Chuck E. Cheese Experiment Reveals Human Nature

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Apr 5, 2021 7:30 PM EDT

Human beings are peculiar creatures with a strange set of rules. We catch onto trends quickly, but can be easily swayed by minor changes in our environment, especially when it has to do with getting tickets we could trade in for cheap, horrible prizes. Here's a teacher who underestimated their students during a social experiment.

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  • 01
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr The last few weeks I've begun conducting my own behavioral study in secret. I have been adjusting games at Chuck E Cheese and recording the subconscious response of guest interaction over the week. I've discovered some pretty interesting things. A long thread. (1/14)
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  • 02
    Games - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h Replying to @CaryPalmerr This is the game that made me start this project. Ninja Turtles. I was curious what the order of Turtle popularity was. I kept track & Leo won by a lot. So, I disabled Leo. Rafael jumped ahead. I disabled him too. Mikey skyrockets. So, Donatello is the least favorite turtle. Of pe TEERC Po0000 TURTLER ELENGELD RAPHREL DONAIELO RAPHREL
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  • 03
    Product - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h This game (Jet Rider) has three different adventures. I noticed that button 3 was the most common adventure. It was also the only button with no light. So, I switched the light from 2 to 3. Since, adventure 2 has become the leading choice by a mile. Insert Credits 16 429 13 58 1 19 3. 11 17 17 14 284 1 2 19 576 15 105
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  • 04
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h This is Hit Music. I had to repair one target and when I came back I noticed that the absence of one made people realize they came off, & encouraged them to steal them. So, I counted the theft with all targets and with one missing. 12 thefts in 7 days vs 0 theft in 7 days caaatr catal 119999 31-7 Ht music The 14 -21 Ht Mnsic Thhet O times
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  • 05
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h This is Air Hockey. When the puck hits the side of the field it makes a very loud, shrill, plink noise. I hate it so I turned it off so l'd stop hearing it all day. Low and behold, people played it more. Meaning it was literally annoying people away from it previously. 0:04 1,102 views
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  • 06
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h Here are the plays for the two separate weeks. Both weeks we sold almost the exact same amount of game credits. Week 2, we actually sold $300 less bit the number of plays went up. 166, 99 with sound. 231, 196 without sound. 138 51 96 165 103 326 101
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  • 07
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h This one was pretty obvious. I set the basketball hoop on the right to double score quite often, the one on the left does not. The amount of plays between the two is extremely apparent. People picked up on it. Here's the difference in scoring between the two : S0 SINGLE PLAYER COMPETITION SCORE 0:27 945 views
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  • 08
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h Here are the differences in play between the two basketball machines. This slight difference ended up causing the left side to get played 15 times while the right got played 428 times!! 15 15 16 428
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  • 09
    Games - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h This is Sideshow, our least played game by miles. It's tucked in the back and uses a gun to shoot targets. It's super easy and very lame. In an effort to see if I could draw more attention to that corner of the store and away from the front, I cranked it to 11. in ickets! Ticke
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  • 10
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h I took the busiest week in July '19 Even though our game sales were 80% higher in July 2019 week 2 vs now, Sideshow is 2x as popular. It's currently our #1 game at 12% of the game room revenue. July '19 week 2 - 310 plays, 549 tickets. Sept '20 week 5 - 660 plays, 7359 tickets 73 5,67 47 6.333 549 50 7,359
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  • 11
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h What does this mean? It means I have the power to make people decide to spend their time & money playing the worst game in the building because they think they'll get more tickets. Guests think they're getting one over on us!! Duh, right? Well... here's the genius behind it :
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  • 12
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h The games surrounding Sideshow have increased in revenue by 1.5x as a result. I all this the sympathy effect. The kicker? These games take the longest to play in the store. This means guests with time cards use up 2-3x more of their time than they normally would = +$ for us. %3D
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  • 13
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h I have a ton more that are currently working. I'll continue adding to the list as I figure them out. TL;DR I have too much free time at work.
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  • 14
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h I've got a couple color coded rests running now to see if people respond to games of a certain color more. I've moved them into zones of the same color and I'm keeping track of how much traffic is in each zone.
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  • 15
    Text - Professor_Palmer @CaryPalmerr · 20h I'm also testing "attract mode" which is where games make noise while not in use to attract attention. Historically, we have this functionality turned off because it becomes a lot of chaos and noise. However, I'm confident I can strategically enable it in a few games to boost #'s
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