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FROM THE EDITOR Life's a box of chocolates, we're the ones with the nuts F Valerie Cognevich Editor PLAY METER orrest Gump's mother told him that each person is responsible for his own destiny, adding that everyone must make the best of what they have. If life is really like a box of chocolates, as she told her son, then the coin-op industry must be the ones with nuts. Consider if you will the operator who has decided that the way to compete with his rivals is to offer locations a larger percent of the profits. The reason is simple, "We'll be able to get more locations!" he beams. Little does he know that just around the comer fate is ready to deal a fatal blow. It won't be long before that operator will be unable to offer great equipment. Wait, he won't even be able to offer mediocre equipment on a regular basis. He simply isn't making enough money to invest in updating his equipment. Service is destined to be a thing of the past, at least on any kind of timely basis. While the location pats itself on the back for the "great" deal it got when the operator agreed to give away 60 or more percent of the profits, the bottom line dollars will dwindle faster than the caliber of games and service. How about the operator who is convinced that he'll make a fortune in his cranes by making it impossible for players to win a prize. "Hey, I'll buy stuff to put in the crane and won't have to buy any ever again. Think of the money I'll save, while the players pour their money in!" he reasons. He's still got Super Bowl XX items stuck to the sides of his cranes, so the part of his theory that says he won't have to buy stuff is holding up! But as the dust piles up and spider webs are the only thing making their way down the coin slots, the operator is perplexed at why his profits are nonexistent. He's right down there on the same level with the operator who wraps $20 bills around bricks to entice players, knowing full well that the claw will never pick them up. He's only a few rungs lower than those who profess to operate redemption but the prizes (I use the word loosely) are wedged between the pizza oven and the coke dispenser. Of course, it does8 n't matter anyway because there's nothing anyone wants. Then there's the operator who brags that he doesn't belong to his state association, the national association, and doesn't subscribe to any trade publications. "I just can't afford to join any of those associations," he justifies. "And I certainly can't put out $60 every year for a magazine subscription!" But let his state pass a bill calling for exorbitant new taxes on his equipment, and he's the first to scream that he didn't know anything about it and why didn't SOMEONE do SOMETHING about it! It falls on deaf ears when you explain that he would have known and someone would have done something about it had he and others like him been supporting his state association. He'll soon forget that he's paying many times on the new tax what the dues and subscriptions would have been, as he brags about saving all that dough on memberships and magazines. Time to borrow another famous phrase from Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does." Can you stand one more? There's the operator who insists that a certain game doesn't earn anything! Ask him how many he has and he'll explain that he doesn't actually have any, but he heard from his wife's cousin's brother's fatherin-law who just happens to know the wife of the son of the sister of an operator across town, who said that the game was a dog. Or maybe he does have the game. Let's take a look at an example from about 10 years ago involving the hit kit of all time. An operator bought a brand new Mr. Do.I kit and installed it in an old Scramble cabinet. Hum, the graphic panel is turned around, new stickers are applied, but the old name is bleeding through. The controls don't seem right because they aren't. Attractive to prospective players? Hardly. But, of course, that operator insisted the game was a dog! I'd be willing to bet a dozen raw oysters that every one of you could relate a story about a nutty operator (10 tokens for a dollar, five plays for a quarter, unsupervised arcades, no new games since the last Pac-Man clone, etc.). They make you scratch your head in wonder that they've survived this long. I heartily agree with Mrs. Gump that it's up to us to do the best with what we have; we are creating our own destiny. The trouble is, the industry has a lot more going for it than some are using. .A. SEPTEMBER 1995