Ah, the penny arcades. An eclectic mix of elderly tourists, young children, angry youths and hopeless alcoholics. Oh and we were there as well. Anyways, we visited these arcades and I quickly found myself suckered in by the bright lights and really quite pointless penny falls.
These arcade attractions are designed to encourage gambling on weak minded folk and up until today I never thought to class myself as such. After wasting over 4 pounds on the big money penny falls, I quickly moved over to the claw crane.
Now, once again I should reitterate that I was fully aware that these machines are designed to fail and will only pay out after a certain amount of money has been paid in and keep people hooked by giving them the illusion that there skills will earn them a nice reward. After I started playing I found myself falling into this trap. Sure, losers before me would have fallen for this machines dirty tricks, but I, I had a method, unlike the losers before me my persistence would pay off. I didn't even want the prize, there was no girl to impress and I have no desire to hold onto cuddly toys. I needed to do this for me, for my pride. Well, no such luck, I was 5 pounds down and had fallen victim like so many before me prey to this cursed machine.
I then moved onto the ticket machines, where players can take part in games of 'skill' and be rewarded by prize tickets. Earn enough tickets and you can exchange them for 'neat' prizes. Only problem is, is that the good prizes are valued at around 20,000 tickets and for a 30p game you will earn somewhere between 3-5 tickets. Hindsight is 20/20 and only now can I see what a complete waste of time the whole experience was. I spent 6 pounds on these games and only earned 70 tickets, enough to earn a pack of playing cards AND.....a ping pong ball. Still, despite being a complete waste of time and money it was somehow entertaining.
Earn enough of these and you can buy that pencil sharpener you've always wanted, for ten times the amount you'd pay anywhere else!
Finally, we visited one of those seaside shops where you can buy all kinds of novelty tac, from inflateable crocodie floats to 'comedic' postcards. Again, common sense took a holiday as I was inticed to buy something from this shop, to buy something I wouldn't look twice at if I saw it elsewhere. Eventually I settled for a giant mug that said 'The Boss'. In my defense I wanted to buy a self depricating one that said 'TWAT' but alas it cost 50p more then the others so I settled with a mug that allows me to drink coffee and soothe my ego all at once.
Again, there is no real reason for this entry but hey if you read this I hope it was an enlightening experience. Also, BEWARE the claw crane, you'll never get the better of it!
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