Before I start let me be clear that I am NOT talking about Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse” with a capital “M.” I am speaking of the concept writ large - aka a 3D/AR/VR/etc. “virtual world” akin to Oasis in the world of Ready Player One. This is incredibly boilerplate so if you are unfamiliar with the concept or want to know more I’d recommend reading more about it!
Arcade Paradise is a game where you slowly (and secretly) turn your dad’s laundromat into a fully-fledged late 80’s/early 90’s-style arcade. It has a fun little story going as you move forward and a fantastic mix of short, medium, and longterm goals, all punctuated by a fun little sense of humor. It’s a nostalgia trip for sure for anyone who lived through the arcade-era, complete with 35 arcade games you can play.
So to the actual point here: this game made me operate like I was playing Stardew Valley and Civilization again (“Just one…more…turn…”) without the assistance of the actual arcade games. I really enjoyed a lot of the “cabinets” the devs put together but frankly it wasn’t the games that kept me coming back. It was the laying out of my arcade, the little tasks to get the money I need for the next upgrade, the optimization of my pricing to get every possible penny I could to expand my floor and add more cabinets. Even seeing the completely non-interactive NPC’s playing contributes, which is what made me also constantly go, “Man I wish my friends and I could chill here.”
Prior to this game I never really experienced that sensation, but I then thought about my friend who designed all these social spaces on her island on Animal Crossing: New Horizons. She had this outdoor café she was so proud of in particular, and she always was inviting friends to join and run around there. I didn’t really get it until I played Arcade Paradise.
I’m not really entirely sure what my question or “prompt” is for folks here, I just found myself musing on this subject and wanted to write up something about it.
In the early 2000s I went through a whole period of mythological city building with the game Zeus. And there were real laundromats in Seattle integrating alcohol, board games, video games, and even music performances in them. I still see laundromats in other cities today with an arcade cabinet in them, and more than once I’ve thought, “Why can’t this be an arcade game that doesn’t suck?” They haven’t gotten any money out of me. So I can relate to the idea of building out a more swank laundromat, 90s / 2000s style. But by that same token, mythological city building is better than laundromat building, and more period.
I actually haven’t perused the builder game space in quite awhile. There was a long period where my extreme jadedness was justified. Minecraft Alpha for instance was terrible as a game. But it was a bunch of kids’ first game, that was a big part of it, that they had no preexisting concept of what should go into a proper builder game. Another was insider cult rituals of finding secret stuff to do in the game, how things worked. Went hand in hand with outsourcing “why you bother to play the game” to social media.
You actually never improve the laundromat! It’s like having a front. You expand for the arcade and eventually begin to encroach in the laundromat space even. Don’t want to spoil more, there’s a little story there.
I get the skepticism but the game is not literally running a laundromat - it’s an early source of income primarily that you juggle as you make the arcade work. It’s a series of little mini games/timing events to generate income and eventually not do laundry anymore. That being said, if you are patient and kind of dive right in, you could technically never do anything in the laundromat ever and still do the game.
In real life some of these spaces I never did laundry in, and nobody was doing laundry, because the beer and music were far more important. Especially when the laundromat was in another part of town, so I’d never actually haul my laundry to it.
It was this weird business that various people would try to run. A friend of mine started up this laundromat that was also a whisky bar. He took us after hours to check it out. I had already had a bunch of Belgian beer and I got so sick on the whiskey, sickest I’ve ever been on alcohol in my life. Still can’t consider a smoke flavored whiskey to this day.Damn ruined scotch forever!
