Having worked on quite a few of those claw machines that made their way in to arcades around the UK and Europe back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, there were a variety of variables we, as software developers, could control, from the ramp up and down of the motors that controlled how fast the claw moved, to how much lag was introduced when responding to your joystick/button input, to how "grippy" the claw retraction was, to how strong the grip remained over time. These made for a more exciting game, which were then translated into a simple user interface consisting of a few dip switches or a trimmable pot that the owner/operator could tweak.