Player Appeal Depends on Simplicity
o YOU suppose that pin game manufacturers,
D
in their competitive efforts to produce a game
that is unique, are losing sight of the fact that
simplicity is the first principle in the creation of
player appeal?
Of course, we all like to figure things out for
oLlrselves. We have a natural sense of curiosity-
as long as it doesn't cost us anything. Butwhen we
are in the mood for recreatio'f) we like to enjoy it
with ·as little mental effort as possible. That's why
it is recreation for us.
A 'person with some carefree time at his disposal
will naturally turn to a handy pin game for enter-
ment, but certainly he doesn't get as much bck out
of it if he has to waste time and maybe half a dozen
nickels merely trying to understand a complicated
array of gadgets. More than likely if the first thought
that comes into his mind is "What's it all about?"
he won't even play. On the other hand, if the
prospective player can see at a glance how the
game is played, he is able to start in with his first
shot to concentrate on a skillful attempt to make a
winning score. About the only ones who bother
to figure out complicated playing fields are the
"skill sharks"- the professional players. The aver-
age players who try these puzzle games pass them
up after one or two attempts, perhaps without even
noticing some of the trick shots that can be made
if they have the patience to find how to make them .
Mentioning the significance of simplicity ir.l game
design reminds me of the experience of a toymaker
from Vienna. This man, an expert at his craft, took a
toy he had designed to the head buyer for Wool -
worths. The buyer expressed his interest but could
not see how it was operated . Asked to explain the
mechanism, the toymaker said that a set of instruc-
tions would be pasted on each toy.
" That's a clever tOYi we would like to stock it,"
said the buyer, "but its sales possibilities are cut if
instructions are necessary. In selling an item at such
a low price, how to work it must be apparent to
the customer the moment he sees it. You go back
and work on some new ideas for toys that do not
need instruction sheets. Then we'll talk terms ."
. This is a true incident and actually happened in
New York a few years ago. The Viennese toy-
maker is now head of the Kramer Manufacturing
Company in Los Angeles.
If simplicity is such an important psychological
aspect in the sales of low-priced toys, certainly it
is worthy of thorough consideration by pin game
manufacturers who are providing low-cost enter-
tainment for a public whose buying reactions are
the same in both instances.
Manufacturers and designers of pin games are
notoriously poor judges of their own games. They
are so intent on devising something different and
so absorbed with experimenting to perfect their
ideas in a workable unit that naturally they are
unable to view the finished job through a player's
eyes. They must depend on the reactions of some -
one not acquainted with the construction of the
game.
Simplicity was a feature that made such a success
of Contact, a game which was readily understand-
able but which did not suffer any loss of interest
merely because players "got the hang of it" quickly.
On the contrary, Contact enjoyed a long life
chiefly because the player's easy familiarity with it
encouraged repeat play.
Since that time there have been several games
with more fascinating action and more complicated
arrays of kickers- games the players undoubted Iy
would enjoy but for the fact that they had to learn
to play. Learning to playa five -cent game is just too
much effort.
M
•
OTION picture exhibitors, panicky because
there is more money in circulation now
than in several years past yet their box of-
fices are drawing little of it, will find that a large
portion of this steady flow of coins is being di-
verted through the cash boxes of pin games.
PACIFIC COIN MACHINE REVIEW, Paul W. Blackford, editor and publisher. Publication office: 1113 Venice Blvd.,
Los Angeles, Cal. Fitzroy 8269. Chicago office: 35 East Wacker Drive, CENtral 1112, C. J. Anderson, manager. New York
office: 441 I:..exington Avenue, Ralph P. Mulligan, manager, Vanderbilt 3-5399. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $1 .00 per year,
$2.00 for 3 years, 25c per copy. Published during the first week of each month.