Business, Game Design, Gamer Culture, Technology
Classic Gameplay in Our Current Generation
In art and literary criticism, there seems to be an unbridgeable chasm between two schools of thought. One perspective attempts to reward anything that happens to be original, oftentimes ignoring its quality altogether. Another side recognizes the power of using an established genre or format and doing it very well. Video games, like any artistic outlet, have certain elements that have become interwoven in the fabric of the medium.
If you picked up a copy of Electronic Gaming Monthly back in 1992, you might have read that Ryu and Ken’s master, Sheng Long, was a hidden character in the arcade version of Street Fighter II. Well, he wasn’t there. EGM reported he was there again in Street Fighter III… well, he wasn’t there, either. What was really just a prank ‘insider tip’ turned into a fanboy phenomenon and gamers across the country spent hundreds of quarters trying to get a glimpse of this elusive master to no avail. With Street Fighter IV now out in Japan, rumors are again flying around about Sheng Long, but there might be something to them this time around.
While graphics may be the most obvious change in video games over the years, some of the biggest changes have been in what we expect in games as well as what some of the oldest terms in gaming have come to mean. The advent of the home console and the transfer of games from the arcades played a part, but it was being able to save that really changed things.
There once was a time when the arcade represented something important to the lives of youngsters: time away from parents, getting lost in a story, the thrill of competition. We had to take advantage of every opportunity to play. Nowadays a game machine in the corner is nothing more than an ironic piece of novelty art . Simply put, people these days don’t look at arcades the same way they did 20 years ago. But they still have a lot to offer today’s gamer.
Over the last decade, it has become evident that video game arcades are headed towards extinction. The flashing message of “please insert another 25 cents” is a piece of history, just like that part of gamers’ brains which were permanently fizzled by the seizure-inducing lights. In addition to the heavy burden of old machinery and high electrical bills, arcades face steep competition with the rise of Xbox and other popular ‘at home’ gaming systems. Now, gamers prefer their comfy couches, plasma screen TV’s, and bottomless corn chips in the comfort of their very own living rooms.