I have an article in this week's special summer dining issue of Los Angeles CityBeat on uWink, the latest restaurant venture by Atari and Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater founder Nolan Bushnell.At uWink, customers place their orders on touch-screen terminals and play casual video games while they wait for their food and drinks to arrive. But why eliminate a traditional waiter in an environment that's been designed to foster human interaction?
The article also touches on the growing casual gaming movement.
Here's a sample:
“We feel many people haven’t played a videogame in 20 years, or maybe they’ve never played one in their life,” Bushnell says. “They’ve determined in their mind, ‘I’m not a game player.’ We feel like we have an ability to change that. [I]n that sense we’re being somewhat evangelistic.”
Read the whole thing here.
Image: Nolan Bushnell at his uWink restaurant in Woodland Hills.
Photo: Maura Lanahan
