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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zombie Aladdin" data-source="post: 143914" data-attributes="member: 4242">I noticed someone in the podcast mentioned that they would like pinball (and other arcade games, I presume) to be social experiences and that's how it used to be like in Chicago, and that definitely is a foreign thought to me, at least if I take it to mean socialization with strangers.Based on my experiences growing up in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles (looks like shutyertrap is from La Habra, so he might have seen it too, as no doubt at least some Farsight employees), arcades were a mostly solitary thing. Most people would walk in, find a machine (whether video games, arcade, redemption, or what have you) that isn't in use, and put quarters or tokens in them. The only social games in arcades--and they are still like that with the few remaining arcades left in the region--are fighting games like the Street Fighter series or, increasingly popular nowadays, those ultra-difficult-to-learn Japanese fighting games like Melty Blood or BlazBlue, and each arcade has its own clique where they mainly play against each other and don't really welcome in newcomers.In fact, it felt like the opposite of socialization to me: Arcades tended to attract antisocial people here, between egocentric people who will get mad at you because they think you're inferior (usually children) or socially awkward geeks who are uncomfortable when people they don't know are nearby. Both groups will attempt to scare you off. In other words, every arcade was full of people who wanted to hog the machines to themselves. That's why I rarely stepped into arcades after some certain point. I didn't even know pinball machines had multiplayer until last year.I learned several years ago that arcades are a VERY social thing in Japan and are a popular teenage hangout spot for boys and girls alike. For this reason, arcades are still a big thing in Japan. (And no, pinball has never been popular in Japan, as pachinko took whatever audience pinball could get.) I must wonder, then, if arcades died out in North America because arcades are pretty much the opposite around here, and teenage hangout spots here tend to be either hanburger restaurants or an alley by the nearest heroin dealer.I also feel a bit envious of how apparently many of you were given quarters to go play on the games at supermarkets and such. While I grew up after they by and large disappeared from supermarkets, restaurants (besides pizza places), and such, I at least remember a time when every shopping mall had an arcade, and I also remember my parents felt I shouldn't be wasting my money on these things when I should be concentrating on studying for school. That being said, my father was an electrical engineer, so he had some interest in pinball, but only from a mechanical standpoint as the gameplay never appealed to him.As for whether I prefer control or flow, I prefer control, but every flow table can be played as a control table. It just fits with my thinking pattern better. I am terrible at improvization but good at planning and predicting. I also have bad reflexes. Hence, I can overcome seemingly insurmountable opponents playing online in Pokémon but I cannot beat newcomers in Capcom Versus games.</blockquote>

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