NG: Haha, yeah. Plus they move around and you can't really use the sounds of your feet to help you time stuff. Plus, you can't use shoes.
There are hard plastic ones, and I had one that I loved like a cat until it went breaky
Soft plastic pads usually last about two months if you treat them well. Hard plastic, sometimes up to half a year. Metal, if you get the good kind, should last as long as they need to, as long as you know how to fix them. But then, the arcade machine usually needs fixing every other day on an old machine. I probably know how the things work better than anyone at Konami by now.