NetEnt Open Questions

[burgstrom]

Welcome back @burgstrom and may I apologise for the rude welcome back in May, but I guess we have had many many people visiting previously who suffered from heightened grandeur and tried to BS members. Please forgive us x

Nothing to forgive!

Welcome back @burgstrom

Personally I think Netent produce the greatest variety of play from straight 5 reel no bonus etc to Jumanji style or Planet of the apes... which should appeal to all (but somehow doesn’t).

Graphics I don’t give a flying monkeys about. Better graphics just means more chance of slow play to me.

Why slow play? Game performance? Don't graphics lure you in, there's so much choice out there...how do you choose to pick a game to try?

Welcome back @burgstrom
Also the obsession with using current movies/pop groups etc is totally unnecessary in my humble opinion especially if it costs in license fees (I would rather it be used to increase rtp somehow).

Interesting thought...

Welcome back @burgstrom
Based on my game play (totally unbiased in fact), my biggest problem is the hot/cold nature of netent games.
Themepark in particular springs to mind where features and free spins where extremely frequent for a few months following release but gold tickets are as rare as rocking horse poop now.
I know that hot/cold is not a controllable feature (or so wee are told lol).

To a certain extent this is the nature of the beast. I depends on the set up of the games features and composition how hot and cold and regularity of the change but this is why we love and hate this thing we do!

Welcome back @burgstrom
Are you aware of VIdeoslots sit and go battles? When these were tried with Netent games it failed due to server issues. This went nowhere to improving your reputation.

Recently aware. Love VS and what they are doing. We are working on making things better in areas like this in general for our operators. But good point well made.

Welcome back @burgstrom
These are just my initial ramblings sorry.

Wishing you every success in the future and hope that we at CM can help to move forward with positive contributions x

These are great. Thank you for taking the time.

Welcome back @burgstrom
And I forgot to say... where’s dunover? Wink x

 

[burgstrom]

Last time I looked Netent was losing money

and had lost 50% of its share price in the last 12 months, in a rapidly expanding market too.

So I don’t this this is a collective lack of perspective from us here. If anything Netent had almost complete dominance of the market - baring MG - a very short while ago, but this is where they have now arrived.

Lot's of competition - its kinda natural and happens and has happened time and again in rapidly growing industries. Definitely shouldn't be frightened about the known or indeed the unknown.

 

[goatwack]

I gotta ask. What is it that you guys didn't like about POTA? Ignore the brand, branded have got a bad name across the business for many reasons...I have my own thoughts, but what is it about this game?

It looked nice enough I thought, and the dual screens was quite a nice touch.

Having only played it a handful of times I'd say the most glaring issue was the epitome of design in regards to 'Netent Variance', a term coined by the games' taking way more than the player could ever realistically hope to recoup over time!

This game is the pinnacle of that blueprint, and apart from what I consider to be too fast of a default spin speed, after what 10 minutes I'd already found myself down £20 on minimum bets! The gameplay feels from the outset that the player has to plough a significant amount into it to get a bonus, at no point does it feel like it could be triggered after 10 spins, so all spontaneity and 'surprise' is lacking.

It also masquerades as a high- variance game with its long barren streaks yet feels like the paytable doesn't reflect that.......

The base game is also quite samey after a while, perhaps shrinking the graphics down to accommodate two screens has lost some of that impact, who knows.

I don't think it's a terrible game as such, just that there's other games I think would provide me more value for money, like Creature From the Black Lagoon even

 

[burgstrom]

The new games are just not up to it for me - more recently you made Jungle Spirit - probably the closest to the old games in terms of what players like. But then... it’s back to rubbish like Jumanji: do you change game developers often

Jumanji was and indeed is a big success for us. IMO it was a great tie in with the Movie and Game mechanics (which is difficult to do with brands IMO), with a medium vol math model, great production values having a more broad appeal. I guess the one thing to state here is that our industry has (I think someone has mentioned later in the thread) gone very mainstream and the motivations, tastes and expectations from players have...well diverged considerably. NetEnt is the market leader (despite the chatter) and there are expectations on us to meet at least most of these player demands. This is why I'm here - the feeling is we could definitely do more to serve other areas better. I hope that makes sense. We will continue to make games you don't like (but that many others do!) and also serve communities like CM that I'm starting to really get my head around have certain requirements when you're having a sesh.

