I can't see this business model working. People just don't do arcades for socialization anymore.
But part of the idea here is that games normally
aren't set up for socialization. And normally video games are the "main attraction" or else not present at all. (Home consoles, for instance, are mostly single-player, or at best
network multiplayer, and generally not something a new player could sit down and learn quickly. They're great games for gamers, but not so great for people who want to have a shared activity with non-gamer friends.)
Take the six-player cocktail table described in the article, for instance. Now let's say it's loaded with some relatively simple game, maybe a bit less complicated than Bomberman, something with an easy learning curve and good multiplayer dynamics. Now let's also say you're a gamer, and you've managed to get five non-gamer friends to come to the place with you for drinks and food. While you're eating, the game's in attract mode. Maybe (this would be fun..) it's even a really clever attract mode, and the table knows where the drinks and plates are, and the sprites interact with them. After you're done eating, you challenge your friends to a quick game or two. Fun is had. So goes the theory anyway.
I don't know if it'll be a big success - but I think the important thing to remember when viewing this thing in the context of the "home console age" is that this aims for a different experience - not one that's
impossible on a home console, but generally rather difficult at least. You've gathered people around a game system in a way that doesn't require them to
feel they've gathered around a game system. You've made the required
extra commitment require for the people to
play the game low. In effect, you've created a scenario in which people who might not otherwise have played a game will feel comfortable playing a game. (It's one thing to drag a non-gamer to an arcade and hand them some tokens... but they may be rather self-conscious about standing in front of a machine to play, or even to get a good enough idea of how the game works to decide
if they want to play. The casual introduction of the game into the social setting is the goal, I think, rather than the idea of creating a social setting made to revolve around a game.)
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Topic: Pong/Atari/Chuck E. Cheese creator attempts to reinvent the concept of an arcade (Read 4161 times)
