In case yo1,.1 haven't noticed there's been a recent upsurge in the
amounf of attention this industry has been getting from the national
media. Witness a recent feature on video games by "NBC Magazine"
and numerous feature articles in Newsweek, TV Guide, Fortune,
Forbes, and hundreds of newspapers. Hardly a day goes by that we
are not being interviewed by a reporter or a free lance writer doing a
piece on our industry.
The fastest and surest way for the industry to continue to grow as
it has been growing is by attracting more players. Obviously, the more
people that play electronic diversions, the more profitable this industry
is going to get. The more attention this industry gets from the national
media, the more the general public will be aware of our entertainment
offerings. For it is not just the press which has become infatuated with
our games; it's the general public as well.
· Positive exposure in the national media is probably one of the best
things that has ever happened to this industry. The more the-;9eneral
public becomes familiar with our games, the more play our games will
get. One ~an't help but applaud the efforts of Atari, Inc., which
recently announced that it would be including its coin-op video games
in its national commericials for its consumer system. This form of
national exposure can do nothing but good for this industry.
When things are going good, there is often the tendency to
be~ome complacent. There are boom times ahead for the operators
who are wise enough to seize the moment and work harder than
they've ever worked before. Now that we are in the public eye, people
are going to be searching out for the games. People no longer play
games on impulse; they play them because they want to. They will
even go out of their way to do so. They expect to find late models of
clean, well operating games whenever they walk into our location.
Let's make sure that is what they find.
Our goal should be to make as many customers as we possibly
can. Lots of happy customers make for Jots of happy operators.
There's no better time than now; so go to it.
Ralph C . Lally II
Editor and Publisher
· ,.
PLAY METER, Ju ly 1, 1981