DDR..sort of a nostalgic topic..what's it mean to you?

***Corey.*** · 04-20-2007, 02:28 PM

So in all seriousness, this has been lingering in my head for quite a while. I do lurk all the forums still, I still converse will some of the people. But you know, not many people on here really know what it is like to be a TRUE DDR player...if there is such a thing. What ever happened to "omg i passed my first exorbitant!" or "I dont know if i can do PARANOiA rebirth...its a cata" these days my friends are long gone and sadfully so. I will never forget the day when I first saw the stupidest thing in the world and that was mike ngo doing the koshiru shuffle @ svgl one night..I thought it was atrocious, but something in me said "Damn, I wish I could do that." Once i was in the community, I took note of mike's freestyle and dubbed it as AMAZING. THIS people is what it was all about..Now DDR 4th mix was out and it was finally gaining steam in the US to be sweeping the nation as not only a game, but a way of life. (This is where my story starts.)

One night, i was @ SVGL and OROCHI walks up to me and says "Hey, do you know how to perfect attack" I was like "WTF is perfect attack" he then said, "Don't worry, just try to get as many perfects as you can." he then chose PINK DINOSAUR for me and i got a B....so 5th mix goes by, and now comes MAX. MAX is when the ddr community really started to shine for me . I remember ditching school just to go play it. When i got there i was greeted by cynan, doreen, eric, and nikari. I played and decided that i was gonna be the best PA player the US has seen yet. I played nonstop from 3p till 12a. At one point, cynan almost made me go home because my knee gave out on max300..i was determinepassed it and word was on the internet before i even got home.d to pass it first. I finally passed it and word of it was on the internet before i even got home.

then came the tournament days...im not even gonna talk about it..it actually sorta makes me sad...

all in all, i REALLY REALLY miss the community we had...it just seemed such like a family and now its all gone.

Tell me how you guys think about stuff like this.

BemaniJhoto 7.5 · 04-20-2007, 02:35 PM

I blame the technical steps for the death of this DDR family. There's too much stream and not enough technique. It's all stamina-based gameplay now.

Even though I was never good at freestyling, it did look cool. Now it's like it doesn't exist anymore. I thank you for coming up with this topic, because it seems the PPP (Power of Perfect Play) has overshadowed the fun of what DDR used to be.

I even still remember when I was still trying to pass hard songs like:
Dub-I-Dub Another (when I was 9)
Afronova Another (when I was 10)
Dead End and Afronova SSR (when I was 10)
INSERTiON (when I was 12 and DDRMAX2 was still in New Park Mall's Tilt)
The MAXes (still thinking about it today)

Even the MAX series is overshadowed by the deluge of technical ITG offered. Just so sad...

Cao Landoku · 04-20-2007, 02:43 PM

I feel the same. Playing at the arcades isn't even fun anymore. IMO the DDR community now is horrible in comparison to how it was in the late 90s-early 2000s. I remember the times of nice conversations, making new friends, and even dancing to the music with the others when waiting your turn to play. Now it's all like "STFU..I'm the best!..despite I've only been playing a few months!...The machine is mine and only mine, get away!"

My best memories lie with DDR 3rd mix. I'll never forget those days.

Arctures · 04-20-2007, 02:57 PM

The only community I was ever really in was at my school, where I was re-introduced to it by a friend. We only ever did it for fun, just the bunch of us. Then, when they all moved to different schools and different states, that's when I lost interest. I still play for fun sometimes, but not nearly as much as I did in the past.

Another huge reason for my lack of interest in the game was the huge break between DDREX and Supernova. The home songlists were fairly bad, so I never bothered to buy them. The only time I wanted to play was at the arcade, which I never really went to. Several of the charts too are so boring that playing them became pointless (cough*himawari*cough)

BemaniJhoto 7.5 · 04-20-2007, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrinceLandon

I feel the same. Playing at the arcades isn't even fun anymore. IMO the DDR community now is horrible in comparison to how it was in the late 90s-early 2000s. I remember the times of nice conversations, making new friends, and even dancing to the music with the others when waiting your turn to play. Now it's all like "STFU..I'm the best!..despite I've only been playing a few months!...The machine is mine and only mine, get away!"

My best memories lie with DDR 3rd mix. I'll never forget those days.

Myaa...people nowadays are so conceited and pretentious.

I guess the new players may never know how it feels to work their way up the ranks. It took me about 7-8 odd years to actually MASTER DDR, from the start of the genre and game life to today. And it's just so boring and sad to see that hardly anyone plays DDR for the great fun and glory anymore.

DDR's 1st to 4th mix define this era. Sometimes I would stop at nothing to just play these mixes back then. (My cousins from the PI got me a Japanese PS1 with DDR mixes 1st to 3rd; the 4th was a copy burnt by my cousin here.)

bandit22 · 04-20-2007, 07:01 PM

i know i hate most of the players at my arcade. ddr is a sort of emo/"geek chic" thing now or whatever, and it sucks. i'd rather watch little kids play and have fun than some fag B xepher heavy with the bar. there are still some cool people though. i have a feeling it's a lot better at night in my arcade, because past 6 no kids are even allowed (mall rule). unfortunately i'm also < 18.

ddr was a lot more fun back when i first started, and was first getting into heavy too.

now, i honestly enjoy IIDX much more. ddr has become just a sort of exercise routine, and i guess i can show off in the arcade.

