Grandma At Game Arcade

It is common to see parents accompanying their kids to game arcade. But to see a grandma in her mid sixty to seventy playing at the machine is unusual. She was actually doing it for her grandson who got bored with the game, but wishes to collect the card dispense by the machine. So there she was patiently 'playing' the game over and over again just to collect the cards, while her grandson was roaming the arcade trying his hands at other more interesting games.

I was there with my nephew. He too is collecting game cards. The game - Animal Kaiser is actually quite boring, but it is the range of over 100 animal cards that draw the children to playing the machine. These kids would exchange cards with each other to beef up their collection.

Back to the grandma and her grandson - think he is around 12 years of age and unlikely to find the game Animal Kaiser challenging. That is why he asked his grandma to play on his behalf. There are 2 observations here - the selfish nature exhibited as they were at the machine at least an hour, denying other kids hovering around a chance at the machine. The boy would 'chop' the place while his grandma went to exchange for more game tokens. Then, youngsters spending so much money on gaming with blessing of adults. I noted the grandma changed another $50 to tokens after her current lot ran out.

Well, the good sign is - S'pore economy is robust. I suppose beside those economic indicators which the government uses, we as layman can judge by observing the crowd at shopping malls, the long queue at restaurants and the how much children spend at game arcade.

After all, the govt economists do not always get their sum right. We were told that the economy recovery is a 'W' shape with a double dip, well looks like there will not be a double dip. Then few years back the govt forecast a budget deficit but we ended up doing so well we were given 'bonus'. The gap was pretty wide between their forecast and financial year result.

Post note : I limit my nephew game money to less than $10 per visit.