Labelling the Toronto Gamer
By June Thong - June 21st, 2008
What does it mean to be a Canadian gamer, let alone a Toronto gamer?
When Shaun asked me to write for Toronto Thumbs, I started thinking on what I could possibly write about. Sure, I live here and I have fancy electronic toys, but what identifies me to the Toronto gaming niche other than those facts?
When I think of what it means to be classified a “gamer,” I think about “indoor” gaming with buddies at my house, with pops in the fridge and fresh pizza crumbs waiting to pounce on my stainless new controllers. I think about spending months waiting for new maps for my favourite MMORPG, and a week of exploration with a familiar party before it has become old news again. I think about long summers and nights spent after work playing the latest Zelda game.
“Just one more dungeon!” was the line, but the writers were just too good for me. Their stories were always so intriguing, the characters too real, that if I went to bed, the princess might be in another castle. Maybe for some people gaming can be classified as an addiction, but for me, I think it’s the empathy I have towards stories, friendly rivalry and new levels of creativity that have made me into a gamer. Aren’t these scenarios most gamers can relate to, regardless of whether they are Canadian or not?
On the flip side, gaming isn’t always an indoor activity. When I was in high school, my friends and I used to go to Funland Arcade on Yonge St. north of Dundas. This is where gaming started–not in Toronto, exactly, but in front of arcade tables with thrill-seekers taking turns at Pong, the winner staying in to lord it over all. That was well before my time. My friends and I, we used to ogle pinball machines and play a few rounds of Dance Dance Revolution, with me cheering most of the time since I didn’t have as much groove as they did. Still, it was fun to hop around and flail like it was nobody’s business!
After being open for more than 50 years, Funland Arcade is scheduled to close on July 31st this summer.
Why don’t people visit arcades anymore? My mother used to say, “Why should you spend your money at the arcade when you can save up and buy video games you can keep?” I learned later that she didn’t trust the environment, and preferred me to play games at home instead, but the logic still stands. It used to be that you had to play games in arcades before you could play them at home, but now, most video games are only available for home consoles. Since arcade versions of games are more expensive to manufacture, it’s more difficult for businesses to keep up with the latest fads.
When I was on vacation last month, my friends in Tucson wanted to play a few rounds of Dance Dance Revolution at a local arcade. Did I want to join them? “Sure, um… I’m going to have a look around.” There were recognizable console games there, such as Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Cruis’n World, Soul Calibur III, and the horrific Target Terror.
Who in their right mind would purchase such an unholy item as a Target Terror arcade cabinet? If this is what arcades have to offer, it’s no small wonder why they can’t attract more business. Still, I know I would have more fun shooting fake terrorists with friends laughing behind me than sitting on the couch saying, “Pew pew pew!” In the end, it’s all about having a good time. I haven’t been to Funland for months, but with the recent news, I might just pay a visit before it goes.
As Toronto gamers, we can all relate to issues in the city. I might have walked past you at a local game store, and maybe waited in line with you while trying to buy a Wii. Were you that other person with a Nintendo DS on the train near St. George Station? You might have even seen me ‘dancing’ in a time before I knew what dignity meant. I guess that’s what makes us Toronto gamers. I’ll see you folks around!
Although arcades ended up becoming a hangout for shady types, I have a lot of fond memories of them - notably hanging out in them during lunch at high school, where I had a whole hour and a half to kill. Many hours were spent playing mostly fighting games like Street Fighter II.
It’s sad that Funland is going but at the same time, I’m also a little glad. There’s a great arcade in Pacific Mall that’s way more “arcade” now, anyway. It’s far away for me, but it’s just comforting to know it exists.
I spent my time in the arcades growing up, but my fondest memory is of visiting my grandfather every week and running to the small crappy corner convenience store with my younger brother to beat the hell out of each other in Street Fighter II.
I’m not sure of why they closed
everything at funland seems to have died down when Initial D Arcade Stage 3(addicting skillful racing game) got outdated (they made a worse new stage 4) its a worldwide phenomenon, skilled players would compete in online rankings(time attacks) as well as with each other face to face(dual machine battles), and the new 4th stage game physics(its arcade they didn’t need to make it more realistic and fake at the same time) might have killed the fanbase.
Those machines would be full every friday. the busiest machines in the whole shop.
next in line is DDR and streetfighter. Other than that, most of the machines were not really used at least enough to pay for the electricity they were using while sitting there and lots of them were outdated. it wouldn’t surprise me if they shutdown because of slow business.
Its sad to see it go, I was there while IDAS3 was still hip, its still fun and challenging but without others to play with its not as worth going to anymore.(and people who drive need to grow up too and get jobs and pay for cars and university or college which meant decreasing demand for arcade racing games)
They obviously needed a way to increase demand, a replacement popular racing game might have done it like Gran turismo 5 setups (a racing setup would cost a gamer 1000 dollars (ps3, wheel, cockpit) and that stuff goes online too.
I don’t know how the other arcades are still making money with their outdatedness. Maybe they need to create better next generation arcade games that arn’t so expensive(IDAS3 was $10 000), that bring the face to face competition element into play.