MG Slot Tournament Suggestions

[SlotsWizard]

Every time I play one of these (yes, the free ones) I end up kicking myself because I essentially wasted 5 minutes. I propose a few changes to the tournaments which would GREATLY enhance the experience, not only for myself, but probably for most other players as well. Note that this is not necessarily directed at any particular casino or group that offers these tournaments; it is directed more at Microgaming, but since they live in a glass bubble the only way to get through to them is through their licensees.

1. Upgrade the servers. There are more people playing them now, and the response time is horrendous at the beginning of each tournament - it can take 30 to 40 seconds for the first spin to complete. I understand this might "motivate" players to rebuy, but that's not really fair. The other option is to wait until the first 5-minute period is up and then play, but that limits the rebuys. It's lose-lose.

2. Speed them up. The intentionally-capped spinning speed is very frustrating! RTG slots spin faster than that!

3. Loosen them up. It's not like the payline/feature wins are cash payouts, they are tournament coins which have no value. So why not make it interesting and set the payout rate to 150% or 200%? Slot tournaments at land-based casinos operate in this manner. It would make it fun, and everyone would feel like they had an actual CHANCE at winning.

When you combine these first three things, the typical player's experience goes something like this: It takes about a minute (20% of the alloted time) to play the first 5 spins. About 2 minutes into the game the first winning spin appears - usually for 10 or 20 coins. For the next 2 and a half minutes the player survives on wins of three 9s, three kings, the occasional four tens, and sometimes three higher-paying symbols. Finally, with 10 seconds left to go, the free spins appear, granting the player one or two free spins before time is up. If this is intentional, which lots of us can't help but feel like it is since it happens with suspicious frequency, then THAT needs to stop as well. When all is said and done, the average amount of coins won are about 900 to 1,200 in Thunderstruck (30% to 40% return) and 2,500 to 3,000 in Tomb Raider (50% to 60% return).

4. The 30-second Hollywood movie-style countdown before each tournament sucks up all available CPU usage. Surely that can be improved to not be such a resource hog.

5. Add a few extra games. I would love to see Kathmandu, Avalon, Harveys or Loaded available in tournament format. I'm sure other people here have some other games they would like to see added as well, but since I started this thread my choices come first!

I doubt that these suggestions will be implemented since they would only benefit the players, who are at the bottom of the food chain, but I thought I'd put them out there in the hopes that they might be taken seriously.

[footdr]

I have already posted this somewhere but I suggest that to be fair to all players, given the vast differences in computers, internet connections, ect., that the TOURNAMENTS NOT BE TIMED BUT BE BY NUMBER OF SPINS.

Tournaments that are based on a set number of spins are all that I will PAY to play.

This would take card of the problems you mention

[productionideas]

I've only played the free tournaments, but how is it some people end up using almost all of their coins, when I can only average about 20 spins in 5 minutes?
Is there a way to increase the bet? My computer is pretty fast.

[SlotsWizard]

Originally Posted by productionideas

I've only played the free tournaments, but how is it some people end up using almost all of their coins, when I can only average about 20 spins in 5 minutes?
Is there a way to increase the bet? My computer is pretty fast.

Hitting the Bet Max button will get you 66 full spins (for your last spin you'll have to adjust the number of lines to 6 on Thunderstruck or 10 on Tomb Raider - and quickly! otherwise time will run out). And you can only get all 66 spins in if you don't get any sort of bonus feature, otherwise you will likely not be able to finish your coins.

Aside from that - make sure you close anything and everything else you might have open before you even launch the casino, otherwise it will suck up all your CPU. It's like packing for a vaction, getting ready for one of these things, which is why it's so disappointing to end up in 937th place when you put all that effort into making sure everything was "just right" before starting to play it.

