Did We Let Arcade Culture Die because We Didn’t Understand It?

When I was a kid, the most organized set of rules for Arcade machines was for fighting games, and the rule was winner stays on. Usually, the person who got to play for longer in Versus mode was the guy who knew a few combos and was the best person he knew at the game. So much for big fish in small ponds…

Tekken tag Tournament is the only game I ever saw any kind of orderly line around the cabinet; and it was the most competitive game. I don’t think anyone played for high scores, and in general people just had a quick go of the games. This is part of why they are considered simple and lacking in complexity.

What drew us to arcades?

My favourite memories of arcades is being on holiday and seeing the odd game in a pub or lounge; games like The Simpsons arcade game, Pac-Man, Metal Slug and Outrun. Coming across one of these was a lucky find.

The one thing we didn’t miss out on was the mystery of the arcade. I think this was a big factor in their popularity. You were pretty hyped going into one. It had all the lights and sounds, it was like a huge ghost train. When you go into the booth in an Arcade, it was like that 80s thing, where the guy gets teleported into the game. Time Crisis, Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Street Fighter.

We had all the fun of experiencing Arcades, but, we didn’t have the right culture or understanding.

Here’s an example: I remember my main problem with Arcades was I started to think they were a waste of money. You’d need two hundred euro just to beat a game. Beating an arcade game at all was laughable. I’m pretty sure I never seen anyone beat any game in the Arcades.

There was one exception to this, some people got pretty good at Dance Dance Revolution type games. You would see people master that game. I don’t mean to denigrate it either, because that’s the one game people took seriously. You had to practice it and other people watched you if you were good.

This is the way arcade games are actually meant to be played. You’re not meant to be some teenage delinquent, the way arcades are portrayed in movies, always some punks wasting their time playing videogames. It was supposed to be something else entirely, but we in the West never got it.

Lets contrast this with arcade culture in Japan. Sure, the Arcades are being phased out there too, but it’s taken a lot longer than it has here. Why did they endure so much longer over there?

It’s because they serve a different type of customer entirely. In Japan it’s considered bad form to even continue in an arcade game, because you are keeping one of the better players from having their turn. For a small amount of money, people can get hours in the Arcade, by watching the top skilled players, and by using their money wisely.

Arcade game design is laughed at for being quarter munchers. That’s only because you were never supposed to put so many quarters in.

You are supposed to NEVER continue. In Japan it’s actually bad form to do so. It’s a waste of money for you because you’re not good enough to keep proceeding in the game if you’ve lost on one of the initial levels, and it’s taking time away from other players also.

There’s such a dichotomy between the youth driven arcade culture of the West, where even in TV shows it’s portrayed as a punk rock thing that’s “damaging our kids,” and the Japanese idea of this being a respectable hobby where people wouldn’t dream of acting in bad decorum.

Here is the point where I’m supposed to say neither side is better than the other, but that’s just not interesting, and it neglects to look at why certain gaming cultures are more virulent for longer.

What KIND of games do different cultures play, and WHY do they play them? Why is handheld gaming more popular here than somewhere else for instance. Or vice versa. HOW do we play games? These are good questions.

I can admit one of the strengths of arcade culture here is that ghost train visual element, the element of danger. Of walking into a strange Baazaar. SOmething forbidden, exciting.

But the drawbacks in not having a kind of orderly and unified culture in the “right way to play” can I think, be factored into their demise. For the reasons I’ve outlined. IF we were playing games at arcades in the way I’ve outlined, they wouldn’t have died such a deaths so quickly.

The path of what I’ve outlined here in terms of something dark and hidden, leads straight to something which provides that purpose better, the casino.

Of course it would be a mistake to pretend this doesn’t happen in Japan, with pachinko machines. And in truth, if we consider the idea there’s no right or wrong way for this kind of thing to go, then of course there’s nothing negative about slot machines winning out.

Slot machines and casinos it could be said, actually embody many of the aspects of arcade culture I like. the bright colours, the instantaneous gratification or denial of gratification. In fact, you may lose more, but at least you can get some money back if you win.

Arcades offer other benefits though, which are immaterial.

You can get a kind of prestige from an Arcade, appreciation of skills, sharing of techniques and cultural exchange. At their peak scores actually mattered. You had your name in infamy or glorification in your local neighbourhood forever, or at least for a years or so. This is the real differentiation between an Arcade and a Casino, even though they both are offering at the most basic level “games”. One offers monetary value, while the other something more metaphysical; closer to sport really than art.

It’s also interesting that the home console market which defeated arcades has itself went in a more gambling fuelled direction. So the questions I raise here are about more than just saying “you played your arcade games wrong so now you don’t have them anymore”.

But as with most controversial statements there is often an underlying truth.

We did not understand, or we ignored far quicker, the main functions they provided.

Maybe some of that culture lives on through gaming tournaments, in fact it does. But the more it moves away from this tangible feeling of the arcade itself, the more it begins to evaporate like steam.

I think E-sports has already had it’s moment. It will never be anything to rival those sports with long traditions that provide themselves a physical benefit for countries.

Arcades were uniquely placed to provide social benefits for neighbourhoods.

I’d have to write more about it in future to scratch even the surface of the arcades place in society. But any kind of analysis must begin with the admission that we at some point decided they have no real place or value at all, and so I ask: did we really understand arcade culture in the West at all?

Here is something to consider. When you get a compilation of arcade games, do you find a kind of weightlessness to the gameplay, when all you have to do is tap L1 to add in infinite quarters?

If so, it’s reasonable to ask what other ways could we be playing them?