A Destructoid community member caught up with Arcade UFO's owner, Ryan "Fubarduck" Harvey. His name might sound familiar to you because he had a strong showing at this year's Evo 2009 for Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, and has also been an active member of the SF community. So, what aspects of Japanese arcade culture do you think translate well to American arcades, and how do you in particular go about incorporating those aspects into your business?
Well, I think the thing that Japan does right is, first of all, the head-to-head aspect. In Japanese arcades, you'll often find that your opponent in an arcade game will sit across from you, rather than right next to you. We call that head-to-head, and a lot of the games at Arcade UFO incorporate that. So a lot of our fighting games, like SF IV of course, we have hooked up like that. The Gundam VS. game, that we're having a tournament for tonight, is also set up like that, so, you sit next to your partner, but your opponent actually sits on the opposite side.
This aspect plays really well in a Japanese culture because, you know, it's kind of cliched, but the Japanese are kind of shy, so this is the way that they can challenge strangers without having to directly face them. It translates well here for a separate reason. It does well in America because people like to have arm room, people like to have their own space. So, while the reasoning is really different, incidentally it does cross over pretty well here as a business aspect for us.
