Read this depressing article

[Gryph]

Starbucks and coffee shops in general do quite well here. Why? We can just make our own coffee at home, so why would someone go to a store to *pay* for coffee at a more expensive price than when we can enjoy at the comfort of our own home. <---well, that's one of his examples actually, but worth a thought.

Well buying coffee from a coffee house, unlike arcade gaming, is trendy. Also, getting coffee from Starbucks, for example, is a sign of doing well. It's more a social thing than the actual coffee. I mean it tastes great, but I don't think $3.50 is worth for a Frappucino (but damn they're tasty.)

 

It's the same reason why people buy clothes at Banana Republic, when they can easily get the same garment at their sister store, The Gap. Well usually atleast, unless it's a finely knit cashmere sweater, then I'll splurge at BR.

 

Antiwinner makes a very good point about image and arcade. It's true that going to an arcade doesn't make anyone look cool, but rather the exact opposite. The only people that I see at the arcades are the supposed social "outcasts." Which can't be farther from the truth because we are all comfortable with our own group, and everyone else are outcasts.

 

But I think the image of gaming has changed and has become a lot more mainstream but mostly only in the console market. Since the original Playstation, video game playing has become much more popular and accepted. Sure the SNES and previous consoles (and even PC but that's a totally different realm of games) were popular to us, but how many people actually owned the systems compared to the sheer amount of PS2, XBOX, and Gamecubes sold now. This gradual shift has slowly killed the arcade. Before, we needed to go to arcades to get our fill of top of the line badass games.

 

Everything I just said here has been already said so I'm beating a dead donkey. But hell, I'm bored and I have to go to class.

Edited February 18, 2004 by GryphonKlaw

[ovalprocess]

This gradual shift has slowly killed the arcade. Before, we needed to go to arcades to get our fill of top of the line badass games.

after reading captain fuku's very interesting article, i honestly think that arcade owners are what killed the american arcade. i mean, japan has outrageous console sales and yet arcades remain popular.

 

so, in light of this discovery, i am going to work towards opening an arcade aimed at the 18-30 crowd. with the right marketing, it could really work.

[kaioshade]

Most of the responses on this thread speak as if it was the arcade owners or the game companies fault. It isnt. It is the general american gaming public who is to blame for the crappy state of arcade gaming and gaming in general.

 

We always go "ooo japan has this, that and the other, we want it too" so companies bring it over. then what happens, it sells like absolute crap. So what do they do? why waste their time on a market who doesnt appreciate anything given to us? they water their products down for the american audience. So if it flops, oh well they didnt waste much money on it anyway.

 

same can be said for console games. tons of games dont get released over here because if they do it sells horribly. Everyone cried foul when ggx wasnt released in america. well they listen and decide to give us the ps2 version AND the sequel. what happens? sells like crap.

[Shibathedog]

Arcade gaming rules, I went to the arcade today and played some House of the Dead III and beat it, and it ruled, then i played some LA Machinguns (older game), and beat that, again, and it ruled, and then i went to play Virtua Cop 3, and it ruled, i almost beat the game, but i was at one of those flocking arcades where they use the flocking cards and right when i was two shots away from beating the last boss the flocking card reader decided to flock up, didnt scan the card, i entered my high score, and THEN it gives me my credit, i was about to kick the stupid flocking thing off the machine i was so mad, so then i went to play the first level again and beat the entire level with 100% accuracy without getting hurt!! yeah, it was awsome...there are ALOT of new arcade games, you just have to know where to look, OH YEAH, and dont even get me started on the new Mechwarrior style game where you are in pods with like 40 buttons and 2 joysticks, and the pod moves, theres like 8 pods, and its all powered by ALIENWARE technology, alienware rules, FINALLY, a 64-Bit processor for the arcade , There where like 30 new kickass games that i wont even bother to list because im lazy.

 

I was probably the only hardcore gamer there because i heard alot of people whining about 2D graphics and how they are crap and why they even have the machine anymore and how the game is crap, (which pissed me off so much i was 2 seconds away from beating them silly) The next person to diss a game because its 2D, or because its "too old to be good" gets a punch in the face....that pisses me off so much....grrrrr

[Soundboz]

hey oval u made me look bad in the other board, but its cool I sould have read. Oh yeah Breakdown is a great game. It is the best game on my xbox right now.

