I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with a lot of that article. I don’t know it seems to easy to dismiss gamers who like console games as being “limp-wristed, Final Fantasy-playing, useless idiot(s),” without using any real form of argument to substantiate such a claim. (Other than just saying these players have a poor sense of judgment as to what makes a good game, which is a purely personal affair.)
I think some people have purchased some rather rosy colored glasses for looking back on the golden age of arcades. Arguments that those games were inherently superior because of the business model of the arcade overlooks the very real fact that vast amounts of arcade titles were terrible. There were knockoffs, there were glitch fests, and games that couldn’t imagine to hold someone’s interest on more than one play through. (Arm-wrestling anyone? Which in and of itself can be argued is just as “gimmicky” as many console games.)
Also making the argument that making a game more difficult, correlates somehow to it being better, is a statement born of fallacy as well. There were plenty of “easy” arcade games that were fun to play (am I the only one who liked the Punisher Beat-em Up? I beat that the first time I played it. Time Crisis series?), as well as tons of “hard” console games that were a blast to play.
The idea presented in that essay are presented eloquently, but are born of such egocentric “my generation is the best because I don’t like what it’s become” vitriol.
So before you throw out the baby with the bathwater just consider that perhaps the reason arcades are more enticing to many of us is because of the types of games we are into, as well as the “hardcore” status we have deemed ourselves. This however doesn’t invalidate the opinion of people who say, could care less about fighters, music games, and shooters.
I think people get to caught up in trying to argue between hardcore gamers and casual gamers which one is “right” about how games should be viewed. As far as finding that an exercise in futility I also believe that both viewpoints are equally valid. There are tons of people who “casually” played arcade games. There are tons of “hardcore” players who play console games, so the labels do little really to further any arguments other than drawing lines arbitrarily in the sand.
Arcades aren’t coming back, and it isn’t because people suddenly don’t know a good game when they see it. Consoles did play a huge part in the decline in arcades, mainly because they eventually caught up to the hardware in the arcades. (Well, basically speaking.) Instead of having a Double Dragon that didn’t really look all that much like the arcade version (but was still a blast to play) you now have VF5 on your home console, where you can gather with some friends and after the initial purchase, play to your hearts content. Pay-per-view is a model that works because movies and televised events are often things people are satisfied with seeing/experiencing once. However you would be hard pressed to get someone to pay to view the same thing over and over, they’d simply go out and buy the DVD and watch it at home, no?
Movie theaters are losing tons of money now a days, as many of the business are shutting down, merging, and switching to new hopefully cheaper ways of doing business. (Many theaters are making the switch to digital projectors, because replacing scratched film in older projectors costs money. However it remains to be seen if all operations can survive buying a fleet of these machines.) This is due much in part because people can now wait a few months and control not only their experience, but have one on some comparable level with what they would have had at the movie theater. (I’m not a moviephile myself, but I have friends who are, who have mini-theaters in their basements, projectors, seats, everything.) It’s when you introduce a new level of convenience, that it changes.
People always site Japan, and ask why does it work there, but not here? However what many also fail to mention is that compared to the rest of the world that Japan’s arcade scene is largely an anomaly. (I do realize there are places that have arcades that do well, but not with the uniformity that happens in japan.) I’m sure with research we could find tons of things that were at one time popular in both countries, but now remains popular only in one. So culture certainly also play a role.
All I ask is for people to think more deeply about those arcade memories, and not to simply dismiss people who don’t agree with them without considering the value they place on certain games certainly also has merit. I agree, having arcades would be awesome, there used to be one close to me (10 minutes or so) where I would go, mostly to play DDR at the time. (It was new to me and many of my friends, and I got pretty good at it.) Of course I think I played more DDR at home than I did the arcade, but the arcade was a fun place to go and show off and drum up crowds. (Once I was asked by an older lady if I took tap-dancing lessons after completing Boom-Boom-Dollar. I lied and said, “Yes, eleven years.” because I’m an ass like that sometimes, lol.) Erm, I digress, but what I’m trying to say is the status quo being something you do not like does not invalidate it as being without merit, because when it comes to what kind of scene and games you like, it becomes such choice based upon personal likes and dislikes that it becomes hard to argue. Sometimes opinions are worth arguing because you have a chance at changing someone’s mind, but trying to convince someone that they didn’t have fun when they played Final Fantasy when they actually did, is something I never understood. You can’t tell someone they didn’t enjoy what they did indeed enjoy, and I’m unsure why their pleasure at the home experience can not be also as valid as your experience at the arcade.
What would be more constructive, and possibly more productive would be to see what are the best ways of garnering interest from these new gamers who have different values to include them in the arcade scene, because they certainly couldn’t come back without them, so dismissing them, well, is counterproductive.
You’re more than entitled to disagree, this is just my opinion. (Before I get flamed or called names, heh.)
