I think networked online play could have saved Virtual World for a little longer (but there are a lot of other reasons why we can't go play Battletech and Red Planet anymore) as it would allow local teams to play in regional and national compeitions on a daily basis.

I think tournaments are what would get the arcades going again. I'd sign up for a national Daytona USA tourney in a heartbeat as I'm sure a lot of other people would as well. Since nearly every semi-large arcade is moving to the swipe card (a shame for the quarter / token era but it has its advantages) it's time for a standard to be devloped, especially among the larger chains. In the same way casinos use cards to track slot machine play a more advanced arcade swipe card needs to be devloped that will allow you to make and track a profile. This way your card would keep statistics about your playing whereabouts, how frequently you play a game, what competitions you've been registered in, and so forth. It would allow you to build teams with other players across town or across the country. e-mails could be dispatched for upcoming competitions to those who have a history of playing the game(s) that would be featured. Additionally high scores, game completions, gameplay averages and the like would be used to build a stat tracking database. These could be entered by onsite attendants which would require no additional modifications to the games' program code.

If this all is sounding kinda like the system used by the XBox Live Arcade and similar services that's because it is - although I've been kicking around the above idea in my head since 2002 when I spent 12 hours playing Daytona USA in the Casino Arcade in Santa Cruz. The difference here is it's all live and in public. Of course a system like this requires cross arcade connectivity as well as a database that players could interact with from any terminal with 'net access. A whole community could spring up around this idea.

Maybe Dave & Buster's should look more into developing something like this and less into putting the freaking Golden Tee machines right next to the non-bar seating... I swear, I'm sick of freaking businessmen getting plastered on their lunch hour within three feet of me.