blurwoman reminds me why I why I never read this forum.

Yes, DDR can be enjoyed by people of all ages, that's why they advertise it to middle aged women on Oxygen and Lifetime.  I think its awesome grandparents can play this game with their kids and get exercise at the same time.   However, this was a NATIONAL TOURNAMENT.  NATIONAL.  TOURNAMENT.  People who are over 32 years of age do not play this game at a high enough competitive level to compete with everyone in their teens and twenties.  You want to know why?  Because normal people in their 30s and 40s and too busy with raising families and paying off mortgages to practice DDR everyday to get to the level the top players are at.  As much as I love competing in tournaments, I know that 10 years down the line when I'm 32 I'll have way more concerns in life than DDR to practice for a tournament.

Also, the whole reason the rule was put in the ruleset in the first place?  Ryan (Dukamok) put it there because he felt it would be weird if for someone to compete against someone half their age.  Same reason why you don't see 40 something year olds playing in a Yu Gi Oh tournament.  Yeah the rule didn't have to be there, but no one over 30 had the slightest chance of winning a regional anyways.   

As long as you can bring it with you tomorrow, and a parent is with you at some point (they don't need to be attached to your hip), you'll be fine.

don't worry about it.  As long as you can find a way to get it to Konami before the tournament, you'll be fine.

I'm also not 100% on this, but because you are under 18 I think you also have to have a parent or legal guardian with you at the tournament.

You're better off just waiting for an official announcement.  However I don't think that will be too far off.

Third: Any company hates competition, Konami is not unique to it. However, Konami isn't serious on blanking out all competition that uses 4 panels, music and rhythm based gameplay. They only sued ITG because they infringed on their IP rights. If Konami were dead serious they would go after iDance, Stepmania, any Playstation 2 game that uses 4 panels, etc. But they only went after ITG, because, once again ITG infringed in their IP.

This is wrong.  Konami can't really "sue" Stepmania due to the fact that it's freeware.  The software itself is not generating revenue off a pre-existing patent (which is what ITG basically did).  And furthermore the game is essentially free advertising for Konami, similar to how Frets On Fire is for the Guitar Hero/Rock Band series.  In retrospect, Stepmania has been a pretty big driving force for getting DDR out there to people.

While it remains to be seen with what happens with iDance (if/when it is released), the fact that its developed over in Europe means that Konami's US Patents don't apply over there, creating a supposed loophole that remains to be seen if it'll work.

However, Konami did sue Madcatz for that Dance Factory game on the PS2.

Fourth: There is no proof that Supernova only exists because of ITG. If that were the case, then as soon as the case was settled, Konami would have abandoned the arcade market for DDR again, but instead they came out with Supernova 2 and DDR X. There is no proof that Extreme was supposed to be the last mix. The decals on an official Extreme machine said "we're starting over", as in, they were taking a break and coming back later on. It just happened to be several years later.

There's no concrete proof for either side of the argument, as there was no proof that Konami intended to take a 4 year break from arcade DDR and then start back up with Supernova, even though there are several things that strongly suggest that Konami intended for Extreme to be the final AC version of DDR, including a dwindling interest in Japan and several references in the JP CS version of Extreme.  ITG just showed Konami that there still was a very strong interest in arrow stomping games in America, to the point where ITG2 dedicabs became the top selling and top money making machines in the US.  (There was some arcade magazine that had this listed, wish I could find a link though).  Konami simply saw this opportunity to restart DDR AC stuff and formally release it in the US.

Furthermore, instead of signing an anonymous online petition of a game that I guarantee 99.7% of you have not even played yet, you're better off voicing your complaints and concerns to Konami or Betson directly.  I know DukAmok has said he's fine with people forwarding their complaints directly to him, so feel free to do so (ryaniyengar@gmail.com)

The Wii generally appeals to a casual gaming audience for people who don't play traditional games.

DDR is a non traditional game that many people play even if they don't play other video games.

Notched with the fact that the Wii is by far the best selling console of this generation and therefore has a larger install base of any other "next-gen" system, not to mention games on the Wii are $10 cheaper than other systems, it's really no surprise.

I REALLY do not see many arcade vendors willing to fork $50 a month for e-amuse service, including the big chains like Dave and Busters and Gameworks.  Besides requiring having a broadband connection in the first place, the $50 a month for something that doesn't add a whole lot to the game is ridiculous.  The only way arcades would be willing to pay that fee is if would consistently make them more money.  Do you really think e-amuse is going to make an arcade $100 more per month to justify the $50 fee?  Even a year down the line?  I doubt it.

December 21st 2012.

^Ryan no longer works on DDR charts, he got a promotion (works in Marketing now).  Which I'm incredibly happy for him since I want to see him succeed there, but kinda sucks since we won't get his quality charts anymore.  Can't blame him though, he's got a pretty nice job there now =P

 So evildave219 who gets to decide if a player is a serious player or a just for fun player.  You or a few of your buddies?  What makes your standard of "serious" players any better or valid then somebody who plays DDR?  Do you believe in turning people away, based on your opinion of their abilities?

Where did I mention turning people away?  Anyone is always welcome to compete in a tournament.  It's just that you rarely see casual players enter a tournament due to the fact they are intimidated by more experienced players, and therefore can't justify spending $10-$20 on an entry fee when they know they're most likely to be knocked out in the first or second round.  That's why a second side tournament would be great to cater to that audience.

Lets face it.  You weren't always as good as a player as you are now.  Everyone starts on the bottom and works their way up to their current skill.  So how would you feel if someone told you in your beginning DDR skill that you are not a "serious" player you can't enter this tournament.  But next week we have one for "just for fun players" It is rude and I am tired of these good DDR players forgetting about their earlier roots and basically picking on beginning players.  One of those beginning players is going to be inspired from his experience and might be the next great DDR player.  

