{"id":1996,"date":"2015-05-09T17:19:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T17:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/?p=1996"},"modified":"2015-05-09T17:19:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T17:19:05","slug":"the-arcade-but-like-a-comic-book-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/2015\/05\/the-arcade-but-like-a-comic-book-store\/","title":{"rendered":"The arcade but like a comic book store"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just read that article on Why the Comic Book Store Just Won’t Die<\/a>. I kind of extrapolated to computer games stores. Both thrive on niches and fandom. Computer games culture is 90% online now and there are many reasons to make that culture more of a local, real life thing. <\/p>\n

So we had arcades back in the day. They were cool but dirty and exclusive, the business model doesn\u2019t work with today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\"NY<\/a>
Bros and sticks<\/em> <\/p>\n

There has been a resurrection of arcades as barcades<\/a>, which are pretty fun. I went a couple times to the one downtown LA<\/a> and it\u2019s great but in a way it doesn\u2019t cover all computer game activities. It\u2019s not centered around game culture, it\u2019s using it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s so great with comic book stores it\u2019s their diversity in content. Anything for anyone, curated by unique humans<\/strong>. I think we need to make computer games something we can discuss and try outside our devices in our living rooms, browsing the internet while machines stupidly try to understand what game we would like to play.<\/p>\n

Computer games shouldn\u2019t be only played drinking beers in the evening. We play anytime. We should have computer game stores where we can chill and try out games with headphones on, really enjoying the process of trying something new, sharing impressions with other players directly and not through a text box and threads.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be about finishing games so much than it is about enjoying playing games and ultimately buying them. Tons of comics and books are read and not finished by people all the time. Some games are way better once you\u2019re invincible. What I\u2019m saying is, to get a \u201cbetter\u201d computer game culture we need to focus on play more than win, hardcore punishment, twitch reflexes, etc.<\/p>\n

If I could have a computer game store here in LA\u2026 The main floor would be dedicated to discuss and play games casually in bean chairs and classic desktop settings. Downstairs would be the action room: a 10 seat LAN setup (CS:GO), a big console setup for AAAs and a couple of MAME arcade machines meant to be brutalized like in the good old days (standing up and mashing those buttons is part of computer games DNA to me), maybe a couple pinballs because those are the shit.<\/p>\n

This way I could talk Minecraft mods with a son, install that Contraption Maker game<\/a> on a mom\u2019s laptop, recommend Snakebirds<\/a> or Gunpoint<\/a> to a daughter, talk LAN games strategy with teenagers or what it takes to make that AAA game look like that or how the demoscene in Europe influenced tons of developers in the 1990s hey come back, I\u2019m not done!<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s culture. We need real, non-digital stores like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just read that article on Why the Comic Book Store Just Won’t Die. I kind of extrapolated to computer games stores. Both thrive on niches and fandom. Computer games culture is 90% online now and there are many reasons to make that culture more of a local, real life thing. So we had arcades back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}