「dj.TK」 · 04-21-2007, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ver2

I will never forget the day when I first saw the stupidest thing in the world and that was mike ngo doing the koshiru shuffle @ svgl one night.

SN2OMES oh snap?

But yeah, its a bit harder to have straight out fun these days, mainly cause im trying to PA everything. Mind you r21 is always fun ^_^

I LOVE MY DAUGHTERS · 04-21-2007, 01:07 AM

I dont think its so much of what the community has become, but more-so when you started. I started in early 2000, and feel the same way you guys do. I miss the old MO group, we all kinda new each other, even though we were from STL, KC, Springfield and CO. We would get together at tournaments at MO and all know each other. Sure, there was drama, but thats everywhere. I still remember when Joe T got all pissed because he lost to me at xenon, then I picked PSMO, and he got so mad I picked that song, he jumped off the pad and into the screen infront of me to mess me up. Everyone knew he was an idiot, so it never really matered to me. I started Max 2 to Extreme, and yea, I stopped when Extreme got old, and I had almost every song SDG or AAAed, because no one played anymore. I hoped SN would tie everything back together, and it seems like it kindof has, but maybe SN 2 will be different.

Alonso · 04-21-2007, 02:27 AM

Wow I didn't realize so many people felt the same way as me. I remember the old DDR days back in 2000 and 2001. Instead of everyone focusing on the letter grades we would all try to make friends and have fun. I'm not saying everyone has changed but as bandit22 said, the community now consists of mainly emo/goth kids. It's all very sad.

tora · 04-21-2007, 03:44 AM

Petit Love.

Where's my Petit Love.

DPWHERE? · 04-21-2007, 04:07 AM

DDR in the 1998-2000's was the hype of all in our school. But now, it's almost dead. Only my friends know Boom Boom Dollar and Paranoia, and NOT No.13, Xepher, PSMO, and the MAXes (plus HDV)!

Alonso · 04-21-2007, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storyoftheyear

DDR in the 1998-2000's was the hype of all in our school. But now, it's almost dead. Only my friends know Boom Boom Dollar and Paranoia, and NOT No.13, Xepher, PSMO, and the MAXes (plus HDV)!

It's pretty much the complete opposite everywhere else.

Neokaze · 04-21-2007, 06:48 AM

OH man do I miss those DDR 1.5 days. Back when 1998-9 when it first came to our arcade in Hawaii. It wasn't a big thing but we used to be like wow this is cool. Couple of my friends taught me how to play and it was cool. Then seeing them do paranoia on heavy blew me away. And hell I remember brilliant 2 u kicking my butt. I actually remember putting Boom Boom Dollar on left (plyr1) and right (plyr2) and jumping around the pads. And learning to spin on Butterfly light. It was a hell of alot of fun.
Then came USA big upgrade but in Hawaii we had it for a damn long time. First tourney was at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Entered it just because I wanted to. None of this being scared of losing or what not. Just having fun being with a large crowd I believe 30+ people showed up and a good 40+ came to watch. Good times.
4th came it was awesome still couldn't do catas til that came out. 4th+ it was cool people were still cool. 5th came out and the most of the first gen guys left. I had fun with the long version songs. Max came out and it was OMFG this is awesome. Then it was oh MAX 300 holy shatzors. Then came out the heavy core bar huggers. I remember only a few could do it without the bar. It brought out the new gen people. That began to be erksome when they were cocky and kinda like oh you can't pass max you suck. They would only play the same stupid crap over and over. Max 2 came out still pretty cool. People were even more bleh. Most of the second gen guys left. Extreme came out and well it was kinda bleh. The excitement came from me doing edits of most of the songs and just playing those. The newest gen people were even more bleh same songs, super bar rape, only PA. Trend goes on.

I miss my old DDR buds most of them left for the mainland. But still I like to play once in awhile and just be like F' You kiddies I can get a C and still be like yes I win. But I can related to ya guys. My long boring story...

「dj.TK」 · 04-22-2007, 12:33 AM

I dont remember when we first got DDR, most likely a 3rd mix, but im sad that I didnt notice it any earlier. I didnt really notice it till about 2004 when I watched some people play it on a Extreme machine. Had a go and thought it wad fun. Back then I didnt know about mods or anything and just played everything 1x no-bar. Earliest memory was failing love heart shine on light haha. Meet heaps of friends over the last 1-2years, teaching them how to play, so its still good fun with friends even today, I guess its what you make of it. DDR wasnt reall big or dead here back then, and its still pretty much the same now.

Ill still play even if the game gets axed, etc. I have my memories. Everthing from passing my first heavy song, passing MAX300, getting first AAA etc. Awesome.

dt_ · 04-22-2007, 02:17 AM

I, too, miss the good old days

it was just about having fun, and when everyone was about the same and not about getting extremely competitive -- that's when DDR was at its peak.

as DDR (suipposedly) enters the mainstream, i feel like it's really lost what has made the game great. what is that? i dunno. but competitiveness has replaced the fun factor, ...