Extra Stage/Extra Attack/OMES/Enjoy Level/Please Stop It

Can I ask why certain things like unlocking songs and getting an extra stage at the end of a credit went from something as basic as getting a great score to all this convoluted stuff? I mean, there was a 'why DDR is not as popular anymore' thread earlier this week that was basically pointing fingers at anyone who ever AAAed anything with trying to freestyle, but I do believe that if DDR games were as popular as they were in the late 90's/early 00's, they'd CERTAINLY need a less complicated unlock system. This is also the reason I can't get into IIDX, because it's even worse for this sort of shit.

Is there anyone else who agrees with me that a lot of things in DDR (Not just the unlocks!) have gotten unnecessarily complicated?

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Simple: Tax hike in Japan is causing KONAMI to charge a 'surreal' amount to play, therefore utilizing PASELI to their advantage by charging players this weird sum of cash (120yen) that isn't the simple 100yen change to play a round of DDR. I'm guessing that since this has become the 'thing' for most DDR players, they have stripped just the notion of moving on to a next stage by also removing basic mods to just PASELI members.

There are probably other factors that play into this, but so far as I know that is the major one that is affecting how the game has changed within the past few years...

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Pretty much what Max said about PASELI. Also it means Konami has a controlled arcade economy when it comes to arcade games that use PASELI. I look at it as a premium member bonus for people who use PASELI. You have to give someone a reason to use PASELI in the first place in order for them to even think about using the service. The only think that's really made me upset with PASELI only things has been Extra Stages in IIDX (and I think DDR now). Its annoying yes but in a business and arcade economic side of things, it's understandable.

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I see.

It came across to me as even more DRM to check that the game was only being played in Japan...

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Why does konami put a DRM in the arcade games? It causes nothing but problems, at least for america, europe and australia, including NOT BEING ABLE TO PLAY THE GAMES. I'm guessing that Konami is saying ''Screw You'' to all the other regions and just gave Asia all the good stuff. The company just doesn't think the other regions want any fun, so why are they even putting up DRM?

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Not sure, but I'd guess they want to force the e-Amusement crap onto every one of their BENAMI games.

I'd take a USB stick with my profile and a couple of Pounds to play the game over an e-Amusement card any day. And while I'm not an ITG fan, I REALLY wish they'd start emulating the parts of ITG that were actually well-thought out.

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I think they are "forcing" E-amuse on every cab because with all of the updates and online active events that happen. This DDR mix was pretty much made for arcades can buy one cab and then can update it online when the time comes. This makes buying a cab just a one time thing rather then having to get a new cab or new parts for a machine when a new mix comes out. Also there's so many options and stuff that involves online such a rival scores that it's kind of hard not to have a DDR or IIDX game today without being connected to the internet.

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1. PASELI is NOT a DRM system, technically e-amusement is the DRM, and it's been in BEMANI/DDR since DDR SuperNOVA. However during SuperNOVA's e-amusement times, it was only used to keep track of scores, that was it. It wasn't until DDR 2013 that requiring e-amusement was pretty much the ONLY way to boot up the machine, hence why e-amusement became this DRM-like system for Konami, PASELI is just like having a Season Pass for Call of Duty/Battlefield/Assassin's Creed/any other game that allows you extra content for a monthly fee.

2. Konami has a better chance of growing it's profits through e-amuse + PASELI by only including Japan and some areas in Asia because their arcade business economy is still holding out, whereas America and Europe is all but dead since probably the mid-2000's. Trying to implement e-amusement would have cost Konami MILLIONS of dollars to not just start up, but to keep it running for years on end. And the notion that not that many people visit arcades because due to the square mileage of both the United States and Europe, arcades are spread out in large quantities making traveling expensive just to play one or two BEMANI games if you are lucky while places like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong have arcades in almost every street corner, in every city you visit.

3. DRM could be Konami's way of trying to keep other regions from playing their games, but when there is a will, there is a way. That's how we have games like 2013, SPADA, Sunny Park, and even SDVX in Europe and America. Granted they haven't beefed up their security but so far it hasn't grown to that scale yet. It could also just be because of what Pandy said, due to the immense amount of online capabilities and events that occur between each game, the e-amusement servers are already working extremely hard to keep everything in check for their events, having more of that ACROSS regions and ACROSS different time zones would be a bit of a hassle for the company.

Keep in mind, Konami is not a multi-billion dollar game developer (unlike Activision, or Ubisoft who can throw around money to create international tournaments and even video-game themed cars), honestly the only thing keeping Konami alive outside of Japan is Metal Gear Solid and Pro Evolution Soccer. And that P.T. demo which is Silent Hills because holy fuck Hideo Kojima just needs to remake every single Konami IP because that shit was tight.

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Just my two cents, but having to play Paranoia Bros from Max 2 backwards in order to unlock Paranoia Survivor Max as your final stage (with no Oni steps at that), Trip Machine Survivor only as second to last stage, and the ES/OMES system didn't make Extreme any less popular.

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I love extra stage systems and unlock systems in general as I think they keep the games interesting and make them feel like your're accomplishing something over time as video games should, but I definitely agree with the OP that the many of the unlock systems today involving e-amuse and especially PASELI have become rather ludicrous. The unlock systems now seem to have goals of rewarding players that are part of the "elite" e-amuse club and pay more, or ensuring that players need play other bemani games in order to unlock songs on a single game, which seems like pure advertising and subtracts from the quality of the games in themselves.