An Open Letter to Casino Operators and Software Providers

[kakata]

SJ, I am so glad you brought this up. Ever since that thread with LetItRide a couple months back, this issue has been on my mind. And I have done "some" digging into it, albeit not alot.

I'm not feeling 100% right this second Slots, but when I get back up to snuff, we should talk about this. I think that it concerns you just as much as it does me.....and maybe together we can shed some light on the subject. I think we first met back on the JPF stuff last year. God help them if two Tauruses take up the cause.....ha!!

get well as soon as possible.

[SlotsWizard]

Just my 2c on your first 3 points:

"1. Full Screen Mode - Make the option available, but do not make full screen mode the default option after installation."

I'm pretty sure all of the casinos I have downloaded this year have defaulted to 'windowed mode' - certainly all MG's have.
It was a pain before, but they seem to have changed this. (Or is it casino-specific?)

I think it's casino specific ... some still default to full screen. If you have uninstalled a casino and then reinstalled it, I don't think it will go to full screen mode if your prior installation was set to windowed mode. It seems to keep your settings (username, password, etc.) even after uninstalling.

"2. Sound - When I select "No Sound", I actually want NO SOUND! Several software brands (including Microgaming) still play sounds even when the sound option is turned off."

A matter of personal preference I know - but I love the sounds! There's only a few MG slots where I turn off the 'background' sound, which can get irritating after a while. But you can turn off everything if you want, can't you?

I usually do play with the sounds on, but sometimes I turn them off to make it go faster. Even with the Regular sound and Background sounds turned off, it is the casino-launch and game-launch movies that always play sound - regardless of your sound setting.

For example, consider the following: I'm listening to music and it's a rather quiet song, so I have the volume turned up on my stereo, and the sounds turned off in the casino so they don't interfere. As soon as I enter Kathmandu there is a 200dB airplane sound that will either scare the shit out of you, piss you off, or both. You're forced to make a mad dash to turn the volume down or get the mouse to skip the movie. This is why I think it would be better if the movies adhered to the sound settings.

"3. Casino-launch and game-launch movies - I see you put a lot of work into them and they're real cute and all, but could you either eliminate them or add an option to disable them? I don't like waiting the extra 30 seconds it takes to load the movie before loading the casino lobby or game."

They can be skipped, so no problem for me.

I don't like the extra wait time, every time, as well as the extra resources that are hogged up - like Mad Hatters and Hitman. But it is good that they can be skipped at least.

[SlotsWizard]

I am quite impressed with Rival listing the expected payout of all their games in the corresponding help files. This is an excellent addition that I wish other softwares would also make.

Magnificent point - all software providers should list this in the help screens for all of their games. I wish I could edit my post to include this under the Game Payouts paragraph.