Reading09 - Modern Arcade Reflection

Once such a large part of the lives of particular groups of people, arcades now are few and far between, and often not very popular. I remember fondly time spent at Chuck E. Cheese and other kid's play places where video arcade games won you tickets to exchange for different toys and such. There are also some great bars where the old arcade cabinets combine with craft beers to make for truly delightful occasions. On the whole, however, I struggle to see how these games matter at all in the larger scope of gaming. The products themselves are by and large inferior to a free app you could pull up on a phone and considerably less than the modern PC or console title. As more of the gaming peripherals come into the home, the arcades cease to have purpose. For awhile I would have argued that there is charm and value to arcade titles. Many employ unique and interesting game mechanics, and unique input tools that could not be experienced anywhere else, and can be used to push the boundaries of how we are able to play games. But as technology has developed, more and more the uniqueness of arcade cabinets lessens and most of the same, and many far superior, experiences can be had with any other sort of gaming, and without the need to be tied to a particular geographic location or the need to shell out rolls and rolls of quarters.

I could be incorrect in my assessment, of course. There are personal biases that keep me from getting much of anything out of the arcade experience. In a lot of ways, it seems similar to why I do not enjoy bowling, and it seems little coincidence that the two activities often appear side-by-side. Personally I do not see any reason that many of these arcade are failing. Sure, a lot are kind of gross and not terrifically maintained, and Strikes and Spares did not do a lot to fight this line of thinking I already had, but even places like DisneyQuest, a massive video-arcade "indoor theme park" in the Walt Disney World complex are failing to keep up with the technical superiority and entertainment value provided by modern games. There may always be a market of kids who want to win that remote-controller helicopter and drunk twenty-somethings going buck wild at Dave and Buster's, but every year it seems like arcades are less and less important to smaller groups of people, and I cannot think of anything that could be done to turn that trend around.

The best thing an arcade can be now is a social experience, and no longer really one of technical intrigue or gaming prowess. Good times can still be had with a great group of friends around a cabinet trying to one-up each other's high scores, with everyone sort of back-seat driving, shouting their best strategies or trying to trip up the player, but I do not think that the arcade is really a part of the gaming world anymore, and honestly that is not necessarily a bad thing.