Golden Tee!!

[bgumm]

So I was at the bar last night playing team darts with the guys. Near-by was the obligatory Golden Tee machine. I sat there with my jaw on the floor as three guys pumped NINE DOLLARS into this machine!! I was astonished. I know this game is popular and is in every bar in the nation, but I had never really sat and watched the game work it's magic on drunken bar patrons.

Said game was the 2002 edition. So I scoped it out while these yayhoos were playing it. The graphics were so much 1996. The game is nothing to get excited about.

The thing that gets me is that these schmucks pumped nine bucks into the machine. That is a crap-load of money. Multiply that by every bar in America and you've got the most successful game ever. These geniuses have to be wiping their heiney's with money.

I mean, seriously, they take a severly dated engine and add some new courses, a few more pairs of goofy pants that the dudes can wear, slap the year on the end of the title and WA-LA! you just made millions.

Genius.

[Kalle]

Could someone please tell an ignorant European what Golden Tee is?

Golf?

[Tyjenks]

Yep. I think it uses a roller ball for the swing. He's right, too. It is in every bar in America. The suits and frat guys are always hanging around it in my area. There have been 20 different golf games, all about the same. Why this one took off, I have no idea.

[dannimal]

Why did it take off? Probably because of the "net" tournaments that they pay out money for.

[bgumm]

The more I think about this phenomenon, the more I start to see parallels to The Sims.

It ticks off us nerdy, purist video game dudes to see stuff like that be so successful. But from a business perspective, it is pure solid gold. You can't argue with a guy that blows his nose with $50 bills.

Appeal to all the unwashed masses who don't know the joys of the obscure commercially unsuccessful, yet fantastic games out there?

Admittedly, I've played one hole of golf on Golden Tee, although I wasn't impressed. I'd agree with the assertion that the competitive aspects of the game draw the suits and frat-brats to the machine.

Plus, you can't argue with the interface. It's a damned ball that you roll. It doesn't get any more idiot-proof that that, folks.