Talk:Dance Dance Revolution

Name of the game?

Could someone explain the name of the game to me? If we accept that there is something revolutionary about it, the name "Dance Revolution" might make sense, but why "Dance Dance Revolution?" [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 17:32, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

In Japanese, doubling of words is used in a number of places. Sometimes it is used to signify plurals of nouns ("ware" = I, myself, "wareware" = us, ourselves; "hito" = person, "hitobito" = people, the "h" sound is softened to a "b" sound in the second occurrence, but the word is written the same). Other times it is used for emphasis or simply for phonetic effect ("dokidoki", "wakuwaku"). Word doubling is so common that there is even a special character in written Japanese which only means "repeat the previous kanji", which helps make writing these constructions easier. "Dance Dance" probably originated from this stylistic technique of expression in Japanese. Personally I think it works well; "Revolution" is four syllables, much longer than "Dance", so the doubling helps restore balance to the name.

Also Konami were probably aware that most people would use an acronym, and thought "DDR" sounded better than "DR".

Re: recent minor change

Well, which will it be? To say that DDR USA was "panned" by players of previously imported games is correct. The recently made change, "played" by players of imports, is also true, although not terribly relevant. May I suggest "snubbed" by players of the better mixes?

I've changed this back to 'panned' although 'snubbed' would work too. Kappa 18:18, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

DDR simulators?

Currently the article features a screenshot from Stepmania, a DDR simulator made by fans. However, aren't such simulators technically illegal for copyright reasons, for the same reasons as other video game emulators? I realize that such simulators are popular nonetheless, and deserve a section, but shouldn't the screenshot be from a legit version of the game? --LostLeviathan 07:53, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Emulation is not, itself, illegal -- and DDR-compatible games are probably in much better standing than video-game emulators such as MAME. (No, I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. And yes, the discussion below is U.S.-specific.)

For the basic legality of producing and distributing emulators, see Sony v. Connectix, in which Connectix was found not to have infringed on Sony's copyright by creating and selling the PlayStation emulator, Virtual Game Station. VGS lets you play PlayStation games (from the original CD-ROM) on a Macintosh. Note, it doesn't let you play them from files or from "pirate" CD-ROMs written on a computer -- only from the originals, which are recorded differently from ordinary CD-ROMs.

The fact pattern is a little different for MAME-type emulators, since they don't use original media -- they require specially made copies of the game. Emulators such as MAME require that you have a copy of the ROM of the original game. The ROM is the software program which, when run on the appropriate computer system (or emulator) is the game. Distributing these ROMs (to people who don't own the original game) is illegal under copyright law ... and I suspect the makers of MAME understand that people are using it with bootleg ROM files. That risks contributory copyright infringement.

Another thing that's true about MAME, but false about many other emulators is that it can't be used to play newly-written freeware games. MAME is hard-coded with a list of games that it supports, and they're all copyrighted commercial releases. But most emulators are not like this. SNES9x, a Super NES emulator, can play not only copies of original games but also fan-created original games. And there are actually quite a few of these out there. (This is true not only of SNES9x, but of most game-console and home-computer emulators.) What this gives SNES9x is significant noninfringing uses -- which is an affirmative defense against charges of contributory infringement. (See Sony v. Universal, the "Betamax case".)

So where does this leave StepMania? StepMania is not really an emulator in the sense of MAME or SNES9x, though it does something similar. An emulator runs a virtual machine that can run software programs written for a particular computer. StepMania is a game compatible with DDR -- that is, it uses the same input files as DDR and produces similar effects, but not by running the same software. It takes the same input files (MP3s and stepfiles), but these aren't software; they're data -- like importing a Microsoft Word document into OpenOffice. Compatibility is actually quite safe under copyright law. Indeed (not that StepMania does so) it's sometimes legal to copy parts of a work outright in the interest of producing a compatible product; see Lexmark v. Static Control.

And, like SNES9x, StepMania can be used for significant noninfringing uses. You do not have to use copies of DDR's music and stepfiles. There is a vast community of stepfile creators who produce original ones. Some of these, yes, are based on remixes of commercially released music (and so probably infringe on the copyright on that music) -- but many are not; they are original productions. These significant noninfringing uses (as well as the use by people who do own a copy of a DDR game and choose to play the music and stepfiles in StepMania instead of on a PSX) give StepMania a good set of defenses against contributory infringement. --FOo 19:05, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)