Read this depressing article

[Gryph]

The State of Arcade Gaming 2004

 

This is a rather sad and poignant article. The arcade is dying...

[ForceX]

That is depressing....

 

The decline of the amount of profit that Arcade machines make is partially due to leechers and bootleggers who just download the rom and play it.....

 

I only ever use emulation as a way to practise and to improve my skills at the game so that when I go to my local arcade parlor (I usually go at least once a week) I don't suck at it....

 

[Jitx]

The decline of the amount of profit that Arcade machines make is partially due to leechers and bootleggers who just download the rom and play it.....

 

Thats not nescarrily true either though. I worked at our local aracde for almost two years, and my friend as the manager for almost 5. It was VERY rare to get anything worthwile in games wise, because they just didnt make any money. The things that maybe money were ticket games, that you could turn in for the cheapest prizes ever. I think during the time i worked there the only high profile titles we got were TTT, MvC2, Gauntlet: DL (only becuase it was just a HD switch), and that was about it. Everything else were just ticket games.

 

Now i can go in there and see(VERY much to my surprise) a 40 inch VF4:EVO, SvC Chaos, SamSho 5, Mslug3, a DDR rip off that NEVER works, and that kick ass Fist of the North Star Punhcing game. I actually think the arcade market has seen a bit of a boost in the past year, compared to the last 5 or so.

 

There are also other reasons they seem to be ona steady decline. How many of you like to go to an arcade, get ready for a good couple games of such and such, to find that the controls dont work? I was the only one at our arcade that worked to fix anything that wasnt a ticket game. The DM didnt care because it was a ticket game, and the manager(after my friend left) did care because it was a ticket games, and now the place is employed by its manager and a bunch of 16 year old girls that dont want to fix anything. ( No offense to any women here, but these are girls that obviously arent sper stoked about their job)

 

I miss arcades. Theres nothing like the competition you could find at an arcade. Sure your friend can come over and you can kick their butt over and over, but its just not the same feeling as going to an arcade. The smack talk to people you dont know, the feeling of 30-40 win streaks over hours of time, that type of thing, are what i miss so much about the arcade.

[kaioshade]

It is our own fault. Arcade ops are too scared to bring anything worthwhile over and would rather bring in a new takkne game then say iidx or something.

 

they would rather bring in the newest ticket game then a nice neo geo machine

 

and the fact that arcade sticks DOinfact suck.

 

GOD, i wish i had my own arcade.

[Lestat]

That is depressing....

 

The decline of the amount of profit that Arcade machines make is partially due to leechers and bootleggers who just download the rom and play it.....

 

I only ever use emulation as a way to practise and to improve my skills at the game so that when I go to my local arcade parlor (I usually go at least once a week) I don't suck at it....

 

Sorry to say, but you are a leecher as well. If you play the game at home to get good, then you are still keeping quarters out the machines in the arcade. Are you contributing? Yes, but at the same time, back in '93 when SF2 was out, you had to practice in the arcade to get better. You know how much money I spent to learn just how to do a standing Jack Knife Combo, or the Guile Handcuffs? So, unfortunately, you can justify to yourself that you are contributing, however, you are still hurting arcades.

 

I shouldn't preach by any means, I just admit I am a leecher.

 

In either case, the fall of arcades should not be blamed on us leechers, it should be blamed on the arcades themselves. The fact is, now a days, you can get a better graphics game at home then you could get in the arcade. Not to mention the regular arcade machines that have broken controls (as mentioned), and cost 50 cents to $1 to play. You play for a half hour and you already spent $20. With another half hour, you could buy a game you will play for 40 hours on your home console.

 

The arcade needs to learn to evolve, which it hasn't done. What could I get currently at an arcade that I can't get at home? 40" screens? I have a 50". Well, let me answer you, cabin games.

 

At home I can't set up a formula one cabin, with tilting controls, speakers underneath me, three panel displays and so on. I can't setup an internal cased mech seat with 7 screens and a VR enviroment no matter how hard I try. These are the games that could save arcades. The BIG machines are the answer.

 

Unfortunately, the mame cabinet is as extinct as the pinball machine. The problem is that arcades are holding on to these obsolete concept. They still think they could make all their money off of fighting games, and don't realize that if they spent the money on the newer arcade systems, they will be profitable once again.

 

I know this to be the case, because near me in NY, there is an Entertainment center called Jillians, and all the games that are constantly being played are the one's I mentioned. Not only that, but the mech game is played 24/7 365 for $10 for 8 minutes. How much of a profit you think that machine makes?

 

It is the arcades who are giving up because they think they can't compete with home systems. Once they start to give up, you start to have crappy arcades, that noone wants to visit, hence you have the death of arcades.

[cosmic_lord]

I leech, but I admit to it.

 

I don't know whether it could be considered an excuse or not... but I'm legally blind. I see things the exact same way normal people do, but things are smaller. So I have to get close to read. I mean in arcades, a lot of times the screens are kind of back in a cbainet and I can't see crap. I'd have to climb up on there to read what the hell was going on. Sure for a game I'm familiar with reading is unnecessary, but on new games I have no clue. I can still see fine to fight, but if I don't have the game at home so i can read and figure out what I'm doing, I'm pretty much screwed.

