Lost my OPEN virginity

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:12 pm

Surely watching any group of punters for more than 10 minutes will teach you one thing - the likelihood of their choosing a game to play bears no relation whatsoever to the chances of a decent payout on that game. As I've mentioned elsewhere on here, Monopoly is easily the most popular game amongst punters nowadays and yet it has taken me until this weekend to finally witness some punters winning a prize on it (a mighty £3.50). That people choose to play dross like that old Goldenballs game shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

I even witnessed two guys playing that Nuts game on an ItBox for at least an hour continously last week, including two trips to the bar for refills - I was in an out of the way Wetherspoon's with no decent machines anywhere close by. I did spend the time productively by emptying the other ItBox and had then hoped to move on to their ItBox but in the end gave up. They hadn't collected so much as a quid in that time so the lure of those pretty ladies must have been all the reward they were looking for.

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:26 pm

Punters play what they are comfortable playing, not what may render the most rewards.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:51 pm

QuizMaster wrote:Punters play what they are comfortable playing, not what may render the most rewards.

Yes, of course, but even on that basis I can't see what would attract them to Goldenballs (the original pinball one) - even putting prizes to one side, as I recall it introduced pretty tough questions pretty quickly which I would have thought would turn off the average punter pretty quickly. But maybe the average punter doesn't have the capacity to distinguish between general knowledge and a truly tough question so wouldn't notice...

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:14 pm

grecian wrote: But maybe the average punter doesn't have the capacity to distinguish between general knowledge and a truly tough question so wouldn't notice...

My 21 year old nephew is an avid player of quiz machines (partly inspired my my tendencies I feel). He does suffer some drawbacks however:

He has no idea who Clint Eastwood or Richard Burton are. He knows who Michael Caine is 'because he was in the Batman movie'.

Modern society and the average punter eh?

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:33 pm

grecian wrote:But maybe the average punter doesn't have the capacity to distinguish between general knowledge and a truly tough question so wouldn't notice...

True enough. How many times have you had to bite your tongue when a watching punter has asked "How can you know THAT?" when the only suitable response is "How can you NOT know that?", and I don't mean Chaka Khan's real name or the capital of Burundi, I mean really basic stuff that you imagine anyone would know.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:47 pm

From memory (sad as it is): Yvette Marie Stevens? Bujumbura?

dmac · Post by **dmac** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:52 pm

WaterGate · Post by **WaterGate** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:13 pm

iirc?

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:06 pm

WaterGate wrote:iirc?

If I recall correctly...

WaterGate · Post by **WaterGate** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:56 pm

Ohhhhh. How'd you know it was him?

whiteswan · Post by **whiteswan** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:07 pm

Hi

Not had a chance to check the popularity of the games this week but I have seen NUTS being played quite a lot along with Monopoly as well.

Will hopefully have an update on this weeks top games tomorrow.

Dave

whiteswan · Post by **whiteswan** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:51 pm

Hi

Okay here is this weeks Top 10.......

Deal Or No Deal 19%
Goldenballs Quiz 13%
Goldenballs Pinball 7%
Bullseye SSG 6%
fANTASY fOOTBALL
Hot Property
Heads Up Poker
DOND Big Reds
Take It Or Leave It
Super Gold Run

Dave.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:08 pm

To me, who is only a casual player at the most, that says that big TV tie-in deals pull the punters in - regardless of the actual quality of the game!

roberto la vigna · Post by **roberto la vigna** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:35 pm

[quote="Matt Vinyl"]To me, who is only a casual player at the most, that says that big TV tie-in deals pull the punters in - regardless of the actual quality of the game! ]

This is why I'm programmed to buy substandard EA football computer games every year.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:46 pm

Now that, is very true!