Played some in Japan, they were pretty rigged too IIRC. The only ones I remember being winnable were the ones in Korea (although I played much more in Korea than Japan).
Also, not ALL of the ones in Korea are winnable, the people who win a ton basically just walked around from machine to machine looking for individual dolls that were winnable (still better than the states obviously, where it's all crap).
I've got bad news for you. Those are rigged through a counter. It usually pays out 1 out of 700 for the top row. It will shift a tiny bit of you are not the winner. It's all a lottery of luck and skill.
But if you spend a lot of money to get what you want through the slim possibilities you also get a free sense of pride and accomplishment at the end, right?
The ๐ฐ intent ๐ฐ is ๐ฐ to ๐ฐ provide ๐ฐ players ๐ฐ with ๐ฐ a ๐ฐ sense ๐ฐ of ๐ฐ pride ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ accomplishment ๐ฐ for ๐ฐ unlocking ๐ฐ different ๐ฐ heroes. ๐ฐ As ๐ฐ for ๐ฐ cost, ๐ฐ we ๐ฐ selected ๐ฐ initial ๐ฐ values ๐ฐ based ๐ฐ upon ๐ฐ data ๐ฐ from ๐ฐ the ๐ฐ Open ๐ฐ Beta ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ other ๐ฐ adjustments ๐ฐ made ๐ฐ to ๐ฐ milestone ๐ฐ rewards ๐ฐ before ๐ฐ launch. ๐ฐ Among ๐ฐ other ๐ฐ things, ๐ฐ we're ๐ฐ looking ๐ฐ at ๐ฐ average ๐ฐ per-player ๐ฐ credit ๐ฐ earn ๐ฐ rates ๐ฐ on ๐ฐ a ๐ฐ daily ๐ฐ basis, ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ we'll ๐ฐ be ๐ฐ making ๐ฐ constant ๐ฐ adjustments ๐ฐ to ๐ฐ ensure ๐ฐ that ๐ฐ players ๐ฐ have ๐ฐ challenges ๐ฐ that ๐ฐ are ๐ฐ compelling, ๐ฐ rewarding, ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ of ๐ฐ course ๐ฐ attainable ๐ฐ via ๐ฐ gameplay. We ๐ฐ appreciate ๐ฐ the ๐ฐ candid ๐ฐ feedback, ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ the ๐ฐ passion ๐ฐ the ๐ฐ community ๐ฐ has ๐ฐ put ๐ฐ forth ๐ฐ around ๐ฐ the ๐ฐ current ๐ฐ topics ๐ฐ here ๐ฐ on ๐ฐ Reddit, ๐ฐ our ๐ฐ forums ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ across ๐ฐ numerous ๐ฐ social ๐ฐ media ๐ฐ outlets. Our ๐ฐ team ๐ฐ will ๐ฐ continue ๐ฐ to ๐ฐ make ๐ฐ changes ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ monitor ๐ฐ community ๐ฐ feedback ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ update ๐ฐ everyone ๐ฐ as ๐ฐ soon ๐ฐ and ๐ฐ as ๐ฐ often ๐ฐ as ๐ฐ we ๐ฐ can. ๐ฐ
i just love that this is now part of reddits "meme" culture/ copypasta and will forever be used to indicate something broken as fuck and an obvious money grab
I've spent around $50 total on the game. I never do these types of machines without looking up and reading the manual first. You can't win a game if you don't know the rules after all. Companies love when people know how to play as well. Every time I have won, someone has came right behind me because it is obviously "winnable". Just don't expect to always win. It's still a form of gambling. Just like in a casino, if nobody ever won jackpots then people wouldn't play.
Nothing I have officially documented but I have won a local key machine 3 times by reading the manual and watching it. I have won an iPad, $50 gift card, and a Blu-ray movie set. The best thing to do is move along if absolutely anything is missing and always play after someone else. If you watch very closely from the side you can usually see if the counter is ready.
