MicroGaming MPV Multiplayer slots - what everyones views?

DaBigEZMC

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Just wants to see what everyone thought of the new Multi Player slots feature that MG just put on a number of its operators..?

Worth a slot?
 
If you are referring to the slots tournaments, then definately. Good fun although very much in their infancy. A while back, MG released a "Multiplayer casino" but it seemed to die a bit of a death mainly due to lack of games and excitement...and community. Not sure what's happening there. I know Trident had one but it's gone all quiet. Maybe it was just a precursor to the slot tournies. Wouldn't surprise me if they expanded the game selections to others in the future.
 
I hope they do expand the slot tourneys. I'm getting sick of seeing lara croft and thor.
 
While fun, they are riddled with bugs, most of which have been aired here. MG continue to hold their head in the sand, and excuse the bugs as "temporary hitches" when they hit enough players, but still the underlying problems remain.

By far the biggest problem is just how damn SLOW the tournaments are. They made an alteration a month ago, but now they are even SLOWER at times than before, and server delays are far more frequent.
Server delays (as opposed to your own PC) can be seen when you press spin, and see the "waiting for reply" indicator cycling for a few seconds. This is normally a row of "lights" near the credit meter, and delays can be up to 5 seconds during a tournament. They seem to hit more in free spins (always on Tomb Raider where one free spin yields nothing, the second always sees the 3-5 second server delay, and this happens every spin till one contains a win).
Although a complex bug, it never happened whatsoever over a couple of months ago - it all started one weekend when they changed something, and there were widespread reports of people being unable to access the tournaments for the whole 48/72 hours, or getting in and being cut off.
 
Hint on tournies...

I play the free tournies a lot and I have found if I wait 1-2 minutes AFTER it starts, I don't lose any precious seconds and it spins quickly right from the start. I also noticed that my hits were a lot better when starting a few minutes later (when every one else hits spin the second it starts there was a major 15-20 second delay for me).

I have come in the money a few times now and only had to rebuy in twice for 2 bucks..I am up over $200 to the good...by changing this one thing..hope it helps all that plays in these..they get exciting when you get close to the money especially when iin the free one for the $20,000!

vinylweatherman, I think I saw your name there in one of the ones I played last week and you were very close to the top...hope you made it in the money!!!

Good luck to all that enter...see ya there! (you will see my name is the same name of course as here):D
 
The main things that annoy me about these tourneys is that:

a) The Freerolls arent really freerolls - its almost impossible to win without making a rebuy which means it isnt free.

b) No % of the rebuys go into the prize pool (unlike poker tourneys) so it makes the house edge much higher.

c) Lack of game choice

d) Free spins do not complete after time runs out. If the feature is hit it should be allowed to finish (as technically the feature really counts as one spin regardless of how many you actually get)

Otherwise, they're great.... :rolleyes:
 
By far the biggest problem is just how damn SLOW the tournaments are. They made an alteration a month ago...

I have played loads over the past week or two (32red) and not had a problem - sometimes the very first spin takes twice as long as it should, but otherwise I get 12/13 spins per minute.
 
[QUOTE
a) The Freerolls arent really freerolls - its almost impossible to win without making a rebuy which means it isnt free.
QUOTE]

I think that with the view it offers rebuys..then there is no doubt that its the entry thats free...its a given that the chance of being placed is slim to none.

Generally not a slots player myself...but with an interesting, competative slant..might give it a shot.. thanks for your input!!!
 
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I have played loads over the past week or two (32red) and not had a problem - sometimes the very first spin takes twice as long as it should, but otherwise I get 12/13 spins per minute.

That is CRAP! It is so, so, very much slower than the same game played in the casino itself. This should not be the case, and if they ran at the proper speed they would be more FUN! There is nothing worse than being on a high and constantly being yanked down because the server cannot handle it. In tournaments this is even worse than when the same thing happens in casino play, simply because tournaments are extremely tightly timed (if not impossibly so with the $200 events).
They are also a good deal slower than before, straight after that rather screwed up weekend a while back. There are far fewer players now than earlier, yet the speed has not come back. The big weekender was attracting 800 to 900 players on a regular basis, now it is nearer 500 (or even less). Players are voting for "boring - needs more work".

