Welcome, Nerd Baconeers! Or should I say, “G’day mate!” and welcome to the first installment of Kikopaff’s Aussie Arcade Adventure, a series where I bring you the inside look of Australia’s gaming and arcade culture. Each episode will cover the ins and outs of my personal experiences, bringing you tasty content straight from the Land Down Under!

The internet cafe is part of the gamer’s rite of passage. It’s the gathering spot of nerds alike, a safe haven where we are free to be ourselves amidst the world. Until recently, I had never actually been to one. My safe haven was in the comfort of my own room; I never really needed a reason to enter the doors of the public, even if it was targeted towards gamers. Well, there’s always that one person who just needed to print some things, but you get my idea.

My friends were kind enough to book a private room for my birthday, with ten giant monitors, decent gaming rigs, and even a complimentary snack bar. There were countless instant noodle cups and bowls to choose from, it was enough to keep me occupied for a solid hour. Don’t get me started on the drinks. But the biggest stand out when I entered Legend Internet Cafe in Sydney, Australia were the rows upon rows of pool tables. I thought I was about to unleash my inner Filipino instincts, but my friends reassured me this was not the playground for the night. Perhaps I’ll come back for the pool tables for a future episode, but alas, let us begin with a classic.

COUNTER-STRIKE

Platform: Arcade

Developer: Valve

Publisher: Valve

Release Date: November 1st, 2000

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Worth noting – my friends and I briefly played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but we wanted to experience the nostalgia. Well, they wanted the nostalgia. I wanted to understand what the heck was going on and grind out some dungeons on World of Warcraft.

Okay, Counter-Strike. Huge online action game. This was the game that I remember watching my older cousins play on PC, and since I am the youngest cousin on my maternal side, the rules remained: No touching, just watching! Finally being able to touch was nice.

Team up in terrorist warfare to complete strategic missions, take out enemy sites, rescue hostages, and repeat. The only problem is, I don’t play FPS games! Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. I did play Halo 4, Gears of War, and Battlefield 4, and thoroughly enjoyed those. I just don’t think I’m particularly great at the faster-paced, battle royale type of shooters. As a dominantly RPG/strategy gamer, I enjoy campaigns, strategy, and story more than a quick pick-me-up multiplayer round. You won’t find me playing games like Overwatch, Fortnite, or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Pixelated graphics, old-school menu screens, and choose your team. It was foreign, weird, but straightforward enough for a complete newbie. You enter the map with your teammates and begin scouting for the opposing team to take them down. Interacting through voice chat seemed redundant since we were all in the same room and could hear one another, but it felt right to cheekily say things like, “North 359!” There’s no compass map here, Fortnite kids. Instead, it’s a straight-forward, empty map that quickly lets you know if you’re near the enemy or not. Navigation was probably the thing I nailed pretty well. It’s the shooting that didn’t turn out so great.

Fuel for the night: Hungry Jack’s, bubble tea, and a determination to win.

I think the reason I’m so bad at FPS games is that I don’t have a great sense of spatial direction. I can’t seem to understand that you don’t just spot the target and keep shooting until they die. I know you’re supposed to move around as you’re shooting, but it doesn’t come naturally to me, as someone who has dominantly played RPG games where monsters are really stupid and don’t need strategic movement. Or 2D scrolling adventures like Dragon Fable require you to have the sense of direction of a peanut. You literally just aim your firebolt at the thing until it dies. So for me, if I spot an enemy, I stand right in the open unknowingly and keep shooting, until I either run out of ammo and figure out how to reload, or I die. Because remember, I am standing in the middle of nowhere.

Comfy chairs, decent PC gear and a room all to ourselves. This was my heaven.

But when you’re playing with a group of friends who just want to experience nostalgia, skill isn’t always the biggest priority. And looking around the room, out the door and into the floodgates of people in their own private gaming rooms or playing rounds of pool, one thing really stood out: games truly bring people together.

Playing Fortnite on two computers, two accounts – why not?

Despite the weird looks that we may still get for mentioning an internet cafe to the broader public, it’s a location that enables a community to thrive. People still want to enter a hub where they can meet like-minded people, engage in lingo and jargon that doesn’t need to be explained to your uncle. There’s a moment of bliss, for a few hours in your day, when you can peacefully achieve the goals you’ve set. Whether that’s grinding out levels in your favorite RPG and looting better gear, beating your highest score, or achieving a victory royale–there are no limits to what you can achieve in video games. Some say video games are unproductive and brain dead. Others argue it is the most competitive and driven they have ever felt, and find the most fun they have had.

I believe venues such as internet cafes can even introduce people to new discoveries. One of my friends who willingly joined is not your hardcore gamer. But after watching me play a few minutes of World of Warcraft, we made her first Blood Elf Paladin and she’s smiling her head off at the smallest of details. She’s amazed that her character can swim, the plethora of quests to complete, and worlds to discover. When I told her you can play for free up to level 20 with any number of characters before you can commit fully to the paid subscriptions, she smiled and shared that she’s thinking of buying her own gaming PC. That’s huge. Bridges of opportunity can be connected, and the once looming gap of passing a controller to someone with fear transforms into an ecstatic joy that they want to know more.

Rows and rows and rows of pool tables!

So it looks like internet cafes are here to stay. If not for the community and a sense of connection amongst like-minded nerds, the internet in Australia is horrific, so stopping by for a few hours to play some games without interrupted disconnects is already worth it. After my first round, I think I’ll be back for more. Now that Counter-Strike Global Offensive is free on Steam too, I may come back for more point-and-shoot. Until the next episode, game on.