[Via Insomnia.ac]
” [It] is the observation that games released in the arcades are of a much higher quality, on average, than games released for the home console market. In other words, if you decided to walk into an arcade today blindfolded, and spend the evening playing the first game you bumped into (having taken off the blindfold first, yeah), chances are you’d have a lot more fun than if you spent the same amount of time playing something picked at random off the shelves of your local game retailer.”
For some console fanboys, “them’s FIGHTIN’ words” but as I fit into the category of people who understand what the writer is talking about, I have to agree. Unless you have regularly visited an arcade then you may not fathom what he is talking about but he is right. Arcade games are made to entertain you as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. Most console games aren’t as they wish to entertain you as time goes on after you’ve completed the hour long tutorial and made it a few levels ahead (yes I realize that there are exceptions to the rule). But Alex of the insomnia website makes many excellent points about the culture of the arcade – what is essentially is and why many ‘gamers’ will never understand it.
“The magic of arcade gaming cannot be recreated outside the arcade environment — except with conscious and disciplined effort both on the part of developers and players.”
I suggest you give it a read, it’s rather long but very good, especially the part where he walks you through a huge Japanese arcade to give you an idea of what a real arcade is like. I really hope to recreate this experience in the States one day with the arcade I want to open. I will start small but I want to get to the point of having a huge arcade like Akihabara one day.
Read the whole article…
