Small Accomplishments

While I love DDR, there’s always been a small “something” about it that frustrated me, and I could never place it.  Tonight, I finally figured out what it is.

I’m a balls to the wall sorta guy – when I take on a new game, it rarely takes me long to go from first time player to damned near a master of the game.  Sure, I’ll never play against the best of the best, and some games just never managed to motivate me enough to really care (Halo 2 is a prime example of that – I could give a shit less if I’m hardcore at it, ’cause it just doesn’t excite me like Half-Life 2 Deathmatch or Unreal Tournament does in the First Person Shooter arena.  And it’s more than just the controls that turn me off, it’s a large part of the multi-player gameplay), but I can usually whoop the ass of just about anyone that comes along.

DDR on the other hand, doesn’t allow for that.  You can’t “master it” instantly – I don’t think the human body is designed for that   Instead of mastering broad strokes of the game (for instance, the quirks of the rocketlauncher in an FPS means you’ve ) it’s all a series of small accomplishments.  One you figure out how a small part works (the “gallop” in Cowgirl on heavy) that doesn’t really mean you’ve mastered any larger portion of the steps that game presents.  

Suddenly it’s a lot less frustrating to not be able to do an entire song, just as long as I managed to walk away from it with a small accomplishment, I’m happy. 

With that in mind, I’ve been playing quite a few things on Heavy (I played with CERB for a while, then with Twitch, then by myself totaling about an hour and a half) just to pick up some of the more advanced steps – if I fail the song, so what? 

Now I’m in trouble, ’cause I’m having even more fun with it.  Great – I’m probably going to end up having to build up two complete DDR / Stepmania setups just so I’ll be able to play whenever I want to   (The rules at GZ are always that customers get to dominate the machines, not the owners or employees 

Tomarrow one of the “New guys” opens the store, and I get to go run around and get biz done.  First on the agenda is to get ourselves in a commercial for the Delano district – yep, that’s right, our first TV commercial.  Granted, it’s on like channel 44 or something like that, and it’s joint commercial for a lot of the Delano businesses, and costs a whopping $30.  But, 200 advertisements on TV is still a good thing for business.  

A couple of other things on the agenda (like getting the store restocked) then I get to start on the new pads 

For anyone reading this wondering where GamerZone is:  817 West Douglass, Second Floor.  That Second Floor part has been a problem for people – there’s no sign above the door for GZ (Agents has to be tired of people asking them where GZ is   While I love being in the Delano District, there are some downsides – one of them is signage laws.  OMFG.  It’s very restrictive.  In about three weeks, I’ll throw in our sign permit request with the Delano Somethingorother Association (I’m a memeber of the Delano Business Association, but that has nothing to do with controlling appearance rules :-/ )  But until then, there’s a sign that’s semi-illuminated at night now:

Well, it’s not great, but it’s something   At least now people can see we’re in here!  We’ll have to survive with that for almost 2 months – it takes a month between commission meetings, then getting the city to approve it, etc.  Sheesh.  And even then – there are restrictions on what font I can use!  I have an incredibly cool stylish font that I want (I created it  for Gamer Zone, and I can’t bloody well use it on a sign.  heh.  I’ll draft it up anyway, and see if it goes through with the font style I want first, then revise if nessisary.

So no one has an excuse that they can’t find the place anymore 

One more thing I did figure out about DDR.  I work about 15 – 16 hours a day.  I’m going to need to bring 2 shirts, and a can of AXE with me everyday now, so if I DDR I don’t smell like I do now.  Yeeks.

Davis, Gamer Zone