2010 DDR US Championship's Analyzed and Explained
Posted by kent - Fri 08/27 2010 - 02:52 PM - 1497 Views
When Konami advertises this event as a DDR tournament the organized, community based fans are looking for:
- Arcade based DDR titles.
- Rules which are fair and balanced yet provide strong competition.
- An entertaining social event.
- And high value prizes.
Konami is looking to:
- Create exposure for its latest DDR titles.
- Promote DDR for a fitness and healthy life style for many age ranges.
- Organize an event which shows as many players from as many regions enjoying the game as possible.
The problem occurs when these points conflict with each other. In America, Konami’s latest DDR titles are not arcade based but console based. Konami cannot benefit as greatly as they would with an arcade tournament because the games that they sell in this region are on consoles. Konami is looking to maximize their exposure for these games and running an event on anything else would only take away from that exposure.
For community based fans, not having a tournament on an arcade machine kills most of the interest because many of these fans realize consoles are not designed for accurate competition.
It is now up to our community based fans to take this event for what it is. At bemanistyle, we are strong fans of all of these titles and would like to see that they be pushed in the right direction to improve the series. We would like for the community to see this event in a different light.
This event can be a great way to get players together and have fun on the series that they enjoy. After reading the forums many players have already mentioned registering to run a Round One event on some out of the norm versions choosing out of the normal competition songs. This could make for an entertaining tournament while being able to participate in an official event which benefits the series.
A positive event for Konami could lead to hearing more from the fans about possibly having a better tournament edition of DDR with a true arcade-esq console version pad. Things like this do not seem that impossible if we can only get the community to positively participate more with events that Konami has finally started doing for DDR.
If they can at least support metal pads for the console events, then I can kosher this whole thing for the most part.
And my problem with supporting such an event in a serious manner is that if I do, they will think they are doing it correctly and therefore nothing changes. Perhaps I am looking at this wrong?
Uh... Someone tell me why can't Konami benefit from tournaments based on Arcade DDR? why does it matter if KOA only sells Console iterations?
Capcom built their recent newfound community from imported versions of Street Fighter 4.
Theres really nothing conflicting in any of those bullet points listed.
but not having "accurate competition that kills off most of the interest" is not an good description of the rift between Corporate Konami and its fans. Konami needs to communicate more with the various communities that play music games, and that includes the community websites and arcades. you know, I heard there was this website called Bemanist*** based in in socal.... and i heard KOA is also based in socal.....
Posted by kent - Sat 08/28 2010 - 01:13 AM [ quote ]
i think Konami can benefit from an arcade based tournament because most arcade players also have console versions at home as well. but i still think in this tournament with the latest console version being in the spot light it would draw more people to that latest console version than it would with having the tournament on a console.
a lot of those points may not be in conflict, but some are either achieved poorly in these events because players of the series aren't involved in decision making or just not focused on enough because other of priories.
Konami of America doesn't really have an arcade division, its mainly two people from KOJ. KOA is all console games and since they are the ones who created this event and they are the ones who want to advertise their console games its obvious that they would push for consoles.
only in the past 6 months has bemanistyle had closer contact with KOA, but its still not as close as we would have liked since we were not told about this event before most of it was already finalized. we will push for improving the next event for both competitors and konami.
Posted by scottind - Sat 08/28 2010 - 05:12 AM [ quote ]
honestly its only in the past 4 weeks bemanistyle has been in good with KoA.
running a tournament like how it is now is a BAD IDEA. Konami just wants a piece of the action like what Capcom is doing with Capcom-unity, with hardly any real support. KoA needs to figure out what the market is, and how to effectively promote its games. Here's a hint, bemanistyle fans are not really Konami's market.
Posted by Empathy - Sat 08/28 2010 - 06:23 AM [ quote ]
I'm with scottind here. Konami isn't connecting with its fans and firing on all cylinders here in America. They can do better, but the effort needs to be shown to make it convincing. I'm past the point where I play DDR seriously anymore, but I do like to pick it up and play every now and then, so I do honestly root for Konami to pick this series back up and at least restore some of its former, pre-extreme glory.
Konami seems hell bent on catering to the same casual crowd everyone seems to be catering these days with DDR. Flashnews: your game has been out for 10+ years, and if it hasn't had the success that Wii Fit (for example) had, IT PROBABLY WON'T EVER HAPPEN. Do what Andamiro does with Pump, focus on keeping your hardcore crowd solid together, or you'll just end up with a VERY small piece of the casual pie and ZERO hardcore fanbase that is not willing to deal with bullshit like "oh sure, go cheap on arcade cabinets, only the EXPERTS will notice the difference".
Posted by kent - Sat 08/28 2010 - 10:49 PM [ quote ]
Andamiro can focus more on their hardcore crowd with arcade related events because that's the game they make all their money from.
Konami will focus more on the casual crowd with console related events because ..that's the game they make all their money from.
Posted by Ardi - Sat 08/28 2010 - 11:17 PM [ quote ]
Here is my thoughts
1. DDR is a 'fun game' to play when you're bored of want to do something.
2. America (KOA) does need a BETTER market Strategy and FAST, because the DDR in America is like dying and I'm pissed off about that.
3. Doing Arcade titles is not going to be easy because you have to use a Japanese Import, not stuff straight from america. and if you want to go cheap use StepMania.
4, I'm really getting tired of American taste in Video games.
The casual crowd can't tell the difference between DDR games save for different songlists. They see four arrows and think "DDR" and nothing else matters as long as new mixes are being released for console. Holding this on an AC mix would cater to the serious players that KOA chooses to neglect entirely, while at the same time bringing more attention to the DDR franchise in general, which is all the casual gamers need to want to go buy the newest console title.
Why not hold it on AC and just have the newest CS on the side to play while you're not competing? This is honestly ridiculous. It doesn't just have to do with pads, and anyone who thinks it does has obviously never played the game competitively before. What about the super stretched out timing windows? There's a reason CS AAAs don't mean anything to anyone.
Posted by MechaGai - Mon 08/30 2010 - 11:37 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardi
4, I'm really getting tired of American taste in Video games.
This has two simple solutions: Go to Japan, or, stop playing American marketed games.
