Gaming is a curious pursuit, with many conflicting elements that can hamper its base appeal. To many people, it’s about community, cooperation, and the touch of personal fulfillment. Yet, despite these core components, the modern age of gaming increasingly tries to separate us. From an industry that used to thrive on playing next to your friends, new systems more openly embrace playing at a distance via the internet. What if we were to fall backwards though, to combine the classic appeal of playing next to others while still engaging with a modern environment?
This is the idea behind gaming cafes, and it’s not a new one. It is, however, a seemingly simple direction that struggles in the west. From what should be a large audience, businesses have difficulty integrating video games into a reliable business plan. Such a history doesn’t always have to be the way forward, with some places better suited to the ideal of gaming cafés than others. Understanding this, we want to make the argument that New Orleans could be the perfect place for gaming cafes, even in a culture that might otherwise struggle with the concept.
The New Orleans Edge
Though many places can claim dedication to a community spirit, few can match the outward expressions as well as New Orleans. As an epitome of Americas melting pot ideal, New Orleans dedication to festivals like Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest, and the big one we dont even need to name perfectly illustrates its cooperative spirit
Such a spirit can be something we take for granted, but as anyone from more disconnected places can tell you, the effect is real and appreciable. In its bones, New Orleans fights the isolation that big cities typically imply, and this makes it a potentially perfect fit for what gaming cafe’s offer. After all, the nations that do embrace gaming cafes like Japan and Korea tend to be more collectivist. While New Orleans would still score higher than these nations when it comes to elements like individualism, it still operates more communally than the national average.
What is a Modern Gaming Café?
In their original state, the gaming café concept is best illustrated by the rise of internet cafes in the early 2000s. Originally designed in an era where the internet was popular but access to decent equipment and speed was limited, internet cafes were a revelation. Not just helpful for general computing duties, these cafes would quickly become known for their capacity in LAN gaming.
Over time, powerful home connections and devices became ubiquitous. In the UK, this occurred sometime around 2007, where high-speed internet officially became more popular than its dial-up predecessor. Combined with the convenience of console gaming over PC systems, an exodus from internet cafés began to occur.
On a related scale, this same idea affected another major entertainment industry, that of online casinos. Here, the convenience of a modern online casino website far exceeds what is possible from brick-and-mortar establishments. With convenient access, a wide range of payment systems, and bonuses not available in physical casinos, a move of many casino players towards an online environment was inevitable. Now, the industry is a huge success, and review sites are needed to help players find the best operators. The key difference here is that while casinos do have some elements of community which they leverage, video games rely on interpersonal aspects on a much greater scale.
A modern internet café understands the need for community, while also appreciating the long legacy of gaming and each player’s diverse roots. This means a proper café needs titles from many major systems from the Atari 2600 of 1982 through to the PS5s and Xbox Series of today. It needs to understand that adults like to drink and make merriment with their play, and it needs to find a way to balance these components with a financially viable business model.
Expressing the Perfect Match
At this point, we already know that there is some precedent for gaming cafes in New Orleans. For an example of this, the D4 Tabletop Gaming Café walks a similar path. The difference here is that D4 concentrates on tabletop titles, rather than video games. That said, the base concept of communication and cooperation remains key.
To integrate related ideas in a video gaming space, a New Orleans gaming café would likely succeed through how it implemented its overall themes. Famous New Orleans food and drinks like gumbo and the hurricane would be a natural addition, serving to open the door to locals and visitors both. From this point, the selected games and game systems would need to have both famous and more esoteric options.
A great starting place in this regard would involve placing classics like 1985’s Super Mario Bros upfront. Instantly recognizable even to those not into the gaming scene, games like these could include high-score competitions with prizes for those who top the leader boards. Played over a large screen for everyone to see, these types of introductions could be great spectator sports for players to cheer on.
From here, free video games with a drink or food minimums could serve to bring customers in long-term. Nostalgia might act as a base, but from this base, a real community could be built along the lines of the New Orleans spirit. Going a step further, establishments could include games with areas set in New Orleans such as The Adventures of Bayou Billy on the NES as a way to build spirit.
