Bring back the Arcade. We have the technology. New technology can and will eventually breathe new life into the dusty arcade. My local arcade is still filled with the old school style joystick and race car games. We need innovation, design, the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to re-invest in the arcade. With the proper funding and marketing, a whole new generation of mall rats are just waiting to trade in there solitary game lifestyles for the community driven atmosphere of the arcade. Of course people don't realize they need something until they see what is actually possible. So without further adieu, here are some impressive feats of modern gaming technology.
Of course we all wish we had the following game in our living rooms, but this game is larger than most people's living rooms.
The Microsoft Surface is still very much a research project, but it can be bought usually in the range of about $10,000 to $20,000. Eventually this price will drop, but our best guess is that this technology will continue to evade consumer markets because Microsoft is notoriously slow and tedious about bringing new technology to the mainstream. The following video shows the best selling board game, Settlers of Catan, on the Microsoft Surface table.
Perhaps the future isn't the arcade, but your local board game and RPG store. Imagine a Microsoft Surface table with Catan right there in your game store or a giant touch screen wall next to your Warhammer figurines. These are all certainly inevitable, but until the technology is perfected and properly marketed to store owners and eventually the public at large, we will all have to patiently wait for the future to arrive. All we know for sure is that it is coming.