Replying to
@jspath55@chaos.social
parents of little kids felt grateful for the demo play because it meant the kids imagined they got to play without the parent feeding the machines full of quarters. Older kids were less grateful because the same kids were "playing" and the parents wouldnt ever tell the little one to move aside to let someone with quarters play.
On the other hand, clever kids got to work out parts of gameplay without surrendering so many quarters.