-
GET OUT AND DANCE
Making friends and burning calories
Believe it or not, some of the world's best Dance Dance Revolution players reside right here in the Bay Area. With world-class players comes a community that has been rebuilt from the dance panels up.
Part One: Dancers in the Arcade
Since the release of Dance Dance Revolution Ace in 2016, North America has seen a resurgence in the DDR scene as players old and new return to the arcades. The original game came out in the late 90s, but there has been a lack of North American releases until DDR Ace. North American players continue to compete with and even dominate their Asian counterparts with Chris4Life winning the 6th KAC tournament.
Tournament Attendance Is On The Rise Since It's Origins
There were over 228 participants total in five tournaments between November 2016 to January 2018.
The January 2018 tournament used DDR Extreme, an earlier version of the game, while the previous four tournaments used DDR A, the latest.
This can explain the drop in attendance from 2017 to 2018.
Stats: David Hua, Tournament Organizer
Part Two: It's all about energy and movement
Dr. Marialice Kern, professor and department chair of San Francisco State University's kinesiology department talks about the rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution.
Although Dr. Marialice Kern's primary focus is on Virtual Reality, video games, and exercise, she was intrigued by DDR and how exercise can correlate with the game.
SF State is one of the first schools in the world to offer VR Fitness classes, offered in conjunction with the Kinesiology Department.
As of now, the Mashouf Wellness Center offers VR boxing, soccer, and archery fitness classes.
Welcome to San Jose
A majority of DDR players find themselves playing and exercising in San Jose's Eastridge Mall.
Here's the breakdown in a poll of 67 DDR enthusiasts:
• Eastridge — 27
• Sunvalley — 16
• Daly City — 16
• Milpitas — 8
Part Three: Friendship and DDR
Winber and Richard are friends who go to the Dave & Busters in Milpitas, CA every week. Richard decided to play DDR after he gained weight at his new job at Facebook. The Silicon Valley company has its own arcade that is free to play for their employees.
He invited Winber to join him as well as other friends to play with him. They have only been playing for a few months and have no ambition to play competitively, but being above average and burning calories by playing a game they love is good enough for them.
Exercise and Gaming
A 2009 journal study done by LiveStrong, showed that people who played active video games tend to burn more calories per hour than someone who walked.