Sometimes you need to look back to go forward and DOA, JS,JATB, Wild Rockets, Secret of the Stones all have seen big wins for me and whatever games been developed if it were along those lines I’d play more with Netent.

Great feedback thanks.

I just don’t have any confidence of, once I’m down a certain amount, of even getting back to my deposit never mind withdrawing with most of the new releases. That’s not right....

Noted! Great feedback!

 

[pinnit2014]

Goatie also mentioned something re POTA...as mentioned some of the newer games play like a high variance game with long spells between bonus rounds. But the paytable or potential doesn’t sit with a HV game, so you end up not getting the best of either world : play time nor win potential. Sometimes I like a lower variance game to just have a bit more of a fun session, sometimes it’s HV to see if I can hit biggish: but some of your slots get caught in no mans land....

Oh and despite my brain telling me I shouldn’t I do like KOI Princess - when it’s relatively loose it is decent fun and has a bit of potential to boot.Which are the two things ideally a slot should be.

 

[burgstrom]

Hiya @burgstrom, Welcome back!.

Thank You sir!

Hiya @burgstrom
I like Starburst..that is the old starburst version whereby ure not limited to 10 line minimum bet..u could play 1 line if one chooses.

Is this a common request? Do you guys really play a lot on low line counts?

Hiya @burgstrom
I also love slots that is packed full of features, like wild reels, stack wilds, multiplier, freespins(not limited to 5 fs but able to re-trigger), and bonuses.
Can you make a newer version of starburst and pack all this features in it?. This i would like to see..hopefully!.

Wouldn't this destroy Starburst as a concept?

Hiya @burgstrom
Furthemore, i think its better to produce one spectacular slot(that ppl actually can get immersed in), then producing many under-rated games.

Quality beats quantity, no doubt, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?

 

[burgstrom]

First off, an 'official' welcome to the forum Burgstrom Really cool to get more providers on board, especially one that opens up a thread for player-feedback! As there are a few browsing the forums already, but so far - as far as i can tell - there are only 3 (yourself included) that actually posted some info, or were open to input or criticism. Without further ado, i'll just start by answering the following questions:

Thanks for the warm welcome and indeed you time here. Lets of great stuff

What are we doing that we should stop?
I think dishing out too many Games that feel like skins/clones, is one thing that we can all miss, even if the original was a smashing hit. Sequels, or deluxe versions can of course be awesome, but just refurbishing a Game with a new set of symbols and/or theme/music, isn't really what players want or need. That said, i know there are also a lot of players, specifically here on the forums, that would love to see some of their favorite math models, implemented in a more flashy theme (or w/e it is that floats their boat). as proven by the above poster asking for a freshly themed version of DOA

So to summarise - a balance of new stuff and perhaps to favourite math models with a twist/something new?

And as zap already pointed out first, it would be cool to be able to skip 'useless animations' too...most experienced gamblers can already surmise when a 'special feature' such as added wilds or whatever, won't be able to form a winning line, and at that point would rather skip whatever sequence is coming, and spin on. I know a lot of punters here feel exactly the same way, as we have been discussing about this a lot in the past years.

This is understood. Its a fine line - sometimes providers get accused of making things too complex, so we use choreography to spell it out, sometime we are perhaps heavy-handed?

What are we doing that we should keep doing?
Making Games such as DOA, Jack & The Beanstalk, Starburst, Twin Spin, The Wishmaster, The invisible Man, Steamtower, Drive and more recently Planet of The Apes, Hotline, Lost Relics, Jumanji and Mirror Mirror. These surely don't appeal to all, but - even if i don't play them all a lot , after i tested them properly - i do keep coming back to them, as i recognize them as great Games. The list goes on of course, but i think those Games stand out.

Encouraging to hear, thank you. Those games are quite an eclectic mix. Are there specific theme topics or genres, lets say that people like more than others? Take Hotline, we loved making that game - the theme was pure cheese, retro - was it well accepted? Our data says it was honestly, but I would like to hear CM community thoughts on things like this for sure!

Surely, a critic can find things to improve in pretty much any Slot, but let's face it, as Harry also stated - how many of us have really compared them to the rest of the providers out there? And without tossing a Game to the side after a bad run. It's mostly only after someone posted a huge win on video or per screenshot, that players see the potential, and revisit such games again.
People nowadays are spoiled, and way too critical i.m.o. not only concerning Slots, but that's for another thread

Social media and forums like this have completely changed the dynamic, and made it more open for people. Me personally I love it, but the effect has been remarkable.

