Willy

Actually I'm thinking a lot about how the best qualities of arcade games from an operator's perspective:

• Short credit times
• Adjustable settings to optimize cash flow
• Being easy to understand for the average arcadegoer
• Maintainable with easily-serviced parts, or readily-available off-the-shelf replacements

...are impossible to incorporate into rhythm games, which is the big reason these games barely exist in mainstream arcades:

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• The average rhythm game credit is 10-15 minutes. Some games let you adjust the songs per credit, but rhythm gamers will bitch about it¹
• The average rhythm game has no notable settings to speak of that can adjust the average credit time.² Rhythm gamers learn the timing windows, life mechanics, and everything else about a game by heart; if you could adjust those per machine, they'd bitch about it
• A lot of rhythm games use totally unique input methods that take a lot of effort to understand. The average arcade goer doesn't have the attention span to learn how IIDX works while it's screaming POOR at them, when there are twenty other games they can figure out right away
• The unique input methods usually require custom-made components that are difficult to replace or repair, or are just fiddly in general (Looking at you, Dance Rush stage that starts ghosting at the smallest speck of dust or an even slightly uneven floor). Worse still, rhythm gamers are never consistent in how they want the machines to be maintained - ask a crowd of DDR players how sensitive a panel should be³, or IIDX players what switch/spring weights to use in the buttons. And let me tell you what gets rhythm gamers to bitch

It's just... impossible to justify having these games at a D&B, when they'd rather give the floor space to a big wheel or stacker that can pull in 10x as many plays with much less maintenance and players who are way less picky.

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1. StepManiax defaults to either 1 or 2 songs per credit from the factory, and the local scene of dance gamers who have known 3 song credits their whole life are not happy about that

2. Okay song select timers can can be adjusted in some games, but A) the timer is only sometimes an issue when people are focused on playing and B) if you said "rhythm gamers will bitch if the song select timer is too short" then you've been paying great attention

3. Dance game players especially can be nightmares⁴. Rubbing baby powder and whatever else all over public machines, and some even bring tools and mess with the pads without asking a tech first

4. I've heard tales in rhythm game cab-focused Discords about the term "pumpers" being used derogatorily by D&B corporate to describe Pump It Up players who fuss about machine condition and barely spend money, but [citation needed]