The Arcades are Empty

Does your Arcade look like this? Oh look...two people..

I remember a time where I didn't consider a shopping mall legit unless it was home to a video game arcade. Now I find myself walking through malls and being surprised if I even see a resemblance to something that once looked like a place to play arcade games.

When I was younger, kicking peoples butt at the arcades was something that made you feel like a legitimately good gamer. When you could take 50 cents and turn it into 20 minutes on your favorite fighting game. When quarters were used to show your place in line to take on the best of the best in that arcade at that moment. That's what arcades were all about. It was about putting just one more credit in the coin slot so that you could put your initials into a machine that to be immortalized forever (or so we thought).

What happened to that time? Somewhere in the midst of Dreamcast and Xbox, arcades got lost in all the hubbub of slicker graphics and ease of use for online capabilities on home systems. Something happened to arcades during that time. Something told us we didn't need them anymore.

We no longer need to go to arcades to put our initials into a machine to show that we are the best; that's what online rankings are for. We no longer need to go to arcades to see the coolest graphics; that's what our "next-gen hardware" is for. We no longer need to go to arcades to get social interaction to see how we measure up, that's what online gaming is for. It's really a shame because arcades used to be heaven on earth. They were the one place where video games were larger than life and you appreciated every moment of gaming since it was literally costing you every quarter you had in your pocket. The fast paced racing games; the hard hitting fighting games, and the classics like Pac-Man and Centipede. These games are now all available on our home systems, and the interactive pull of arcades is gone because of it.

I'm not saying this is bad thing, it's just sad because arcades used to be a place where gamers of every kind could come together and just simply be. Be good, be great, be awful, but jubilant, be happy, and most of all be appreciative that they as gamers have a place to go. But all that is slowly leaving now and I don't know what it will take to get it back. Virtual reality? Bigger screens? I don't know what the future of arcade gaming will be, but I hope it has a future for the gamer-communities' sake.

As always, your comments are welcome. What do you think?

Jeremy aka Adridius