Attention all Stanley Cup hockey fans and puzzle fans. Let’s have some fun! Our friends at Gambling Zone have created a series of hockey-related brainteasers to move your mind and get you thinking and pumped for this weekend’s game one of the cup final. Apologies if you can’t find the Toronto Maple Leafs represented below- but let’s face it, they have been missing from the final rounds of the playoffs for so long now it would be cruel and punishing to their fans to create more brainteasers than they already have to deal with.
No. 1 – Vancouver Canucks Fans
For this brainteaser, we have taken a trip to the stands, so just how quickly can you spot the Canucks fans? Finding them is actually easier than you may first think with 69% of people finding them in under 10 seconds! Did you beat this time?
No. 2 – Hockey Pucks
The hockey playoffs are in action and this weekend is finally the beginning of the Stanley Cup Final and one that will mark the longest travel distance between two finalist teams in the history of the NHL. So to honor that difficulty of travel, this next brainteaser is a tricky one, as only 25% of people are able to spot the hidden hockey pucks in under 13 seconds. How fast did you spot all 5? Please let us know in the comments below this article 🙂
No. 3 – Oilers Jerseys
Sports fans from across Canada have come together to support their teams. Can you find all of the Oilers jerseys in 10 seconds or less? Only 15% of people have been able to spot them this quickly.
Dr. Eric Dolansky- Goodman School of Business at Brock University: “Consumers are happier about price increases when they know they’re coming and why they’re happening.”
For years, hotels and airlines, car rental agencies and energy companies have been using a phenomena known as dynamic pricing to set costs for their consumers. This real-time pricing results in fluctuations depending on a variety of factors, but is often associated with supply and demand – and it is becoming more and more prevalent in the sports world.
This economic practice has been studied by Dr. Eric Dolansky, an assistant professor at the Goodman School of Business at Brock University. Specifically, Dr. Dolansky has examined sequences of pricing and the effect it has on consumer habits. While many consumers grumble about dynamic pricing causing hikes in gas prices, that in part has to do with the unpredictability of the increases.
The situation with sports tickets is a bit different in the minds of consumers, argues Professor Dolansky. This type of dynamic pricing is tied to demand, so consumers expect the prices to increase as the nature of the competition increases, or the date of the event nears and the supply of available tickets dwindles. For example, seats in Section 121 at the Air Canada Centre on October 17 for a Toronto Maple Leafs game against the Carolina Hurricanes range from $193 to $223. But in the same section for the Leafs’ October 26 game versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, tickets range from $253 to $288.
It’s not a new idea- from wanderstories.com: “In Roman times, the tickets were known as tessara – small clay discs, which were stamped with details of the locus, or seat number, gradus or row number, cuneus, or sector and entrance gate. For example: LOC X, meaning seat number 10, GRAD V – row number 5, CVN III – sector number 3. Tickets were free, but everyone had to have a ticket to attend. Tickets were distributed to organizations, institutions and groups, who in turn, distributed them to the Roman citizens. As the games were popular, there was also a black market, where tickets would be sold, with high prices for some of the most important games.”
Evidence Professor Dolansky has studied suggests when consumers are aware prices are going to rise from a particular point, and they have a basic understanding of the events that are driving the increase, they tend to believe it is more fair. For the Silo, Stephen Murdoch
Supplemental- Conference keynote presentations by Dr. Dolansky
Clemente, S., Dolansky, E., Mantonakis, A. and White, K. The Effects of Perceived Product-Association Incongruity on Consumption Experiences – Academy of Wine Business Research Conference, Niagara, Ontario, June, 2013.
Clemente, S., Dolansky, E., Mantonakis, A. and White, K. The Effects of Perceived Product-Association Incongruity on Consumption Experiences – Society for Consumer Psychology, Las Vegas, Nevada, February, 2012.
Clemente, S., Dolansky, E., Mantonakis, A. and White, K. The Effects of Perceived Product-Association Incongruity on Consumption Experiences – Association for Consumer Research, Vancouver, British Columbia, October, 2012.
Clemente, S., Dolansky, E., Mantonakis, A. and White, K. The Effects of Perceived Product-Association Incongruity on Consumption Experiences – Southern Ontario Behavioural Decision Research, Waterloo, Ontario, May, 2012.
As game franchises go, EA Sports produce some of the best and certainly some of the most durable. A video game often doesn’t stand the test of time too well given the advancement in technology, but sport is a constant in the lives of fans the world over and EA have taken full advantage. They have several famous titles with the Madden series for the NFL and the FIFA series for soccer, but their NHL franchise has been a hit ever since it was first released.
Why has it been such a success? Let’s take a look…
Hitting the early consoles
The first game in the series was released in 1991 on the Sega Mega Drive and received excellent reviews. It was, for many, the first time ice hockey had been placed firmly in their consciousness and people lapped it up.
Between 1992 and 1995 there were four more NHL titles from the team at Electronic Arts, all of which could be played on console. They were all given high praise from industry critics with NHL 96 getting top marks for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) version by Next Generation magazine who gave five out of five stars.
Enter windows
The first titles to appear on PC arrived in 1996 as Microsoft brought out Windows 95. The PC allowed the graphics to be further enhanced and these titles were a huge success. At this period in time, the Detroit Red Wings were the dominant force in the NHL winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.
Just to highlight how times have changed, the Red Wings have NHL betting odds of +150000 to win a Stanley Cup in 2020, the longest odds of any team. The team in the late 1990s was full of stars, which contrasts with the current day and EA was able to render them with realistic graphical modelling – for the time – which delighted the fans.
The PC was competing with Sony’s PS1 and then, in 2000, the PS2, which meant graphics and gameplay became more and more life-like. The crowds also had an overhaul as did the sound effects which made fans feel as though they were in the arena but the next generation consoles took it further still.
Next-gen blows the mind
EA improved the features and control systems when Xbox was released and deke moves were conducted using the joystick on the controllers making them like an extension of the actual players stick.
The latest version have found it harder to get top reviews as fan expectation level continue to increase. NHL 15 was the first game to feature on the PS4 and Xbox One and these were not well received due to the rushed feel and missing features. GameSpot actually gave NHL 15 a score of five out of 10, which was hugely disappointing for EA.
The most recent version has seen much improvement thanks to the time which has been spent in development, generally tweaking the good features and remodeling those that didn’t work.
NHL 20 is like a different world compared to the very first release from the franchise and EA are still going strong after close to 30 years – here’s to 30 more.