I can promise that i'm one of the few that tries all new Games, from the moment they are released, and give them a proper bashing, even if that means my (pathetic) bankroll is obliterated...
So, as one of the few who really churned through millions of spins on pretty much all of your Slots, i can say that i really enjoy them, and still consider Netent as one of the main providers out there. Keep that up!

We will continually try to live up this for sure.

What aren't we doing that we should be?
You just started this thread, so moot point
I mean this is probably the only thing i could think of that Netent (or any other provider for that matter) should do...
Perhaps make a beta testing team again, comprised of veteran players, such as Leander recently did here on the forums, prior to the release of their 'Inferno' Slot...

This something we are looking at seriously, but it will take some time to get something in place. I read through the inferno thread, and the result from CM was seemingly a little flat, at least the way I read it. It was, "loved the experience of working on it, but the game is only OK". Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's a better way to do it, I don't have that answer yet...

I say again, because at one point i am pretty sure i was involved in something like that from Netent, through Mr. Green, which involved getting to play the new releases before they were released to the main public: and that was not on Netent's site, but they just appeared to players in that group, in the Casino lobby. Iirc, that was halted for unspecified reasons with intent to revisit later, but i never heard anything about it afterwards, and that was years ago....

Not sure about that, before my time honestly. I'll look into what that was about.

Lastly: you aren't hiring me as in-house 24/7 Game tester, but you definitely should

Noted!

Game Features you like, dislike.
I love Sticky Wilds, Expanding Wilds, Multiplying Wilds, perhaps one could say i'm just a sucker for Wilds in general. I really like the Overlay wild and added Multiplier Wilds in Drive Multiplier Mayhem, and i also love the Chests with Wilds, Coins and Extra Spins in Lost Relics - one of your best releases of late i.m.o.. But there's so much more i like, it's too much too mention. I don't like extreme teases, such as the one's you generally find in Blueprint and Red Tiger Games....terrible - so please don't start with that! The third Scatter not dropping in after the cliffhanger is more than enough tease for me

User Interface and User Experience stuff that is driving you crazy good or crazy bad about our games
I personally would like to see the Software remember ALL my preferred settings, and would go as far as to say: please prevent all your clients from making that optional. Just remember the last player settings per player, per Casino - forever, until they change it themselves.

This is quite an interesting point. Depending on the individual settings it may be difficult to achieve cross operator but something to think about. Thank you.

And i also would like to see a Slot opening on minimum bet -always, unless the player sets it to another preferred bet-size. This will not only prevent a lot of issues with accidental max bets etc. but also lead to general appreciation from both players and responsible gaming organisations. I'm not saying your Software is bad in that regard, it's actually one of the better ones, but when you give Operators the choice to set their own minimum, or defaults - it's not perfect.

We set default bet values, but our operators often change them to suit their different player bases or exposure tolerances etc. Difficult for us to do too much about, at least in the current set up we have.

Nothing to say about the advanced auto-player, as that is one of the best out there, although some newer releases lack a few of the most common options (no bonus round stop in Jumanji - and even if you want it to automatically play, it then appears you can not, as you need to pick a piece, then roll manually)

Noted. The team who built Jumanji are awesome and they would like to have this info - I'll pass it along, thanks.

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There's much more to be said, but i don't want to write a book here, i am very excited about you joining the forum, and hope it sets an example for other providers, so i'll just throw in a few ideas and questions:

1: Perhaps you could revisit Microgaming's old project 'My Slot' whereby you could more or less make your own 'perfect' nine liner, using various symbols (or your own uploaded pic's), and musical themes - which of course was a great idea, but quite poorly executed


I see a lot of potential there though...imagine a player being able to pick a math model, theme and music/sound package...that would silence a lot of moaning players, and make a lot of us quite happy...

You know why Myspace went down the tubes right...

2: I have been extending my playtime a lot, by low-rolling the tournaments in the Reel Thrills, over at Mr. Green, which are awesome, and more importantly, fair for all. I would love to see this in more Casino's: is there anything you can do there, or is that something exclusive for Mr. Green for now?

I think this is more of a question for my colleagues in the Platform dept but I'll pass this along for sure.

 

[burgstrom]

3: Can you divulge anything about the release of the immersive Virtual Games we could see in London last February?

Well when I arrived at NE I was super excited about this project. The tech the guys have built is pretty fantastic. They are working hard on getting it right and how we can really push it. I can't say about any releases yet, but we are making good progress!

