Last night I went to my first arcade since I’ve gotten “serious” about fighting games. They had a custom MvC3 “cabinet,” which was really cool. One of the buttons (the light attack) was busted on one of the two stick setups, however, a point I didn’t realize until I found I couldn’t charge my Zero buster, do down right lightning, or use Dark Phoenix’s L attacks. When I brought it up, my opponent, who had been something of a dick for most our set anyway, got up, insulted me, and walked away (he had offered to switch sides and then complained once I asked to.)
The reason I post is this: I know that many people loved arcades to death and vastly prefer them over consoles (especially online) but does anyone else feel that the culture of the arcade brings out the worst in people, especially when alcohol is involved? There are rivalries in my local scene but no one has ever gotten up and cursed someone out and stormed out over small issues. There seemed to be an air of exclusivity wherein others assumed that no one else was familiar with the “pro” scene, up to date tactics, etc. This doesn’t really seem like a good time to me; if I wanted to get insulted by testosterone-fueled bros there are plenty of other places I could do that for free. And no I’m not complaining about trash talking, which I do myself and think is an integral part of these games.
I always had good times in arcades, there was always a couple of assholes, but it was usually way more friendly than the “Anonymous Bitter Asshole” mentality of online players nowadays.
Yeah alcohol and SF can get out of hand really quick, especially in an arcade environment.
Unfortunately its not uncommon to have an unpleasant experience at an arcade. As opposed to a console meetup, there is no control over who goes to play, which means a lot of the time you’ll be playing against people you don’t know. That and arcades are often a hangout for druggies and hot heads. Still the amount of people who would go out of their way to make your arcade experience shitty are the small minority. The more you go, the better time you’ll have, and the less likely you’ll ever have an experience like this again. Don’t take to heart what people say to you and just try to enjoy the game. Chances are the arcade regulars don’t like that guy either.
To those saying I’m whining, I had a great time overall and definitely recommend it. The cab was super sick, and I loved the social atmosphere and the competition inherent within it. I traded gamertags with the first guy I did a FT10 with and he was super cool. Also, as I said, there’s a difference between trash talk about the game and direct personal insults for no reason. If you think being ok with an anonymous drunk asshole calling you a fuck face makes you a “real” fighting game player, then more power to you. I, however, will continue to be a “fake” player and not act like When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong when I lose.
How was the cab “super sick” if a button didn’t work? And if an entire button didn’t work, why were you playing the game at all? Also never been to a decent fighter arcade that served alcohol so I dunno.
Technically, the only agreed upon rule in the arcade was “winner stays.” Everything else depended on the culture of the crowd in that particular arcade.
To those of you still responding, you’re right about it being no big deal, I got over it pretty quickly after making these posts and now only have good memories of my time there. To P Gorath: love your play at WNF, and regarding knowing whether the button was broken or not, I didn’t realize until the games had started.
If there are broken buttons on the setup, you should tell the arcade operator. If someone else had done that, you wouldn’t have had to play on a broken button and chances are, the operators don’t know the buttons are broken. They probably got sick of playing some of those games after the first two weeks they started working there.
I think the problem is you are too friendly or too unfriendly, if that makes any sense
back in Mexico if you went to an arcade you usually didn’t talk to the person next to you if you didn’t know him, you just played the game, complained about your mistakes/game performance, there were some assholes but they wouldn’t talk shit to you directly it was more like beef thing most of the time.
and when I came here to the U.S people just want to talk to you,lol. it’s not a bad thing IMO but i can see the problem when the guy challenging you is a douchebag.