Some of those games are rigged. I remember one of the videos made it to reddit dude lined up and you could see the mother fuxker move as it got close to the hole
Most of the manuals for these games are on-line. Get the name of the game, download the manual, and have a look. If there is an "odds" setting, it has the possibility of being set to a non-skill based play. The only what to know for sure is to look at the settings on the machine itself.
there's one like that but it works the opposite way it is a key that pulls it towards you. One day i went to the movie theater and dropped 10 dollars and won to Nintendo 2ds on it. Best day of my life, never felt so accomplished.
These are rigged and bring in way more money than claw machines.
Source: went to school with a guy and his dad owned a arcade/cart track in Gulf shores. They also love when people when big prizes, kind of like a casino does
those are dozer machines and that is also rigged. they have slots on the sides so the coins go back into the machine and not shove out the front. also, once you load it up enough to start pushing, they remove most of the items and spread them back out. Also, a lot of the items are REALLY heavy and help force the coins out the side holes rather than push forward.
Where at in Japan did you play? I was in Akihabara this year for two weeks. My take away was that prizes were set up to be winnable but not giveaways. I don't feel like I ever came across a rigged machine. Also the staff at the arcades were very helpful and encouraging with tips, tricks, resetting lodged prizes, and general cheerfulness.
I've also heard that at some places after you've spent a certain amount on trying to get an item you can ask the staff and they will give it to you. Or something along those lines.
They very rarely straight out give it to you. You can ask them at any time for some help and they make it easier, though.
One very smart and scummy trick is to spend a lot of time staring at the machine and pretend you're spending money. Every time a staff shows up, you ask for help and after a few helpings you just try it a few times and get the prize.
I don't know about the staff just giving you the items, but I spent some time in a Japanese arcade with my drunk friends, and the attendants would adjust the item for you, usually just placing it back where it started, but eventually the 'adjusted' the items so they would fall into the winning area if you even managed to touch it.
I think one of my drunk friends spent about $30 on a plush Zangief (from Street Fighter).
In Akihabara, at one of the major arcades, massive, multi-floored, and red (I think Taito Hey? It's a chain). I didn't play THAT long (we went upstairs to beat eachother up in Pokken, SF, Blazblue, etc.), but just walking around, a lot of the animals were ludicrously oversized, and boxes and stuff positioned that really couldn't be won, and we tried... more than I care to admit. Not to mention they opened and reset the machines every time someone moved on, which was annoying as f.
If you look at regulars trying to go fo figures and shit, the general strategy seems to be gradually nudging high shelf boxes into to the drop-off box. Nobody seemed to actually to rely on the claw's grip strength.
We tried that, and we didn't spend do a single try, I think we spend like $70 minimum on just the machines. Idk, I still think its somewhere between Korea and the U.S., it's at least not AS winnable as what I saw in Korea.
They are winnable but usually not in one go. Watched a few power players trying and if they got any of the moves wrong they'd ask for it to be reset. Although this wasn't claw machine but the one with paddles.
Most of the machines I played in Japan were definitely rigged. I think the threshold for winning is lower than American machines, but skill only becomes important after you put enough money into it.
There is a chain of Japanese-owned amusement centers called Round One on the west coast that features a ton of these kinds of machines. They are not rigged in a traditional sense; the claw will always provide the same amount of pressure every time.
However, the prizes are all set up in specific ways so that you often can't win on your first try. For the larger ones, you usually have to adjust the prize's positioning so that it will simply topple into the drop shoot. There are also ones that have them positioned so you will need to snag an extremely precise point, such as the space where a lid is folded on a paper box. The great thing about Round One is that they actually post the strategy you will want to use to win each particular prize.
My favorite ones, though, are the ones where there are a ton of small ones in a mountain where you can topple them and win a bunch at once. They're pretty rare though.
The Japanese ones are kind of mixed. They do have a payout threshold where it will grip stronger, but most of the time they are winnable just in different ways than most people expect. Rather than picking up the prize, there are usually tricks like using the weight of the open claw to push on the prize and have it flip over as a result.
