Dance+Dance+Revolution

A clip of a kid more talented at DDR than I will ever be!

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The game I chose is called Dance Dance Revolution – a kinesthetic learning game most people are probably familiar with. Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR, is designed to improve dance steps and skills, and does this with a touch sensitive mat with a number of labeled pads for your feet. First, the player chooses the dance difficulty level they are comfortable with (beginning, intermediate, advanced); then, the player is given a plethora of songs to choose from, ranging from old classics like Rock Lobster to more modern tunes. Once the song is chosen, the screen switches, the music begins playing, and, by watching which labeled pads for your feet light up on the screen (Left Arrow, Right Arrow, etc), the player is instructed where to move. If you hit the right foot pad at the right beat, your score improves; if you are late, early, or miss the beat, you lose points.
 * Description of the Game:**

As mentioned, the game is kinesthetic and the objective seems to be the constructing of a connection between the visual stimuli from the lighted pads on the screen (Right Arrow, Left Arrow, etc.), the auditory stimuli from the song being played, and the physical body movement of dancing. I suppose the objective, then, would fall into the skills category in that I was learning new physical skills. The goal of the game didn’t seem to be the teaching of any sort of dance terminology, like the names of complicated steps. Instead, I learned to have a quicker connection between what I see and hear, and how that makes me move – it improved my reflexes. Perhaps an additional learning result was that I became familiar with a larger scope of songs than before, specifically older, classic songs.
 * Kinds of learning involved:**

There is no direct instruction given before the game is played, like a dance lesson to prepare the player. Neither is there any sort of advice or text that appears on the screen to aid the player. In physical dance lessons, there will perhaps be an instructor to give brief guidance even before the music starts. This game, Dance Dance Revolution, I feel, is a good example of situated learning because you just jump in and start dancing, learning as you play. I kept thinking of Gee’s thoughts on situated meaning and how, even though just diving into the game was a bit of a mess (I probably looked pretty funny), it was successful it teaching me. Also, a noteworthy observation is that this type of teaching was //fun//. I didn’t even think about what I was learning; I was just having a good time, completely immersed in the task. In addition, even though there wasn’t direct instruction before the game began, there were certainly different levels the player could choose, so even though I was diving into the game, I could take it at a slower pace if I needed to. It is definitely a self-teaching game.
 * Kinds of teaching involved:**

When looking on the web for sites devotes to DDR, I didn’t find much in the way of instruction or cheats for it. Mostly what I found was research in favor of DDR and the history behind. On Wikipedia, DDR had an entry with the European background of the game and studies supporting it. There was some information on playing styles in DDR. For example, one type of playing style is called “technical,” or “perfect attack,” and that is when a player dances to the most technically difficult song and perfects their skills by minimizing their movement to only what is essential and focusing more on the beat and rhythm of the song than the actual movement. Another approach to playing the game is called “freestyle” in which the player chooses songs of a lower difficulty level and then adds more “flashy” movement and extra dance moves to the game. There was also information on the use of DDR in schools, specifically in West Virginia, at University of Kansas, and Caltech. There is also a website called DDR Freak that states it gives tips, techniques, etc., but as I was exploring the site, I mostly just found promotion information and a newsfeed on the latest developments in the game. I also looked on Youtube, and videos of people doing DDR were pretty common! One of the videos was on DDR steps for the popular “Ganghem Style.”
 * Description of kinds and quantity of online sites, forums, etc. devoted to the game and game activities:**

I really enjoyed playing DDR. As I mentioned before, I was a bit clumsy at the beginning, and admittedly, looked ridiculous, but since it was just to have a good time, I wasn’t too worried about it. Games like this make me more interested in kinesthetic video games like those provided on the Wii. I also love that music was involved in this game. There were a variety of songs to choose from, and I enjoyed looking through them choosing my favorites, or even learning new songs from dancing to them. I believe there is also a partner option for DDR, if you purchase a second dance mat. I think this would be an awesome experience. This game makes me see that the world of video games is more broad than I had originally thought and can be used to incorporate music and social connection.
 * Overall Reflection:**