Again, I mentioned nothing about turning away players, and obviously you didn't read my post clearly enough.  Yes I know we all were "bad" at the game at one point, I remember my first tournament 6 months after I started playing the game.  I sucked bad but it was a great learning experience and I had fun participating, even though I was knocked out in the second round.

Abilities shouldn't matter, because that is a skill that is developed over time and with experience from entering tournaments.

...except abilities DO matter in a tournament from a competitive standpoint.  The best players deserve to win.  Just because someone didn't win doesn't mean they didn't have fun, but the tournament should be catered to rewarding the best player.

It is as easy as that.   I've been playing in competitive tournaments since I was 8 and yes age divisons do work!

Obviously you're not referring to DDR.  Yes age divisions do work in marathons and other races, but atleast with other video games you rarely see age divisions.  Do you see age divisions in MLG stuff such as Halo?  You don't.

Also, I've participated in playing in tournaments as well as running them for the last 6 years.  I recently helped run one of the largest DDR and ITG tournaments that's ever been held in the US.  Because of this I've seen what works and doesn't work with running tournaments.

No one is denying a 14 year to compete against an 18 year old.  In age divisons you essentially have two systems of 1, 2, and 3 places going on at the same time.  You have the over all winners of the tournament from all the age divisons.,  plus you at the same time brake it down into the best for their age divisons.  Someone could win essential twice.  This 14 year old could win first in his age divison as well as first overall.  It gives everyone a chance to compete with players their age and yet a chance to complete against everyone in the tournament. The tournament would have to be two days.  The first day you have people only completing against others in their age division.  Then once those are placed you take the top three from each age divison and the next day they will complete for the overall best 1, 2, and 3rd place.

It is a win win for everybody.

Except in a realistic tournament setting this wouldn't work because the brackets would be horribly unbalanced.  Keep in mind that the age of most players are somewhere in the range of low teens to mid twenties (and more specifically, I'd say most tourney players I've seen are somewhere between the ages of 16-22).  The most competitive division is going to be the one with the most players in the age range I specified.  You will find very few 12 and under players and 25 and over players compared to the other groups of players.

The absolute best way to encompass all types of players is to simply run 2 different tournaments.  One "just for fun" tournament, which might just be a simple tournament on a home version, that anyone can enter, where first prize is something like a DDR home version pack, and then a second "serious" tournament, where all the players who care about the arcade versions will enter and try to win the major prizes.

One problem with that. There are /$%wipe pros who purposely make themselves look like they can only play light. Then at the tourament he wipes it clean cause he`s actually elite.

Well that's somewhat true.  Generally speaking people running "serious" tournaments are aware of who's good and are usually aware if someone is sandbagging.  A way around this is having a qualifier beforehand to where the top X amount of people play in the top division, while everyone else plays in another division.  Having more money and prizes for the top division compared to the other divisions is also a way to prevent people from sandbagging.

Also I can't think of any "Pros" that would ever purposely want to compete in a lesser division to prevent themselves from having a chance to win much more money.

Age divisions generally aren't a good idea due to the fact that skill fluctuates incredibly with age.  Why deny a 14 year old to compete with 18 year olds if he is clearly better than them?  For a while, one of the best ITG players in the US was 14. 

If you're going to have divisions in a tournament, it's always a better idea to have them by skill rather than age (ie have a light division, standard division, heavy division, etc).

USB.  I've got about 4 or 5 different USB drives I used, compared to only 1 micro SD card I have for my phone.

If they took all of the opinions and suggestions on these forums into consideration, the next DDR would be horrible.  Japanese people know how to make games the best.

uhhhhhhhhhh.........no.

Uni3>>>>DDRX.  There's very few people here who I think wouldn't agree.

The website was created by AgoraGames and Konami barely even watches over it.

Trust me, the Japanese development team does little to look at this site.  Any consideration from them comes from player feedback at Japanese test locations.

Well then, looks like we will all be filing complaints with the FTC.

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

1) For Konami charging us for items already on the disc.

2) For Konami asking us to pay for content we already purchased (Universe Megapacks)

3) For Konami not adressing this problem, and for no solution.

Ummm....that's really not a basis for filing a complaint to the FTC.  Yeah, it's horrible that they force people to pay for old Universe 1 and 2 content even if they already downloaded it, and it's equally bad that the content is already on the disc.  But it really doesn't violate any laws, and there's other games out there that have done the exact same thing with their DLC.  It sucks, it's a horrible business model, but the fact is people like you are the one's supporting it by buying their DLC.  If it's so bad, don't buy it.  Simple as that. 

HOWEVER, what is serious is the fact that people are supposedly downloading these premium songs and are getting completely different songs than what was advertised.  I'm not sure if it's Konami's fault or Microsoft, but either way it needs to be addressed immediately.  I'm sure if there was ever this problem with Guitar Hero or Rock Band, to where if someone downloaded a song and it turned out being a completely different song, there would be a huge uproar AND Activision/EA would respond quickly to the problem.

Cross posting what I posted on AIJ, but for those curious this is what it unlocks-

-All of the groove radar songs (ugh....)
-Pluto and Pluto Relinquished are available to play at any stage, including the oni charts.
-New costumes for every character
-.25x and .5x are available
-Wave and Brake are available to use (under boost).
-A ****load of arrow skins (I wanna say like 20?) are now available to use.

I'm also assuming it unlocks all of the nonstop/oni courses if they haven't already been. Like the last unlock, you can't play the oni charts of NGO, TMP, Hades, Pluto, or Relinquished from final stage onward.