IndyDDR.com

nope. Our pads are crap. Apparently worse than we thought. Besides, Casey, make fun of the tournament, not us. We tried to be nice to you. We are aware our machine isn't the best in the world. You really were fun to have, a bit rough on the edges, but none the less, it was really nice to have you and TaQa there. You are aware how bad our pads are now. And as for December 11th, if you want to come out again, go for it. But I'm pretty sure it's a waste of your time. The turn out of this one was bad, We don't care if it was "the worst tourney ever", and we really don't care what anyone has to say if they are going to come across it in a negative way. You arn't able to say anything, apparently, to a group of kids in a positive way. I think we did fine holding combos on the pads anyway. It's just you and TaQa man. We never have an issue like you guys did. It must of been the way you were playing.

BTW the rest of the staff was checking you out. It was the brown haired chick that came out and said something to us when you walked out to your car the first or second time. You didn't say /anything/ to them, they just overheard some sort of profanity or something.

Not like we had control of how the machine was anyway. We /warned/ you that it was going to be under tight management of the raceway. What could you honestly expect? ITG National Level pads and setup? We did what we could, and we were happy with the results. Just a little disappointed with the turn out.

I'm also more accurate than Calvin is, it's just my stamina that kills me. My heart problem isn't exactly helping me lean my way towards beating someone of your level. Heh, can't get any better if you stop playing, right?

Anyway, you were extremely good at impersonating stunna. You brought up references of oddr.net, and other things on the fly. Congrats at victory, and fooling us for the second half of the day.

What I actually want to do is host one at a DIFFERENT arcade. If anyone knows an arcade with a /flexible/ management, contact me. Me and Kasey will be co-operating on the next one, using the suggestions you guys gave us early in this thread. But the Raceway just isn't working out... the pads are crap, and we have no flexibility.

Why dont you just clean the pads? or is it some Shaffer crap or something

Potter wrote:Why dont you just clean the pads? or is it some Shaffer crap or something

I wasn't there, so I wouldnt know. But maybe just regular maintence on cleaning the pads could've helped out a bit?

We couldn't clean the pads, we made 4 calls to the Raceway and 2 calls to the owner for that purpose. He told us we were not allowed to touch the DDR machine to clean it. He had a asshole of a mechanic come out. XeroCi was trying to explain it to him, but he told us we will NEVER get a new DDR Machine and that there's nothing wrong with it. There was nothing more we could do. We know that if you're light and don't stomp hard enough the second mat is crap, it doesn't work for me either. We did the absolute best that we could.

DDRKokomo_Jess wrote:We couldn't clean the pads, we made 4 calls to the Raceway and 2 calls to the owner for that purpose. He told us we were not allowed to touch the DDR machine to clean it. He had a asshole of a mechanic come out. XeroCi was trying to explain it to him, but he told us we will NEVER get a new DDR Machine and that there's nothing wrong with it. There was nothing more we could do. We know that if you're light and don't stomp hard enough the second mat is crap, it doesn't work for me either. We did the absolute best that we could.

I never said you didnt do the best you could, I was just making an observation. Maybe you could find another more willing place to host the tournament...even if it is out of town....

TnT IN FORT WAYNE! HELL YEAH!

-Dan

dance1005 wrote:TnT IN FORT WAYNE! HELL YEAH!

-Dan

Which I'm trying to convince the owner to do.

i dunnno but shaffer was MORE THAN HAPPY to let us work on our ddr machines. I dunno how lazerlite is these days but when I worked there I'm sure the indyddr crew that played 6th mix can agree they were clean pads...until the fat people BROKE THE PANELS ON WHAT WOULD BE CONSIDERED 3 STAGES.

Shaffer also let us perform any needed matinence when it had to be done. Remember Stephen?

as for the Casey comments, if your tournament was truely the worst tourny he's ever been to...

bloomington threw quite a few AWFUL tournaments is about all i can say on that topic.

if your arcade manager isn't doing something as requested there's a few simple things you can do:
1: give him brian ho's guide to cleaning your ddr mat as it shows with TONS OF COLOR PICTURES how it's done
2: write a letter to the owner of the chain explaining how the pads being dirty cause a delay and make the game a worse experience
3: if needed be you can always take your business elsewhere until they listen to you.

at purdue we never could get the unlocks on max 2...after a letter to the bowling alley owner we got what we wanted.

