Well hello, Spiral knights reading that post. I am quite new to the forum of this great game and this also is my first suggestion on this forum ever... Oh well, know what? Forget about that introduction. It sounds silly and gives the wrong impression.

*Advertiser speech ON*
Well, Spiral knight, have you ever felt boredom on the daily routine through the clockworks? Have you ever felt a feeling of dullness that you could not even get rid of by a nice round of "Wolver Party"(some people may call it "Lockdown")? Or are you a farmer, not seeing any meaning in your knight-life other than storming that fiery/slimy castle over and over and over and over and over... and over again?

If you are one of those people, then don't search any further! If you are neither, you can either click that small arrow on your browser to get to another topic or just read it anyway and tell the others wether you like the idea or not.

Welcome to King Krogmo's arcade club!
King Krogmo just decided to fund the construction of another facility with his wealth, where monsters can go watching knights fight. However, the games aren't taking place inside the facility. No, that's just for accessing the grand stand and for the personal when they're having pause.

The games take place in the clockworks! In arcade gates, to be more exact.
"What is this? Do you want us to get krogmo tokens for randomly going into the arcade clockworks? That's silly, buddy!"
Hell, no! I just started yet. Inside the facility, you can choose a rule-set by which you are able to play the clockworks. Depending on how well you do in these rule-modifications, you get a score and tokens resembling your success.
However, let's start with a few basics first.

Where do I access this wonderful new facility?
Luckily for you, King Krogmo also allows you to use the current transport system already used for the colliseum.

In other words: Click these crossed swords on the top right corner to open the menu that originally only leaded to the coliseum. You should be able to choose between the arcade club and the coliseum. Now if that isn't handy!

What's the price?
First of all, no energy! Yes that's right: You can access the clockworks without paying a single unit of your energy! Well... they also take your energy tank and force you to play after the rules instead of reviving how you want. I guess that's fair enough, huh? Elevators are activated by Krogmo's near unlimited energy supplys, of course. Danger rooms etc. aren't, but as they are worthless/rulebreaking in the game anyway, you should deal with it.
But well, due to the fact that placing grand stands and referees literally everywhere in the clockworks, the price is of course higher then the one in the coliseum. How about, like... 1000-2000 crowns? Most of the money for the preparations is coming from the spectators, anyway. And from the drops inside the clockworks, too: Don't expect money, heat or drops to drop anywhere. Hearts should occasionally drop, unless the rules say something else. Not needing to pay energy should be luxus enough, by the way.
If some of you think the price is way too much, then don't do it. Just do the normal clockworks then. They give you money for this offer.

... of course, the real reason for having to pay crowns and not being able to use energy is that we need a good crown sink. How else make a crown sink if not with one of Krogmo's attractions?

Oh yeah, and you get Krogmo coins for good scores, if not something else. i mean, Krogmo coins should be for PVP only. Maybe rename them Coliseum coins and call these one Arcade coins?

So what's the point behind it? You have told us so much yet you let us know so little so far.
Well, presentation takes its time.

... anyway...

Remember the prankster comets in super mario galaxy? It's a bit similar to that. But only a bit. You can play the normal arcade gates with special rulesets and get a score on them. Examples:

Time Attack Mode
Actually, that's why I made the suggestion to begin with, but then I thought expanding it to more mods might be fun, too. Basically, you get a few timers, counting the seconds you need for the whole run, the current level and the current part of the level(between party buttons/end of combat rooms). You can revive whenever you want. However, each revive gives your whole team a time penalty, and they can't split their health to revive you. In other words: Death equals less points. So don't die too often here.
You have the ability to choose Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 and, if you want to be extra awesome, a full clockwork run from the first to last stage for this game mode. At each sub-town/crossroad the timer pauses. Instead of Basil there will be a monster-referee selling you helpful stuff like vitapods for the cost of getting a time-penalty. Needless to say, to get the high-score, you need to do the runs without any outside help.
Needless to say, new people can't just join in the middle of the run. Take a reliable party with you!

