Last one to leave, switch off the lights please

[ROSSKEEN]

What the hell went wrong?
Legislation? Greedy operators? Crap manufacturers?

I used to get enjoyment out of playing SWP. Did I win? Did I hell. Id lose a few quid over an hour or so, but had some fun doing it. Fiver win here, the occasional £10 made it enjoyable.

Well baws to them now.

Played machines yesterday. Pub Quiz - a staple favourite - id normally expect that spoilers kick in in round 3 whilst I'm going for a quid. 8 game yesterday, each following this pattern:

Round 1: 4 easy questions, 5th question an absolute stinker. If I got past that then it was round 2, 1 easy question followed by the spoilers kicking in. Entertainment value: nil.

Pints make prizes: 2 games. £1 was at 8 pints. NO BONUSES and first game was planetary moons, explosives and castles. Game lasted 2 minutes.

Monopoly hot property, an old favourite. Battled to the end game. Where it's now just a simple find the lady game. Pish.

Monopoly easy street. Battled my way to the end game. Got across the board. For a quid. A fucking quid.

About the only thing worth playing was the colour of money.

Other than that to me the SWP industry is on its arse. I feel I speak on behalf of Joe Punter not Joe Professional. And Joe Punter can't win anymore, nor is it entertaining.

Oh and Merry Christmas. But not to the programmers.

[QuizMaster]

Sounds like you followed me on there. Pub Quiz can be a bitch after the first 2 tenners have come out.

Unless you've learnt all the spoilers. Then it's ace.

[tonkarentino]

I feel I speak on behalf of Joe Punter not Joe Professional. And Joe Punter can't win anymore, nor is it entertaining.

I feel your pain!

[quizard]

When did Joe Punter ever win? Someone has always had to pay.

[cool]

anybody notice how one major supplier has appeared to reset some of their games just before christmas, under the cover of an 'update'.It could be well unintentional but it patently isnt fair to the punters.

[Mat Ingram]

Sounds like you followed me on there. Pub Quiz can be a bitch after the first 2 tenners have come out.

Unless you've learnt all the spoilers. Then it's ace.

I'm sorry; but no; and no you did not. I'm not calling you a liar but no one is winning out of Pub Jiz;

[exactly]

We all know that certain games can be removed from the Paragon menu if you dare to take a quid out them. But I have never once seen a cabinet with a space where pub quiz should be. And people are double potting it? Hmm

[kidgloves]

Monopoly hot property, an old favourite. Battled to the end game. Where it's now just a simple find the lady game. Pish.

and then if you're playing an old JDW's egg cabinet the lovely GPU will freeze mid shuffle and you don't know where you fucking are.

[cool]

I take Quizmaster at face value.Theres no reason to lie.I dont think he has laid claim to double jackpotting pub quiz on every unit he plays.

[Nil Satis]

Other than that to me the SWP industry is on its arse. I feel I speak on behalf of Joe Punter not Joe Professional. And Joe Punter can't win anymore, nor is it entertaining.

Ross - you've just won my Post of the Year Award. The last few months have confirmed what I suspected when I saw the first post-HMRC Paragon last autumn - the SWP industry is fading away before our eyes for this very reason. The manufacturers have decided that punters are just not interested in Q&A games any more, so they believe they have to make the games harder and harder in order to stop the tiny number of better players winning, and by doing so ... guess what ... punters get put off playing Q&A games. Most mainstream Q&A games are now ludicrously difficult for ordinary players. The manufacturers are stuck in a vicious circle and I don't see any way they can turn it around now.

It's funny to think that they managed to sustain 25+ years of business by the very ability to attract Joe Public to keep playing games they couldn't win consistently on, by making games enjoyable and by building in the ability for games to vary their difficulty level and offer the occasional prize that was worth a few times the stake value as an encouragement. Now we are left with the major mainstream release of the autumn/winter being that bloody awful Premier League Darts game which is set up to reward 30 or so right answers by awarding a prize that barely repays the 50p stake, and in many cases is less than that - the last time I played it (I won't waste my time again) I won ... 10p. It's utterly pitiful.

"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."

[QuizMaster]

Joe Punter's favourite games:

Pub Quiz
Deal or No Deal
Foxy Ladies
Monopoly
Million Pound Drop
Spot It

Joe Professional's Favourite Games:

None of these

The vicious circle you are all feeling is because you have no punters left to feed on. They are all playing different games from you. You're all playing the same ones between yourselves, hence why they are all so hard.

Money only comes out of the games where money goes in, hence the 2 x Pub Quiz £10's every now and then.

[Spyder]

million pound drop and colour of money are played constantly where i work.. one guy who is just a clever punter wins on colour of money quite reguarly...

and, a few mates of mine used to play monopoly and pub quiz LOADS over the years, but none of them touch the quiz machine anymore "because its a load of crap"

[QuizMaster]

million pound drop and colour of money are played constantly where i work.. one guy who is just a clever punter wins on colour of money quite reguarly...

and, a few mates of mine used to play monopoly and pub quiz LOADS over the years, but none of them touch the quiz machine anymore "because its a load of crap"

So it's a load of crap that is played constantly then?

I hardly ever see anybody playing anything apart from Pub Quiz and Deal or No Deal

[BigEd]

million pound drop and colour of money are played constantly where i work.. one guy who is just a clever punter wins on colour of money quite reguarly...

and, a few mates of mine used to play monopoly and pub quiz LOADS over the years, but none of them touch the quiz machine anymore "because its a load of crap"

So it's a load of crap that is played constantly then?

I hardly ever see anybody playing anything apart from Pub Quiz and Deal or No Deal

I have only seen a machine being played once in the last 12 months.
It was a Gamesnet, and the person played two games of Colour of Money.

In 2000 I had to wait to get on a machine. In 2011 I could not wait to get off one, as I had to play to the end of my hard earned 50p. Utter crap now.