Death of the American arcade

Blog 4

Great article, brought back lots of good memories. I was definitely one of those kids with a pocket full of quarters and headed down to the arcade on a lazy Saturday with my friends. But, like the last part of this article, the arcade as we knew it is dead and gone.

Arcade games are not always easy and in our culture where punishment is light for dying in a game anymore – if you die in Call of Duty you just go back to the last checkpoint that wasn't far behind and try over and over and over again until you get it right. In the game culture of the 80s, even home console games would only give you so many continues before it pretty much told you to start all over again. That could be frustrating as the games themselves changed into longer operas and it led to password, memory cards and other game saving methods.

People also have realized how short arcades games were. Arcade games are designed to kill you, to be short, the way a profit was turned was by people putting a quarter in every 3 minutes at the very most. Why do I want to spend $60 on a game that gives me 3 minutes of fun? Nobody wants that, they want adventure games, role playing games, sports games, stuff that lasts longer, and is more in-depth. That's why arcades died.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3740422/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-arcade-for-amusement-only

 

By Shin Park