If you would like a dance game upgrade in Louisiana, read this!!

[dj ralph]

Dear Fellow Gamers,

I have been thinking over the last few days about our fair state and its dance game conditions. A few different places have attempted to get In the Groove 2, however, one machine ended up being reverted back to DDR 5th Mix because of an I/O error (Boomtown) and the other pair of machines in Lafayette do not work properly.

In my opinion, Gameware is the only place that would even consider an upgrade. It's also the only place where the pads can be maintained regularly by individuals who actually care that the machine is in working order.

Steve (the owner of Gameware) has said that he would like to upgrade the machine, but is worried about a few things. Here's what they are:
1.) Cost. The ITG2 upgrade costs $2999. That is no small chunk of change.

2.) Name Recognition DDR is the term most people use when they see a dance game. Plus, the songs on DDR Extreme are familiar to most players now.

3.) The Current Machine's Condition Gameware's machine has been in many different states since its arrival, ranging from nearly broken to flawless pads on both sides.

I have come to the realization that if Steve could be convinced that none of these problems were actually an issue, it might be possible to convince him to upgrade. Let me rebut each one of these concerns, one by one:

1.) The Cost of Everything Else While a $3000 upgrade seems steep, it isn't even sure whether DDR Supernova upgrade kits will become available. Plenty of people on the internet are saying they're getting one, but they haven't been announced yet. A DDR Supernova dedicab is $15,000, and an ITG 2 dedicab is $10,000.

2.) Recognition? At Laser Tag, people play their Pump It Up Zero machine like there's no tomorrow. It's one of the establishment's highest earners, and that's even on days when the "core" crowd doesn't go in and play. Most people will walk up to a dancing game and just want to play it, presuming the name and just jumping on and stomping the arrows. Back in 1999 and 2000, before DDR's name had been established here in the US, people just wanted to play it because it looked cool, and that is still true.

3.) Gameware's Machine ...isn't that bad. Plus, Gameware's regular customers have no problem cleaning the pads. For free. Most arcades won't let thier players clean their pads because they're worried about them breaking the machine, but Gameware trusts its most frequent customers, who have been cleaning the pads for quite a while now and are quite good at it. The screen is in great condition, the face buttons are fine, and when cleaned properly, the panels are in tournament condition.

Here's the plan:

First off, I would like to hold a tournament at Gameware soon. This tournament will be promoted to everyone in Louisiana, and surrounding areas too. There will be spots in the tournament for Light and Standard players. That way, they won't be scared off by the thought of having to play against experienced Heavy players.

This tournament will hold two purposes:

1.) To show Steve the interest in getting an upgrade. Everyone who comes in should tell Steve they're there because they want an upgrade, maybe there could be a sheet with all of our signatures on it.

2.) To raise money for the upgrade. I'm not saying we'll raise enough money to pay for it or anything, but maybe if we could raise some of the money for the upgrade ourselves, Gameware will realize we're serious about this. All of the proceeds from this tournament will go to Gameware in the interest of getting this upgrade. Perhaps the entry fee could be $10 instead of $5.

People who travel, I can offer some gas money to, if they're worried about the fact that they won't be making any money out of coming and winning the tournament. Perhaps some of us could pitch in and offer a prize to the winner, like something really nice. I personally wouldn't mind buying something like... a Nintendo DS Lite if someone from out of state comes and wins this thing over all my friends.

If you have any suggestions, PM me or post in this thread. Let's pool our ideas and come up with a tournament and a plan that Steve won't be able to resist.

Thank you for your time in reading this, and I hope you're with me! Louisiana needs something new, let's all be a part of the team of people who made it happen!

[ninthace]

*follows Ralph's example*


I'm with you!
Though I didn't know Gameware was thinking about an upgrade (instead of a dedicab). Either one would be awesome though.

As for the big three Steve would concern himself with as stated by wolf2ktd:

Name recognition: I think the best way to reassure Steve that walk-ins would still play ITG is to get reassurance from other arcade owners. We could ask owners/managers if there was a difference in the money a machine made when it switched from DDR to something else, or if the arcade never had DDR, then how much does the machine make. I guess this would be like finding more places like the Laser Tag wolf2ktd mentioned.

The Machine: While there are locals who clean the pads to working condition, the sensors that are in there will not work forever. A full set isn't needed, but another eight at the least will be needed sometime soon, sixteen would be preferable.

Cost: The sensors will just add more to the cost, and I would guess that businesses don't like spending more money than they must. Another route that we could explore with the raising money in a tournament would be to cover maintainance costs such as sensors. Gameware could drop $11K for a ITG2 dedicab or $3K for an upgrade, but if they upgrade, there will still be bad sensors. I think that is part of why Stephen (the manager) is opposed to an upgrade, at least when I talked to him last. What if we used the money taken in from the tournament to buy new parts for the machine? While $500 is a fair amount towards an upgrade, it doesn't guarantee anything. Buying parts to help the machine out could still be taken as the players' dedication to the machine, and if Steve still isn't convinced, the money doesn't just disappear into something else: it goes straight into DDR.

The tournament

About the tournament, divisions for every difficulty would be great, but time might be a hinderance. I think a one day deal could go one of two ways: plain old PA (single or double elimination) or a team format with seeded pairings (it could include all levels at once). Those are the fastest methods that I know. However, if we did expect a lot of people for multiple divisions, then we could find a long weekend and hold the tournament over the course of two days.

Wolf2ktd, I'm assuming you want as many people as possible to attend such a tournament. If that's the case, "soon" might not be best. There are already three LA tournaments in July and one early August (PIU team-Metarie 7/15, Citiplace tourney-Baton Rouge 7/22, PIU BEAST2-Baton Rouge 8/1 ,and Rkade tourney-Alexandria 7/15).
Early August marks the start of school for most people. The two options I see are very early August, before public school starts or wait until a holiday weekend such as Labor Day. Early August might be bad because of the string of tournaments right before then, and there may not be enough time between a Gameware tournament being finalized and then for out of town people to make arrangements to come to it. A holiday weekend would be ideal for players to make it out to a tournament, but if there's a big sale going on in the mall, then Gameware might be too keen on holding a tournament on such a weekend.

Here's what I propose for a possible date: if Gameware will allow Labor Day, aim for then. If Gameware does not allow Labor Day, try for the weekend before. That should be enough time for people to make arrangements, but not be too far into the semester for students to be swamped by schoolwork. This is assuming you want one big tournament and not lots of smaller ones.

We can also get sponsorship for the tournament to replace prize value lost by the money going to Gameware. Red Octane would probably sponsor it, but I don't know where else to look. Ideas?

Well, that's my brainstorming for the moment. Let's make this work!

[SimDaddyGT]

It might be too late to get Cobalt Flux to sponsor it, but hey, it couldn't hurt to try, but I think you have to have a lotta people enter for them to care.

I'm up for this tournament, assuming I can find a way to get there. Gas money is no problem for me.

[モネ?]

I'm for this as well. ITG2 or SN, as long as I don't have to look at another DDREX in this city, I'm willing to start playing DDR again.


Cost: Ralph when you say $500 for the sensors, are you talking about those that were mentioned on 6.0?

ITG2 cost $3000. I've read on the offical fourms a bit and they said they expect ITG3 to cost about the same for the upgrade kits. Do yall want to wait and see?

The Tournament:

I still think it's better if from this huge torunment from now on all procedes go towards this upgrade. Judging good turnout for gameware torunmanets, we get around 20-25 ppl. $250 a torunament is a start. I just think the ideal of a one time shot of puting money into the machine ourselves, wouldn't show steve we are serious enough about this.