A new poll question regarding Stat Tracking is up:

How Important is Online Stat Tracking to you for DDR?

- I love it and I want more stats tracked!

- I like it and it adds to my enjoyement of DDR

- I'm indifferent

- I do not like stat-tracking

I am excited to see your responses, think it over and lets discuss the choices we've made!

I wanted to pick the first choice (i love it...), but i have not really been INTO the online DDR experience, especially with my PS2...

HOWEVER, i have at least played online before and it was pretty awesome! i mean keeping and updating the online stats on both the game and even here would be much better IMO.

It would also be a "challenge" for everyone to see who can place in the top 10 or top 20 in the nation, so that's why i choose the second option =)

I love the stats tracking, and would like more of it! :)

Any additional online features would be great. More modes, options, its all great!

P.S. - I'm speaking mainly of Xbox Live/Xbox 360. That's my main console I play DDR on. :)

I enjoy tracking my stats and my friends as well.

If Konami however adds support for this for arcades (DDR X can use USB so this can work in the future)

and have something like Groovestats or DDRecall than that would be very sweet.

I like it as long as a lot of people contribute.

If it's a small thing that only a handfull of people are doing, it's not really worth it for me.

If it was an automatic thing that is connected to the AC and you're able to see top scores on the AC, then sure i'm all for that since it's using everybody that's playing. 

I like the idea but it doesn't work for me. My Xbox Live name's different than my forum name so it won't show up when people click on my profile...and it won't update each time I play when I select "Xbox Live" on the Universe 2 screen...

I don't know how to answer this. Are we talking about arcade games hooked into one database to track stats? Not interested, and I'm not into the arcade scene and am not good enough to compete on a national level. The same thing, but for console games? A little more interest there. A Groovestats-type site, which would allow us to keep running tallies of our scores - both arcade and console - and compare them with others or show separate user profiles? I really like that for ITG, and I'd enjoy tracking my DDR stats that way too.

If the online mode was functional enough that it was enjoyable to play, then yes, I'd say the stat tracking was a good idea.  As it is, the online mode has enough problems (I'm talking Universes) that I don't bother with it anyway, so I don't care.

i havent experienced it but its definitely something that piques my intrest

- I like it and it adds to my enjoyement of DDR

Hardcore VJA user here. But I'm not top 10% competitive. I mostly want to see my own scores. I want to see what I have 'left' and set goals for myself. I used to AAA 5s and try to clear 10s. Now it's AAA 7s and clear 12s.

I think I've said that before but thanks for asking again.

Some thoughts on stat tracking for console games...

I mentioned Groovestats earlier.  One problem with Groovestats is that it works on the honor system.  Anyone can enter any score; there's no way to verify scores set on the console versions.  I just like to see how I'm doing, and faking scores would defeat that purpose, so I have no reason to cheat.  However, there are others who will post piles of 100%s just to make themselves look good.

The Pump It Up PS2 release had a nifty way to avoid this.  After each game you got a 16-character hex code (4 sets of 4 characters) which you could enter into their site.  That makes it nearly impossible to fake scores.  OK, writing down those codes is a bit of a pain, but so is writing down your highs and then entering them into Groovestats.

Perhaps see something along these lines could be implemented in future console versions of DDR.  Perhaps in the setup menu you could choose whether you want to see the codes at the end of the game, so those not interested won't be bothered by them.  And for those who were interested, it'd also drive people to Konami's official site, which isn't a bad thing in any case.

I like stat-tracking sites, and I like how this site adds a few little extras, like the number of times a player has played each song and favorite character.  However, I would like to see the errors/glitches of the current score-tracking system fixed before adding more stuff to it.  For example...

- Why is misokatu still ahead of DukAmok on the leaderboards, despite having a mess of scores all around the board while Duk has all AAA's?

- Nearly everyone's "Best Song" is listed as being Gradiusic Cyber.

- The mismatching score counts.

Maybe other things could be added like keeping track of numeric scores (since they're recorded automatically), being able to compare your score on a particular song with other players, giving a specific numeric rank on songs instead of the percentage system that's currently in place.

Most of all, I think there should be some way to differentiate scores made on pad and scores made with a controller, whether by adding a little controller icon next to the score, or having a whole separate leaderboard for controller players.  Personally, I don't think I should be as high as I am on the leaderboards because most, if not all, of my scores were made with a controller, yet I'm placed near the top with players like DukAmok and MegaManX who almost certainly got their scores on a pad.  It's nice for the self-esteem, but it really isn't fair.