History of the Japanese DDR Scene/Community

I've heard of Tigger, but I can't remember why.

Jason Ho is a DDR player currently on the run on from the authorities for various gambling scams

TEE EYE DOUBLE GUH ERR

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Aaah, where do we start with Jason Ho!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBiEI3wLWLg


If you type "jason ho poker" into Google, google helpfully suggests you might be searching for "jason ho poker scandal"

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Humph. I've been reading this for the last 30 minutes. Just got to the 2003-2005 part and I'm about to shower.

I'm going to assume this is going to mention ITG in depth, due to Konami not releasing an AC version of DDR for 3 years.

Do you really think ITG made a splash in Japan, given what you know about ITG?

Apparently, I know nothing. I didn't realize that this article was only about Japan. <_<

I apologize profusely.

EDIT: Apparently, ITG IS discussed here. I win. I guess...

lol cut the guy some slack, he DID guess ITG would have been talked about during that section, just not so much in depth...

Anyways, i might print this out...or keep it on my thumb drive to read while i'm at school or something.

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Okay, I'll make my answer the short version, but:

Yes, it is Dr. D ;)
Yes, it should be Solo 2000
(all that 3rd mix stuff) <- I'll rewrite that, thanks
p44. Okay, I'll fix that
p60. I am not sure if I should focus on that too much. I mean, 3rd Mix Korea Ver 2 wasn't even seen in Japan and I'm willing to bet 99% of all players never played it. I could make a brief mention of it, though

On the Supernova hardware (Python 2). I honestly have no idea. I'll ask around, and if I find anything I can put it in, but if I don't, I'm not sure what I can say about it. All I know about it is what is written here : http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=831

And, about the overseas mixes, exposure was *very* limited to only a few players that travelled abroad for the most part. When I was in London with Yasu and Koichiro, they absolutely *loved* playing Fusion when they saw it. It was all new and shiny or something. I know the novelty would have worn off, but this was new and different, so of course they all wanted to try it. Knowledge about overseas mixes is more known now than it was in the early 2000s, but even so, not too much is usually known about the details by the players. Players here even only heard about X2 CS in the USA when they found out some of the charts in X2 JP were in that home version.



Okay, moving on:

On "Tigger", I vaguely remember him. He used to dominate at the DDR tournaments of the time. There was controversy when he was beaten by GPF Lith from Seattle. If I remember right, it was partly because using the bar was considered a n00B habit and no serious player could play competitively that way (or at least what was the word going around). GPF Lith did play with the bar and won and (as I am told, but I have *no* idea how true this is) that caused a paradigm shift in thought over bar usage and players that used the bar


Astroman129> Sorry to disappoint. I do mention it very briefly only in contrast to other factors in the east at the time, but ITG was never formally released in Japan due to Konami's legal team and their iron fist. Also, even though there was one ITG machine in a small arcade briefly (end of 2008~May 2010), none of the players really took to it (only played it for a novelty). As I mentioned in the essay, the focus on OMG Stamina! and being more eXtReMe than anything in DDR wasn't what the average Japanese Mr. Tanaka was looking for in a dance game (plus, DDRX was a huge hit here which didn't help for ITG). If Supernova 2 was the last mix and X never came out, perhaps things might have played out a bit differently, who knows. If ITG did take off in Japan, though. It might have been interesting to see what custom mixes/stepcharts would have came out of that



EDIT> And if you want something that might blow your mind... DDR 5th mix did have 6-panel and 3-panel steps though 5th mix Solo would be axed before the test location version made it out. The only place those charts (not all of them were done for all the charts in the game at that point) might still exist is at Konami in some computer or server somewhere, but good luck trying to get a hold of them if they even still exist (I know about it from my contacts at KOJ)

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Aaron, I'm kinda afraid to ask, but was the recognition I gained mostly negative or positive? I know I still hold a bad stigma to many people in japan, especially people involved with konami.

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Dr.D, it was all for greater justice.

It's all Good, Dr. D. I still think people on this side overreacted too much (and then there were bandwagon jumpers). Konami didn't send you a cease and desist letter over those vids, did they?

I think the only guy I ever saw you upset in person was just a misunderstanding anyways. Remember that one guy with glasses when we met up in Akihabara and you were playing Max 300 and this guy with glasses told me to tell you where the one great was. I know it was a redundant and silly comment since you know where the great was anyways, but I remember you said something along the lines of "let's see (him) do it". He wasn't saying he could do that or get anywhere close to that; just trying to be helpful, though it was a silly comment by him anyways.

These days, it is quite common for people on mixi and places like LWorld's site to link to your videos. You usually are the fastest at getting videos for the newest songs and courses and a good/great/PFC score on them to boot.

Okay, I have a little bit of info. on the whole mp3/stepchart trading phase during 4th mix, but I really don't have *that* much to work with. I have added the rest of the changes (most of them anyways) and once I put in a blurb in that 4th mix section I'll update the PDF and upload it again

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After viewing my demographics since DDR X2, I notice that half, if not more, of my view are coming from Japan. Also I've gotten quite a few subscribers recently from Japan along with some of them commenting my videos in either japanese or broken english. I do like trying to link together communities.

And no, I never got any letter like that from Konami though I have had contact with them through a third party. Unfortunately I am not allowed to disclose any more information.

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Thanks for the document. I will keep checking and playing DDR for the upcoming time.
^^

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Wow, read through all of it and it really was entertaining. I hope to see an update sometime soon.
To get something like this for the western community to compare would be very interesting, as someone mentioned earlier.

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The major issue I see with a Western view is that all kinds of community pockets were formed. We had a short lived community in Knoxville where as other areas still have a thriving one.

Okay, I added a bit of the new info. based on the requests here, facebook, aij, email, etc., but this time the biggest change was the addition of new photos.

One thing I want to work in but can't think of the right place, is the part about how the Japanese practiced at home during the Extreme days. Most would rely on the home version rather than Stepmania solely for the exact timing Konami used. This is small but I will think about how to work it in there.

Newest revision is "Revision 24"

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Yeah, it would be interesting to hear how Festival and STRIKE were received back in the "dead days of DDR" in the lull between EXTREME and SuperNOVA.

So it sounds like X2 is being received pretty similarly to X, eh? Would you say it's more or less popular overall, or just pretty much the same from X?

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IMO, I tought Festival was well received by the public. They held out lots of events, like the amazing Velfarre party with Noria, Riyu, Sota, PlatoniX and U1 (which you can still see info and pics of it in EXTREME's AC blog, I think).

The KONAMI TV channel also has some videos of other events, like the RIZE cross promotion and a little MAX2 fan gathering.

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Page 11, Keep on movin' long version, WHAT?