Fruit Machine Chat

I made the mistake of not buying a drink in a pub last week as I was so shocked and excited at finding the old Dr Foxy cashcow! Bar manager came up to me and said I'd have to leave if I wasn't going to buy one. I found this extremely embarrassing and overcompensated by buying two pints of beer over the next hour - which made my concentration levels drop accordingly. Has anyone else had this kind of experience? ops:

Kind of.

I've bought several pints of beer in the pub before, which definitely affects your concentration levels!

as I have pointed out many times before buying a drink does not safeguard you from a b#####d landlord , although it prevents them from using this reason if you do get a drink. Buying a cup of tea and playing the quiz machine may not safeguard you either as at a pub in Beaconsfield.If you buy a bottle of bollinger you are presumably allowed to play it all day long. Incidentally everytime a new site appears concerning Bournemouth pubs I put down a good word for Martyn Clarke of the Litten Tree.

I think you really only have yourself to blame Roger - buying a drink is a pretty simply courtesy to the landlord who is letting you spend time in his public house doing what you enjoy. I also sympathise with the two pints impeding machining ability - when I'm out playing machines (as opposed to playing a machine when I'm out!) I stay on the diet cokes and find that more than about half a pint of beer an hour is enough to reduce my abilities, and thus my takings, on the machines.

I dont have any problem with not buying a drink if I think it will go un-noticed. You should use your judgement. Buying a drink is purely an operational decision. The machines are there to screw money out of punters and I don't feel that I have any moral duty to buy a drink just to play on it. This feeling is further strengthened by the rip-off prices of soft drinks in many pubs.

Optimum alcohol levels for each game:

0 pints Text Tiles
0.5 Word Up
1 pint Monkey Business
1.5 Boggle
2 pints Word Cube
2.5
3 pints
3.5
4 pints
>4 pints Trivia Games

Customer Obligations, by pub type:

Chain pub -> no need to buy a drink
Independent pub -> 1/2 pint
Country pub -> 1 pint

Yep, i never buy a drink in any wetherspoons i go into. Always too busy for them to notice, or even care to be honest!

yeh thats a fair point... although they do cheap drinks, so I sometimes do buy one!

Listening to VB's rantings based upon bringing every link back to that stupid game and self gratification

15-20 hogshead's of CountryBeards full strength ale





I think you have to play it location type. As someone said, it can just be a courtesy but not a necessity.

Yes, but you forget that self-gratification can be quite gratifying.

quizard wrote:The machines are there to screw money out of punters .

so cynical.

they aren't there to 'screw' anyone. they are there to entertain CUSTOMERS and a small cost. the huge majority of games played are by casual players who spend a £ with no expectation of monetary return.

if you don't at least buy a soft drink the landlord/manager has every right to sling you out so his paying customers can use the machine

pokerpete wrote:

quizard wrote:The machines are there to screw money out of punters .

so cynical.

they aren't there to 'screw' anyone. they are there to entertain CUSTOMERS and a small cost. the huge majority of games played are by casual players who spend a £ with no expectation of monetary return.

if you don't at least buy a soft drink the landlord/manager has every right to sling you out so his paying customers can use the machine

Bleeding Hell. You are not a pub manager are you?

I didn’t realise that pub landlords were being so altruistic in providing a selection of fixed pseudo skill games at the small cost of 50p a go (and keeping 70% to 80% of the money).

You will be telling me next that games are fair and honest and don't deliberately mislead people into believing they can win a prize that is just not available.

Q

PS You wouldn't be interested in buying some magic beans would you?

You're so right quizzard..

I got thrown out of the pub yesterday just for not buying a drink as I warmed myself by the fire and watched the match on the box while waiting to play the quizzer. I pointed out that I had just bought 20 B&H for the heavily inflated price of 6.20. To no avail..

The cheeky bastards :P

8 Pints Stella + Chasers : Spot The Difference (Makes the 'Cross-Eyed' technique a lot easier )

Have to say I'm amazed that the simple nicety of buying a drink is proving so contentious; having read this thread I'm not surprised that serious quiz machinists have a bad name with some landlords. A half of a soft drink seems to me to be a pretty small price to pay for the opportunity of playing a quiz machine, and any serious player would hope to win at minimum about four or five times the price of an average half from the machine. Having said that, it's not really the point - the pub owner is providing you with hospitality and the quid pro quo for that is that you pony up for a drink. If you don't like that, then don't go in the pub, or if you think the landlord is ripping you off by taking a cut from the machines, then don't play the machines! Honestly. If you're really tight, ask if they do orange squash - that's usually very cheap. As is tonic water, if I recall. Mine's a pint of diet coke, usually.

For me it doesn't make a difference whether it's Wetherspoons or your local freehouse - just because there's no readily identifiable human face of the big chains doesn't make non-drink-buying any more acceptable to me. And in any case we quizzers should support Wetherspoons - unlike many chains they've nearly all had quiz machines from day one, plus they do at least sell real ale of varying kinds, even if it's not always in tip-top condition.