Writing a book, want game designer/mathemetician to interview

[Koskinen]

Hi

I am a journalist from Finland, and I am writing a book about gambling. I am trying to find a slot game developer for an interview.

Does anyone here know a game designer or a game mathematician? If yes, I would be extremely happy if I could contact them and ask for an interview. I would like to inquire about the research involved in their development work and the instructions they receive from their bosses.

All the best,

Anssi Koskinen

 

[Jono777]

Try asking @trancemonkey or @Reelsoffun politely via private message.

 

[maxd]

BTW and FWIW are you sure you want to use the name "loserbooser" from "Funland" on this project of yours? If I was thinking of responding to your query to discuss my "development work" and the "instructions from my bosses" -- all of which would likely be a violation of my NDA -- I think I'd be looking for credentials a little less WTF than you have on offer. Just sayin'.

- Max

 

[Koskinen]

Try asking @trancemonkey or @Reelsoffun politely via private message.

Thanks! I'll do that

 

[Koskinen]

BTW and FWIW are you sure you want to use the name "loserbooser" from "Funland" on this project of yours? If I was thinking of responding to your query to discuss my "development work" and the "instructions from my bosses" -- all of which would likely be a violation of my NDA -- I think I'd be looking for credentials a little less WTF than you have on offer. Just sayin'.

- Max

Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking enough. Those are my nick name and location from the times I was playing slots and participating on this forum as a slot player. My name is Anssi Koskinen and I am a journalist from Finland. I would be extremely grateful if you'd like to share your understanding about game development.

 

[maxd]

Unfortunately my knowledge of game development is not up-to-date so I'm not comfortable speaking about the current scene with any authority. As @Jono777 has suggested there are others here much more qualified than I.

As to your login name, etc, that's easily changed if you that would suit you. Just PM me (or any moderator or Admin) with the details and we can make the changes for you.

- Max

 

[Koskinen]

Unfortunately my knowledge of game development is not up-to-date so I'm not comfortable speaking about the current scene with any authority. As @Jono777 has suggested there are others here much more qualified than I.

As to your login name, etc, that's easily changed if you that would suit you. Just PM me (or any moderator or Admin) with the details and we can make the changes for you.

- Max

Sent you PM. Thanks!

 

[maxd]

Done.

 

[Jono777]

Isn't Koskinen Polish for Loser Booser?

Sorry, Sundays = boredom gets the better of me.

 

[daqwerty]

Oh that´s exciting! Let us know when it´s finnished (sorry!). In which language is it going to be?

 

[Koskinen]

Oh that´s exciting! Let us know when it´s finnished (sorry!). In which language is it going to be?

Its gonna be in Finnish. I'm not sure if you find it interesting or disturbing, it's about gambling addiction

 

[Jono777]

Its gonna be in Finnish. I'm not sure if you find it interesting or disturbing, it's about gambling addiction

Sounds interesting. You will have to post the English version too please.

 

[Koskinen]

Sounds interesting. You will have to post the English version too please.

Yes, the plan is to get it translated into English, sell 100 K copies and pay off my gambling debt

 

[daqwerty]

Its gonna be in Finnish. I'm not sure if you find it interesting or disturbing, it's about gambling addiction

Well, I´m Finnish and I write a lot about casino things as well, so yeah I will find it interesting!

 

[Guntis]

If you're interested, send me a PM and i can introduce you to the author of all these books. I guess, he might be interested to work with you, but i must warn you, it will cost you a ton of money.

 

[Koskinen]

Well, I´m Finnish and I write a lot about casino things as well, so yeah I will find it interesting!

I might know you?

 

[Koskinen]

If you're interested, send me a PM and i can introduce you to the author of all these books. I guess, he might be interested to work with you, but i must warn you, it will cost you a ton of money.

View attachment 185130

That would be interesting, but do you mean that he would ask me money for an interview?

 

[Guntis]

That would be interesting, but do you mean that he would ask me money for an interview?

I'm not sure about the interview, but I think he would since usually he is busy with other things and there really would be no point for him to do things for free given his authorititiveness in problem gambling and casino game mathematics expertise. But, I'll ask him tomorrow to see what he says.

 

[maxd]

That would be interesting, but do you mean that he would ask me money for an interview?

Would that surprise you? Anyone with authority in the business would be perfectly justified in doing so. Pretty much standard practice, in this business or any other, I would think.

 

[Jono777]

I am willing to sell my gambling related stories for the bargain time limited offer price of just £20 each.

They are all true, I will add a small element of "believable dramatisation" to make them even better.

On top of this, I have land based and online based stories, spanning back to the early 1990's

You'll simply be drooling for the next episode after reading one.

I have for customer convenience Paypal, Skrill, bank transfer and if local I'll even deliver and take cash on delivery

Please form an orderly queue, no pushing and shoving.

*I really need to cull my boredom outside of CM

 

[bamberfishcake]

Be sure to spell mathematician correctly if you do happen to use that word in the book.

(There's always one, and this time 'twas me)

 

[Koskinen]

Would that surprise you? Anyone with authority in the business would be perfectly justified in doing so. Pretty much standard practice, in this business or any other, I would think.

Journalists dont pay for interviews

 

[DreamRJ]

I would sell all my stories from over the years when I was a gambler and affiliate + streamer for a whopping £696,969.69 That might get me back all the losses I had over the years

Hit me up with the passcode: 69696969

Good Luck!

 

[bamberfishcake]

Journalists dont pay for interviews

Plenty of journalists have paid to get a scoop. Many a story has been sold before publishing.

 

[trancemonkey]

Hi

I am a journalist from Finland, and I am writing a book about gambling. I am trying to find a slot game developer for an interview.

Does anyone here know a game designer or a game mathematician? If yes, I would be extremely happy if I could contact them and ask for an interview. I would like to inquire about the research involved in their development work and the instructions they receive from their bosses.

All the best,

Anssi Koskinen

I can answer your questions very easily:

Instructions we receive from our bosses range from: "Come up with a new idea" to "Come up with a game like X". Yes we might be given guidance on what games are working in a particular market (or we get the information from Eilers or ReelMetrics) and that's about it. Sometimes they may give guidance on a theme (i.e we don't want a Chinese theme).

I can't talk for all companies or course, but producers at companies I have worked for get almost entirely free reign to come up with the game design and theme, and there is no interference from "bosses". Of course there are key stakeholders that will want to play the game at different stages of development so they can give feedback on how the game plays, the game flow, maths, etc ...

I'm terms of research, other than taking the game to a player focus group (asking players what they think of it) and market visits (i.e going to Vegas, or whatever market your game is targeting) that's about it.

If your trying to suggest that companies are doing research in to what makes people addicted, and then following that research, whilst it can't if course speak for everyone, I've never worked at a company that has done that, nor would I want to.

Of course we want to make our games fun and we want people to keep playing and coming back, as performance is based in cash played, but this is (at least where I work) done by simply trying to make the game as fun as possible and entertaining as possible.... And for me, this is done simply by experience. There is no "silver bullet" for this, it's a combination of game design, maths, art and sound, and this is all combined by the product owner / producer in order to hopefully make the game as fun as possible.

There is nothing nefarious - it's simply looking at what works in successful games and trying to make my game as good at, or better, than that... And what makes games good is very often subjective and rarely objective.