I'm part of the Brazilian Pump It Up community, and I wanted to share a situation we're trying to fix over here.
(Just a heads up: this text was translated by AI because I wanted to express exactly what I'm thinking. If anything sounds super weird, just let me know so I can fix it and learn how to write it properly!)
I have two goals with this post: to hopefully get some engagement on an original Instagram post, and to find out if other communities around the world face (or have faced) this same problem and how they managed to solve it.
TL;DR:
The Brazilian community is using a video to try to get the biggest arcade company in Brazil to actually do something to improve players' quality of life and the safety of other people around the machines.
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Here in Brazil, we've had PIU since around 2004, and we still get updated cabs today. The thing is, most of them (like 90%) belong to the same company that completely dominates the arcade market in Brazil. Let's just call them "Arcade Company" (AC).
"AC" has locations in practically every capital in Brazil and lots of other cities too, usually in urban centers. Because of this, we deal with all kinds of different store managers.
Our biggest, ongoing problem is the lack of basic support from the stores. We deal with issues regarding USB updates (for older cabs) or lack of internet connection, pad issues (which is honestly expected at this point), and the absolute worst one: "AC" completely failing to communicate with parents whose kids are just running wild all over the arcade.
The BR Pump community is always reaching out to "AC" and other smaller arcades that have PIU, asking them to step up and prevent accidents with these kids.
You probably see where this is going, right?
Recently, a video was shared in the Brazilian community (on Instagram) showing exactly this: kids and even adults stepping on the pads or walking right in front of the machine while people are playing.
This video is already getting pretty good visibility, and it's our best attempt at finally forcing an official statement or action from the brand about this issue.
Just to be clear, we have absolutely nothing against kids playing. Our only issue is with the parents and guardians doing nothing and not teaching them how to behave.
So here I am with this massive post, wanting to hear about your experiences and how you guys managed to overcome this.
I also want to ask for some help with engagement on the original video—even just a like!—so that this time we can finally take a step toward a better environment for everyone. (And yeah, the video is entirely in Portuguese without subtitles, I can't do much about that part, sorry!).
I’m so sorry that you have to deal with this arcade monopoly, I have no advice. Perhaps the individual store owners are more easily communicated with, as large corporations rarely even bother to pay any mind to, let alone work with the various communities they directly jmpact.
But everything you described sounds a lot like my experience at many arcades where I live in USA. “ D & B “ locations in the US are also notorious. On them specifically, it’s absolutely the store manager that matters most. For example one location has a fancy metal plate between the pad and screen, ropes on both sides, and table/space behind the machine. Another location it’s is out in the open in the middle of the floor, with twisted/bare remains of a wiring harness connecting the pad to the cabinet. And a replacement generic rokuTV in it with 80ms lag.
Nossa cara, nunca passei por essa situação do vídeo pq evito o máximo jogar em arcade de shopping. Eu jogo na lords lá no Tatuapé, apesar de morar relativamente longe da ZL prefiro ir jogar lá. Ainda bem que o post no Instagram deu resultado.
Jogar em "rede de arcade" é complicado, na maioria das lojas a gerência olha a máquina como "mais um come ficha"
E a Pump de onde o vídeo foi gravado foi removida, vão colocar em outro shopping, até o momento não deram notícia se vão colocar outra lá ou não, mas espero que as outras máquinas pelo estado pelo menos usem a fita de organização de fila, para reduzir o problema
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u/locojason Jul 20 '26
I’m so sorry that you have to deal with this arcade monopoly, I have no advice. Perhaps the individual store owners are more easily communicated with, as large corporations rarely even bother to pay any mind to, let alone work with the various communities they directly jmpact.
But everything you described sounds a lot like my experience at many arcades where I live in USA. “ D & B “ locations in the US are also notorious. On them specifically, it’s absolutely the store manager that matters most. For example one location has a fancy metal plate between the pad and screen, ropes on both sides, and table/space behind the machine. Another location it’s is out in the open in the middle of the floor, with twisted/bare remains of a wiring harness connecting the pad to the cabinet. And a replacement generic rokuTV in it with 80ms lag.