 

I don't get out to arcades much. Really the closest one I know of is in the lobby of a movie theatre, and most of it's not that good... they have like a dozen old games like Die Hard Arcade and Ms Pac Man, and then they have MK4 and House of the Dead (which rules) and a few Daytona games and one big screen luxury chair, multiple foot wide machine that was playing a first person shooter game I don't remember the name of the last time I was there. Besides, this place is like 30 mins away from me... and because of my vision I can't drive.

 

Anyway, that's just why I don't really play in arcades. Granted I'd love to. I mean I love having competition with my friends. We have LAN parties and bash each other all the time. Really the only memorable experience I had in arcade was one time they had Mortal Kombat 2 in, and this was during the era I had it on Sega Genesis and I knew all the fatalities and everything. I sat there smacking people around for like an hour until we had to leave (I was a kid, I am 17 now I don't remember how old I was).

 

Anyway, I don't think emulation is to blame for the decline of arcades. I think there are several factors, emulation really being one of the least of them.

 

Location: Location is a factor I consider. I mean, for me the nearest arcade is 30 minutes away, but if there was one like 5 minutes away I'd probably be there every time I could get a ride to it. When you have to go a certain distance, it's just not worth going to the arcade very often. I think it would help arcades greatly if they were more numerous, and more extendent into urban areas, but I know that's not economically the best decision. But making them more numerous is... I guess people that live in rural areas (like me) would still just have to suffer.

 

Slackers: When you have arcade managers or workers who are slackers that don't care if the controls for a game are broken, that's bad. Really the only thing that the arcades offer that you can't get at home are competition with strangers and all the good stuff that comes with the social aspect of that. Normally when I've seen broken controls, one player's controls worked and the other side was broken. That's not quite as bad as if both of them were broken, but either way it eliminates the possibility for two people to wage war against each other, and that's really the only thing people can get out of arcades that they can't get at home.

 

Game Companies: The REAL reason to blame, is the behavior of the game companies. For several reasons... one of them being a lack of originality. We see this in SNK A LOT. I mean lately, they haven't made many changes, and most of the changes they've made sucked. Not only that, it' sjust little things, like not ever giving people new outfits, even the chief characters (like Iori) and creating redundant characters, like Ash. K' was kind of pressing the envelope, but K's cool enough. Anyway, 3 is ok, 4 is just running it into the ground. (Flamers is what I mean.)

 

Also, like somebody earlier said, giving up, feeling they've lost to consoles. That's stupid on their part. If they had half a brain they'd know that. I mean, hell... what has Capcom been doing? They put out one of the best games of all time, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and they turned that over to Sega, which would have been a good thing porting it to the Dreamcast, but turning it over to Sega for marketing was very stupid. Anyway, I haven't seen a fighting game from Capcom since. I mean what the hell happened to street fighter?

 

By what happened, I mean where did it go... I haven't seen a new street fighter game in years. But even Street Fighter 3 was declined. I mean the parry system was great and all, but they made some mistakes... like getting rid of some of the classic characters, like Zangief and Chun-Li. (If Chun-Li was in SF3 I'm going to feel realy stupid... but I know Hugo replaced Zangief, which is an utter travesty.) New blood is important, but jesus you don't need to get rid of all the good old characters. And I know damn well that they had room on the boards. I mean, on the CPS-2 board for example, street fighter alpha 3 had a large number of characters... and the CPS-3 board is far superior, I know it could have just as many and still have better graphics.

 

Arcade Owners:Another aspect is overcharging. I mean, the way I see it, no game should cost a dollar to play unless it's one of those sit in cabinets with a big screen. I think 50 cents is plenty for a new game. I mean, at least twice as many people would play it that way, and they'd play it more often. Not so new games should be a quarter.

 

Also, I think Arcade owners should realize that the chief benefit of arcade gaming as opposed to console gaming is the social experience, and I think they should support that more. Like holding public street fighter tournaments on the local level... I mean I'm sure they do, but they should hold more. I've never heard of one in my area... lol. People that live back in the boonies need arcades too!

[ovalprocess]

we have a jillians here in phoenix too, but i seriously hate that place. its filled with drunken yuppies who only really care to play video bowling or that sega karting game. if i go to jillians and play capcom v. snk 2, all the challengers walk away after i win a couple rounds. no one here is any good at the games.

 

when i go to an arcade, i want to play fighting games against other people. i dont want to play newbies who get frustrated and walk away after 2 losses. i dont want to be stuck playing piss poor capcom games like sf, cvs2, and mvc2.

 

if there were any decent arcades here, i'd be there. as it stands i'll settle for my mame cabinet and hopefully pick up an atomiswave setup once they come to the states.

[Gryph]

The arcade needs to learn to evolve, which it hasn't done.  What could I get currently at an arcade that I can't get at home?  40" screens?  I have a 50".  Well, let me answer you, cabin games.

