Live Like There's No Tomorrow,
Dance Like Nobody's Watching!

[DJX]

I think it's worth pointing out that the survival (or revival, depending on your point of view) of DDR is likely to be very dependent on the current player base; that would be us.

Far too many older players - both that I've met IRL and heard from on this board - don't seem interested in introducing a new generation to the game. Everyone is all too eager to reminisce about the old days, talk about how much the SuperNOVA series sucks, and of course, claim that DDR is dying or dead. On top of that, the ones that still play often keep to themselves or stick within their circles of other older DDR players with all of their focus being on scoring.

What people forget is that the community was originally born out of people grouping up to play DDR just to have fun. This is certainly not an insult to the people who strive to achieve high scores (after all, that would be flaming myself), but it's only enticing and interesting to other people if it actually looks fun and not just brutally hard.

So my request to other players is this: be social! If people gather to watch you play, encourage them to give it a try. If you see someone struggling to figure out what to do, give them some advice. Just have fun and the rest will follow.
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[badger]

no it has not ended.

lol @ guitar hero


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LMAOhttp://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=111334

[yukihime]