ddr fading away

pleasedon'thurtme · Trick Member Joined: 29 Jul 2008 Location: Earth

When you mentioned "that one urban dance game", were you by any chance referring to Flow, chennymountain? I suppose I should have asked, "how much do such attitudes vary among regions?" as in, "do most places hold such attitudes, or is every place greatly different?"
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chennymountain · Trick Member Joined: 06 Jan 2008

Suko · Trick Member Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Location: Lynnwood, WA

aegisjester · Basic Member Joined: 13 Aug 2009

don't forget American's affinity with sports games, not exactly the most in-depth adventures.

Back to the heart of the matter, I don't think DDR is going anywhere fast. Its market share might be going down a bit, but so did Mario Bros. after the playstation came out. Last time I checked, people still play mario quite a bit.

Hell, I got my first DDR game in May (it seems somebody mislabeled a brand new DDR universe 3 with a dance pad for $16 one evening, my roommate and I decided it was worth the investment). Every new release generates quite a bit of hype, but so do a lot of other things so its not quite as evident as it used to be.

Syncopation · Trick Member Joined: 03 Feb 2003

PureBlue · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:18 am Post subject:

Suko · Trick Member Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Location: Lynnwood, WA

PureBlue · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:53 am Post subject:

I already have Max 1 and Max2 and play them regularly

I kinda took what Syncopation said out of context; I meant BEFORE Extreme 2 you just had to play game mode to unlock songs. I should have made that clearer.

chennymountain · Trick Member Joined: 06 Jan 2008

Yeah, they have you just passing beginner songs, then about 3 days worth of story mode later, you have to AA M300SMMM, Xepher, Healing D Vision, and Chaos Oni. Not. Fun. At. All.
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suneelkumar85 · Basic Member Joined: 22 Jul 2009

They're still two separate games, I don't quite understand where you're coming from. If they were the same, ITG would have been called Stepmania. One is a simulator for the PC, one is an arcade game that got sued by Konami. End of story. Besides that point, I may have only joined last year, but I can guarantee you that join dates mean absolutely nothing. 100% guaranteed, I could drink 1 1/2 bottles of Robitussin Long Acting Cough Syrup and still beat you at DDR or ITG. Yes, I am blatantly putting it out there that I could be tripping hardcore and still beat you at DDR.
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P3MA · Basic Member Joined: 16 Jul 2009 Location: Jersey Shore,NJ

Here at the Jersey Shore, DDR has leveled off at certain places like bowling alley's and movie theaters. I do believe though that DDR is starting to become popular again at arcades around here. When I try to freestyle at my arcade, I usually have a crowd of at least 5 people watching me. Since freestyle was never huge around here and most players are PA'ers, you can get away with basic moves.

Famine · Trick Member Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Location: VA

Exercise doesn't die. It's a lifestyle.

Anyway, the problem with DDR is the name.

Why would you ever associate this game with dancing? It is quite possibly the worst decision ever made.

The very fact this unique physical activity has been branded with such a terrible name for over a decade will always draw criticism and stigma. I think if Konami, from the get-go, made the game more technical* and more attractive to exercise avenues, it would have been much more socially acceptable as a unique sport.

*For example, why, after all these years, do we still use discretized timing windows?

#Infinity · Trick Member Joined: 22 Jan 2006 Location: San Diego, CA

I kinda got into running a lot more than DDR by high school, and although it was a really fun game while it lasted, it's pretty much a been-there-done-that situation for me now. I still play it occasionally play StepMania for fun, though (just did right now, in fact).
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8ftmetalhead · Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:07 am Post subject:

For those of us in the more useless countries (IE New Zealand) DDR hasn't really faded away. It can't, since it never really hit us.

There are no large arcade chains here save for 1 or 2, but even then they only have locations in the largest cities in very small places (IE Auckland's most popular is underneath a Burger King) and the other places that have machines have the oldest, shoddiest games you can think of, and they often get rid of them because they don't make enough money, or charge obscene amounts of money ($2 per game, no doubles kinda situation).

There's only two DDR machines that I know of in Auckland, and they're not in fantastic condition, and people don't exactly queue to use them.

I first heard about DDR from a friend last year, who pointed me at stepmania. After I bought Fusion, Supernova, Megamix and Fever (in that order) for my PS2, and built my own hard pad.
I found out about SuperNova2 end of last year, thought it was a new release, but it turned out to be more than a year old. I still bought it off Ebay UK, like the rest of my games.

Some are listed on the EB games website, but you can only get them pre owned, and they don't have any in stock anywhere in NZ.
I've seen Dancing Stage fusion twice in their preowned stock, one copy of Dance UK, two copies of DS Universe, and two copies of DS Universe 2 at the warehouse. That's how bad it is over here. I can fully remember the times that I've seen the bloody games.

Gah, it makes me so mad. This country is too small for anything fun or useful to bother with this country.

In any case though, I'm trying to get people into it more, because there's alot of SM players around. Hence why heaps of auctions for USB mats have appeared on TradeMe.
I just hope the next DDR titles arrive here soon.... and I swear I'm gonna throw a fit if they aren't released.

Tl; Dr, NZ's useless for DDR, can't disappear having never appeared in the first place.
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MeltedIce · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:06 am Post subject:

I guess I could be considered a vet? I started playing in 2003. My take on this thread is this...

Its sad that I remember this but my first day I ever played was September 3rd, 2003. It was on a DDR Extreme machine and my first song was Speed Over Beethoven, since it was the only one I recognized from the demo songs. I was 16 at the time. I always had a love for music games and this one was awesome. I remember coming home and finding this site, then stumbling onto Stepmania. The first couple months of DDR are the best when its all so fresh and new. The years went by and I continued to play until late 2005. The end of DDR for me was when they really messed up the US DDR Extreme. I couldn't take the changes and I slowly lost my love for it.

Back then there were no social networks, there wasn't Xbox Live, text messaging, and all these things that make us all so connected. DDR was a way to connect to people. People who shared a common interest. It brought you together at a local arcade. In a way, DDR was in a sense, a social network. This is what made the game so fun. Meeting people. The music blasting. The crowds that would gather around. It was just a rare and different experience.

Nowadays you know what everyone is doing. Twitter, Facebook. If someone sneezes you will know it. Your audience is your virtual friends instead of the crowd. Meeting someone is only a click away.

I won't say DDR is dead because it's not. Its still around it's just not the same. SN1 and SN2 were awful. The direction Konami took the game just doesn't fit. DDR was always about the music to me. Its not about scores, or making sure my timing is absolutely perfect. It was about playing your favorite songs, feeling the music and dancing. The game is taking to much of a competitive nature for me to truly get into it.

I was recently down Wildwood New Jersey and walked by Gateway 26 where there was ALWAYS a DDR machine right on the boardwalk. For 3 years I played Extreme there and there were ALWAYS people on it. Well there is still a DDR cabinet there but it is SN2, and its facing in a weird direction. No one was on it. It was truly a sad sad sight.

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8ftmetalhead · Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:18 am Post subject:

holy thread necromancy!
almost a year old thread my friend.

Humm, having spent the year at uni, I've found a few machines around, aswell as had the local extreme repaired. There's still certainly an interest in DDR but I think here it's not so much dead as 'on hiatus till arcades get their acts together'.
There are alot of people who come down and play in the groove though. Extreme, not so much, but that particular arcade sees alot more action during the holidays. being a cinema arcade and all.
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