They need to speed the play up considerably, as well as introduce a bigger variety of games. They also need to give a fairer deal, as it is bleedin' obvious the house edge has been set to 10% by design, as opposed to 5% for the games in the casino (much higher, as rebuys go 100% to the house, and do not inflate the prize pools).

MG's corporate heads are buried so far down in the sand that they are not listening to this, or even noticing. The tournaments could go the way of the multiplayer casino.
 
I HAVE HAD LESS THAN TEN SPINS TOTAL!

I have played in about ten of these toureys. AND........

in half of them it took well over 4 seconds for the wheels to stop spinning and I swear in one of them I got about 10 spins total.

Also, when you hit the bonus round it takes way too long. So unless you get the bonus round is a sizeable win, your better off not even hitting it.

I noticed that basically when I win, so does everyone else that is listed in my standing window. MOST OF THE TIME we all win the same amount.


If the tournaments are free to enter, then there should be NO REBUYS. Financially, that would probably mean reducing the number of TOTALLY free tounaments. But they could recoup that by increasing the number of paid charging a nominal entry fee of .50-1.00

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM I SEE IS THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE TIMED

Players with slower connections, slower processor speed, less graphics memory are probably at a disadvantage from the start. By allowing everyone to play out their credits none of that would matter.

I AM GOING TO PLAY A FEW AND COUNT THE NUMBER OF SPINS I GET. I WISH OTHERS WOULD DO THIS SO WE CAN SEE HOW MUCH IT DIFFERS BETWEEN PLAYERS
 
I have played in about ten of these toureys. AND........

in half of them it took well over 4 seconds for the wheels to stop spinning and I swear in one of them I got about 10 spins total.

Also, when you hit the bonus round it takes way too long. So unless you get the bonus round is a sizeable win, your better off not even hitting it.

I noticed that basically when I win, so does everyone else that is listed in my standing window. MOST OF THE TIME we all win the same amount.


If the tournaments are free to enter, then there should be NO REBUYS. Financially, that would probably mean reducing the number of TOTALLY free tounaments. But they could recoup that by increasing the number of paid charging a nominal entry fee of .50-1.00

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM I SEE IS THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE TIMED

Players with slower connections, slower processor speed, less graphics memory are probably at a disadvantage from the start. By allowing everyone to play out their credits none of that would matter.

I AM GOING TO PLAY A FEW AND COUNT THE NUMBER OF SPINS I GET. I WISH OTHERS WOULD DO THIS SO WE CAN SEE HOW MUCH IT DIFFERS BETWEEN PLAYERS

If you are getting spins every 4 seconds you are doing 1 second better than you should. I have done "certain experiments of an advanced nature" that show that the SERVER brutally enforces this delay.
With one of these advanced experiments on Tomb Raider, it is so effing OBVIOUS it is a deliberate rig at the server, rather than the "communication problems" MG pretend it is when players complain. This server enforcement was a recent addition, I know this because I carried out this experiment when I first played on my Windows 98 PC with NO graphics card, and was gobsmacked by the incredibly poor performance at Royal Vegas. I tried numerous system tweaks and found one that worked absolute wonders.
This experiment shows that the tournament system CAN give everyone excellent speed, whether dial up or broadband, but that MG have DELIBERATELY INTENDED these events to run so annoyingly slowly.
Not ONE SINGLE CASINO REP has uttered a comment in the various threads about this slowness. When the fix to enforce 4 second delays was implemented they messed up such that many players simply could not connect (the server had to do even more work in operating the enforced delay - it had to work out when the previous but one and previous spin requests had come in, and delay the current one by 5 seconds if trigger criteria had been met).
They have had numerous chances to "come clean" about this, but dont seem to want this fact out in the open. I have mentioned this before, but I don't think my theories are being taken seriously, so I invite everyone to try this advanced experimement.

Take a Tomb Raider tournament (free one is best - you are doing science, not trying to win)

Forget the reels, Just look at the clock.

1) Press "spin" every 5 seconds - all spins should go without any server delay. Features will interrupt the flow.

2) Press "spin" every 4 seconds - not everyone will be able to do this, and for some the tweaks may be necessary. There should be no server delays.

