Confidence
was
my
first
mistake.
As
I
plopped
down
in
one
of
the
83
racing
simulators
in
the
new
F1
Arcade
location
in
Washington,
DC,
I
told
the
company’s
CEO,
Adam
Breeden,
that
I’d
raced
plenty
of
times
before.
I
picked
Semi-Pro
difficulty,
even
as
Breeden
told
me
he
recommends
most
first-time
arcade
visitors
pick
something
simpler.
I
adjusted
the
Vesaro
simulator,
started
the
race,
and
caused
a
six-car
pileup
on
the
race’s
very
first
corner.
Luckily
for
me,
the
F1
Arcade
is
designed
more
for
fun
than
fidelity,
so
my
race
wasn’t
over.
It
ended
four
minutes
later,
in
dead-last
place,
as
the
onscreen
timer
mercifully
ticked
to
zero.
On
a
normal
day
at
the
arcade,
this
would
signal
it’s
time
for
someone
else
to
race.
For
me,
sitting
at
the
wheel
a
few
days
before
the
arcade
opened
to
the
public,
it
just
meant
my
shameful
drive
was
finally
over.
The
DC
outpost
of
the
F1
Arcade
is
the
company’s
second
location
in
the
US
—
the
first
opened
in
Boston
earlier
this
year,
after
two
locations
in
the
UK
have
been
huge
hits.
(Breeden
says
one
location
did
twice
its
projected
revenue
in
its
first
year.)
The
project
started
a
few
years
ago,
when
Formula
1
reached
out
to
Breeden
about
building
a
more
experiential
product
for
racing
fans.
Breeden
has
been
doing
this
kind
of
thing
for
a
while
—
he
calls
it
“competitive
socializing”
—
and
has
built
brands
for
Ping-Pong,
minigolf,
bowling,
and
darts
—
and
says
he
landed
on
the
idea
of
racing
simulators
right
away.
Millions
of
people
have
sat
in
arcade
chairs
and
driven
onscreen
cars
in
games
like
Cruis’n
World,
and
lots
of
people
are
willing
to
fork
over
hundreds
or
thousands
of
dollars
to
get
a
wheel
and
pedals
into
their
own
home.
A
fun,
social,
competitive
racing
experience
seemed
like
a
winner.
The
F1
Arcade
is
just
rows
and
rows
and
rows
of
simulators.
And
a
bar.Photo:
David
Pierce
/
The
Verge
All
83
simulators
inside
this
huge
DC
space
are
the
same:
an
all-in-one
machine
built
by
a
company
called
Vesaro.
(The
company
sells
a
modified
version
of
the
setup,
which
it
calls
the
V-Zero
Mark
II,
for
a
hair
under
£40,000.)
It
has
a
steering
wheel
and
two
pedals
and
a
seat
that
rumbles
and
moves
as
your
car
does
in
the
game.
“If
you’re
playing
this
thing
with
full
manual
settings,”
Breeden
says,
“it
is
functionally
a
professional-level
racing
simulator.”
He
says
his
team
is
already
working
on
new
versions
of
the
rig,
but
he’s
happy
with
the
state
of
things,
too.
And
he’s
trying
to
make
sure
he
thinks
of
everything
—
even
the
F1
Arcade’s
food
menus
were
designed
in
part
to
make
sure
you
don’t
bring
messy
fingers
into
the
cockpit.
Racing
simulators
are
not,
by
nature,
fun
to
watch
or
even
particularly
social.
Sims
are
complicated
and
require
full
attention,
races
last
for
hours,
and
watching
someone’s
heads-up
view
isn’t
fun
for
very
long.
For
Breeden
and
his
team,
the
most
important
thing
about
the
F1
Arcade
was
making
it
a
group
activity.
That
process
started
with
building
an
entirely
new
game
to
play.
Booting
up
83
copies
of
F1
24
just
wasn’t
an
option.
“Ultimately,
the
console
game
is
not
really
fit
for
a
concept
like
this.
It’s
very
complicated,”
Breeden
says.
What
the
arcade
needed,
he
thought,
was
a
way
for
racers
to
just
sit
down
and
start
racing
without
having
to
make
lots
of
choices
and
wait
through
loading
screens.
It
also
needed
to
be
connected
so
people
could
race
against
the
person
next
to
them
or
even
everyone
else
in
the
bar.
Booting
up
83
copies
of
F1
24
just
wasn’t
an
option
The
F1
Arcade’s
game
is
based
on
rFactor
2,
a
well-known
simulator
and
rendering
engine
that
is
often
used
and
modified
for
various
kinds
of
professional
simulating.