I'll think of more, but that should do for now

Thank you very much! I'll try to get around to replying to more posts tomorrow!

 

[Supababe]

Quality beats quantity, no doubt, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?

Its true that we are all different and potentially have different tastes but I would imagine that if you were to ask members for their 10 best and worst slots there would be strong patterns...

Hands up for Tornado farm escape, Twin spin deluxe or Shanghai-la?

 

[mack341]

Please can you reposition the 'MAX BET' button away from the spin button or remove it totally as it's caught me out a few times , also when you use autoplay and have to enter a loss limit, its a fiddly task with a small box [that most people angrily type a jumble of numbers into, watch when dunover has do it in his videos] I think it would be better if you used a slider like novomatic.

I hope you are successful in your endeavours, this is probably the best chance Netent will have, as the other slot providers, red tiger, btg, SG etc.. all have ongoing problems, e.g. making the player wait for a thousand spins or more for a bonus round, micro wins, endless bonus guarantees etc...

The bonus frequency of raging rhino, 100-120 spins is for me the kind of figure you should try to match. JATB was a great game but I stopped playing it because the bonus frequency was too low, if a wild landed on the right side of the screen you would get an extra free 4 spins in the base game, it could take an hour to get 1 bonus.

 

[dionysus]

[QUOTE="burgstrom, post: 932740, member: 47609]
This something we are looking at seriously, but it will take some time to get something in place. I read through the inferno thread, and the result from CM was seemingly a little flat, at least the way I read it. It was, "loved the experience of working on it, but the game is only OK". Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's a better way to do it, I don't have that answer yet..
![/QUOTE]
probably because the general membership didnt do the focus group testing but rather the CAGS - we filled out in depth reports, had Qs and answers/questionairres, follow-ups and at various stages during gameplay, focusing on separate aspects, and gave heaps of feedback, outside the thread

 

[burgstrom]

probably because the general membership didnt do the focus group testing but rather the CAGS - we filled out in depth reports, had Qs and answers/questionairres, follow-ups and at various stages during gameplay, focusing on separate aspects, and gave heaps of feedback, outside the thread

OK Understood thanks. dionysus were you happy with how the game turned out?

 

[dionysus]

OK Understood thanks. dionysus were you happy with how the game turned out?

yes and no - im not going to regurgitate the pages and pages i submitted.
I felt it hit markers players were asking for (HV, big win potentnial, assorted fs round)
for me? not a go to game beyond a tenner of a decent balance (ie 100ish)
in other words, 7.5/10 but not necessarily my sort of game, aesthetically

 

[dunover]

Whaaaaaat??? No dunover in his quotes?

 

[paul7388]

Okay welcome to the forum and thanks for coming here for feedback.

Could ask loads of questions but i won't.

Would like to know about your older games tho. As they are way better than newer releases. Once Flash is gone will all the older games be updated so they are still available or will they disappear . Games like Creature from the black lagoon as it is one of your best. Pity you no longer make games like that.

And can you answer the question that has appeared on this forum countless times lol. Has anyone in the world ever hit 3 wild reels and Bars to give full screen on Starburst. For something that pays so little noone has ever saw it happen.

 

[CasinoNinja]

Hi there!

What you are doing great is the graphics, you are probably the slot provider who has the best graphics across the board on all of your games. Your designers are doing a great job and I hope they are rewarded for their work!

As for the slot, agreed with most others said here. The math model is just off and it seems impossible to get a 500 or 1000x win.

You asked what people didn't like about POTA, my biggest issue with it is a few things.

The fresspins bonus where you collect wilds, it seems to have potential until you realise it's almost everytime gonna stop on 7 wilds collected or less, I never seen anyone with above 7 wilds. So when you collect 7 early and you have 3-4 rounds left, it's very frustrating just to get deadspins and get a 50x win.

The random feature where you collect symbols which goes on forever and then results in almost nothing and in some instances zero! Such a waste of time.


For your other slots, please please do not have a "coin win" bonus prize, remove that and make the bonus harder to trigger instead.

I think most of your slots would be much better if you had more RTP in bigger wins and less in smaller wins. Remove these 0.5x wins, 10x bonuses and so on. They suck. Make it harder to get a bonus and have the possibility to win big, 1000x and more.

When I play slots, I hope to hit big. Not to spins 1000 spins and then if I am lucky and hit the bonus a few times I have my deposit back.

