The end of a long week
Mar. 6th, 2003 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteHow sad, the HSEE schedule ends today. It's 2:30 and I still have another hour before my class (Media Academy) starts. I don't know when I get out of 6th (it can't be 3:15... can it?) but I think I'll go to Subway or something for lunch to go and bring it here for my class. Better than waiting another two hours, getting tired, and then not being in the mood to eat out when I need to go home. If anything, money would be better spent on laundry... but I'm hungry, and Mom still hasn't replaced the wheels on the cart. I need a car. A working one that isn't the size of a yacht. Does anyone need Buick 86 parts?
Turns out I got a 21/30 on my math test-- I flubbed up on that 2nd problem (like I said I did) but I don't know just WHAT I did wrong, since someone still has to take the test tomorrow... and then on Monday we'll probably get our results back. I'm not looking forward to waking up at 7:30 in the morning tomorrow, and doubtless NOT getting any sleep because of the Playathon. I hope Rochelle's in it, because a) I need someone to help me with my hair and makeup for Saturday; b) I'd be awfully lonely otherwise... I'm not THAT great friends with Alicia or Eddie, and those are about the only other two people in the Advanced Choirs that I know that I actually talk to from time to time. @_@; I don't even know if THEY'RE going!
I'm catching up on NBoR, reading all the Riptide threads and such. I was trying to find a thread Will had about 'the perfect arcade' and suggestions for games and the like, but I can't find it for the life of me. Usually, when I check NBoR, I usually only visit a few categories, and maybe post in about 3/4 of them, if that. By the time I find something to reply to, it's been locked, said already, or has pages after pages of replies to it already. Blah, this is what I get for not being a morning-surfer like Will.
In any case, here's my thoughts on the whole matter:
PRICE INCREASE - yeah, I'm all for a price increase, and admittedly, Metreon's prices do turn me off from playing there... I rarely play Initial D or DDR there, not just because of the prices-- but because THEIR high prices don't do squat for improving the quality of the games. Truthfully, I have no reason to go to Metreon aside from it being an easily-accessible spot for a lot of people. Having an RTA price increase -if even a quarter- is actually a good idea. As many people have said, tourists probably won't care-- they'll pump coin after coin into the machines to have fun, regardless of whether they fail or not. This brings me to my next topic...
DIFFICULTY - I am one of those notorious "not as good as everyone else" people. I'm not "new" to DDR, but I would be highly discouraged if the difficulty on my favorite songs was upped by so much that I'd be tripping over my own two feet (moreso than I already do, that is). For tourists, they'll pick beginner mode if they've never played DDR before, but most -as I've noticed it- don't understand that concept, and pick Standard, thinking it's normal, and thinking 'Normal' is easy... when it's not. Upping the difficulty could do one of two things to the tourist industry:
1) cause less people to play because they find it more difficult to "win," and therefore less fun, a waste of their money
2) cause people to become MORE determined to play and kick the damn machine's ass, as they've seen the "really good people" do.
The problem with all this becomes-- who plays more -us or tourists? Be honest, even on slow days, pier 39 and RTA is open to tourists-- people we don't see flooding the arcade when we show up afterschool or on Friday nights. Just yesterday I saw two teenage tourists pumping 12 tokens into the machine, thinking that was the cost for two players. Just think what adults "fascinated" by watching teenagers -good players- would do. So keep the difficulty the same, is what I say. It pleases everyone:
1) beginners and those who aren't "as good" don't lose faith
2) experts don't have to worry about failing songs they previously could AA
3) tourists, whether confused or not, still end up pumping money into the machine
And so we're all happy. I know some people might want the difficulty up because it speeds the lines up or because they're bored of DDR... but how many people have played EVERY SINGLE SONG on DDR? That's what I'd call a true challenge. Not to mention the fact that not everyone observes a card line, so even if someone fails, that doesn't mean they're going to be getting off the stage anytime soon. Even people with cramps and sweat turning their shirts into wet rags keep playing. So... yeah.
CARD/COIN SYSTEM - I *hate* the card system at the Metreon. The only reason I tolerate it for initial D is because it saves my data, but, like Met cards, there's still the chance of credits being sucked off it, of the card getting demagnetized and therefore wasted, or confused with dead cards that people use as placeholders. Cards get stolen, fall through cracks... even with Initial D, it's an unsafe system. If anything, I like the idea of using quarters. Tourists often get angry when they can't redeem their extra tokens for cash, so by having change-only machines, they can keep pumping those dollars in, and not complain about having leftover coins... because they can spend them elsewhere. Doing this will also solve the issue of MGL, SVGL, and other golfland tokens, because, due to their thickness and diameter, such tokens would be rejected. It would also make playing $1+ games easier, especially if we had dollar-readers. =D
One thing I miss though, is the whole raffle thing we used to have on Bemani Nights, where we could win tokens. That always brightened someone's night, and it gave people a reason to keep coming back and either spending tokens or trying to win the raffle. At first, I didn't enter because I thought it was like a DDR tourney and you had to play-to-win, but I actually won 3rd place once, and that made me very happy! I've noticed that many of the golflands have special daily offers, and sometimes for birthday parties too. I think the idea of an RTA birthday is fantastic... and while my birthday is the first day of Spring Break (and therefore I can't ask for a private party, sniff sniff... I also haven't been around as long as Will and prolly don't deserve it half as much...) I'd do it too if I had that kind of option.