[vinylweatherman]

After testing last weekend, I have discovered that there is a cap AT THE SERVER END, that causes the delays in spinning. It has nothing to do with "lots of people on all at once". The cap is set to 5 seconds, but often means it takes 7 seconds for each spin.
Further, this cap seems to have an on and off switch. I have a VERY FAST (and very expensive) PC, coupled with cable broadband. The lobby itself lets the cat out of the bag, as there is a couple of seconds at the start of the spin where the "waiting" row of lights cycle before they stop, shortly followed by the first reel stopping. When I DELIBERATELY slowed my spin rate, there was NO SERVER DELAY, but when I pressed "spin" as soon as the last reel stopped, I noticed the limiting throttle kick in.
Further time can be saved by using the "enter" key, which is "spin", rather than using the mouse click. The server delay is a recent addition, and seems to be in responce to user feedback, but rather than work to speed things up, they have worked their butts of to make it even SLOWER for the majority of players with decent PC setups, and give no improvement for those with dial-up.
There is NO REASON why a slow PC and Dial Up should slow things down. MG casinos were DESIGNED to work fast with dial-up (once downloaded of course), and these tournaments could theoretically run very much faster.
For a ball park figure, 1000+ spins per hour should easily be possible on Thunderstruck, crap PC, and dial-up (I've done it!). With a fast PC and broadband, it should be nearer 2000.

MG have never intended players to use all the allocated coins to start with, it was a designed impossibility. The fact that players WERE using all the coins had them scratching their heads, and now they have put the brakes on these highly tuned setups.

The ONLY fair way ouit is to speed the play up to the max, and have it dictated only by number of tournament chips. Fast play will make those long spells of naked spins seem less of a "rip off", and the ability to play all chips will leave all PC setups with a level playing field.

One thing also worth a mention is the ASTONISHING house edge of some of these tournaments. This is because rebuys seldom add to the prize pot, they are 100% "hold" for the casinos. 95% is a distant dream for many of these tournaments. The maths is easy. If the weekender attracts only 500 players, and 400 play out all the rebuys, this could mean a conservative estimate of 400 lots of $100 taken (assmumes all 400 got a free entry, and the other 100 entered on a free pass, but never used a buy in. Also assumes the remaining 400 bought in the max number of times as they stood a reasonable chance).

The take could therefore be $40,000, yet only $20,000 is paid out in prizes. This is a mere 50% payout. Some weekenders have had many more players than this, and the actual payout could be under 50%.
So far, no payout figures are available for these tournaments, but as for the rest of the games, they are sorely needed, or am I close with my calculations and MG would rather not mention the large profits involved on entry fees Vs prizes?

[SlotsWizard]

Originally Posted by vinylweatherman

After testing last weekend, I have discovered that there is a cap AT THE SERVER END, that causes the delays in spinning. It has nothing to do with "lots of people on all at once". The cap is set to 5 seconds, but often means it takes 7 seconds for each spin.

Two things:

The speed cap has been in place since I started playing these tournaments 3 or 4 months ago, I don't think that's a new addition - but if you have been playing them longer than I have, it might be considered new to you but not me.

Secondly - if you start playing at the very beginning of the tournament (as soon as it possibly lets you) - at least for me, it is VERY slow - MUCH slower than the "normal" capped speed limit. It's sluggish, and it takes a long time for the first few spins to complete. After about a minute it finally reaches "cruising altitude" where, even with the speed limit, it functions much faster than it did at the beginning of the tournament. Am I the only one who experiences this? My PC is not top-of-the-line by this month's standards but it's a fairly decent 2GHz/512MB with broadband internet and I never have a problem with any other MG games - only the tournaments.

[vinylweatherman]

Originally Posted by SlotsWizard

Two things:

The speed cap has been in place since I started playing these tournaments 3 or 4 months ago, I don't think that's a new addition - but if you have been playing them longer than I have, it might be considered new to you but not me.

Secondly - if you start playing at the very beginning of the tournament (as soon as it possibly lets you) - at least for me, it is VERY slow - MUCH slower than the "normal" capped speed limit. It's sluggish, and it takes a long time for the first few spins to complete. After about a minute it finally reaches "cruising altitude" where, even with the speed limit, it functions much faster than it did at the beginning of the tournament. Am I the only one who experiences this? My PC is not top-of-the-line by this month's standards but it's a fairly decent 2GHz/512MB with broadband internet and I never have a problem with any other MG games - only the tournaments.

