Is there anybody who claims to make a living from them?Nil Satis wrote:It may be that even Suri can't do that, however - having seen the full range of games during my time playing them I simply find it impossible to believe that ANYONE could make a living on 95% of the games that are out there, and even on the 5% you are reliant on the state of the game on each machine.
Best player I've ever seen
Two regular posters on here say that they do, and it is claimed (though I have never met one) that there are several others out there, where 'several' ranges between 'one' and 'loads' depending on who you believe. Similarly one's definition of making a living, and whether other forms of income, a partner's income, access to savings etc, are counted or not would vary from person to person.
Personally I have only ever felt able of giving up 'real' work once and that was only due to getting very good on one common game which needless to say soon disappeared. I do not however have the level of ability claimed about some of the people mentioned on here occasionally, once or twice by sources I trust.
My general feeling is that games that can provide a reliable source of income over many geographic locations, as would be needed to make a living from them, are getting rarer and rarer. Many of us on here were capable of doing well on a 'virgin' Caveman Capers, for example, but could anyone reliably take £20 from that game after it had been Jackpotted already? If they could, they would have a level of ability and knowledge that could Jackpot virtually any game and that's the bit I find hard to believe. The days when games paid out a Jackpot, then went into tough mode until the bank had recovered, then (crucially) returned to payout mode just seem gone for good.
Personally I have only ever felt able of giving up 'real' work once and that was only due to getting very good on one common game which needless to say soon disappeared. I do not however have the level of ability claimed about some of the people mentioned on here occasionally, once or twice by sources I trust.
My general feeling is that games that can provide a reliable source of income over many geographic locations, as would be needed to make a living from them, are getting rarer and rarer. Many of us on here were capable of doing well on a 'virgin' Caveman Capers, for example, but could anyone reliably take £20 from that game after it had been Jackpotted already? If they could, they would have a level of ability and knowledge that could Jackpot virtually any game and that's the bit I find hard to believe. The days when games paid out a Jackpot, then went into tough mode until the bank had recovered, then (crucially) returned to payout mode just seem gone for good.
well that's true, but I reckon you'd have to clear a minimum of 20 grand to make it remotely worthwhile and to compensate for lack of pension, sick pay, paid holidays, bonuses, promotion etc. I always assumed cool had a real job too, or signed on, because 10000 a year is a pittance and you can't have any sort of life on that.Nil Satis wrote:Two regular posters on here say that they do, and it is claimed (though I have never met one) that there are several others out there, where 'several' ranges between 'one' and 'loads' depending on who you believe. Similarly one's definition of making a living, and whether other forms of income, a partner's income, access to savings etc, are counted or not would vary from person to person.
Who is the other 'pro' in here?
The money you can make from a normal job can compensate but never replace the freedom that I have got. Even the self-employed have to fill out tax returns. Anybody who is considering giving up their jobs now to play quiz machines is mad! I made a lot of money in the early 90's. I have no mortgage, a reasonable car, a computer , loads of running gear,
3 guinea pigs and a rabbit what else do I need. The driving force in life for lots of people is money, mine is continuing in what I love doing I might not get rich but I dont care.
3 guinea pigs and a rabbit what else do I need. The driving force in life for lots of people is money, mine is continuing in what I love doing I might not get rich but I dont care.
Back on to this old topic, which I seem to recall was being discussed around the time I joined FC. I suspect that most if not all of the few people who claim to be professional SWPers nowadays are in the privileged position that Cool is in of having made enough money in the past to be able to make themselves reasonably financially secure with e.g. no mortgage payments etc. to worry about. Even then I'd imagine that anyone trying to support themselves from SWPs nowadays would have to live pretty frugally.
I know a couple of people personally who claim to have made serious amounts in the boom period of the early 90s. One of those has since jacked the game in and has a full-time job now. The other claims to make a living off the machines. I've seen him play once, in tandem with Hyena, on one of the old Maygay Trivial Pursuit stand-alones. It was pretty damned impressive - probably the second best display of SWPing I've been witness to after Suri's masterclass. I could just about believe the person makes a limited living off machines now, although again I'd struggle to believe he makes a living wage i.e. he's probably living off investments from previous machine winnings etc.
