Have you noticed that claw machines are almost everywhere now. At the entrance of the subway station, before you walk out, there is already a claw machine waiting for you. Is there a claw machine at the corner of the shopping mall? And the gate of the park, the entrance of the restaurant, the entrance of the cinema... There are claw machines almost everywhere you can see, so how do they empty our pocket money? Let's go and find out.
Attracted by cuteness
Scanning code, exchanging coins, inserting coins, starting, joystick, dropping claws, picking up objects, a perfect claw action is smooth and flowing, making players eager to try.
Have you had such an experience? After finding the favorite plush doll in many claw machines, insert coins to start the machine, and whisper the claw skills learned from the Internet, "Aim at the plush doll near the drop mouth, shake and grab! Now!" The player looked serious and stared at the place where the gripper and the "Doraemon" plush doll were connected. One second before "Doraemon" enters the hole, the claws suddenly loosen, and you are only one "Doraemon" head away from success. This obviously cannot discourage the players. They will only lament their bad luck and firmly throw 2 coins (or 3 coins) again to start a new round of "capture".
Nowadays, similar scenes can be seen in most shopping malls. In recent years, claw machine stores have sprung up like mushrooms in the prime locations of various business centers, "mingling" with the surrounding clothing stores and restaurants without any sense of disobedience. Usually in these places, claw machines are placed in exquisitely decorated doors, with 6-inch dolls, exquisite small pendants, large dolls over one meter, and animation week products with well-known IPs. The stores also have dedicated operators.
It is understood that the price of a claw machine ranges from 2,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan. The claw machine is usually set up in large shopping malls, supermarkets, cinemas, KTVs, restaurants, etc., as long as there are many children, young people or couples. Generally speaking, in a business district with a large flow of people, a claw machine can earn 500 to 1,000 yuan a day, and it is even possible to have a daily turnover of 3,000 yuan. However, do you know that the "luck" adjusted by the merchants is behind this money-making?
Adjustable luck
Many players lament that they have thrown a lot of game coins in front of a claw machine, but they have not caught a single doll, while others have thrown once and caught one, and their luck is really too bad! In fact, it is not the player's bad luck that cannot catch a doll, but it has been adjusted by the merchant.
Do you know? A claw machine can adjust the voltage control and strength. This function was originally set for grabbing different sizes and weights, but now it has been derived into a trick for merchants to make money.
"Because you can't catch it, I can make money." But some smart merchants have found that the lower the success rate of grabbing, the more money they make. If you want to operate for a long time, you must ensure the consumer experience and make people feel that it is not a lie, so as to set a reasonable probability.
If the wholesale price of a plush doll is 9 yuan, the retailer will sell it for 20 yuan. People who operate the main doll grabbing machine will generally maintain this ratio, such as 2 yuan per grab. Then they will set it to grab 13 times to grab a plush doll, which can relatively give customers a better experience. There are generally two types of gripping force to control the gripping force of the doll grabbing machine: strong gripping force and weak gripping force. If it is weak gripping force, you can get a plush doll in about 50 times, and at least one in 200 times. The process of grabbing a plush doll is divided into two parts: grabbing the doll and transporting the doll. These two gripping forces can be set in sections. For example, if the strong gripping force is set to 2 seconds, the plush doll will be grabbed for 2 seconds and then switched to weak gripping force. This will cause the plush doll to fall in mid-air, stimulating the desire of customers to continuously insert coins to play the game again. On weekends, some smart merchants will appropriately increase the probability, which can attract more players. At the same time, in order to mobilize the atmosphere on the scene and attract more players, merchants will also hire some people to act as "shills". By hiring so-called doll-grabbing masters to come to their own venues to grab dolls. At this time, the merchants can quietly open the "secret door" of the program and let them catch many dolls in succession. Once the players watching on the side find it easy to grab dolls and are ready to try it themselves, then you will be hooked.
In fact, the doll-grabbing machine may be the lowest and smallest gambling we can come into contact with in daily life. At the moment the doll-grabbing machine is started, our brain has already imagined "catching the doll", and the dopamine that makes people feel happy is also increased. If the doll is caught, the human brain will reward more exciting dopamine. If it is not caught, the dopamine will decrease and make people disappointed. In order to raise the dopamine level again, people are likely to grab it again and again, and when people try many times and still fail to catch the doll, they will give up again because of the sunk cost.
