September 2010
Jersey JackA Cure for the Summertime Blues
I’ve spent the last month traveling all over visiting amusement centers —seaside, lakeside and landlocked. I have observed some interesting things. The common thread woven throughout is that everyone wanted to escape for a bit and have fun.
Some locations had a lot of people, and some were lightly attended. I watched people as they played in the amusement centers, what games they played over and over and what games they walked right by. There is a lot to be said about stepping back and looking at the curb appeal of an amusement center from another person’s perspective, the most important person, the player.
The people I saw were looking to smile and laugh and maybe win some tickets or prizes. They really did not need those tickets or prizes; most of the players I saw could easily buy the items for which they were playing. It was just more fun to work at it, or play at it in this case. The essence of successful amusement is not a science; it is an art.
It’s like being hot or cold, you know the feeling when you are having fun. That feeling is what keeps our players coming back again and again. The casino industry spends billions of dollars trying to separate the players from their money and at the same time give them the feeling that they had a good time doing it. I don’t know that our industry comes close to that much effort, but we must strive for the same thing, giving our customers what they want.
Too many places I visited forgot that players need to have a positive experience. I saw too many near dead videogames wasting electricity by even being powered up. Many of them needed new LCD monitors to attract players. If you want to know why your videogames not making money, take a good look from your players’ perspective and you can answer that question yourself.
Air hockey and some of the other novelty games were getting good play. Unfortunately, pinball was pretty dead wherever I saw it, which is more than a little troubling for someone like me who also sells pinball games. Again, most of those games looked sad and worn. They had bad displays, dirty playfields, lights out, weak flippers and not much effort put in to keep them earning like they should.
Many of the redemption counters I saw looked nice at first glance but featured discontinued, old and outdated or even sun-faded items. Who wants to play for that? Today’s players are more sophisticated. As the old saying goes, you can fool some of the people some of the time, you can’t fool everyone all the time. The better merchandise drove more play and a better experience for the player.
Some of the merchandise machines I saw were really stocked with great prizes. I noticed a big move back to quality plush with some familiar themes from years ago making a comeback. Those machines are new again every time you change the merchandise so the time spent buying quality comes back to the cashbox.
Many operators are doing what they want to do and not listening to their player base. I heard a lot of complaints that the summer was slow, attendance was down, too hot, bad economy, etc. It’s always easy to find excuses for not making as much money as you think you should have made.
Many of those operators did not buy anything new this year. What new games they did have seemed to be “given” to them to try by various manufacturers or put on revenue share by starved manufacturers or distributors. One location bragged to me that he was expecting three more new merchandise machines that he did not have to pay for. I wonder how long that can go on.
I know that the same old is not going to bring in the players. We are in an industry that constantly calls us to reinvest in it. There seems to be almost a unified resistance to buying anything new. There is a lot of negative energy in the world right now, and what is needed is a positive response, renewal, reinvestment and rededication to businesses in our industry to move forward.
If you forgot why you got into this business, maybe it’s time to figure out where you are and where you are going.
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