3) Add tweaks. Press "spin" every 3 seconds - there should not be many server delays, but you are at the limiting trigger for the MG fix. if you DO get a delay, it will be 5 seconds before the server returns your result, and the reels will just spin and spin and you will see the "waiting reply" indicator in motion near the credit window. You may also notice that seconds are occasionally "stolen" from your clock.

4) Press "spin" as soon as you can after the last reel stops (Look at the reels, not the clock this time). You will now find that EVERY SINGLE server reply is a 5 second wait. You will also see that seconds are occasionally "stolen" from your clock.


So "communication problems" MY ASS - they are covering up for what MAY actually be players noticing this server enforcement of 4 second spins, but there is no way MG will admit to this feature. Once players do enough experiments cycling between 1 and 4, they will be convinced there is much substance to this conspiracy theory, rather than it being down to players PC's, ISP's etc.


I tried this experiment either side of this fix, and can verify that on Tomb Raider it used to be possible to play out ALL 10,000 coins on the weekender in 4 minutes. With the server fix implemented this is now totally impossible. Further, it was EVERY TIME that I could, and after the fix it was EVERY TIME that I could not - internet communication problems DO NOT BEHAVE LIKE THIS, they are semi random, and if this was the problem there would be times where play was possible at the former speed, as well as times when it wasn't.
Timing does not matter with the weekender, there is plenty for everyone to play out all coins. It matters on the other tournaments though, especially with the slow speed of bonus rounds.
 
What I am interested to know is what everyone prefers? Normal Casino play or the multi-player tournaments that are being discussed?

I am a little confused as I would expect casinos would prefer players to play in the normal casino as real money is being bet every time instead of the tournaments where its not. I suspect that the multi-player tournaments are really being developed in order to try and convert poker players into casino players.

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IT WAS SUPPOSE TO SAY 14 SECONDS

sorry it was suppose to say 14 seconds! But many much slower, I have NEVER even got close to using all my coins!



WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THEM NOT BEING TIMED AND ONCE COINS GONE EITHER GAME OVER OR YOU BUY MORE?


I don't see why they should be timed. The fairer why is to play the coins out.


ALSO, how in the world can someone get 140000.00 coins and the majority are at 4000.00 or less.

I would love to see the screen shots of the BIG SPINS!

If they were not timed none of VINYLWEATHERMANS problems would really matter.

COMMENTS PLEASE
 
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sorry it was suppose to say 14 seconds! But many much slower, I have NEVER even got close to using all my coins!



WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THEM NOT BEING TIMED AND ONCE COINS GONE EITHER GAME OVER OR YOU BUY MORE?


I don't see why they should be timed. The fairer why is to play the coins out.


ALSO, how in the world can someone get 140000.00 coins and the majority are at 4000.00 or less.

I would love to see the screen shots of the BIG SPINS!

If they were not timed none of VINYLWEATHERMANS problems would really matter.

COMMENTS PLEASE

No, they would not, but although all coins would get played, it would still be boring being forced to sit through endless naked spins (the Thunderstruck we know & love) before the next "win" of 10 coins for a pair of nines.
Those with slower PC's would benefit, and I would never have started looking at why there was one hell of a problem using more than a quarter of my coins on the old Win98 PC when the tournaments first came out. This would have saved MG the embarrassment of being found out having to "fix" the tournaments to make them slow down.
The current "dirty" fix MG have initiated still leaves those with very fast PC's the ability to spin at 3 second intervals, where those with slow PC's will find it is closer to 5, possible up to 10 for the very slow machines. Internet speed is largely irrelevant, since only small packets of data are exchanged during play - the big problem with low internet speeds is when MG casinos upgrade, or you play your first tournament and the multiplayer games have to download for the first time.
MG have STILL not said WHY they initiated this "dirty" fix rather than either leaving well alone, or investing in an across the board speed increase for all by upgrading the servers such that tournaments went at the same speed as normal casino play.

Other than encouraging poker players into the casino, what is overlooked is the MASSIVE House edge on some of these tournaments. The prize pool, even without rebuys, can be less than 90% on really popular tournaments, and with rebuys NOT going into the pot, the house edge for these is 100%. Some tournaments can pay less than 50% of the total entry fees out in prizes. IF the normal games were this bad there would be mutiny! It's a clever deception, and I doubt MG will come up with a defence for this soon.
Take a tournament, observe closely, and do the maths.
 

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