MGS 243-way "pick a bonus", I believe your choice matters.

[Valhalla]

This is something I think about a lot. I am aware a lot of people believe that the result of free spins on Immortal Romance, TSII, Playboy etc is pre-determined the moment you trigger the bonus, and your choice is irrelevant.
But I can only disagree.

Take this result on TSII as an example:

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It's not a big win but that doesn't matter. The total won of £38.28 - it would be impossible to win that amount had I picked Valkyrie's game. No number multiplied by 5 will end in 8.
You might argue that it is rounded up or down a few pence in the x5 bonus games. But do you really believe that?
Even a deviation of a few pence each time would not make sense. Imagine player A and player B, who only ever play TSII and Immortal Romance....

Player A always picks Valkyrie/Amber
Player B always picks Odin/Troy

Over the course of, say, one hundred bonus games, in rounding up (or down - we have to assume it's one or the other) one of those players is going to win a little bit more or a little bit less than the other over time.
If we say that player A's game is rounded down, then over time their choice clearly does matter because they will slowly but surely be losing out. But then if we assume they get the occasional extra win during the main game to compensate for said losses, then the game is no longer truly random.

Another perfect example is Playboy -

Take a look through the Mega Wins screenshot thread, and you will see a huge number of wins from Sofia's bonus game compared to all the others (in Playboy). If your choice truly did not matter, we would surely see a fairly even spread of Mega Wins from all the bonus games available on Playboy. I firmly believe the potential and variance in Sofia's bonus game is enormous compared to, say, Kim's which in my experience pays out some nice wins, some very big wins, but nothing on the scale of Sofia's.

Just my thoughts

 

[catapultaudio]

Completely agree, I've debated this one before though. The way I see it, it makes little sense to come up with an amount, and then generate a series of spins that would add up to that amount - you can just use the pre-existing logic to come up with a random set of spins, which then gives you your total in a much simpler way. Those spins could all be determined the moment you choose your feature, but I don't see any reason to do it that way.

Definitely these games with massive difference in variance between different modes ensures that you can't create the spins - or the amount won - prior to the players choice. Playboy as you mentioned, the jackpot can ONLY be won in features 2 and 4.

 

[Valhalla]

Playboy as you mentioned, the jackpot can ONLY be won in features 2 and 4.

I mentioned this before but got the reply that the other features simply give you lots of big winning spins to add up to the same amount. I just don't buy it.
Besides, lots of winning spins aren't the "Jackpot", they just add up to a huge win. Only 5 reels of wilds is the true jackpot.

 

[dunover]

The bonus rounds have their own variance, that's why. The 25 FS on TSII seldom pay less than 20x but seldom more than 100x. The 5x Valkyrie spins often pay 0x but I have had several hundred, which I have never seen on Odin's 20 spins. Basically your variance decreases L-R in the 'Hall of Spins'.

 

[petro]

Based on what little information I have on this subject I would speculate that all the features have the same RTP.
The features which give more spins have a lower variance compared to the others.

I am aware a lot of people believe that the result of free spins on Immortal Romance, TSII, Playboy etc is pre-determined the moment you trigger the bonus, and your choice is irrelevant.

That is a topic covered in a lot of threads. I'm confident the players choice matters and have suggested to contact Microgaming to confirm it.

 

[Finn]

This is something I think about a lot. I am aware a lot of people believe that the result of free spins on Immortal Romance, TSII, Playboy etc is pre-determined the moment you trigger the bonus, and your choice is irrelevant.

This belief would require for all features to have same variance which they obviously don't have. I think when people say that the choice is irrelevant, they mean that since all features have same RTP, and you have no way of knowing before which feature is going to give you nice pay out that bonus round, that makes the choice irrelevant in practice.

 

[dunover]

Based on what little information I have on this subject I would speculate that all the features have the same RTP.
The features which give more spins have a lower variance compared to the others.


That is a topic covered in a lot of threads. I'm confident the players choice matters and have suggested to contact Microgaming to confirm it.

And different reels don't forget.....

 

[Balthazar]

There's no need to speculate on this subject as it has been tested by kktmd before with over a million spins on all the major MGS 243-way slots. The variance changes on all features but they all have the same RTP.

The bonus that you pick does matter for this single round, but if you pick the same bonus for, say, 1000 times in a row then the variance is no longer in effect and you'll hit the TRTP.

Also, very basic logic should tell you that you just can't match a full screen of wilds on Playboy if you pick the Rolling Reels feature. Therefore, it's impossible to have a predetermined win on the triggering spin.

The features which give more spins have a lower variance compared to the others.

No that's not the case. The "wild wine" features (Running Wilds on Playboy) have the highest variance. Rolling Reels have the lowest.

 

[petro]

No that's not the case. The "wild wine" features (Running Wilds on Playboy) have the highest variance. Rolling Reels have the lowest.

I was thinking that if you compare a 10 spin to a 25 spin feature and they have to maintain the same RTP then the 25 spin feature must have a lower variance. But, I could be wrong.

 

[mathsboy1975]

I was thinking that if you compare a 10 spin to a 25 spin feature and they have to maintain the same RTP then the 25 spin feature must have a lower variance. But, I could be wrong.

Don't forget though that the 10 spin features on IR, TFOL, Playboy (and probably others that I can't remember) all have the possibility of re-trigger so this has to also be taken into account. The other features do not have this aspect (although Wild Vine Sarah on IR does add an extra spin on 2 or more scatters I believe).

Consider also rolling reel type bonuses - in theory these could continue indefinitely as a single "spin" could just keep paying and paying. The number of spins that a feature awards has no bearing really as the gameplay for each bonus round is totally different.