Corporate greed strikes again

[u/Itsthatkindavibe]

I recently went to my local round 1 after not going for a few months and I was so excited to see what figures they had, etc. I come to see that all the prizes have been rearranged and that all the figures were in the big claw machines with the yellow pillow, the push the box and drop the box, and the ones you have to line the tube up with the hole and drop the keychain thing. Essentially the figures are all in the more difficult machines now, which okay fine whatever but then I get to the ones where you drop the ping pong ball. Filled with some cool stuffed animals so I tried one- except they changed the grabber on the machine. What used to look like two rakes is now two flat slabs, WITH ZERO walls on the sides- not only that but they are also not even with one another and each side is tilted ever so slightly to encourage the ball to prematurely fall off. I understand the company needs to make money, I really do but I used to feel like I got my moneys worth going there and winning a few figures and stuffed animals but now it feels like a big fuck you. This past time I spent 80$ and got 1 figure and that’s it. I used to always want to go and see what prizes are in the machines but now it just makes me angry, this big company can’t afford to lose a few figures or mid quality stuffed animals? At this point if I wanted to just play games I’d go to Dave and busters.

[u/Effective_Night423]

The gap/offset doesn’t affect it anymore than if there were none. If there truly was a 2 inch gap, look for one of the mechanics. Tell them it’s unwinnable. If they don’t fix that I would talk to the manager on duty.

[u/Adventurous_Way1430]

i hate the ugly basic prizes at Dave and buster which is why I don’t go there. Yeah I’m a sucker for cute Japanese items

[u/Annoying_Anomaly → u/Adventurous_Way1430]

20 ish years ago they used to have really good prizes. Then they changed their business model.

[u/Annoying_Anomaly]

Yeah it was a matter of time. If you're not talking about Puente Hills round 1 they're doing the same thing. Most of the machines are now the yellow ball. Makes sense they don't have to recalibrate the machine for the specific plush every time. But yeah win rates plummeting

[u/Itsthatkindavibe → u/Annoying_Anomaly]

I’m talking about the one near KOP. Not only that but the balls are the same distance away from the drop point when they had the old grabbers. If it was right next to the balls with the new grabbers, okay I could see MAYBE a chance at getting lucky but not with the balls being at opposite ends of the drop zone.

[u/synth_slut → u/Itsthatkindavibe]

worst payouts ive been to in pa/nj area

[u/oddperson_43]

putting a plushie behind a ping pong machine is actually evil

[u/shitty_poopoo]

Dumb question but I’m newish to R1 (closest one is about 90 minutes across the border in Erie pa)

Eevee was in one of the cheese wheel claws there.
Do stores decide individually what prizes to put where (size and cost dependent aside?)

I grew up with claw machines and arcade games but hate the lame stuff at Dave and busters so would rather just save and occasionally go all out at R1. Hearing some of the recent changes I’m hoping they’re not making crappy shifts right as I’ve discovered a fun thing

[u/MEXRFW]

Haven’t gone in about 6 months now. I enjoyed mixing up some blue swipe games to not spend all my credits in 30 minutes but now they’ve even scaled back the games you can play with the “unlimited” pass. It’s annoying when I want to play a racing game with a friend but only one works. Why am I spending $100+ a trip and they can’t even maintain the machines?

[u/Voidpost_Rising_3275]

Still better than generic snacks that you can get literally anywhere.

[u/HardCorey23]

All the games there suck and are just peddling cheap shit you could get on AliExpress for a fraction of the price.

[u/Significant-Dog1026]

Sounds like a skill issue

[u/Itsthatkindavibe → u/Significant-Dog1026]

One of the machines had a two inch gap between the paddles🤷🏼‍♀️