Note about Friday night
8th February 2006
Two things of interest on Friday night I’d like to go into a little bit more detail about. Firstly at the arcade there was a room full of the usual video game shooters such as the ever-present Virtua Cop and Time Crisis and so forth that are a vital part of every arcade in the world. This room was totally seperate from the rest of the arcade and was restricted to those 17 and older.
I take exception to this, mostly on sentimentality. In Australia there is the universally known arcade giant Timezone, which has a wide variety of games including those in the 17+ section of the arcade we visited on Friday. Timezone, whether intentional or not, has always had a somewhat community feel to it on the very few occasions I went there to waste my parents’ money as a kid. Part of this was that when a good player of any of the games in question got a reasonable distance through the notoriously long and difficult levels, a small but gradually increasing crowd would stand around to watch - not which doing something else, but just stand and do nothing but watch this guy play, hoping that just maybe you would finally see someone finish it. By confining these games to a small room that allows only those 17 and over - definately not the majoity attendance of any given arcade - you severely reduce or even destroy this phenomenom, which I think is sad.
Secondly, I’ve always been facinated by the way rock climbers, no matter if it’s their first or 1000th time, always have almost exactly the same instincts. The way they look up a wall to plan their path, the way they test their footing before putting all their weight on it, the way they feel around potential hand holds with their hands and eyes, the way they watch their feet when swapping them, the way they relax their arms before attempting a particularly difficult stretch - if you watch enough climbers, and especially when you climb yourself semi-regularly, you will notice the uncanny similarities. I just find this very interesting, even if it’s something that must be observed and doesn’t translate well to paper.
Two things of interest on Friday night I’d like to go into a little bit more detail about. Firstly at the arcade there was a room full of the usual video game shooters such as the ever-present Virtua Cop and Time Crisis and so forth that are a vital part of every arcade in the world. This room was totally seperate from the rest of the arcade and was restricted to those 17 and older.
I take exception to this, mostly on sentimentality. In Australia there is the universally known arcade giant Timezone, which has a wide variety of games including those in the 17+ section of the arcade we visited on Friday. Timezone, whether intentional or not, has always had a somewhat community feel to it on the very few occasions I went there to waste my parents’ money as a kid. Part of this was that when a good player of any of the games in question got a reasonable distance through the notoriously long and difficult levels, a small but gradually increasing crowd would stand around to watch - not which doing something else, but just stand and do nothing but watch this guy play, hoping that just maybe you would finally see someone finish it. By confining these games to a small room that allows only those 17 and over - definately not the majoity attendance of any given arcade - you severely reduce or even destroy this phenomenom, which I think is sad.
Secondly, I’ve always been facinated by the way rock climbers, no matter if it’s their first or 1000th time, always have almost exactly the same instincts. The way they look up a wall to plan their path, the way they test their footing before putting all their weight on it, the way they feel around potential hand holds with their hands and eyes, the way they watch their feet when swapping them, the way they relax their arms before attempting a particularly difficult stretch - if you watch enough climbers, and especially when you climb yourself semi-regularly, you will notice the uncanny similarities. I just find this very interesting, even if it’s something that must be observed and doesn’t translate well to paper.
posted by Nic White at
3:42 PM
