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Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

polygon.com

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Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#111

Post by ericpruitt »

userbinator wrote: post #87
megameter wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like with gambling devices, redemption games all seem to have operator-adjustable payout. I recall playing "Stacker" for a little while in the 2000's. It used an LED dot display for gameplay, which was a simple timing game where you "built" a tower by stacking up the blocks, with it getting faster at each level. What it did was exactly as you describe: it had a minor reward level that you could always win, and then a…

where the game would cheat and instantly warp the block ahead to make you lose. Thanks to the Internet, this has been recorded on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofEb9fM8m0Q

Mark Rober also made a video about this for a machine that works similarly. Rober built a machine to play the game perfectly, and it still lost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXBfwgwT1nQ

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#112

Post by a_t48 »

umvi wrote: post #90

Is it even possible for a "game of skill" arcade machine that dispenses high value prizes to be profitable? Seems like any such game would just breed expert players that clean house and win all the iPads with their skill. If not, surely it would invite some hacker or tinkerer to invent a device to augment their skill and (again) clean house and get a bunch of cheap iPads. Maybe you could have arcade machines where yo…

The arcade machines in actual Japanese arcades are pretty fair, at face value at least. Though the prizes are typically not worth as much.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#113

Post by diogenesjunior »

jtsuken wrote: post #92

Gambling should be a compulsory subject in primary school. By the time they reach high school: - Every kid should know how to play blackjack and poker. - Every kid must know how to compute the odds of winning. - Every kid should know how to verify the odds presented to them. - Every kid should know at least three ways of cheating and being cheated This might make the earth population a bit more resistant to panic and…

Moderation. Moderation is key.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#114

Post by R0b0t1 »

jtsuken wrote: post #92

Gambling should be a compulsory subject in primary school. By the time they reach high school: - Every kid should know how to play blackjack and poker. - Every kid must know how to compute the odds of winning. - Every kid should know how to verify the odds presented to them. - Every kid should know at least three ways of cheating and being cheated This might make the earth population a bit more resistant to panic and…

Then you'll just have people invent more smoke to hide the fact it's gambling. Trading card games are a good example. The game is, to a limit, one of skill, but you are gated by the cards you open in your scratch off ticke- I mean pack.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#115

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

koz1000 wrote: post #8
Something1234 wrote: post #3

State gaming boards really need to investigate arcades in general. They are much worse than the casino with the same kinds of games, but a much worse payout. I once calculated it out when I was on a bus trip I would get back 70% of what I put in (n=$100). At the arcade you're lucky to get 5 cents back, and most of the time the games are not even fun. We need to put together a team of experts to audit all of these mac…

I worked on a redemption device a long time ago, one of those "stop the lights" game for a large manufacturer. There were a few jurisdictions, Iowa and New Jersey come to mind, that were already aware of the nature of these machines and required the manufacturers to have their software audited and validated by (state approved) third-party gaming labs identical to what the slot machine companies do when getting code a…

The problem is not the payout probability being fixed or variable. The problem is a lot of these machines suggest they are skill-based when they are really skill and luck based.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#116

Post by boring_twenties »

dragonwriter wrote: post #106
chrismcb wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poker isn't necessarily considered gambling. It is one reason why some places, like California, have poker rooms.

> Poker isn't necessarily considered gambling Yes it is. > It is one reason why some places, like California, have poker rooms. No, that's because some instances of gambling involving betting against other players are sometimes selectively regulated differently than betting against the house. Its the same reason some places, like, again, California, that prohibit casino gambling allow parimutuel betting on horse race…

California also has legal poker rooms.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#117

Post by gryson »

danans wrote: post #20

As an aside, I had no idea Sega were still making "old fashioned" mechanical games, which is how they started with slot machines and jukeboxes in the 1940s. I thought they had long since become a mobile game and IP licensing company (i.e. Sonic the Hedgehog)

Are you familiar with the Yakuza series, Persona series, or Puyo Puyo series of video games (among many others)?

Sega is one of the top publishers of video games in the world.

In 2020, they were ranked #1 publisher by metacritic based on average game score:

https://www.metacritic.com/feature/2021-game-publisher-ranki...

They were also #1 in 2016, and are usually in the top 5.

It's a running meme on social media that despite Sega's success as a publisher, many people only know them for Sonic the Hedgehog :)

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#118

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

Spooky23 wrote: post #102
rubyn00bie wrote: post #63

Oh, I thought this was known. I'm not even joking... A few years ago, I was at a local comic shop, and I watched someone (a kid) play the machine and appear to get a "perfect" shot, key went exactly into the fucking hole... but then it just pulled back. No prize! I was stunned when the kid asked an employee essentially "WTF?" and the employee replied "there's a chance the key may not turn even though it's lined up."…

They loosened up the rules on this stuff awhile back. It’s bullshit — unregulated gambling. There’s one machine like this I saw on a mass pike rest stop… there’s a 10 year old iPad fading away in there, but people are always playing it.

It could be the other way around: people win it so frequently that they can only afford to stock it with obsolete computer hardware…

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#119

Post by rootsudo »

jtsuken wrote: post #92

Gambling should be a compulsory subject in primary school. By the time they reach high school: - Every kid should know how to play blackjack and poker. - Every kid must know how to compute the odds of winning. - Every kid should know how to verify the odds presented to them. - Every kid should know at least three ways of cheating and being cheated This might make the earth population a bit more resistant to panic and…

They do, it's called probability and statistics.

Doesn't mean kids care. Or teachers, or parents.

Re: Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine

#120

Post by boring_twenties »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #35
lupire wrote: post #6

Good. These covert casino machines are a blight , and all of them should be banned and the proprietors prosecuted.

I wouldn't mind if all gambling was illegial in the USA, including the lottery.

Sounds great, then we can all gamble in underground rooms, with not only dramatically worse odds but for extra excitement, a risk of armed robbery!
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