Fruit Machine Chat

my observations are as follows-
(1) the rise of the Games Warehouse
(2) the spectacular demise of itbox
(3) the crap content of Gamesnets(and updated at very low payout levels)
(4) closure of many pubs (tend to be orrible ones anyway)see 6
(5) conversions of pubs into poncy gastropubs
(6) demise of laurel pub company( )unfortunately the guy at the helm was allowed to buy back the best sites(funny world we live in).
(7) number of quiz machine sites - healthy
( number of new games plenty- but total shite almost without exception
(9) arrival of £50 jackpots
(10) dominance of poker into new games
(11) Fat Spanner heroes- INDE's and villains OPENS(but may improve them through feedback)
(12) Arrival into market of INDEGO's (promising)
Here endeth the summary please feel free to comment add and dispute!

Lots I agree with there Cool. There's been some very positive things this year - the Jiggy Bank bunfight with some really sizeable winnings to be had was perhaps my choice of highlight - but it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that there are one or two disturbing trends in play which will only make SWPing more difficult in the future. Foremost among those for me is the continued and accelerating closures of pubs away from town centres / central business districts. Plenty of factors causing this, discussed at length elsewhere, but I don't see it abating in 2009. And as Cool says, it's often the bog-standard pubs which are vanishing - and those are the ones most likely to have an SWP. Conversions of SWPed pubs into non-SWPed bars and gastropubs are also a problem.

Cool correctly identifies the implosion at ItBox and the rise of Games Warehouse / Paragon as the story of the year. Going by what is said on this board, I think this process has moved a bit more slowly in London than elsewhere (about 70 per cent. of London ItBoxes which were there at the height of the ItBox empire are still there, by my partial estimation), but clearly the trend is there. And for me at least that's bad news - I made a conscious decision to focus more on Paragons when the news came in about ItBox which has yielded some rewards, but as Nil Satis and others point out, there's a lot of dross on Paragons and the good games there are are often harder than their ItBox equivalent, at least until money has gone in.

On other cabinets, GamesNets began the year for me in remarkable form with a clutch of good games, but have declined during the year and are, I think, no better or worse than other cabinets now. Open was the big missed opportunity of the year - could have been magnificent but the over-fussy presentation of the games menu and the very limited number of sites have meant that Open has failed to be a serious rival to the big four. They will need to re-think their strategy if that's to change in 2009, I think. For most of the year, Ind:es have done absolutely nothing (don't think I recall any new product on the standard Ind:e menu all year) but I agree that the new ItBox-style menu Ind:es look promising and are starting to become quite frequent in London. For me Inde:gos have been too few and far between to make any impact, and to my mind are superseded by the new front and back screen Ind:es.

And finally, Cool is again right to highlight the rise of the non-quiz SWP game. I'm finding more and more often that my path to the ItBox is barred by some meathead playing poker, and that's just one of quite a few non-quiz products available across all cabinets. I suspect takings from these games must be quite a bit higher than the quiz games so again I expect this unwanted (from our point of view) trend to carry on into 2009 to all our detriment.

Very best wishes to one and all for a profitable and successful 2009 on all fronts. My personal wish on the SWP front is that work quietens a bit and enables me to spend a bit more time SWPing - but I'll believe that when I see it.

I agree with just about all of those points.

My overarching impression of 2008 is that after a few years of putting out consistently poor product while things were relatively good in the economy in general and the pub trade specifically, the machine and games companies are now being swamped by forces outside their control, with the massive downturn in the pub trade being accompanied by a move in interest among punters away from quiz games into card games and other similar activities. It is this backdrop that makes me think that Jiggy Bank will prove to be the last really profitable Q&A game (although obviously I'd love to be proved wrong!).

The loss of interest in quiz games has been the most noticeable recent trend - I have always had a love-hate relationship with punters in that I want them to put all their spare cash into the machines, just not to do it when I want to play them! Now however I find it rarer and rarer to have to wait any significant time to get on a machine but as I have noted elsewhere on here the throughput on the games I like is very low indeed in many places. Playing and winning now feels more like hard graft than ever. I still need to play for the extra income but derive very little enjoyment from doing so.

Still, I did get a 5 second JP on Celebrity Millionaire on a Paragon last night so it's not all bad I suppose!

All the best to all of you for 2009.

Nil Satis wrote:
but as I have noted elsewhere on here the throughput on the games I like is very low indeed in many places.

This is, I think, one of the biggest problems for any serious player - with many units it is often the case that once you have done the cash from the "prime target" games they are then dead for ages.

That being said, however, I really don't think it's all doom and gloom (or perhaps I'm just being optimistic because I had a pleasantly acceptable day today).

The potential decimation of smaller pubs is of course a problem.

Nil Satis wrote:It is this backdrop that makes me think that Jiggy Bank will prove to be the last really profitable Q&A game.

Has anybody noticed the recent deafening silence from one or two of the working pros who usually post on this site?

A happy and prosperous New Year to everybody!!

better post quickly quizmaster!

It's not an intentional deafening silence. There appears to be little point in me making posts currently. Most of the things I have to say would be wildly contradictory to a lot of the posts on here, so best not to say anything at the moment in my view.

Plus I've been out working. Very busy boy lately.

i've not got a huge amount to add to the erudite comments above. but i'm the sort of chappie who has to wade in.
on the matter of local/independent pubs going to the wall; this is saddening for a soppy soak like myself. a particularly fine pub i go to (pre-decimal till, smells of wet dogs, exceptional beer, log fire, retired servicemen etc.) will be closing on 5 january. it has an itbox but it is not the sort of place where you'd expect any throughput.
the license has been bought out by fullers, so they probably won't try and make it the new fat duck. it should be okay when it reopens but it can never be the same again.
if the streetscape becomes dominated by walkabouts, spoonses and yateses it will be a bleak, bleak outlook, devoid of character, regardless of the machines (and pondlife clientele) these bars tend to carry.

in a moment of astonishing hypocrisy, i'm quite happy that spoonses are rolling out paragons, i'd hesitate to go into one for a pint but, for a smash-and-grab when you've got nothing better to do in a strange town, they are too convenient. i realise that there have always been fewer big-winning opportunities from GWHL, than, say, a doable £50 from jiggybank on itbox. but with ten entertaining games where the good player is all-but guaranteed 200-1000% return, there is variety for your time, (and smaller prize funds get refilled quicker) so it suits me as i rarely travel much.

the new indego menu looks promising to me too. this is largely covered in the other thread but casual players do appreciate production values of the games. taking away any potential for winning; would you prefer to play a fossil like pub quiz or the progressive back to skool? can't personally comment on gamesnet or open because i've only played each <20 times this year.

as for other esses in SWP, i welcome it. not a popular view i'm sure but any given cabinet has at least 60-70% Q&A in some form. the hangman games are easy, word/STD/bingo games are universal, even if not your cup of tea. casino games don't excite me much but the only problem i see with poker et al is that you can't get to play the machine. but if the operators are making their money from these, i don't think we can begrudge them that profit.

from my own standpoint, the last four months have been probably the most profitable for me in SWP returns (excepting £20 clearances on WU back in the day). pennies compared to what some of you chaps have made but my salary has barely been touched for some time.

here's to a good 2009 for everyone.

Its so nice to read proper punctuated posts,lovely!