 

At home I can't set up a formula one cabin, with tilting controls, speakers underneath me, three panel displays and so on.  I can't setup an internal cased mech seat with 7 screens and a VR enviroment no matter how hard I try.  These are the games that could save arcades.  The BIG machines are the answer.

Yeah that'd be nice but that costs mondo amounts of money. The fact is that most arcade machines are in crappy multiplex theatres, and not autonomous arcade establishments. The neighborhood arcade has died thanks to console games that play exactly (or ever better) like their arcade counterparts.

 

Game companies need to do in America, what they do in Japan. Arcades are huge in Japan. There isn't much arcade enthusiasm anymore. People don't say "Hey dude, let's go get something to eat and then hang out at the arcade."

 

The only arcades that I see now are part of huge family funplexes (ie. Celebration Station) that are mainly filled with kids trying to get the most tickets for cheap crappy trinkets.

 

Uh damn...lost my train of thought.

[Gryph]

if i go to jillians and play capcom v. snk 2, all the challengers walk away after i win a couple rounds. no one here is any good at the games.

 

when i go to an arcade, i want to play fighting games against other people. i dont want to play newbies who get frustrated and walk away after 2 losses. i dont want to be stuck playing piss poor capcom games like sf, cvs2, and mvc2.

Well, I happen to be on that other side of the spectrum. Another reason I avoid arcades is because it's dominated by some loser and his loser friends that spends all their allowance money at the arcade.

 

I don't have a chance to improve my game playing skills because they feel it necessary to deride and mock me when I lose. I don't feel like playing the game with these fat, obnoxious, losers. I'm not going to waste my money to be mocked everytime I lose. Sure I knock out atleast 2 of his characters so it's not a complete loss. But they act like they wiped the floor with me. I just want to hit them in the face with a frying pan and yell "YOU ARE USELESS MEMBER OF SOCIETY!" But then I regain my composure and remember that I'll be owning their ass in 8 years.

 

I mean, you should see this arcade hawks. They act like tough gangsters. It's terrible. That's why none of my friends ever go there is because of them.

 

I just wish they'd have a KOF game and then I'd show them how to play . But alas, all they have is Sniper Scope (or whatever it's called), MvC2, and Tekken 4. And Dance Dance Revolution but I'm the only one that really ever plays that one.

 

My point here is that there isn't enough incentive to go to an arcade. The people suck, the games suck, the atmosphere sucks. They should ban smoking in arcades. And people should be forced to shower before they enter. I can't stand to play a game next to sweaty oaf who hasn't showered in 4 days.

 

And the locale for these arcades is pretty far of in crappy neighborhoods. We have drive atleast 20 minutes into this shady ass place to get to the arcade.

 

I hear from one of my friends in Los Angeles, that they have a nickel arcades there. Now that would be awesome, but those will only work if there is a steady amount of arcade players. And it's a state of the art (pretty cool looking) arcade plex.

 

DAMMIT! I keep forgetting what I have to say!!!!

Edited February 17, 2004 by GryphonKlaw

[ovalprocess]

I don't have a chance to improve my game playing skills because they feel it necessary to deride and mock me when I lose. I don't feel like playing the game with these fat, obnoxious, losers. I'm not going to waste my money to be mocked everytime I lose. Sure I knock out atleast 2 of his characters so it's not a complete loss. But they act like they wiped the floor with me. I just want to hit them in the face with a frying pan and yell "YOU ARE USELESS MEMBER OF SOCIETY!" But then I regain my composure and remember that I'll be owning their ass in 8 years.

yeah, that sucks. even at my house, i have to massage egos just to keep people playing against me. it amazes me how much people hate to lose. to me, win or lose doesnt matter, i just love to play.

 

if anyone wants to give me some venture capital, i'll start an arcade.

[Lestat]

A lot of intresting things here. You guys are talking about something else completely.

 

Your associating the arcade experience with fighting games which is pretty intresting. I bet most of you are between 17-30. You probably associate your arcade experiences with fighting games such as SF2 or MK. The problem is that fighting games brought a huge boom to arcade business in the early to late 90's. Now that craze is over.

 

If your 26 like me, your not going to go to an arcade to Play a game against a 15 year old, you just feel dumb, especially since your just going to want to smack the kid. The problem is the 15 year olds aren't even playing these games, because they could have there 20 friends meet them at their house to play the game anyway. When I use to play SF I use to love to lose to assholes, because once I beat them, I became the asshole. But that fun is over.

 

Now a days people go out to arcades to get an experience that you can't get at home. If the arcade can't provide the experience, then why go.

 

If you want competition, get XBOX Live. You can talk all the trash you want, basically make someone cry if you like, with out having the chance of getting a beat down afterwards. Competition has found its way out of the arcade and into your house. Simple as that.

 

Just remember, your associating fighting games with arcades because of when you experienced arcades. Life is different now. Just ask the Pac Man lover who thought fighting games destroyed the arcade.