Hardcore/Final life/Call it whatever you want
Well, that one's a bit more exotic. You can't revive. You won't find any hearts. And the referees at the crossroads/subtowns won't offer you any healing items or vitapods. In other words, every point damage you ever get has to be carried around until the end of the run. Makes you reconsider taking a point of damage to kill that enemy, huh?
You can choose between Tier 1, 2 and 3, but you will always start at depth 0, at the terminal. The difference is in how far you can get until a referee forces you to go back up or continue as a normal run(if you REALLY want this). So technically, Tier 3 is a full clockwork run down to the core. Note that you don't need to clear a full run to get your points. In fact, at least in the Tier 3 run you are more or less supposed to die sooner or later unless you are an absolute uber-pro. In case you survive the full run, your remaining health will get converted into points, though in a manner Health/MaxHealth. This way, people won't get too much of an advantage by having more health than you(they still have inside the run, but the bonus points at the end remain somewhat the same).
No players joining afterwards allowed, but that's self-explanatory.

No weapon-run
Okay, this one might be stretching the game a bit too far, and I can understand if people wouldn't want to have it. I just think it might give the run a strange new twist. This one's still not taken to be too seriously, though. Basically, all combat rooms would be removed(or get several pot/projectile-spawners, as the arenas are nothing without them), just as your weapons in your weapon slot. You still can use pods and vials, though. More pot-spawners than usual will appear, maybe in place of monster spawns so monsters are guarenteed to be near a pot-spawn. In other words, your combat abilitys will be reduced to their logical extremes. The time will measured here, and most of the time attack rules apply here. The timer would be less in detail, though(no measuring of stage part). Monsters in the Krogmo-clockworks, who are in fact just lesser employees that are tasked to make the run feel natural for you, seem to prefer this working place, by the way...
Tier 1, 2, 3 and Full. Bosses are taken out, as having a boss fight without weapons is just too insane. You get strong vials for a very good time-price at referees in the crossroads/subtowns. Points are measured by time. So basically time attack with a new fresh twist.

Team race
The only mode where people are actively competing, and not only through comparing scores. You put two typical clockwork teams in one instance together, give them different colours and small damage against each other(the damage would only be noticeable after a long time of fighting each other, though, it's more to sabotage and knock them away and having distance from them is the key of wining, after all)... voila! There's your team race. The colour coded teams would both try to run through the same instance of the clockworks, and whoever's first at the elevator, wins. Simple as that.It's pretty easy to imagine. Actually.
The teams share monsters and normal gates, but the party-buttons will react on each team individually and only open it for this team. So you can sabotage them by shooting gate-levers from afar(though locking them out is not a viable method, as your team can't go on without you), and only the own team has to reach the big button to proceed. Once one of the teams has reached the elevator, they automatically place themself in a row, like they are making space for the other team. They can then spectate the other teams attempts at getting to the elevator, and they will only descend if every player is on the elevator. On the next stage, the extra time you collected last time will be given to the team now to get their advance back. This is to prevent lag/bad connection/other reasons for slow loading a disadvantage: If the teams can advance individually, slow loading could remove the advance the team had beforehand.
You can choose between Tier 1, 2, 3, Full
Besides the time a team has reached the last elevator first, the amount of damage on monsters plays an important role, too. So if you just continue on without bothering the monsters, you risk to lose even though you ended the race first.
There are no referees offering you items.

Teh end.
So well, that's it. I won't ask for mercy, and I want everyone be honest about it. Is the idea good? Is it bad? Something I didn't think of, or I didn't think through? Anything to add? Anything to remove, maybe? Or does some random guy think that the idea sucks with no argument? I just want some criticism. You can suggest stuff yourself too, if you want to.
My main idea was making people play more arcade and give people a reason for playing an arcade level in general, but with a take other than nerfing the farm-zones and buffing everything else. That was suggested often enough, after all. And I'm sure it will happen, anyway, seeing as this problem reduces the game to like 3 areas of the game right now. And OOO sure didn't made the whole rest for not being played at all.
My other idea was making another crown sink with another, slightly more expensive Krogmo-attraction. Adding another sort of coin would prevent it from being used over other PVP, by the way. It shouldn't kick PVP out of the way... just adding a third alternative to regular clockwork and PVP. Some recipes should be shared by both coin shops, tho.

Oh yeah, and if someone really wants to support it, could he think of a better name for it? I would have liked something alliterative, but i think the name is a bit of a failure...