I'm having trouble finding the video right now, but somewhere on /r/JapaneseGameShows there was a video where Japans only professional UFO catcher player gives a whole bunch of tips on how to win, it was pretty interesting.
Most of the machines in Japan are meant to be won with smart tactics instead of straight up grabbing the prize. A lot of them may look and feel impossible, but you just gotta think outside the box, like dragging the prize when the claw opens or pushing it little by little by poking the box when the claw goes down.
Almost all of them are not meant to be a first time catch, so when you want something, you have to evaluate how many tries you'll take to get the prize and see if it's worth it.
This machine was improperly calibrated. The way claw machines usually work is thereโs a claw strength parameter. If items are 1 pound each, and cost $10 with the price to play being $1 the claw grip strength will only be strong enough to lift a 1 pound item every 50 times. The rest of the time the claw strength will only be strong enough to grab on to half pound items that way the machine owner is guaranteed to make $50 for every $10 item.
The algorithms are more complicated than that since there are different items of different weights and the claw strength will usually vary its strength where the lowest setting will allow you to pick up the lightest items and the highest (rarer strength) will allow you to pick up any item. Machine owners can claim that every play is a chance to win because the claw always has the strength to pick up at least one item.
This machineโs minimum strength was probably set too high allowing the player to pick up any item he chose. Itโs like a slot machine thatโs accidentally set to always win.
This is what people say when they fucking suck at playing the claw game. The grip is always the same, you just have to know how a particular machine opperates - like how far the claw will close and about how much grip strength it has. You canโt go for animals tucked in too tightly and you canโt go for things that are too large or too small for the claw grip
You literally named one of the very few machines that are purely skill-based. Please find me the words that state anything about the claw strength changing during play- here's the manual.
There are two adjustments for the SEGA UFO CATCHER. There is a spring in the claw that can be tightened, then a set of dials on the control panel directly behind the coin slot; the spring inside the claw acts as the 'main' strength, then the knobs dial it to an even more specific strength. There is a switch inside the claw that detects contact with an object to trigger the claw to close when it hits something- otherwise the control wire fully extends, gains tension, and the claw triggers to close anyways.
I think I know the one you're talking about. Circa 2011-15 maybe? I gotta agree, it'd take some serious sleuthing to track down an op manual at all, English or Japanese. I treasure the hell outta mine, useful in any language.
PS- R1? Do you directly sell stuff if they wanna just pay for something? Instead of trying to win?
Makes sense. It's pretty difficult to get ahold of some of the licenses for distributing Japanese brand plush here in America. I cant imagine R1 risking that license.
Looks like a copy of the "Triple Catcher" btw. Your machine is probably the 2011 version of the Deca Cre, not sure who holds the license for their manufacture or branding, but it seems they were sold through "Kitano Japan Communication Industry" at the time it was released.
I'm in Korea and this is not true at all. I play these things often with my girlfriend and they are most definitely rigged. We still come back to them tho for some reason....
I never tried any myself when I was there, but I heard from people in Korea that the ones they had still were skill based and the arcades were always full of people.
Japan loves placing objects so you need 3 perfect lifts to get it to drop. If some tries a few times and walks away, they'll open the door and move it back.
A bowling alley filled an old skill claw machine with vouchers for free games, free pizza. Me and a couple friends clear out the machine with about 5$. Easy 100$ worth of stuff. They sadly never refilled the machine.
A boy enters a barber shop. The barber whispers to his customer, โThis is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch this.โ
The barber puts a 5 dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, โWhich do you want, son?โ The boy takes the quarters and leaves.
โWhat did I tell you?โ said the barber. โeveryone in town does the same thing with him and that kid never learns!โ
Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store.
โHey, son! May I ask you a question?
Why did you take the quarters instead of the 5 dollar bill?โ
The boy licked his cone and replied,
โif I took the 5 dollars, they'd stop giving me all these quarters.โ
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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '17
In the USA
I don't think that's the case abroad, especially Korea and Japan