Playing Games in Public Spaces

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Games in Public Spaces
Compared to the previous decades, playing games in public spaces such as arcades has become less popular. Arcades were popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, with the stores filling up with kids for hours and hours throughout the day. The space allowed the children to interact, have fun and debate about the most important topics in their generation. Public gaming spaces had a variety of options for individuals, including Pinball, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat, among others. Unlike modern gaming, which uses consoles, the popular games played in public spaces require individuals to place quarters on machines. Since the development of smartphones, however, games have gone through a massive transformation from the ordinary arcades to console-based and mobile gaming. The large shift in gaming, especially in Western countries has widened the gaming demographics and placed gaming at the center of media attention. The increase in the number of people who play games is mainly because they are time-killing in nature. However, as more gamers switch to mobile phones and console games, fewer individuals are attracted to public space gaming. This trend limits individuals from experiencing the full benefits of playing in public spaces. Also, the lack of interactions can result in a generation that is unaware of the means of associating with individuals from various cultures, and this can bring conflicts.
Benefits of Playing in Public Spaces
Playing games in public spaces is considered to expand an individual’s ability to act in such spaces. This can reflect on the behavior and ability to interact with other individuals. For instance, playing games in public spaces challenges a person to look at things differently from that which they are used to. Although this perspective can vary depending on the space and the type of game, in general, public games all have social interactions, new interconnections and new roles that are different from the common mobile games. Such interactions help the player to understand the link between the spatial and the social. An example of public games that enable people to interact socially was the Tweenbot, an experimental robot by Kacie Kinzer, which was placed in Washington Square Park (Lavrinec). Since the robot could only move in one direction, it relied on random people in the park to help it navigate through the park (Lavrinec). Although the project was experimental, it proved the level of interaction that individuals can have when engaged in public games.
Also, common board and card games that are played in public spaces have some level of relevance to the players. This is true for institutions such as libraries that use games to attract individuals into the libraries and help the students to develop other skills aside from reading. Libraries allow students to...