Toreba Crane Game is a pioneer in blending physical and virtual components in a game. There are physical crane game machines located in Japan that online players can play to remotely operate and win prizes from. Upon successfully winning the prize (or by getting enough pity from an employee to help you earn the prize), it’ll be shipped to your address. In order to play, you have to use a paid currency, leading to the same dynamic as a regular arcade. Toreba is even more dangerous as you have to wait in a queue for your turn and can watch other players attempt to win the prize you’re aiming for as well as it being open 24/7. I know myself well enough to know if I attempted to play this game myself, I’d inevitably overspend to try and win a prize. This motivated me more to document it since it’s incredibly effective at its goal: draining players’ wallets.
Crane games have two main points of randomness, prize position and claw strength. The claw will vary in strength on each play, affecting its ability to lift and reposition the prize, while prize position is random due to how players’ leave the game and how much rebound the prize has when it’s dropped. This randomness leaves room for addiction to sprout as players can feel like they’re on a hot streak when the claw happens to be strong before being crushed by it weakening. It also relies on the sunk cost fallacy, as players who fail to get the prize will think “if I leave now, I wasted $10” and continue playing. The virtual queue further adds to this, as once you stop paying, you stop playing and someone else can benefit off your hard work on positioning well.
Why play then? Two main reasons: belief and practice of skill and desire for the prize. Toreba has a wealth of different prizes and crane game styles. There’s everything from snacks to technology, and push cranes to cutter machines. By giving players different styles, a player who wins their first “push crane” game may believe they have skill and continue playing that style while a player who fails can play a different style instead of quitting altogether. Arcades are often called kiddie casinos and Toreba perfectly capitalizes on that to create an addicting gambling experience that’s cloaked by cute mascots and convenience.
