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Originally Posted by MadDogBV  Thank you for boiling my post down to nothing more than unintelligible gibberish. Unfortunately, I will not take you up on your request.
I didn't see any hint of sarcasm. Whether or not the actual meaning of your post is different from the context that I may have interpreted it as, I still have the right to reply whether you like it or not, especially if the point that you may have unwittingly brought up is valid. I understand that there is a Bemani elite community here that absolutely hates ITG for taking off the DDR 4-panel concept, but the game did add new mechanics to the dance game world with hands, mines, difficult songs, edits, R21, mods, and other concepts. By removing this competitor, DDR has not only alienated the ITG audience, but has alienated some of their own fans as well. So, to satisfy the customers that they've lost, they have made some changes to DDRX that smell suspiciously of, but aren't quite exactly like, ITG.
Unfortunately, Konami's attempt to replicate that with the DDR franchise up to this point, with DDRX, has been laughably bad and poorly orchestrated. The E-Amusement business in the United States has been slowed down thanks to an overt concern with machine hackers, as well as an insistence on SD cards over the preferred USB format. In fact, the unplayability of the game due to the construction of the cabinet is driving away casual players, not simply the hardcore ones. There are other reasons of course, such as the band game craze that's popped up in the US recently, but that's another story.
All of this all grew with the temper tantrum lawsuit that Konami filed against RoXoR - yes, an argument could be made for "unfair competition," but ITG did have a great deal of originality in it. Konami could have installed some of their ideas without having to demolish a market, but no, they went down the corporate dick-flailing route. |
-Elitism is in the eye of the beholder. I find ITGers are much more elitest and general internet pricks than DDR players, but other say otherwise. We can point fingers at each other forever.
-Insistence on SD cards over the USB format? Did you see the cabinet? There are no SD card slots. Additionally, "hacking" the game was an excuse, there's no proof SN2 was ever hacked.
-Konami sued Roxor primarily on the arcade cabinet issue, not because of concept. DDR simulators have existed for years with people making stupid-hard stepcharts since 2nd Mix. ITG was in no means any pioneer in that field.
-Your original post eludes to a theory that Konami's stepchart model is trying to mimic ITG's, but DDR's been moving in that direction for a long time before ITG existed.
-One of ITG's reasons it even existed was the hiatus of AC DDR, and fans wanting something more.
-Enlighten me what new "features" in X attempted to replicate ITG. Shock arrows? Those existed in Pump before ITG, so don't give your game too much credit there. It's also not like it's a groundbreaking new idea either, and it's not even necessitated in gameplay unless you want it to be, unlike ITG (where you can't save your score if you remove mines).
Another thing you seem to misunderstand is that what happens in America is a completely different market to Konami of Japan, and it's not like they necessarily understand (nor in some cases care). ITG influenced the American fanbase and has only picqued the interest of Koreans and Mexicans. That's it.