(It’s
also
the
game
that
real-life
F1
champion
Max
Verstappen
rage-uninstalled
last
year,
after
it
crashed
and
cost
him
a
virtual
race.)
Everything
other
than
the
core
racing
experience
has
been
modified
for
the
arcade,
Breeden
says.
“And
it’s
not
just
the
software,”
he
says.
“It’s
the
booking
system,
the
points,
how
it
leads
into
the
leaderboards,
how
that
fuels
the
virtual
currency
we
have.”
The
F1
Arcade
team
has
designed
a
whole
online
system
for
gameplay,
too:
you
play
the
reflex
game
by
scanning
a
QR
code
rather
than
dropping
in
a
quarter,
and
you
win
that
virtual
currency
instead
of
tickets.
It
all
took
years
and
a
team
of
engineers.
Breeden
says
he’s
much
more
of
a
tech
company
CEO
than
he
ever
expected
to
be.
The
game
has
several
different
modes
designed
for
in-person
racing.
Most
people
will
race
head-to-head
against
the
other
people
in
their
group
—
the
arcade
rents
simulators
in
30-
or
45-minute
increments,
the
way
you’d
reserve
a
lane
to
bowl.
You
can
also
team
up
and
take
turns
racing
against
up
to
19
other
teams
around
the
venue.
And
for
the
more
skilled
and
competitive
racers,
the
F1
Arcade
will
have
overall
leaderboards
and
full-length
races.
You
win
not
by
taking
the
checkered
flag
but
by
accruing
points.
You
get
points
for
being
in
first
when
the
four-minute
timer
ends,
yes,
but
also
for
overtaking
other
racers
and
doing
other
things
on
the
track.
The
idea
is
to
give
everyone
a
chance,
even
the
newbies
— each
player
selects
their
skill
level,
which
can
be
anything
from
essentially
“Full
Manual
Simulator”
to
“The
Car
Basically
Drives
Itself,”
and
the
game
should
adjust
to
keep
everyone
competitive.
If
you
just
imagine
playing
a
photorealistic,
really
high-end
version
of
Mario
Kart,
you’ll
understand
exactly
how
the
F1
Arcade
is
supposed
to
feel.
Everything,
including
the
decor,
screams
F1.Photo:
David
Pierce
/
The
Verge
When
you’re
not
playing,
of
course,
the
idea
is
you’ll
eat
and
drink.
And
watch.
Each
simulator
has
two
ultrawide,
49-inch
ROG
Strix
displays,
stacked
vertically
in
front
of
the
seat.
The
bottom
screen
shows
your
racing
view,
while
the
top
one
shows
something
more
like
you’d
see
on
TV,
so
the
people
behind
you
can
watch
the
race
and
cheer
you
on.
“You
get
a
close
race,
everyone’s
banging
the
back
of
the
simulator,
screaming
and
shouting
for
their
team,”
he
says.
“And
it’s
just
so
participatory,
which
is
what
you
want.”
There’s
more
to
the
F1
Arcade
than
the
simulators.
There’s
a
huge,
upscale
bar,
with
a
menu
overseen
by
Lauren
Paylor
O’Brien,
the
champion
of
the
first
season
of
Netflix’s
Drink
Masters.
There
are
other
games,
like
a
wall
of
lights
meant
to
test
your
reflexes.
Most
of
the
decor
is
F1-related
in
some
way:
the
overhead
lights
are
in
the
shape
of
various
tracks
or
telemetry
data
coming
from
cars,
and
there
are
those
iconic
round
red
lights
everywhere.
Breeden
is
adamant
that
the
way
these
places
succeed
is
by
appealing
to
people
who
don’t
care
about
the
activity
and
just
want
a
place
to
hang
out;
the
people
who
love
racing
will
come
anyway,
you
know?
Still,
it’s
a
room
full
of
simulators.
So
much
of
the
arcade
acknowledges
the
fact
that
everyone’s
a
gamer
now
and
that
modern
socialization
so
often
includes
screens.
This
digital-IRL
collision
is
happening
everywhere
you
look:
Nintendo
built
an
AR
Mario
Kart
experience
at
Universal
Studios
in
Los
Angeles
and
Osaka,
Dave
&
Buster’s
is
filled
with
mobile
games
and
VR
headsets,
and
kids
are
hanging
out
in
Roblox
and
Fortnite
the
same
way
they
hang
out
at
the
mall.
Breeden’s
fine
with
all
that.
He’s
just
trying
to
build
something
worth
leaving
the
house
for.
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