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Let me start by saying that I grew up at a time when the typical thing to do was to hang out after school at pizza parlors and laundromats. Why? Because the latest versions of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat would be found there with a line of fellow students lining up quarters on the machine. All waiting to take down that one kid who's run up a twenty win streak. Back then, you'd still hear the comments of "fuck that's cheap" but far more likely were comments like "good fight" or "close thought I had you". The community knew each other and gave each other a healthy amount of respect as everyone was a regular. Even that small asian kid who somehow destroys everyone with infinite combos has this aura of awe about him when he's on the game. And woe be it to any outside challenger who tries to take him off (though if he's successful, he was everyone's king for the day). This was the video game scene in my days when Chinatown Fair was only a few blocks away from my high school and small time business shops always had marvel versus capcom if they knew what they were doing. Sure, everyone had entertainment systems at home but if you wanted real competition, you had to get out of the house and meet people face to face.
Now we have high speed internet, Xbox Live, Battlenet, Garena and more to connect us to others of the video game community without ever stepping outside of the house. The days of the arcades are gone and all that remains of it are stray Pacman or Galaga machines here and there. CTF and a few others still stand as lone bastions of the previously proud social hub for adolescent males but no longer.
Call it nostalgia but I find the social aspect of casual gaming dwindling. You don't meet James who uses Ryu anymore, you meet XSephirothX who prefers Master Chief. And instead of saying "great match" you get voice/text messages questioning your and/or your mom's sexuality.
The world's gotten smaller but it doesn't actually mean people's closer.
Thoughts/opinions are welcome.
 
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United States3824 Posts
How about TL? I feel like we are all pretty close and the people that just want to talk about your mom tend to get flushed out pretty quickly.
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I never got to experience an arcade environment, but that doesn't mean i've had lots of fun going go lans. Most of my friends are bad gamers in general, so i'd have that "aura of awe" about me in games that i play often (SC, WC (both normal and custom games), and defeating me would make people really excited. Online play being availiable doesn't mean you can't play together locally, atleast not yet. And as for the whole online BM thing, i must have been fairly lucky, since i havent been harassed to a degree where it really bothers me, maybe it's because i don't play fighting games.
Edit: I get to post nr 360 as we talk about arcades turning into online console gaming. Maybe god does exist.
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We must all go through a stage of anonymity if we choose to play online games, but after that stage there is a stronger inter-personal relationship that flourishes due to the fact that we are anonymous. You meet people on Battle.Net, you play a few games together, and although you are FoN-Icarus and KoreanGrandma on USEast, you slowly develop a friendship despite your lack of physical contact. When such bonds are strengthened over time and through multiple conversations, the result is the openness to connect on a different level - the reason why TL.net has many successful LAN parties, the reason why people I have met through USEast have let me stay at their house either for fun or out of necessity - people acknowledge the absence of face-to-face communication and thus interpersonal responsibilities in video games nowadays, and when people overcome this together by continued conversation and mutual enjoyment (playing a game we love), you can become closer than you and James who plays Ryu. This is because it takes more to be a human being to people that have no importance in your real life, and upon establishing that kind of connection despite the distance and anonymity, you overcome more difficulties than you do normally. It's all dependent on maturity, your approach, and the approach of others. Of course you meet plenty of fucktards who use the anonymity as a protective shield, but when you meet like-minded people, it's more like finding a diamond in the rough, and thus you treasure it more.
Arcades still have plenty of people, and live tournaments and meet-ups are just as pleasing as they were before. We may no longer be in the dark ages of information technology, and due to this it may seem that because anyone can make an alias online and be an asshole, that we are approaching the dark ages of social interaction. Although this may be the case in general, behind every name there is a human being, despite what they act like. Every human being has the choice to be pleasant or nasty, and when you remove the consequences of choosing the negative alternative, the douchebag personalities that remain hidden in our day-to-day lives emerge. It's finding the people with the presence of mind to still be pleasant out of the midst of assholes that is most rewarding, and thus most treasured now. James who plays Ryu is one guy at one arcade - it's obvious that if you took thousands of such players and put them into one e-room, the proportion of assholes to normal people would be consistent with what we have today. It IS a consequence of the new age of gaming and technology, but it is also a consequence of who we are as a species. That will never change - it's how we adapt to this fact when it is shoved in our face in every public game that matters.