 

[VismundCygnus]

Was the team that made Archangels: Salvation fully in house? It looks very different from the stuff you normally release.

 

[dunover]

Thank You sir!

Is this a common request? Do you guys really play a lot on low line counts?



Wouldn't this destroy Starburst as a concept?


Quality beats quantity, no doubt, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?

Hopefully, yes.

 

[Jono777]

I gotta ask. What is it that you guys didn't like about POTA? Ignore the brand, branded have got a bad name across the business for many reasons...I have my own thoughts, but what is it about this game?

Graphically pretty good and the initial "draw the player in" was there.

However, poor pay table, way too many dead spins, too hard to trigger the scatter bonuses (not the rise and dawn features which trigger from the single token on reels 1 & 5 which are hard too but less worthwhile)

Not suggesting for a moment it does not meet its TRTP but can be a balance killer even on minimum bet and several sessions when released did not suggest this would ever change.

Unsure of the variance but a medium setting on this with regular 100 - 200x hits and occasional 500x hits or even higher would make it a lot more popular IMO.

Could do away with the random feature where the apes run across the bottom to possibly part compensate for this??

 

[offshorewind]

Those fairy tail legends? I had enough of them i guess.. it seems to me they had minimal math change and just child-like reskins. Anyone feels the same?

 

[Deeplay]

I stay away from "most" foil hat stuff as I do over all trust the games apart from Twin Spin ! Since the change I had not one 5 reel high symbol full screen QKA etc ... loads of people have said they felt this game was changed or the maths of the game was changed, maybe not the over all RTP but the way the wins are distributed. I have stopped playing it now. Plus we rare see any screen shots of this with decent wins anymore. I wont speak about Twin Spin delux as that truly is a crap slot and Netent missed a real opportunity there. Any way rep over to you ?

 

[Lincolnuk]

Those fairy tail legends? I had enough of them i guess.. it seems to me they had minimal math change and just child-like reskins. Anyone feels the same?

I enjoyed the red ridding hood. But then came the 10p low paying crap and the rest is history.

My add to this is can we stop inter breading the games and think of something else. As a few have already said its not like you have not got ideas. to me its like your going with the easy rout

 

[dunover]

I stay away from "most" foil hat stuff as I do over all trust the games apart from Twin Spin ! Since the change I had not one 5 reel high symbol full screen QKA etc ... loads of people have said they felt this game was changed or the maths of the game was changed, maybe not the over all RTP but the way the wins are distributed. I have stopped playing it now. Plus we rare see any screen shots of this with decent wins anymore. I wont speak about Twin Spin delux as that truly is a crap slot and Netent missed a real opportunity there. Any way rep over to you ?

I notice that too - repeated non-winning last 3/centre 3 join-ups and 4-reel clones are rarer now, I have had one screen of Kings in the last 16 5-reel joins, rest have been 2-1 or 1-1-1 shitters.

 

[hamdiS]

What are we doing that we should stop?
What are we doing that we should keep doing?
What aren't we doing that we should be?

Game Features you like, dislike.
User Interface and User Experience stuff that is driving you crazy good or crazy bad about our games

Netent should stop " the slow or lost internet connection" message that drop the payout directly , i'm telling that from what different casino support team informed me about this bug and maybe " this is a casino side problem "

You should keep doing new slots like lost relics, planet of the apes, jumanji but not bollywood story

i miss some big wins like 2000X or even 1000X on netent games, not just for me, but also with streaming guys they play less and less netent games on live streaming.

To be honest my highest big win was with Netent with 5 hours play round in the same game " lost relics ". i topped up my balance from 40 euro to 16K euro, i didn't hit higher that 200X my bet, but they was a multiple wins.
Of course i lost all in 10 min with 100 euro bets

Online slot fanatic
Webmaster of Outdated URL (Invalid)

 

[L&L-Jan]

I noticed the newest NetEnt slots must have very high system requirements. I have a brand new notebook with the latest i7 and 16GB RAM and the only time i hear the fan is when playing the new Netents, for instance Jumanji.

Has to be a real pain if you play on older equipment.

I find this a very interesting comment and after looking to the quoted messages and answers from Net ENt, which I did quickly (shall do it again) I couldnt see your comment was answered.

We do have more and more customer complains regarding the same issue. When I try to reproduce, I cant seem to experience the same issue as our customers describe.