[Jay]

Games are identified as Games of Chance, Games of Skill, Games where you play against your friends, Guess your "X" style games as well as any arcade machines.

I purposely neglected a "I don't care just get rid of the basketballs" option because I didn't want the poll to be a runaway.


Really just curious to what everyone else thinks about them. It's probably because I've never played them, but I have found them useless for many years. I've always thought they could be replaced by flat rides or some sort of other interactive experience. Not to mention I don't need a giant stuffed monkey that's twice as big as me.

[gabed]

I guess there okay, I've never played them, they just have way to many games. Dollywood is really good on how they have the games spaced apart. At carowinds there is a game for every ten steps you take.

[RollerBee]

We play sometimes mainly something the daughter can get a prize from, sometimes we fool the guesser which is too easy to do. My wife is 24 but the guesser guessed 13.

[chunkyskunk]

Here I am again showing my age. Haha. Being a traditionalist, and a huge fan of the early days of the great trolley parks of the early century, I love the games. The problem is they are too expensive. For that reason, I almost never play anything. If all games were in the $1 to $2 range, it would seem to me that several times more people would play and maybe it would bring back more of the great fun of old much the same way that The Flyers have done and what they have brought to the park. I really enjoy doing the research, history work and mapping that I do for rcdb and reading a lot and looking at photos online of some of the great old parks like Riverview, Palisades, Euclid Beach and many more. Games were a big part of that era. I would love to see the prices go down and maybe more people would be involved, more fun would be available and more money could be made with games. I took my 5 1/2 year old nephew to the park a couple of Sundays ago and noticed an old fashioned dunking booth that was only $2 for 3 tries. That price is more like it. He loved it although he only hit one out of three tries and it was not quite hard enough. He enjoyed sitting and watching other trying also. I am a big believer of preserving the old and bringing in the new.

[Picklesthedrummer]

At carowinds there is a game for every ten steps you take.

Carowinds isn't really that bad. Especially if you go to Kings Island. They have to have at least twice as many games as us.

I personally think the games are necessary because they add a lot of money to the park. More money people spend losing the games, the more money that can be spent elsewhere in the park.

[Jay]

I agree with most everything you said chunkyskunk. But when the park has not maintained much of its own history, trying to preserve the history of the games doesn't really work.

Group trip to Lakeside anyone?

[chunkyskunk]

For sure Carowinds has not done a great job at preserving some of it's history. Looking at 'Carowinds: The Early Years' will back that up. It almost saddens me to look at that site and realize that. As for the games, I wish they would simply have a 'half price game day' one day a week just to experiment on the prices or something similar. I wish also we had something similar to Dollywood with getting 20% off all in park food with a Gold Pass but that is getting off topic. Seems like we once did have a food discount with a pass purchase?

[Picklesthedrummer]

Keep in mind Dollywood's season passes are much more expensive than our season passes, so it would make sense that they get a little more than what we do. Not that I am not satisfied with the perks in the Gold and Platinum Pass. A half price game day would actually be a really good idea to do once a week or so.

[arby]

I would agree with the points about pricing. If the games were considerably less then I would probably play every now and then. I was at IOA a week and a half ago for a special event and they had all their games in free play mode. Since it was free to play any of them they weren't giving out any prizes, but I had fun playing a few of them while strolling around the park.

[XoCIEoX]

We can't leave the park without playing a few games....only because we have kids. If I go without them, I still make it a point to play at least one, because my dad always played them with me when I was little.

Do they have the Frog Toss anymore? My dad and I used to love making those squishy rubber frogs fly!

[arby]

^I can certainly understand. I think it's all in how you visit parks. For the average person they only go to one or two parks a year at most, so playing the games is a part of the experience. I went to 10 different parks last year and have already visited 10 different parks this year with at least four more scheduled. If I were to play games at the parks I go to, it would cut into my traveling budget and I'd have to cut down on the number of parks I go to.

[IamtheIntimid8tor]

Though I don't think eliminating ALL of the games is the best route to take, I do believe that the park could do away with a few of the stands; especially those game stalls right there at Vortex! It seems that no one is ever at those stalls anyways.