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Redemption game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Redemption games are typically arcade games of skill that reward the player proportionally to their score in the game. The reward most often comes in the form of tickets, with more tickets being awarded for higher scores. These tickets can then be redeemed (hence the name) at a central location for prizes. The most inexpensive prizes (candy, small plastic or rubber toys) may only require a small number of tickets to acquire, while the most expensive ones (skateboards, low end electronics) may require several thousand. In general, the amount of money spent to win enough tickets for a given prize will far exceed the price of the prize itself.
A popular variation on the ticket-based redemption game is to contain the prizes internally. Crane drop games have used this strategy for years, and more recently some redemption videogames have started offering internal prizes. The prizes in these machines are often better than anything that can be won by accumulating tickets; but these games have an "all-or-nothing" strategy, so the games are correspondingly made in such a way that a winner comes infrequently, and all other players get nothing at all.
Redemption games can be seen as the modern successor to carnival games, as the same general principles apply.
Redemption games are often credited by video game enthusiasts as the cause of the downfall of Arcade Video Games in the United States. Towards the end of the 20th century, many establishments began to strictly reduce the amount of space devoted to Arcade Games, in order to allow more room for Redemption Games. Redemption games were seen by vendors as much more lucrative than video games, due to their appeal to younger children. Many redemption games would dispense tickets which could be redeemed for prizes whose value would be much lower than the amount spent earning the tickets in the first place. These games were also much easier to repair and maintain. Arcade games on the other hand were very costly to purchase and had a very slow turn around rate for profit when compared to redemption games. A popular machine like Dance Dance Revolution may cost an arcade owner up to $10,000 dollars to purchase, compared to a Skee Ball or Basketball machine which would only cost around $1500.