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Talking With Nolan Bushnell
Milktoast writes "Joystick101.org has posted their interview with gaming legend Nolan Bushnell. The arcade guru who founded Atari, invented Pong, and started Chuck E. Cheese talks about the decline of the arcade, education, robotics, and gaming as a narrative. "
No, they've not just become too complex. They've become sh*t. Last time I've been to the arcades, all there was fit into three categories: 1) 3D fighting games, 2) 3D racing games, 3) 3D shooting games. All very nice-looking, but designed so that a game lasts a very short time, for the local equivalent of more than $1.
If they had kept the trend where games were actually GOOD, with a rich and enjoyable gameplay, and where you could spend hours playing without spending too much money (anyone else remember Toki, Hammerin' Harry, Legend Of Hero Tonma? I loved them!), there would be no freaking decline of the arcade. 'Nuff said.
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
The article complains that today's games are too complicated to allow casual players to have any fun. That much is true. One of the big things that got me away from the arcade was the rising prices. When arcades were at their peak in the early 80's it was common for my classmates and I to buy a roll of quarters ($10) and make it last at least a day or two. Then as the technology improved the prices started rising. It wasn't enough for them to charge $.50 or $.75 per game, but they also started with the "renewable" game where you had to keep feeding quarters if you wanted to keep playing. Next thing you know, that $10 roll doesn't last 'till dinner. Teenagers have always been the demographic that played games, and at the time we just couldn't afford to start bringing $20 bills every day. I think the trend toward home game systems has a lot more to do with economics than people realize. Sure, the technology is great and the convenience of playing at 3am in your skivvies is enticing, but the big issue for a lot of parents is the fact that they don't have to give the kid a $20 and send him/her out to play.
From the Article:
First of all I don't accept the premise that consumer games have hurt the arcades. The arcades have hurt themselves.
This guy may be a guru, and he's done a lot of cool things, but I think he's really overlooking a lot of factors by saying that arcades did themselves in. I used to visit a stereotypical 'shag-rug' arcade all the time, and the decline started just about Sega Genisis came about. I remember talking to the arcade owner, and his 'market research' said pretty much the same thing..
Obviously, its a combination of factors-- but what killed the mall style arcade with the top 100 games was that the games weren't that much better than home systems!
And to say that things got too complex.. well that depends on what kind of gamer you're going for! I used to love playing classic driving games (Remember Hard Drivin , anyone?), but now all the arcade driving games are totally, well 'arcade like'..
He says: I believe that a school teacher today is so outgunned in this world of competition for ideas. Think about a school teacher with a piece of chalk and a blackboard competing with the minds of children inundated with commercials that have million dollar production values... The immature mind I don't believe can distinguish from good ideas that are poorly produced and bad ideas that are well produced. And so I feel like we need to get media systems into the educational process and to fail to do so is to fail.
Wrong for two reasons:
1. His solution perpetrates the very evil that it seeks to combat. Students need to be able to distinguish bad ideas from good ideas. Meerly packaging good ideas in the same manner as bad ideas further blurs the distinction. You would almost be better off presenting good ideas in an a delibertely understated manner to distinguish them from fatuous nonsense.
2. Education can never hope to compete in glitz with advertising. Educational materials will always look shoddy compared to advertising.
One should keep a clear distinction between games and education. Games are supposed to be fun, pure and simple. They can only incorporate education to the extent that education is fun.
Education, however, is often frustrating and ultimately hard. Where interactive multimedia can make it easier, it has a role. But at some point, it's just your brain and an idea with no intervening media whatsoever. That point is where education begins and the sooner you get to that point, the better.
There is an article at shoryuken.com about the reasons for the decline of the arcade. It makes some excellent points on why the home console is not responsible for it.
Part of the problem would seem to be the current culture. Oh, this is talking about the UK, I don't know what it's like in the US though I believe it can be pretty similar.
The point being that young male culture currently regards academic success as a failure at life. Socially, the rewards are given for engaging with academic pursuits as little as possible and barely tolerating it as an intrusion on your life. There was a lovely tagling I saw recently, along the lines that it was sad to live in a society where knowing how to program your VCR lowered your social status.
While educational success isn't a social win but a social loss, this performance is pretty much what's expected. Yes, games are always going to have the benefit of immediate reward, but when (youth) society is teaching the kids that they'll be happier if they _don't_ succeed at school, it's little surprise that games (a clearly recognised source of social status) are, in some ways, a more potentially valuable educational tool.
There was an interesting article about this some time ago, which concluded that part of the problem was that most primary age teachers were female - so there weren't many educational role models for the young boys. Guys, maybe you should look again at teaching, even if just part-time in the voluntary sector.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
So far, it's working!
My inner child can beat up your inner child.