Shopping centres are a minefield of lino flooring, clinical lighting, patronising advertising and spunking money on shit you’re not sure you even need. Most people have the attitude that it’s best to get in and out before you lose your sanity amid the discount racks.
But that’s all about to change, because a shopping centre has introduced gaming pods for ‘bored husbands’ to occupy themselves while ‘their wives shop’.
The Global Harbour mall in Shanghai, China, is rolling out gaming pods for bored significant others to play on retro games while their other halves brave the department stores and get shit done.
So while your missus could be browsing for a wedding gift for your second cousin or some new curtains for the home you share, the man in her life could be street fighting or stopping the Space Invaders storm Earth.
Inside each free-to-use individual glass compartment – or ‘husband pod’ – is a chair, monitor, computer and gamepad, where people can sit and play retro games.
Mr Yang reckons the pods are: “Really great. I’ve just played Tekken 3 and felt like I was back at school!”
Mr Wu agreed, but told a local new station that that he thought there were areas for improvement, adding his critique: “There’s no ventilation or air conditioning, I sat playing for five minutes and was drenched in sweat.”
You can watch their sweaty joy in the clip below:
One Chinese blogger pointed out what most women will be thinking right now: It’s more than a little sexist to assume she would be more interested in shopping than gaming because she has a vagina.
She told CTI Television:
Well my boyfriend often asks me to accompany him for shopping trips. I’m a girl and I want to go in to play too.
I don’t like shopping but my boyfriend enjoys it…guess I know what I’ll be doing next time he shops.
Anything that helps people avoid whiling hours away in a clinically lit shopping centre, pissing away money on parking that would be better spent in the pub, is alright by me.
But give the name a little re-think for all those women who want to game – and the others who are left reluctantly trawling through shopping malls alone… You know, because not all women like shopping.
Then, we’re gaming.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.