There might have been more I wanted to say... but now I'm back from my tardy run to Subway, and I'm distracted between eating and messing with Flash. I'll update later. =D
Turns out I got a 21/30 on my math test-- I flubbed up on that 2nd problem (like I said I did) but I don't know just WHAT I did wrong, since someone still has to take the test tomorrow... and then on Monday we'll probably get our results back. I'm not looking forward to waking up at 7:30 in the morning tomorrow, and doubtless NOT getting any sleep because of the Playathon. I hope Rochelle's in it, because a) I need someone to help me with my hair and makeup for Saturday; b) I'd be awfully lonely otherwise... I'm not THAT great friends with Alicia or Eddie, and those are about the only other two people in the Advanced Choirs that I know that I actually talk to from time to time. @_@; I don't even know if THEY'RE going!
I'm catching up on NBoR, reading all the Riptide threads and such. I was trying to find a thread Will had about 'the perfect arcade' and suggestions for games and the like, but I can't find it for the life of me. Usually, when I check NBoR, I usually only visit a few categories, and maybe post in about 3/4 of them, if that. By the time I find something to reply to, it's been locked, said already, or has pages after pages of replies to it already. Blah, this is what I get for not being a morning-surfer like Will.
In any case, here's my thoughts on the whole matter:
PRICE INCREASE - yeah, I'm all for a price increase, and admittedly, Metreon's prices do turn me off from playing there... I rarely play Initial D or DDR there, not just because of the prices-- but because THEIR high prices don't do squat for improving the quality of the games. Truthfully, I have no reason to go to Metreon aside from it being an easily-accessible spot for a lot of people. Having an RTA price increase -if even a quarter- is actually a good idea. As many people have said, tourists probably won't care-- they'll pump coin after coin into the machines to have fun, regardless of whether they fail or not. This brings me to my next topic...
DIFFICULTY - I am one of those notorious "not as good as everyone else" people. I'm not "new" to DDR, but I would be highly discouraged if the difficulty on my favorite songs was upped by so much that I'd be tripping over my own two feet (moreso than I already do, that is). For tourists, they'll pick beginner mode if they've never played DDR before, but most -as I've noticed it- don't understand that concept, and pick Standard, thinking it's normal, and thinking 'Normal' is easy... when it's not. Upping the difficulty could do one of two things to the tourist industry:
1) cause less people to play because they find it more difficult to "win," and therefore less fun, a waste of their money
2) cause people to become MORE determined to play and kick the damn machine's ass, as they've seen the "really good people" do.
The problem with all this becomes-- who plays more -us or tourists? Be honest, even on slow days, pier 39 and RTA is open to tourists-- people we don't see flooding the arcade when we show up afterschool or on Friday nights. Just yesterday I saw two teenage tourists pumping 12 tokens into the machine, thinking that was the cost for two players. Just think what adults "fascinated" by watching teenagers -good players- would do. So keep the difficulty the same, is what I say. It pleases everyone:
1) beginners and those who aren't "as good" don't lose faith
2) experts don't have to worry about failing songs they previously could AA
3) tourists, whether confused or not, still end up pumping money into the machine
And so we're all happy. I know some people might want the difficulty up because it speeds the lines up or because they're bored of DDR... but how many people have played EVERY SINGLE SONG on DDR? That's what I'd call a true challenge. Not to mention the fact that not everyone observes a card line, so even if someone fails, that doesn't mean they're going to be getting off the stage anytime soon. Even people with cramps and sweat turning their shirts into wet rags keep playing. So... yeah.
CARD/COIN SYSTEM - I *hate* the card system at the Metreon. The only reason I tolerate it for initial D is because it saves my data, but, like Met cards, there's still the chance of credits being sucked off it, of the card getting demagnetized and therefore wasted, or confused with dead cards that people use as placeholders. Cards get stolen, fall through cracks... even with Initial D, it's an unsafe system. If anything, I like the idea of using quarters. Tourists often get angry when they can't redeem their extra tokens for cash, so by having change-only machines, they can keep pumping those dollars in, and not complain about having leftover coins... because they can spend them elsewhere. Doing this will also solve the issue of MGL, SVGL, and other golfland tokens, because, due to their thickness and diameter, such tokens would be rejected. It would also make playing $1+ games easier, especially if we had dollar-readers. =D
One thing I miss though, is the whole raffle thing we used to have on Bemani Nights, where we could win tokens. That always brightened someone's night, and it gave people a reason to keep coming back and either spending tokens or trying to win the raffle. At first, I didn't enter because I thought it was like a DDR tourney and you had to play-to-win, but I actually won 3rd place once, and that made me very happy! I've noticed that many of the golflands have special daily offers, and sometimes for birthday parties too. I think the idea of an RTA birthday is fantastic... and while my birthday is the first day of Spring Break (and therefore I can't ask for a private party, sniff sniff... I also haven't been around as long as Will and prolly don't deserve it half as much...) I'd do it too if I had that kind of option.
There might have been more I wanted to say... but now I'm back from my tardy run to Subway, and I'm distracted between eating and messing with Flash. I'll update later. =D