LazerLite owns their DDR machines outright (at least they do now, and I believe I was told they did by the time it was running MAX). They originally did the whole revenue share thing on them, but they eventually purchased them entirely, at which point they are allowed to do whatever they want.

Also, realize that most arcades flat out don't give a damn about how well their machine works, only that it accepts money and doesn't sit all day at a "ROM CHECK FAILED" (or similar) screen. Perhaps that's something contributing to the downfall of arcades in the USA...

Also, realize that there are very few real "arcades" left in the USA. Most are laser tag, putt putt, or go kart places that happen to have a few machines (and having driven by Kokomo Raceway, I can say that they appear to fall into the last of those categories). These places care even LESS about their video games, since they make most of their money on their other stuff. The video games are just there to occupy people's time when they are between the other stuff. These types of places are more likely to just chuck a down game in the trash than ever bother fixing it.

In other words, the cards are pretty well stacked against a place like Raceway having a halfway decent DDR machine. Maintainance takes time, and those places aren't willing to put forth the effort. They would let players do it, but what if something gets broken?

We were thinking about taking our business elsewhere, but most of the 13 people on our team couldn't make it because none of us have a drivers liscence and we all need to get rides. It would be hard to run a tourney you couldn't get to (lol)

Jess, thanks for your remark; I was still lost about this, but it helps to clarify why you were willing to put up with the restrictions.

Still, though, what was he going to do if you didn't abide by these rules - kick you out? He wouldn't do that to any bunch of people coming in to play DDR normally on his machines, so how is it feasible for him to do so to you? (If nothing else, he'd have a terrible time determining who was in the event and who wasn't.)

Others: correct; KRFP is primarily a go-cart facility.

I agree with the previous poster about the downfall of the arcade in American culture. However, it's important to note that dedicated arcades are a relatively new phenomenon compared to the advent of arcade games themselves - the first cabinets were set up in bars and other similar social locations, etc., etc. Arcade games being a minor diversion in a more general recreational establishment is nothing new, and the fact doesn't have to cripple their status.

If nothing else, I think owners' attitudes will eventually catch up with the increased complexity of modern cabinets and they'll recognize that their arcade machines need more sophisticated maintenance than "Check if error, reset if not." I'm more concerned about whether they'll understand how to accomplish that - every arcade needs some committed players (on-staff or not) who will know when there's a problem and be listened to. Once an arcade expands beyond a certain size, they tend to lose these or not recognize who they are in the first place. Most of the arcades that have been reasonable DDR spots in the past few years seem to have followed a pattern:

1) Arcade gets DDR.
2) Arcade discovers community of DDR players.
3) Arcade caters to DDR players. DDR players play.
4) Arcade drifts away from community of DDR players for one of many reasons.
5) DDR players become alienated and leave.
6) DDR machine is no longer profitable; arcade disposes of it.

Anyway, one excellent example of an apparent attempt at "real arcade" status is Great X-Scape in Bloomington. Luckily for us, the owner has proven amenable to scheduling tournaments there. Unfortunately, he won't be getting a SuperNova machine for a bit.

In the broader landscape, there are amazing facilities such as Illusionz! in Washington (though I'm severely biased because they have Pop'N), retro-ish establishments like Spring Lake in Rhode Island, and fan "arcades" like the Shrine in Mass. It's just that you have to look for them. (And if you're unlucky, you'll get stuck in the Midwest where they aren't for a while... oops, did I say that out loud?)

lazerlite never owned their machines up until they got their extreme upgrade. all repairs were allowed by the tech sam for shaffers. he's quite a cool dude.

i dont liek your attitude towards mexicans, sir

My understanding is that LazerLite's agreement with Shaffer was quite a bit different than most of their other revenue share locations--in some ways good, in other ways not so much so.

I have been told at multiple Shaffer revenue share locations that they are FORBIDDEN from working on the machines that are placed there. I have also been told that Shaffer wasn't all that keen on going down to LazerLite any more than it had to since it was quite far away by comparison. This may have been why they were granted more leeway to work on things. Also, being far away: what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

actually it's quite the opposite. they would want us to call them every time we had an issue and they would come down and fix the machines. they have a head tech, the sam guy who does all the work that actually requires some sort of thought process. he would always come down because he had good relations with susie and they got along well. he found that I was compitent with machines and could do some simple repairs like cherry switch replacements and the sort so he left supplies incase anything went bad.

you just have to schmooze the right people and you will get what you want.