EDIT: Also, MvC 2 is the shit. My friends got it on Xbox so we could play together, it's as awesome as ever.
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Luckily all the assholes are in Halo, so if you play any other game you are much more likely to get someone who doesn't say anything rather than insulting you.
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On November 10 2009 04:13 wswordsmen wrote:
Luckily all the assholes are in Halo, so if you play any other game you are much more likely to get someone who doesn't say anything rather than insulting you.
You forgot counter strike man are there some douches that play counter strike. For the most part I find the douchebags/total players ratio is the lowest in RTS games while much much higher in FPS games
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It's lowest in classic/free online games like many Yahoo games (literati and chess for example). Also in TBS games like Civ and HoMM.
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Maybe the people you played with in arcades were just boring, cuz there was certainly a whole lot of shittalking in mine, and nothing was better than sweeping your way to glory and proclaiming yourself as the best ever as I constantly did
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lol on shoryuken.com there are scary stories about early 90 arcades, where people got stabbed because they threw the opponent too much.
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Sure there was shit talking but it was always a friendly rivalry degree. Anyway, that's hardly the point of this blog.
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I never understood how kids could go and just hang out at arcades like that. I mean, let's say it costs 25 cents to play a game. You could easily play 20 games of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat in 1 hour, so that's 5.00 an hour. For most kids, that's a lot of money- how do they afford to go to the arcade day after day, hour after hour, throwing in quarters? Or do they just get really good at the single player game, so they can play against the AI for an hour on one quarter?
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Keep in mind there's often quite a line so your chance to lose that quarter could take quite awhile. There's also spectators and quite a few bumming/borrowing of quarters those days.
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On November 10 2009 06:41 Luddite wrote:
I never understood how kids could go and just hang out at arcades like that. I mean, let's say it costs 25 cents to play a game. You could easily play 20 games of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat in 1 hour, so that's 5.00 an hour. For most kids, that's a lot of money- how do they afford to go to the arcade day after day, hour after hour, throwing in quarters? Or do they just get really good at the single player game, so they can play against the AI for an hour on one quarter?
Save the change from lunch money homie
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I Totally agree. I had a period in my life from like 2000-2003 where playing arcade fighting games was a hobby. It was great playing people face to face and I have a ton of fond memories of playing round after round of marvel vs street fighter, marvel vs capcom 1/2, and xmen vs street fighter. Online games don't have nearly as a strong of a personal connection between players.
Side story: when I first started playing arcade games, I had a strong drive to dethrone all the kids who were the best, which caused me to get too good to the point that no one would even want to play me, so whenever I challenged someone and beat them I would usually have to play through the single player until I won, which got so boring. I got especially ridiculous at MvC2 after learning to abuse magneto's crossovers. Of course, people who attended tourneys regularly probably would have destroyed me, but I had no desire (or capacity at that age) to try to take it to the next level. Moral of the story: being on top can be lonely.
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On November 10 2009 06:41 Luddite wrote:
I never understood how kids could go and just hang out at arcades like that. I mean, let's say it costs 25 cents to play a game. You could easily play 20 games of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat in 1 hour, so that's 5.00 an hour. For most kids, that's a lot of money- how do they afford to go to the arcade day after day, hour after hour, throwing in quarters? Or do they just get really good at the single player game, so they can play against the AI for an hour on one quarter?
Lots of kids, limited number of arcade machines, and a lot of general watching, socializing and hanging out.
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kissblade u still go to CTF?
been there once, place is legendary
also for (fighting games at least, since ive never played someone in starcraft live) the intensity and overall atmosphere is not the same online compared to offline. even thou arcades are basically dying, console FG's are picking up where there's local tournaments happening at least every 2 weeks and regular lans with friends and friend's friends.
but this is wht i seen/been through with fg's and as a spectator to friend's playing FPS's. never played someone in the same house in starcraft ever
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I still hate playing online, especially for fighting games. It's too hard to do anything on reaction. It makes throws too damn good, as well as makes stupid lag tactics viable. Offline is where it's at.
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On November 10 2009 06:34 freelander wrote:
lol on shoryuken.com there are scary stories about early 90 arcades, where people got stabbed because they threw the opponent too much.
lol thats fucking hardcore
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EPT
