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BURLINGTON, Vt. (Community News Service) – Tucked beneath scaffolding on College Street, a new arcade has opened with a mission: give Vermonters an alternative place to socialize beyond bars and gyms.
The Dragon’s Dojo is a rhythm arcade, where people play games that follow the music to challenge their precision and coordination.
Customer Sophie Carbin wasn’t an avid rhythm gamer before being introduced to it by The Dragon’s Dojo.
Carbin heard about the new arcade through friends from the gaming and queer communities in Burlington. Carbin appreciates that The Dragon’s Dojo is explicitly not focused on drinking.
“I think it’s nice that it also brings together people of shared interests. People are here for the games and not just kind of as a night out with friends,” Carbin said.
Owner Jaret Williams, 28, opened The Dragon’s Dojo in late October after inheriting some money. They are originally from New Jersey and graduated from the University of Vermont in 2021 with majors in art history and classical civilization.
Williams’s main inspiration for The Dragon’s Dojo came from Game Underground in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Game Underground has an accepting community that caters to a wide variety of people, Williams said. They noticed this inclusivity firsthand on Valentine’s Day last year.
“I don’t think there was a single cisgendered person in the room. It was just groups and groups of other trans people,” Williams said.
As a trans person, Williams hopes The Dragon’s Dojo will offer the same kind of inclusive space where people can gather, play and feel at home.
Rhythm games combine the social atmosphere of bars with the physical fitness benefits of gyms. With roots dating back to 1987 in Japan, Family Trainer: Aerobics Studio was the first recorded example of a rhythm game, according to Guinness World Records.
“Sadly, they’ve been mostly limited to Japan, but we brought them over,” Williams said.
Most people are familiar with Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, but there’s a lot more to rhythm games, according to Williams.
“There are other rhythm games and they’re a lot of fun,” Williams said.
The most popular game in The Dragon’s Dojo, according to Williams, is Wacca, a circular neon layout with a 360-degree touch screen.
When asked about the game’s popularity, Williams responded that it’s “something about Wacca’s intuitiveness.”
Vermont has 13 businesses in the Arcade, Food & Entertainment Complexes Industry, according to an analysis by IBISWorld. According to Williams, none focus exclusively on rhythm games, making The Dragon’s Dojo a unique destination for enthusiasts of the genre.
“There’s nowhere else to play most of these games for hundreds of miles,” Williams said.
Williams said The Dragon’s Dojo gives gamers an alternative space to meet one another face-to-face.
“It’s neat to have more options for people, rather than like, ‘You like games? Stay at home.’ No, there’s options,” Williams said.