Why did it happen? This is my test for you… Really trying to bring a meaningful discussion here, so keep it clean.
Where I was born and raised there was never an arcade industry. (I’m from the US)
Mosty likely the rise of home consoles which were cheaper to produce and develop for not to mention cheaper over time for the consumers.
go to the arcade with your pouch full of change or call over some friends in your warm and cozy home to play on your playstation?
Honestly I’m suprised that the best players are still the ones that have the most arcade background when you have infinitely more time and less cost to practice at home.
No surprise there really. At the arcade you have a much wider selection of opponents to play against which leads to learning match ups and different playstyles. At home your options are limited to the people you hang out with.
Consoles and internet connections are killing the arcades and net bars in my opinion.
how is that so? if i goto the arcade i have to play whoever is there, with zero guarantee theyre good. not every arcade is like china town fair… if we had a street fighter 4/ssf4 machine in my area i would probably be the best, and im not even that good.
online, you can at least request matches with people you know are good, and a much bigger community can be started, and flourish.
the only problem with online are our speeds in this country.
I prefer the Arcade if I could because it kind of forces you to get good. Go there with 3 dollars I better make that last or I’m going home early. Local fight scenes and arcades are always better then online forget home consoles kicks 360…Crap I don’t think I should of did that.
Because losing costs you money.
Well if you lived in a small, highly urbanized country with high cost of living space such as Japan (and other Asian countries), then the former is preferred.
The arcade industry has not died. It’s still alive and kicking in many parts of the world.
I have a long answer relevant to the American market, but I’ll let people put in their two cents first.
There isn’t even a single fighting game cabinet within 100 miles of my town
We had a sweet arcade in the 90s with all of the current games though
Honestly, having someone face to face is way more preferable to some anonymous person. I met some friends through Arcades, and its a neutral venue for people to gather and get good. Who cares if they suck? You can help them and foster a more personal community. Something that might be harder to do at someone’s house.
Let me just expound on what I said earlier. In some countries, such as Japan, the culture is such that people tend to stay less at home and more often than not, groups of friends will hang out at the mall. This is due to a varied number of factors, such us the lack of easy access to private vehicles combined with relatively reliable/prevalent public transportation (easier to meet up with friends rather than drive to someones house) As such, in Japan (and other countries), the lack of space at home (cant fit all your friends in your house/apartment) and ease of access to arcades (they’re either on the way home, or are in places where people congregate, not in bowling alleys in the seedier part of town). As such, arcades never really died out since people still supported them. Same applies to where I live (the Philippines) which has alot of the aforementioned factors - I know of 9 arcades within walking distance from my office and I do visit them, either at lunch or sometimes after work.
- cost
- convenience/power of home consoles
- fighting games’ declining popularity (they closed down all the arcades in my area years ago, and the ones I’ve been to out of province are almost 90% racing/ddr/gimmick games)
those are the big 3, i’d think almost any other reasons you can find could stem from those
Believe it or not playing at an arcade makes you better for one simple reason. It does cost you to lose. Why get better if you can just keep chucking in game after game and not have to stop? A lot of home players just don’t understand why they lose and don’t work to up their game in the same manner as arcade players. Arcade players have to up their game instantly to match their opponent or they don’t get to play. This is not a pleasant experience so they naturally work hard to prevent it, making them improve themselves whether they like it or not. Unlike at home though, their wallet gives them a certain number of times they can go around the table. After that they gotta go home and wait till they have more time or money to try again.
50 cents may not be a lot but lose 10 times and that’s 5 dollars. Also try taking crack away from a crack head they’ll find a way to get crack, a fighting game enthusiast a lot of the times is the same. Take away his game and he’ll find a way to get it back and keep it. I know a guy once who moved to a remote town and got so sick only playing people online he offered the pizza guy 10 bucks to come in and play a quick best of 5 with him, lol.
Ease of access to pornography via the internet.
i said it before and i’ll say it again. you have a generation of U.S. players that have little to no experience playing in an arcade and thus believes there’s little to no difference between online and offline when he sees 4 bars on on XBL or PSN. it’s should be no surprise to anyone that online is filled with flowcharters.
save your breath, Sephiroth. frankly, i don’t think they can relate.
I understand where youre coming from, because i grew up during the fighting game golden age so to speak. my first fighter was the original street fighter 2, and i was often in arcades.
However, I dont like the arcade atmosphere, and I dont like how it costs excessive amounts of money. Id rather just have friends over for offline matches. Not that it would matter anyway, because im pretty sure im the only person in my area that plays this game with the intent of getting better.
the only arcade near me is in a mall, they dont have fighting games anymore, and aside from the fact that malls are for douche bags, that mall is filled with mall goths. So it could be a fighting game utopia and i would still avoid it like the plague
one doesn’t have to play in an arcade. unfortunately, online play is the only option for most people. however, if anyone has played in an arcade. they should immediately recognize that offline aracde play, whether now or then, still beats anything online SF4 or SSF4 has to offer any day of the week. can arcades be expensive? sure, nothing changed. however, like Sephiroth pointed out, money has always been a very powerful incentive to bring your A-game every match.
This has something to do with Japanese apartments being the size of postage stamps, I just know it.