The future of videogames is the Arcade game

The Arcade game by contrast is an intense, highly scripted affair. One must be able to start playing without instruction, have an enjoyable time right away, and at all times want to continue to play.

Arcade games are also, by necessity, shorter. Nearly all can be beaten in a few hours, as almost no statistically significant portion of the playing population will get that far anyway. The Metal Gear series is close to an arcade experience in this respect. Very few adult players have the 60 hours to finish Xenosaga, or any of Square’s other excellent but extremely long RPG’s. Their arcade style shooter Einhander, however, could fit nicely into a nightly playing session after putting the kids to bed and before setting the alarm for work the following day.

They must be visually gripping, the must absorb the player quickly and spit them out. There is no time for other distractions to kick in, no time to lose interest and go watch television. The experience must be all-encompassing, yet short enough to be satisfying on a realistic time schedule. Of course, the classic argument is that if you make a game which grabs the player instantly, there is nothing left for deep gameplay. In essence, the argument is that unless the interface is so confusing that you don’t have a grasp of what is going on until the 3rd hour of play (ala Masters of Orion 3), then there is no depth. This is, of course, a false argument. Most fighting games have tremendous amounts of depth, yet can be picked up and mashed upon by the newest of players. You start with a tremendously simple system… Walk forward or back, jump or duck, and attack. But upon that simplistic system (fighting games like Karate Champ used to be considered the simplest games you could get) the designers layered supers and combos and counters and walk-ups, and layers upon layers of strategies.

And this, of course, is the direction that videogames need to go. Accessability. Katamari Damacy has it in droves. So does Karaoke Revolution. Developers have concentrated so much on building up the 80+ hour experience that they have forgotten about the first 5 minute experience… namely that if your audience isn’t in commanding control of their destiny in the first 5 minutes, they’re moving on. Stay focused upon the strengths of your game, and make something quickly compelling. I can’t tell you how many non-gamers have been lost because they didn’t want to sit through a 30 minute tutorial.

Fit your game to your player’s lifestyles, and your players will respond.