What changed was how the speed cap operates. Previously, it was a feature of the tournament game as held locally on the player's PC. This meant that better PC's could get the slot to spin faster, and further gains were possible by fine tuning the system, such as not running other tasks etc, using low resolution graphics etc. Two weeks ago, the same weekend that had all these "communication problems", they placed the cap at the server end as well. This meant that where the server detected a player was requesting game results more frequently than the expected interval, the server added a delay to the reply such that the delay between consecutive spins would be around 7 seconds. Once flicked, this delay remains for the rest of the session, even through free spins, where clicking "spin" no longer dictates the running speed.
In my test, I reduced my clicks to 5 second intervals, and for two rebuys I had a 2 second delay added. On the third rebuy, the delay was switched off, and spins went at 4 second intervals from the earlier 7 second intervals.
Were this an internet communication issue, I would expect a chaotic response, not an "intelligent" looking switched delay on & off response.
Further tests have only proved more conclusively that this delay acts "intelligently" rather than chaotically. I also noticed that all the "tournament" lobbies updated, while the other MG's didn't, and all user settings on the two tournament games (sound off, etc) got wiped. This looks like an upgrade, not a communications issue.

Despite a number of threads on the issue of tournament problems, there has been a deafening silence from the relevant reps, who would normally have leapt in by now to assure players that problems were being looked into, actions taken, and an explanation of what happened.

There are not actually that many players on at the same time outside of the short period tournaments. Often less than 100 players are actively playing, and surely even the crappiest server should be coping well with this, yet the same "delays" exist when ONLY the one tournament is playing, as when several are. Don't forget, these tournaments are CENTRAL, not per casino, so 500 players on the weekender means 500 at ALL CASINOS, not 500 at "my one", and "x" more at Royal Vegas, and "y" more at Riverbelle.

[Pearland]

I have been having the same happen to me, I have stopped playing - deposited a few times but won nothing -and the spins were slow then

[SlotsWizard]

Originally Posted by vinylweatherman

Two weeks ago, the same weekend that had all these "communication problems", they placed the cap at the server end as well.

I was under the impression that the delays were always at the server end, but that certainly explains the problems with them a couple weeks ago.

Originally Posted by vinylweatherman

Don't forget, these tournaments are CENTRAL, not per casino

That's why I thought the problem at the beginning of each tournament was due to server load. If each casino had their own server it would be a different story but 1100 people hammering a single, central server at the same time seems to cause a 30-second delay for the first spin. If I were to guess I would say that the primary server is assigning a secondary server from a server farm at the beginning of the tournament to balance the load, and this is probably why there is such a long delay.

Are you saying that your very first spin - if you play immediately when the countdown hits zero and it lets you - takes no longer than a spin near the end of the 5 minutes?

[vinylweatherman]

Originally Posted by SlotsWizard

I was under the impression that the delays were always at the server end, but that certainly explains the problems with them a couple weeks ago.


That's why I thought the problem at the beginning of each tournament was due to server load. If each casino had their own server it would be a different story but 1100 people hammering a single, central server at the same time seems to cause a 30-second delay for the first spin. If I were to guess I would say that the primary server is assigning a secondary server from a server farm at the beginning of the tournament to balance the load, and this is probably why there is such a long delay.

Are you saying that your very first spin - if you play immediately when the countdown hits zero and it lets you - takes no longer than a spin near the end of the 5 minutes?

I have noticed a brief delay in the first spin, but it has not been much of a problem compared to the delays now implemented after the upgrade.
Incidentally, you do NOT have to start spinning as soon as the countdown reaches zero, YOUR timer only starts from the time you FIRST press spin. There is normally more running time than the sum of the rebuys, so it should be safe to delay your start for a while, and wait out this 30 second balancing delay.
I have noticed fewer players in the tournaments lately, perhaps the novelty has worn off, and the painfully slow speed, and high number of naked spins, has put players off before any thoughts of the 50%+ house edge on some of these tournaments.
They will have to do something, or one day these may become +EV with barely the minimum number of players registering. Recently, I have received a free pass to the weekended EVERY WEEK, no need to fight it out in the satellites, and I bet the numbers registered are inflated because of this promotion. It is now about the only tournament I play regularly, and mainly because the top prize is so high compared to what I might get by depositing said $100 and playing for a big win in the main casino. It is also the only tournament where all coins can regularly be played out.