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People don't see either hobby as wholesome, but there were good and bad people in every community, and you couldn't dismiss an entire group on the basis of their worst members. Despite Lee's best efforts, the rest of the commission was not swayed. Mike Watson's request for two minor use permits was denied, 3-1.Commissioner Avila's high quality comment made minor rounds on Twitter, gaming forums and blogs, and it would have been more frustrating if it hadn't been so unsurprising. As it stands, however, the comment is symptomatic of a much larger problem that Watson, Super Arcade, and the entire fighting game community face: everyone only has one side of their story.Avila's comment is indicative of the long history of poverty and delinquency arcades struggle with, one people like Watson have been trying to shake off for years. Beyond the logistics like bathrooms, guards and cameras, the argument against Super Arcade relied largely on a negative ethos. Arcades, in their heyday, weren't exactly friendly. Their bad history had always been somewhat misattributed, from their early affiliations with ********, their ability to suck time and money from the nation's youth, and, most relevant to Watson's dilemma, their uncanny tendency to attract the supposed wrong kind of crowd. Even as most arcades struggle to continue staying relevant in a largely online world, their negative image lives on.Watson's entire case for reopening his arcade felt like an effort to push back against that image. Many of the local residents who shot down the arcade had made assumptions about the kind of place Watson's arcade was a den for the kinds of troublemakers you'd see in 80s movies, the kind with the over-the-top hairstyles and studded leather jackets to match their sociopathic tendencies.