Anyway I live in Dallas and my friend owns an arcade that turns a profit. He has almost every fighting game known to man in there. He has GGXX,GGXXreload,SS5,Kof2003,SVC,JJBA(jojo's),ROTD,SF3rd strike and everything else. All those fighting games combined donot equal the profit of DDR. He uses Benami(is that spelled right?) games to keep his arcade open and host tourneys on fighting games weekly for the hardcore fighting fans. He also has Initial D:Arcade stage and games like Gun survivor:Code veronica. I think in an arcade U need balance. I love fighting games,but they will not keep an arcade open.

ha, that's the EXACT same games that my arcade has!

 

The one here has like... 10 MVS cabinets!

 

He is going gangbusters too so it's great :>

 

But he put is arcade in a mall so it gets very abused

 

Edit- Grand list of the greatness of the area I'm in

 

2 House of the Dead III

around 5 Time Crisis 3

2 Virtua Cops 3

2 of every bemani game you can think of

3 Samurai Shodowns 5

2 Metal Slug 5

1 GGXX #Reload on a 40' Megalo

1 King of Fighters 2003 on a 40' Megalo

1 Battle Gear 2 (Soon to be 3)

1 Initial D ver. 3

1 Gun Survivor 2 Code: Veronica

and more crazy japanese games and random fighting games than I care to list

Edited February 19, 2004 by Soundboz

[random guy]

Most of the responses on this thread speak as if it was the arcade owners or the game companies fault. It isnt. It is the general american gaming public who is to blame for the crappy state of arcade gaming and gaming in general.

 

We always go "ooo japan has this, that and the other, we want it too" so companies bring it over. then what happens, it sells like absolute crap. So what do they do? why waste their time on a market who doesnt appreciate anything given to us? they water their products down for the american audience. So if it flops, oh well they didnt waste much money on it anyway.

 

same can be said for console games. tons of games dont get released over here because if they do it sells horribly. Everyone cried foul when ggx wasnt released in america. well they listen and decide to give us the ps2 version AND the sequel. what happens? sells like crap.

I think we've hit the nail on the head here, but let me offer a different take - arcade machines in Japan are so popular because you can play games there 6 months, or more before they are released on the consoles. Also, Japan is leading the games market so the rest of us want their games. However, it always takes time for the games to be released here - and by the time they ARE, they are usually released on consoles at about the same time! I come from Australia, which as fellow Australians know, gets the games after they come out in America, so we have longer to wait.

 

When the games are finally out in the West, they don't sell well because we are all waiting for the next big Japanese title to come out. But of course, it'll be at least 6 months before that one comes out, and by the time it does, all the hype is aimed at the NEXT title, and so on and so on.

 

If the arcade owners could get games as soon as they were released, they'd be alot more popular, I am sure.

[Gryph]

and its all powered by ALIENWARE technology, alienware rules,

Alienware sucks. My friend bought a computer from them, and it didn't work. So I decided to help him fix it. I concluded that the motherboard was bad and need to be changed so I called them up and I had to talk to this horribe tech support guy named Esteban. First he said "It's the RAM, not the motherboard." So they send replacement RAM. The computer still doesn't work. I call back and get him AGAIN!! He says it's the video card. But instead, we received a sound card. I called back and got someone else, and then they sent another video card. The computer still didn't work. I kept telling them that I switched it out with my graphics card and computer doesn't work. Then they say "Send it back and we'll fix it." What a crock of crap computer company. Build your own damn computer if your going to buy an Alienware.

 

But back on topic, you are the lucky guys that have the cool arcades with all the awesome games. [Jack Nicholson] You don't know what it's like in the real world, man. It's all MvC2 in the real world here, man! This ain't no picnic happy go lucky arcade world, man! [/ Jack Nicholson]

 

Damn I wish those kinds of arcades were around here.

[Shibathedog]

Alienware rules, you where one of the 1/10000 customers to have a serious problem with them, i will admit they are very expensive, but they take the best parts and built you the best PC.

 

Has anyone played the arcade game War: Final Assault?

 

it was going to be ported to N64 but they cancelled it, it reminds me of Quake 3 Arena and i guess thats why i like it so much :$$$:

 

the thing is, there arent that many NEW arcade games, yeah, but i dont care, because the OLD arcade games rule, my arcade has the perfect mix of old, new, imported, and just plain weird, the guy who runs it really rules for supporting the arcade scene the way he does.