Talking of Suri, he denied being a professional to me, although if what I saw is any guide, he possibly had the talents to. Again, though, even someone of his skills would, I think, struggle to make a reliable decent income nowadays.
Speaking personally, I'm not a professional, and never would be. I'm lucky enough to have a relatively decent job with all the perks that dmac mentions, even though I might sometimes feel piqued that I don't get the free time I want to play SWPs and do other things (surely not). As a professional SWPist, frankly I'd be unconfident of earning much more than £10k-£15k, which assumes about 90 hours a week travelling / playing on my part, and also assumes a considerable uplift in my skills as a result of all the practice. Even allowing for the fact that "money won is twice as sweet as money earnt", that'd be a massive hit to my bottom line. So I suspect I'll be a gentleman amateur for many years to come.
I know a couple of people personally who claim to have made serious amounts in the boom period of the early 90s. One of those has since jacked the game in and has a full-time job now. The other claims to make a living off the machines. I've seen him play once, in tandem with Hyena, on one of the old Maygay Trivial Pursuit stand-alones. It was pretty damned impressive - probably the second best display of SWPing I've been witness to after Suri's masterclass. I could just about believe the person makes a limited living off machines now, although again I'd struggle to believe he makes a living wage i.e. he's probably living off investments from previous machine winnings etc.
Talking of Suri, he denied being a professional to me, although if what I saw is any guide, he possibly had the talents to. Again, though, even someone of his skills would, I think, struggle to make a reliable decent income nowadays.
Speaking personally, I'm not a professional, and never would be. I'm lucky enough to have a relatively decent job with all the perks that dmac mentions, even though I might sometimes feel piqued that I don't get the free time I want to play SWPs and do other things (surely not). As a professional SWPist, frankly I'd be unconfident of earning much more than £10k-£15k, which assumes about 90 hours a week travelling / playing on my part, and also assumes a considerable uplift in my skills as a result of all the practice. Even allowing for the fact that "money won is twice as sweet as money earnt", that'd be a massive hit to my bottom line. So I suspect I'll be a gentleman amateur for many years to come.
Saw Suri last night again for the first time since my initial sighting. It was in a fairly ordinary pub quite near Waterloo (the location of my last sighting). He was playing an Ind:e located in a Paragon cabinet. This time I confess I didn't introduce myself but hovered in the background watching - I was worried he'd think poorly of my having gone on about him on here! He took £39 out of the machine (I only caught the last five minutes or so) and then scarpered. He JPed Pub Crawl (! - I doubt I've ever managed more than two quid on this) which was then withdrawn from the game selection - nice. He quickly gave up an attempt at Carol Vorderman's Su Doku, which evidently wasn't paying. I went on the machine; X Factor wasn't paying (although not blatantly so) and won a £5 on Tetris. When I went to collect, the machine crashed. ;-) Only other observations are: (a) I'd preceded this by losing five or six quid on a resolutely nails Paragon round the corner, so maybe he'd done that first; (b) amusingly as I came in he was visibly berating himself for poor answering; (c) he did look older than I'd estimated last time round (as someone has since told me he is) - 50s rather than 40s I think. I scuttled round to the nearest ItBox in the hope I'd see him playing FFQ, but he wasn't there...
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cp999
- Senior Member
- Posts: 462
- Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:59 pm
- Location: not where I was yesterday
I'm really not sure who is the best player I've seen. Possibly the best session I've seen was a friend of mine destroying the standalone Maygay Trivial Pursuit - three jackpots in three games. He cruised threogh the numerous ridiculous questions which it shows towards the end of games whilst conducting a process of ham acting pretending to guess things he obviously knew and making quips about the suggested answers. (It was also extremely funny to watch).