A philosophical (style) ramble on arcades, past, present and future?️

[hazys]

I think one of the less-noted contributors to the death of the arcade is simply urban planning. Japan has very pedestrian-friendly cities with robust public transit systems. And it's still fairly cash-based. This creates an ideal environment for arcades, which are basically third places where you pass the time between work or school and home. Places like the US have never had this type of urban planning, so arcades were only popular insofar as you couldn't play the same games at home, with others. But now that you can, it's irrelevant.

One could also go on about rising rent prices, fraying social cohesion, the increasing atomization caused by the Internet, etc... A lot of "third places" have disappeared all over the world. People have less reasons to "go out" than ever before. I also note that the average young (sub-25) person has a strong disinterest in the idea of interacting with strangers. It used to be fairly normal to have friendly chats with people you met while out-and-about.

Then again, even in Japan "traditional" arcades are dying and being replaced with gachas or luck-based catchment games. When you think about it the whole concept of arcade games as "stuff that's very challenging until you practice extensively and/or compare notes with others" is very unique. People don't really look for that kind of game design anymore.

 

[extermist]

I think that understanding the appeal and design of arcade games is the key to making enjoyable and timeless games.

Go back and try to revisit each console and each era of video games, play, watch, read what you can about them and make your way to the video games of today.

One thing that makes older console games timeless in a sense, you will notice that everything from Atari 2600 all the way to the 6th gen, strive to bring the arcade experience home. With hybrids here and there, brining computer game experiences and features and merging them with these arcade style games.

A merge of classic and innovation.

--- Intermission to keep my thoughts composed ---

With the 7th generation, we still somewhat get this arcade at home experiences but they start to get outshined by more cinematic experiences.

One of my biggest issues during the 7th gen was how everyone never shut up about story in games and how most of the most popular stuff were first and formost praised for the story. I tried some of these but their gameolay seemed to take back seats for the story to truly shine.

UI became more and more homogenized, games disrespect their audience by spoon feeding them obvious hints, verbally telling something that the player should know by then. Handicapped sections, NPCs that never shut up, forced tutorial sections, etc.

--- Intermission to keep my thoughts composed ---

I understand that with technological advancements, developers will always want to take advantage and push things forward, it is the inevitablility of technology.

But I feel that along the way, the design of the arcades have been lost over time.

Games start becoming less and less pick up and play, and start feeling more like chores, knowing that in order to really enjoy them, you need to be invested.

Rather than getting invested because you enjoy them.