Younger generations may feel like they’re living it up with their PlayStation 5s and Fortnite events, but the gamers of yore know that the real battlegrounds can be identified by a colorful carpet and a pocket of quarters.
No gaming space will ever be quite as primal as the arcade, where pre-teens once gathered to watch the new kid on the block overtake the high scores on Pac-Man and Centipede, and where Mortal Kombat tournaments created legends just as frequently as it forsook them. The modern gaming space has softened these edges, but if it so happens that you kicked off your gaming days in an arcade, fighting to the death for personal glory will come that much easier to you.
The little girl in this TikTok seems to be one such person, as she looks all but ready to throw down upon peeping the unprecedented luck that @spookianna00 has stumbled across. Indeed, as Ari stands all proud as the ball-drop machine spits out a dragons’ hoard-worth of tickets after managing to get the ball into the jackpot slot, she seems dangerously unaware of the youngling standing just a few feet away, her face twisted into the most horrifying scowl that jealousy has ever powered.
According to the video description, Ari and her soon-to-be assailant are enjoying a visit to Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, an arcade and museum located in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Here, patrons can interact with and take a gander at vintage items and contraptions such as old arcade machines, antique model airplanes, old movie posters, and humorous little mechanical doohickeys that you can fiddle with and collect. Given that the little girl is indulging in the Kubrick Stare (as one commenter put it), the historical media setting couldn’t be more appropriate.
Now, gaming etiquette is in a constant state of evolution, with profanity and slurs making up the bulk of gamer-to-gamer interactions for the better half of the last decade. But this is the arcade; victory is decided in the streets rather than the gaming chair, and it would be no great surprise if Ari found herself receiving a challenge from the little girl, perhaps in the form of a pinball competition.
If the little girl wins, she gets all of Ari’s tickets, and if Ari wins, the little girl has to tell Ari how cool and tubular she is. It’s a brilliant wager; after the look this little girl gave, there’s no way anyone would want to chance being on her bad side, and having her approval would keep you shielded from that. Throw the game, Ari! It’s for your own good!