Have Microgaming lost the plot?

[tim5ny]

I agree with you totally when you write that you're forgotten after awhile when you play at one casino. Even the best ones do that! I don't think that'll ever change because it's human nature. How many girlfriends did you take for granted until they left or threatened to leave? Too many for me cuz I'm just a dog, but that's how people work..... and casinos are run by people.

I also have to add that I've always sought for peace of mind and the security of knowing I'd be paid my winnings rather than bonuses anyways. What good is it getting a 300% match bonus that has a mile long list of restrictions and requirements with it anyways? I usually refuse bonuses anyways these days.

[lojo]

VWM

By far, the best idea that has come out of this is to do what pretty much every other desktop developer has done, store files that are common to many applications in a common folder, and install only those specific files that make the difference in the program folder.

Would the individual vendors lose any autonomy with that solution? Probably not...

Microgaming could have a central update of all the common game files done in the same way that Windows update works, or even the many other vendors that use an automated update process, such as Apple for iTunes, Adobe for the reader, and AntiVirus and security applications.

That would be the beauty of the suggested solution! I suppose if there were a security update or glitch repair they could exclude a computer running version 7.6 from the servers if you didn't accept the upgrade to 7.7

[vinylweatherman]

VWM


Would the individual vendors lose any autonomy with that solution? Probably not...



That would be the beauty of the suggested solution! I suppose if there were a security update or glitch repair they could exclude a computer running version 7.6 from the servers if you didn't accept the upgrade to 7.7

There should be no loss of something MG do not give to operators in the first place. The games are the same over all MG casinos (not like RTG).

The difference would be in the branding, such things as lobby design, sounds for some events, opening movies, and what games an individual operator has enabled in their own casino. These would still need to update each time parts of the branding changed, but the amount that needed to download would be far smaller. The first casino launched after a central game update would initiate the centralised common files to be checked and updated with any new games. This process, although probably still painful, would happen only once, and could be designed to be more efficient.
A central solution wold also ensure that all MG casinos operated from the same version, this would prevent the problems where some MG casinos fail due to incompatability with other MG versions.

Currently, Royal Vegas and All Slots fail on my PC, the rest work OK once updated. The difference is that both these have moved on to the next Viper build, with options for tournaments and additional lobby design options. They ALWAYS crash the OS on exit, corrupting the Windows shutdown process and the graphics display drivers. The other MG casinos do NOT do this.

[3Dice]

** just so you know - I'm about as biased as possible on this subject. **

A technically better solution is available, and its not even rocket science. The casino software could (and should) do version managmenet on each of its components. When a component is updated on the backend, the server could generate a 'patch' containing just the differences between the two versions and send that to the player. This would reduce network traffic to just a fraction of the total size, with slightly bigger updates if more things actually have changed.

Not only does this system allow for much faster updates, regular players will get the updates in small patches as they happen, and only players that have not run the software in a long time would get bigger updates. In any scenario there's no need to send entire files to any players. (enabling even modem
players to actually stay up to date.)

With this issue become a real annoyance to the players, one would expect a big player like mg to have a more technically updated solution. Some competitors certainly are using this technique

[Rusty]

With this issue become a real annoyance to the players, one would expect a big player like mg to have a more technically updated solution. Some competitors certainly are using this technique

Exactly and this why some Players are suspicious about these updates.
Not me though.
I know EXACTLY why original files are being updated

[winbig]

Not only should they just "patch" any changes to existing games, they should also leave unchanged games alone.

Why should MG players have to redownload every single game just because new games are added and/or something is changed in other games?

Even non-programmers know that this is the way things should be done.

** just so you know - I'm about as biased as possible on this subject. **

A technically better solution is available, and its not even rocket science. The casino software could (and should) do version managmenet on each of its components. When a component is updated on the backend, the server could generate a 'patch' containing just the differences between the two versions and send that to the player. This would reduce network traffic to just a fraction of the total size, with slightly bigger updates if more things actually have changed.

Not only does this system allow for much faster updates, regular players will get the updates in small patches as they happen, and only players that have not run the software in a long time would get bigger updates. In any scenario there's no need to send entire files to any players. (enabling even modem
players to actually stay up to date.)

With this issue become a real annoyance to the players, one would expect a big player like mg to have a more technically updated solution. Some competitors certainly are using this technique

[purplenaomi]

It seems there are a lot of issues brought up here regarding Microgaming.

We currently run a poker room through Microgaming and have never received any complaints about download speeds; however we plan to launch a casino soon, again through MG, and so I am slightly alarmed to read about all the problems talked about here.

