I've been referring lots of people, but none of them have come and stayed.

I think my friend's brother might have joined (I bugged him enough to at least look at the forum), but he didn't seem to enthusiastic.
He has, like, 25 various rhythm games in his room though.
I didn't even realise so many existed until meeting him.

Steve should be joining soon, or I'll punch him some more (I've already punched him a few times.)

I'm also constantly trying to force all my friends to play DDR and IIDX.

Hmm... a video showcasing a bemani community.  Could be deceiving... I mean the Oregon community looked plenty alive when

this video

was made but was already on the brink of death.  Still, I doubt there are that many people in Portland who are even decent at music games, much less active online.  It makes me sad.

Lots of people can kick ass at GH, but it's just not fun to watch like DDR.

I still have this video. All the good DDR players have quit.

We do have James/CaptainCanada in the community too (he has some good connections to peeps too) but he doesn't post and he hasn't joined these boards yet; I'll prod him to do so.

Also my housemate Pete is really into Guitarfreaks and Guitarhero but he isn't very social, so he basically gets all his news from me, but he DOES spend money at Bill's arcades.  But I'd personally like him to get more involved with the community so I'll press him more on my end.  He's out of town til next week however.

/empty promises

James Gowdey knows NW bemani people? *news to me*

To verify.. yes.. everyone in that video is active in the scene.. there are also at least 10+ regulars who aren't in the video that play multiple times a week (at E-spot and CHQ).  The reason arcades thrive here is not because of the regulars.. or those who are dedicated to the scene.. those make up a very small percentage of total players.  For example, at E-spot.. I once stayed there from 1pm-11pm.. and the GF/DM machines had a line up the entire time.. with i'm guessing 1/3 plays belonging to a "regular"..  This is because of the large population of people around here who are exposed to these type of arcades... i guess.  I'm not really sure.

Normally we would ask you to come here but, y'know, getting into the US is gay and even then, Acme and Narrows pale in comparison to E-spot/CHQ/RPM/CC/whatever.

Well.. I'm getting a car in two weeks.. so I'd definetly be down for a little driving action.  Also wouldn't mind showing you guys how GuitarFreaks is done =P  Would be pretty cool to check out your guys scene as well, meet some of your regs and such and such.  I have a passport too so it's all good.  I'll see if I can get one of my buddys to go too.  Sounds good?

Yeah, definitely; just make sure you let us know at least a week in advance if possible, as we usually don't have the ability to change our schedules last minute around here. :-P

Would probably take me at least that long anyways.. as I plan on (most likely) staying for 1 night.  Know any cheap hotels? ^^

Anything in downtown Seattle is going to cost you a pretty penny. Sometimes people have had others crash at their places for bemani events before, I know I don't have the resources to though. If you guys wanted to drive outside of Seattle I'm sure you'd get a better price, all depending on how good of a place you're looking to stay out... (as hotel /= motel).

Usually when my family goes we don't stay anywhere close to downtown.. somewhere a bit farther away.. federal way comes to my mind.  If prices aren't reasonable I might always just drive back, who knows.

I'm too far north to know about the Federal Way area.

Slightly off topic, but if you guys ever wanted to be part of a regional board, you guys could use up that pretty empty Canada place we've got.

Dunno how much activity we'd get.  BMS Canada is me and two (occasionally a third) other regs.  Most guys from around here are on DDRCanada and DDRFreak regional boards.  Oh, and if anyone wants to go ahead and add my msn at norcoholic@hotmail.com, we don't really use AIM here at all.

Looks like RGCanada is where a bunch of recent posting has been... BMS Canada sounds dead.

Well, he knows me, and knows you I assume...that's a start? =P  I know I've seen him do Freestyle stuff with other people at the 'cade so...



If you want to school us at Guitarfreaks, you're gonna want to go to Narrows since ACME doesn't have a GF machine (unless you just want to play CS stuff).  In which case, you'll want to stay closer to Tacoma than Seattle; Tacoma has a lot of reasonable hotels I think.

I know he does with people in NorCal... but as for FS people up here, I think I'm only person that attempts it with him once in a while :p

I'd have to go with this one.  The popularity of Bemani can fluctuate really greatly from state to state; hell, even county to county.

Well, part of it is because of the high concentration of asian-background peeps there too; some of them are first-generations and thus are used to the "bemani"-style of arcade.  Maybe that's what he was getting at?

So, you think being Asian-Canadian (Wouldn't be Asian-American) just naturally gives you a disposition towards Bemani (for the non-first generation)?

Yeah I edited my post before you responded to that.

No, nothing natural about it.

Some of the citizenry there would have experience with an asian-styled entertainment center back in their originating countries, and thus would see CHQ or whatnot and go "Oh, just like home."

Granted, we may be talking about 2nd-generation or more here also; in which case the idea still stands, those generations may have families back in asian countries and might have visited them in the past, thus having prior exposure.

Learned, not natural.  Humans are born relatively equally and there is no "bemani" gene, regardless of race. =P At least I haven't heard anything on the Human Genome Project about that...

Look at Cali. Lots of Asians. Lots of bemani. I'm sure some of the Asian kids just do it because their other friends got into it, and/or it is the fun thing to do in town.

There's some cultural thing going on that I think Washington and Oregon is really lacking It's just different in our states, I guess. Also, historically WA and OR have tried to keep minorities out of their states. That's what I've learned in a couple history classes, but correct me if I got my facts wrong. Uh, oh, no shit... if Asians couldn't get in OR or WA, naturally they'd go to somewhere around there like Canada or Cali @_@ *smacks forehead*

So past generations stayed there and the new generations remain there today, along with the fobs (fresh off the boat) Also, from my observations, Asians seem pretty community-oriented, tending to stay near family, so little chance that they'd move to WA/OR. Not that I'm completely confident, I was just lead to this idea - AND I HOPE I DON'T SOUND LIKE A GENERALIZING ASS, IF I DO SORRY My boyfriend is Vietnamese-American so I've been getting better insight on how those guys roll.

This actually got me thinking... maybe Asians and their immigrants do tend to have traits that make Bemani attractive to them.  Maybe there is not a direct "Bemani gene" per se, but there could be traits that compose one.  As a Yonsei Japanese-American myself who enjoys Bemani, I'm now pretty curious about this.  If only we had some Biology or Psychology majors here...

Psychology major = Matt :B