Soon it was almost Christmas, and that meant the anniversary of my first try of DDR was approaching. On Christmas Eve my parents asked whether I wanted to go with them for a trip to Pacific Mall in Markham. Pacific Mall was the largest Chinese Mall in Toronto. The most noticeable feature was that the stores there sold many special items, like Chinese and Japanese CDs, magnas, VCDs, and cell phone customizations, that cannot be found elsewhere in Toronto. I also knew that there was a small arcade there. I was not very interested in those stuff, but I went with my parents anyway, since I have nothing to do otherwise and I had not been there in years.
After we arrived, as the usual practice, I made a time to meet up and then I and my parents headed off separately. What I have was the time to wander around, so I just decided to look around. Surprisingly, there was a DDR USA machine in the small arcade in Pacific Mall. However, I chose not to play it because I did not have the mood. A while later I went upstairs to see what had changed. The last time I went there most stores upstairs was vacant. It was almost fully occupied now. I noticed that there was a fairly large room under renovation. I peeked inside through the door and what I saw was a counter and that was it. There was a girl and a guy looking through the door too.
"…This could not be true. This place can never be an arcade." The girl said. Someone was opening a new arcade there?
"We will just see. This place will be called Orbit - what a name." The guy said.
"Only time will show."
At that time the arcade culture was not well developed at that time and it was normal for people to think that place will eventually go out of business. However, when I as writing this after two years, that arcade, Orbit, eventually became one of the most successful arcades in Toronto. This place also became an inseparable part in my DDR adventure too. Also, even though I live in Mississauga, I managed to know the manager of Orbit some time in the future.
"Well. This is no Lovegetty Station. The atmosphere here is not suitable to open an arcade. All arcades need to have some underground element to be successful." The guy said. "And have something that can attract customers. I can still remember last year when Lovegetty Station get DDR and it was so packed."
"You mean the one in Commerce Gate opposite to Times Square in Richmond Hill?" the girl said. "I went there once. I hope we won't see too much triads there."
"That is the case." The guy said as the pair walked away from the door.
That evening Emi and Rage called me and wished me a Merry Christmas.
"Hey, Rage. Merry Christmas buddy. Where are you partying." I said.
"My home," Rage said. "with my family and Emi is here too."
"Ah. Your sweetheart is here."
"Oh yeah and it is time for this." Rage said.
"Lights on the avenue,
that seems so far away.
I would like to drink a toast to you
on such a special day."
"Rage, that does not sound like Thomas Howard." I said.
"Oh well. Who cares?" Emi said. "By the way, I have some news that you may want to know."
"What is it?" I said.
"You know Pacific Mall, don't you? I heard that there is a new arcade opening?"
"I heard that. And what's going on?"
"A friend of mine told me that the manager is going to invest heavily on Bemani games." Rage added.
"This could be a good news for Bemani players in Toronto." I said. "On business perspective, however, I have some reservations."
"Why?" Both Emi and Rage asked. "Wouldn't you think it is a good news for us?"
"For Bemani players, it is a good news." I replied. "But as you know, the arcade culture in Toronto is not very well developed. I mean, do we see a lot of hardcore arcades regulars? We don't. And, take Mississauga as an example, how many arcades are there? Less than five, I can bet. And other than Playdium, the rest are all the really small one. Also, unlike other businesses, people would not travel to arcades. This means that arcades must be placed so that it is convenience to people and therefore they have to rely on local population. The population density in Canada is just too small for that. For Pacific Mall, although a lot of people go there, the problem is that most of them are Chinese, and, well, for an arcade, you would not target at a particular ethnical group, would you? Mind you, many non-Chinese feel uncomfortable when they go to Pacific Mall. But of course, everything can change. And I admit that it is a bold move."
"I agree. I feel uncomfortable there too." Emi said.
"And for Bemani games, there are online communities like DDR Freak(Note 1) or DDRJamz (Note 2) and a number of regional boards. The one for Toronto does not really exist. So the customer base has to be built form scratch." I said,
"Would you think it is possible for the place to build up by itself?"
"It is possible, but it takes time, and DDR is not really popular here."
Note 1: Started out as a regional DDR community in California, DDR Freak (www.ddrfreak.com) became one of the most famous DDR sites in the world. This is partly because it has a database which keeps tracks of DDR machines over the world. The fame of DDR Freak is partly because it is rather active in media appearances and fast in updating news.
Note 2: Although it is now closed, DDRJamz earned its fame from its strong user bases in its message board. Because of this reason, while the main site was closed down, the message board was taken by Team Seattle and the online community survived.