When you click to download our casino 10 of MG’s common games will automatically download for you to use and any further games which you wish to use (from the 200 available with MG) will take more time to download. We are hoping this set up won’t incur the same download problems which are described above.

However the number of problems described here is alarming and so we will be contacting Microgaming to discuss this with them. I will be back on this thread as soon as I have some answers from them and hope I can help you guys.

[KasinoKing]

When you click to download our casino 10 of MG’s common games will automatically download for you to use and any further games which you wish to use (from the 200 available with MG) will take more time to download. We are hoping this set up won’t incur the same download problems which are described above.

I'm 120% certain your casino will be exactly the same as any other MG - a really painful experience to play while downloading or updating.

If there's ANYTHING you can do to make MG sit up & understand just how frustrating this is to the majority of players, we would be eternally grateful!

Good luck - you're going to need it!

[vinylweatherman]

It seems there are a lot of issues brought up here regarding Microgaming.

We currently run a poker room through Microgaming and have never received any complaints about download speeds; however we plan to launch a casino soon, again through MG, and so I am slightly alarmed to read about all the problems talked about here.

When you click to download our casino 10 of MG’s common games will automatically download for you to use and any further games which you wish to use (from the 200 available with MG) will take more time to download. We are hoping this set up won’t incur the same download problems which are described above.

However the number of problems described here is alarming and so we will be contacting Microgaming to discuss this with them. I will be back on this thread as soon as I have some answers from them and hope I can help you guys.

You should also look at my thread "slow Microgaming". I have analysed some MG casinos in detail. I have found that the process each month really can take as long as 5 hours at worst, but less than an hour at best. The problem seems to be a delay at the casino upgrade server. What seems to happen is that EVERY game is added to a utility, the "MupQueue". As each item reaches the top of this queue, the client requests a checksum file from the server, once received, this is used to check that the local files match those on the server. If there is a mismatch, there is a full download of one of more ".cab" files. If the files are identical, no actual download takes place. However, the client will display the checked game briefly as "uninstalled", and deny access to it in the meantime. As the check is completed, the progress bar normally seen on download shows, and the game "updates", but much quicker than usual. The 5 hour delay is because the casino server and client seem to take a few minutes before presenting the next package file for checking, so much time is spent by the software just hanging around. I have noticed that where casinos complete this process quickly, it is because the server send the checksum files very quickly after the Viper client requests them, within seconds.
The big problem is that while the software is running in this state, it is unable to process the gaming experience properly, if at all. One possible reason is that it tries to run several threads at once, and they conflict with each other, and gameplay grinds to a halt, or nearly so. Players see this as "spluttering, jerking etc" of slot reels, and often the sounds will play in a distorted fashion. As soon as the MupQueue is exhausted, the casino suddenly springs into life, and runs smoothly thereafter.
The latest dual core processors seem to be the only ones able to handle a decent level of performance during the update cycle.

There are also a number of bugs unrelated to this topic, but these seem never to get fixed. It looks like MG will not address issues unless enough players are affected, OR, the casinos are losing money over it, such as a player favourable malfunction.
One such player favourable malfunction was fixed last year (EZBonus miscalculation under certain circumstances), and in this months update MG fixed an "embarrassment" that rumbled how their "double-up" feature in Video Poker REALLY worked - the players choice of card was totally irrelevant it turned out, the result is decided before the dealer even turns the dealer card over, with the game play just being some nice "eye candy" to display a predetermined result.
One bug that goes against the player has NEVER been fixed, and that is the non-recording of a "busting out" from a bonus. Many players complain about this, and on appeal the casino have to admit the player hit zero, thus voiding prior WR as per their terms.

Rusty seems willing to play "devils advocate", by suggesting there is a good reason for old games to be updated, however, those "glitches" had more to do with problems at the server end. There is nothing on the Viper client that can be manipulated to affect the actual outcome of a game. The worst "fraud" that can be done by manipulating the Viper client is to create a fake screenshot without the need to "photoshop" genuine images to get the desired result. Recent glitches at the client end on old games related to mis display of the result, most recently in Mega Moolah.

[purplenaomi]

Hello all,

MG has now been contacted regarding this problem and all discussions posted here and from your other thread 'slow Microgaming' have been passed onto them. We have expressed our strong concerns regarding this matter, especially with the imminent launch of our casino site with them. We are still waiting to here from them, but I will be chasing them and will keep you all posted!