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What ruined the "arcade generation"?
FractalWalk:
I take offense to thread title. The "arcade generation" is just fine, thank you very much. It's the arcades that are ruined!
Quarters:
IMHO The main reason that arcades are dead or at dying is because video games are not new any more. My generation (I'm 35) saw the first video games. Our parents had nothing quite like it. We went to the arcades first for the games then later because Girls were there. Our friends were there. Girls were there. There were no parents there. Girls were there. I would go to the arcade even if I had no money. It was the place too meet before a party or whatever mischief we were up to.
My father mentioned a while back that in the 60s the thing to do on Friday nights was to drive across the city to the only pizza place in town. Pizza was the new foreign food at the time. Girls were there. It had a Jukebox with all the new hits. Girls were there. His friends were there. Girls were there. There were no parents there. Girls were there. It was the place to meet.
For Me and my generation the initial draw to our place was the games. For my Dad it was the pizza.
My house is a little odd in that we have no console games. We do however hav 5 PCs (not counting the one in my MAME cab), a few palm devices and cell phones that have games on them and of coarse a MAME cab. My kids were loading their own games by the age of 3. My five year old has a long bookmark list of her favorite websites(most game related). She chats with schoolmates and relations on MSN messenger. She has never known a time without computers and video games.
I don't know where my kids will go when the reach their teenage years, have freedom and lots of spare time. But I bet It Will be some place new with boys, girls, no parents, new music etc. Not some place that only has Video games.
spiffyshoes:
To me the reason for buying a console wasn't because it was cheaper than going to the actual arcades but because if it wasn't for consoles I probably would hardely have ever gotton to play video games period.
Zero_Hour:
--- Quote from: Sephroth57 on February 28, 2005, 04:45:03 pm ---i think a problem for some of you guys you stopped going after the classics, and now want to go back to the same exact arcade filled with classics, yeah its cool to have a few in the back but really you need new games to keep it going
--- End quote ---
You're partly right. I didn't stop going after the classics died off, but I did stop going (regularly, at least), after the games ceased being new.
After SFII, The series was just minor gameplay or graphic changes - gameplay stayed the same - Perhaps that is even more true of the Tekken, KOF, and other fighter series. I played SFII years ago - I really don't want to play yet another "new and improved" version of it.
Same with the DDR / Beatmania type games - once you get past the novelty of the controller all the various iterations are essentially the same game. There is no incentive for me to spend my money on them. It's not that I'm too cheap to pay the price, or lacking in the skill to be proficient in the game - It's just that in an arcade setting, I want some original titles for a change. I'm sure there are a few to be found, but unfortunately not in my neck of the woods.
armax:
This reminds me alot of what is going on in the PC gaming community and which is starting to creep into the console community. Lack of creativity and originality. Pc gaming used to have some very original concepts (C64 was a perfect platform for originality). But as time and profits went up, the struggle to 1up your competitor began. After awhile, no one took risks because of the money involved and everyone started using the same cookie-cutter ideas with their own spin to it (followed the, "well it works so go with it" philosophy). Now the console industry is experiencing losses from the 200 variations of WWII and car games.