I went home for the holidays just to discover that 2 of my favorite arcade hangout spots where condemed. I was able to find an arcade in a mall, but the newest game that they had was something I played while I was still in junior high. I live in Japan now and going to the arcades here is always fun. It’s clean and cool with the exception of the smoking. They keep the newest games and I’ve never played on a game with a broken stick. I know us americans love videogames as much as the next nation. But why are our arcades becoming near extinct? Does anybody know or have some type of article from the net to explain why this is happening?
On a side not, I was able to play the what I belive to be a new fighter yesterday. I haven’t been to an arcade in over a month so I’m sure this is old news to most of you. It’s called ArcanaHeart. It plays alot like Meltyblood so I advise you to check it out if you get a chance.
I blame the fact that everyone in an area is spread out causeing an unstead flow in comp
Fighting games arin’t very popular people expect to win but get beasted and quit playin in general.
The majority of gamers in america are at home consel/on-line players.
I still like the energy you feel from playing around live people and i’m planning to move to japan in two to three years depending on if the arcade scene completley dies.
The reality is that the games that intrest american’s are sport games and fps - those are not arcade friendly. With the cost of games like Blitz and NBA Jam, its much easier to meet over Rashaad’s house and run some Madden there.
The quality and number of suitable arcade games in general has dropped as the market has caved into consoles which boast hardware on par or sometimes better than the overpriced arcae counterpart.
Cost. 25 cents used to be a decent amount of money, it added up quickly, especially in busy places, but now when you compare the income even at 50 cents its just not enough to stay open in malls AND rent the arcade cabinets. The ways to lower the cost are considered illegal using consoles for non-private use.
The internet has slowly chipped away at it, not in terms of just people playing games online, but the social aspect (1) - these days you can hop on AIM and holla at anyone you need to. Back in the day though it was a phone call or random meeting. Nothing is random anymore. Two, you have the ‘new/experimental’ aspect. Remember going to the arcade when MK2 was out and being blown away by ‘new fatalities’ that everyone didn’t know yet? These days - by the time games reach the states since companies want to be dipshits about releasing stuff simultaneously - we already can read everything - hell when FF12 hit the states synopsis were already on the internet. Now we can of course play each other over XBox live etc FOR AS LONG AS WE WNAT FOR FREE. Arcade - GGPO.
Oh yeah, the biggest reason - lack of a reason. DDR eoiuld have been a HUGE boost to arcades across the nation if it has (1) come a bit earlier noticeh ow I keep stabbing the japan getting shit YEARS before we do angle and two - the damn cabinets cost WAY too much - one DDR machine is like 5 other arcade machines. So most still alive arcades couldn’t afford them. Two innovation, outside of the games like DDR - how much new stuff has there been? What hotness has there been? Fighting games are chump change - especially these days where the internet has allowed people to get good in their living room, come ot the arcade and whipe people out so much they don’t want to play. when SF2 was still big, yes their were differences between average player and good players, but compare an average MvC2 player to a good one…the margin is BLOWN out of proportion…
The way i see everyone doing it, it almost seems like a requirement. Seriously, all these guys are chain smokers or something. At the last tourney i went to for Arcana Heart, right before the final started, BOTH players took out a cigarette, lit it up and then played the finals. Pretty funny.
Coming from Japan I’m surprised this is hard to figure out. America is about the online gaming. MMORPG’s, FPS’s etc. Fighting games never became a culture here like they are in Japan. Americans like guns and mystical stuff. Not fighters. No wait…screw that. They like Madden. :lol:
Fighting games on home consoles don’t sell like they used to so yeah.
Yeah, it gets annoying cause my clothes always smell like cigarettes afterwards and NOT being a smoker and having all my clothes and stuff smell like smoke isnt cool. Plus the place always smells like it all the time. But hey, im not gonna complain about Japanese arcades, theyre pretty much the best thing ever.