Play Meter

PLAYER PSYCHOLOGY
W hat Player Appeal Really Means
BY MORRIS B . NAHUM
When we discuss the appeal of
any game, it is obviously the
players ' behavior and, consequent-
ly, their emotions which make
games either winners or losers .
Although manufacturers spend a
reasonable amount of money for
advertising , I wonder if a psycholo-
gical market analysis has ever been
conducted to attempt to find out
what makes players patronize cer-
tain games more than others .
For instance, why is it that the
standard pinball machine remains
ever-so -popular, while some novelty
games fail so miserably after a
short-lived spurt of popularity .
Some of those old arcade guns, for
example, are still worth today as
much as they cost 10 years ago in
the eyes of their operators. On the
other hand, how sad it is to read
some " for sale" ads in which
novelty games manufactured only
two years ago are offered now for
exactly one-tenth of their orighinal
price .
Yet , both the arcade guns men -
tioned above and the novelty game
which failed so badly were manu -
factured by the same first -class
manufacturer and both were operat -
ing in the same location .
For the past 24 years , I have dealt
exclusively with the international
marketing and export of our equip-
ment and can only speak from my
impressions and experiences in the
foreign markets, but isn 't it true that
human behavior is universal and the
same causes and effects should be
tru e either here or there?
Whenever possible, I have inter-
viewed players as well as operators
and done my utmost not to confine
myself to sometime-erroneous re-
ports given by importers who may
try to explain it all with quick
answers and try to blame American
PLD'_TER
manufacturers for all failures and
problems with game appeal.
From interviews with hundreds of
players from Berlin to Bangkok and
from Sweden to South Africa in six
languages, I discovered one factor
very quickly:
Players want to relate to the
machine . They want to transfer to
the machine their fantasies and they
expect to find enjoyment and fulfill -
ment when they play.
Using several psychologically or-
iented questions I also discovered
that (A) the player wishes to transfer
his emotions to the game through a
realistic " hold object" and (B) the
player must sense a feeling of
achievement and must be remuner-
ated by positive responses from the
machine.
Most players I interviewed listed
" hold objects" such as flippers, cue
sticks, steering wheels, rifles and
balls and pucks as realistic tools of
pleasureable transference .
The least pleasureable hold ob-
jects listed were dials, knobs and
levers .
The realism of the hold object,
players indicated, must be matched
in the game itself . The game must
be alive and literally bounce back
under the players fingers . The game
should also display realistic action
and be equipped with sounds one
can associate to everday life, which
in turn can trigger human emotions.
The most like sounds were bells
(obviously association with cash
register sound), engine sounds,
punching and kicking sounds and
cheering or applause sounds .
In the same manner, it appears
that players want realistic effects
such as real ball action ; authentic
and realistic sceneries, either pro-
jected or displayed, but on scale;
and spinning wheels and reels .
The most disliked sceneries were
toy objects and all objects not
reduced to scale, fantasy scenes,
electronic displays and , most sur-
prisingly, all space characters .
These findings may be surprising
to some, but if one looks at it
carefully, we have to conclude that
players simply want honest, realistic
and live games which they can hold,
manipulate and relate to in an
environment of realistic scenes and
sounds.
With this rough psychological
profile of the average player, per-
haps we could attempt to build a
game that would incorporate the
most desired features, yet keep it to
a size that would allow it to be
operated in countless locat ions,
aside from the perennial arcade
location .
In any event , manufacturers
should always remember that the
player is the ultimate judge. It is
therefore only through genuine
communication with good operators
who listen to their players that ideas
will be born and some tremendous
"winners" developed in the near
future .
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UNITED STATES OPEN
PINBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
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