For arcade games, some of which I will be playing are fighting games.

Which sticks do you have? How much did you pay for them? 

I have a Hori arcade pro kai. Got it from Amazon for 130€

If by arcade games you mean shmups then you don't really need something expensive. But if you play a lot of fighting games you need to know a few things.

A fightstck isn't necessary to be good. The Street Fighter IV world champion is using a PS1 controller and a lot of the best players in the world use simple fightpads. Also if you're not used to them you'll have trouble doing even basic motions.

If you do buy an arcade stick and you have trouble using it, don't be discouraged. It just needs practice.

By arcade I mean arcade games in general. I use MAME. Im not big on competing It is more to make my time playing a bit moree interesting.

I may also use it when playing other 2d games.

Thanks for chatting everybody.

I used to play in arcades when Street Fighter 2 came out but I didn't get really good until the SNES version was released. Since then, I've been a fan of fight pads with the six button layout, ever since. I won't buy SF for the ps4 until a proper one is released. I also can't play Killer Instinct with a traditional pad.

If you want one for MAME, check out the X-Arcade Tankstick. I haven't had a chance to use one personally, but I've heard a lot of good things. This one's for 2 players, has a trackball and side buttons (for pinball), so it covers basically everything. The downside is that it's expensive. But they sell additional adaptors for pretty much anything so you'd only ever really need the one stick.

http://shop.xgaming.com/collections/arcade-joysticks/products/x-arcade-tankstick-trackball-usb-included

I dont care too much for the button layout but outside of that it seems perfect for what I want. Thanks.