Author Archives: Kasaun Fryson

New York needs Arcades: Lets Get Them From Japan

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iQMxWO9J5gs9NXgBS1itSk7uMdhULBF0

The amount of people they play games nowadays has risen so much since the beginning of the industry has started more games keep being made to keep gamers satisfied and gamers all over the city are staying in their homes glued to their television screen. The younger audience of video games can not play games all the time because of school and the fury of their parents for staying inside all day, instead of going out and meeting with friends or meeting new people. Although the creation of gaming consoles allow gamers to play games and interact with each other from the comfort from their homes via the internet and headsets, the reliance on this technology limits actual human connection. If there were more Japanese like Arcades in the city it would help this generation of gamers explore the city more to play games with friends, meet new people, play the games they have never played before and introduce new people to the gaming culture.

The gaming industry has gone through many changes in the way people play games, before the use of the internet, most people that play video games use a gaming console that lets people play any game they want in their own house without being able to talk to friends unless they were in the same house. Today people still use gaming consoles to play their games but with the internet, people can now talk to and play games with each other in their homes. This is the way to play games in this day and age but it is also a way that disconnects people from one another. In a New York Times article written by Alex Williams, he celebrates the fact that arcades are still around and that people are still going to them. “Chinatown Fair should have closed years ago, along with all the other arcades in the city, due to rising rent and the shift to online gaming,” said Kurt Vincent, who directed “The Lost Arcade,” a 2016 documentary about the arcade’s enduring legacy in the city. “But it’s still there on Mott Street after all these years because young people need a place to come together.” Basically saying that arcades should not be removed from New York and that gamers are still going to them showing their worth.

Arcades in japan have been thriving in the last couple of decades and that is because the gamers in that country and the people that oversee the gaming companies still see how and lucrative arcade games are. Many of the companies in japan got their start with arcade games and so they continue to make new games for the arcades that are there in japan.  In a consensus by The Financial Times in the 80’s there were 44,000 arcades in the country. Today there are 4,856 registered locations with 9,000 locales with under fifty machines, and as time advances they continue to bring in new innovations of arcade games to entertain the populace. In Brian Ashfield’s article “Why Arcades Haven’t Died In Japan” he writes “The games have changed, too, with developers responding to the trends, decade by decade, whether that’s the shooting game craze, the fighting game craze, or the music game one.” In other words in order to compete with consoles Japanese arcades are constantly filled with new games for people to enjoy being stagnant spells doom for arcades in any setting and Japanese developers know this and are always coming up with new experiences for people to enjoy. An example of innovation of arcade games is the hit arcade game “Super Dragon Ball Heroes” published and developed by Bandai Namco where player use trading cards to interact with the game.

 

Ashcraft, B.

Why Arcades Haven’t Died In Japan

In-text: (Ashcraft, 2017)

Your Bibliography: Ashcraft, B. (2017). Why Arcades Haven’t Died In Japan. [online] kotaku.com. Available at: https://kotaku.com/why-arcades-havent-died-in-japan-1792338461 [Accessed 29 Nov. 2019].

Williams, A.

The Last of Manhattan’s Original Video Arcades

In-text: (Williams, 2019)

Your Bibliography: Williams, A. (2019). The Last of Manhattan’s Original Video Arcades. [online] https://www.nytimes.com/. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/style/old-arcades-new-york-chinatown-fair.html [Accessed 3 Dec. 2019].

 

 

Research reposal

The topic for me digital essay will be the fall of arcades in New York City. I chose this topic because it’s one that interests me because my major is game design and that is where my focus is. I have always wondered how fun it is to be a gamer and go to a local arcade with friends. I have never been to a traditional arcade in my life so far because most of them have been replaced with different outlets, but I have been exposed to how fun they were to be a gamer and go to a local arcade with friends on television and video games. In the years 1978 and 1983 every gamer was going to these places because it was the only way for gamers to play their games, but as time kept moving forward arcades became a relic of the past. In the present day the arcade has been removed from the spotlight now that most people have access to home video game consoles and being able to talk and play games with others from the comfort of their homes with the use of gaming headsets and the internet, so there is no reason to go outside and mingle with other gamers . I grew up around the time home console were the way to play your games and never got to an arcade as a child, So I want to create a map of New York City showing the arcade locations from the dates 1978 to 1983.