As you all know I had my fair share of "tin foil hatting" on this forum although I am convinced that some of it was not down to "tin foil" but proven experiences.
My conclusion as to why we are feeling the games have changed is the fact that we had an explosion of player numbers that are hitting the slots every day. At the same time, the last 2 - 3 years have seen a equal increase in games, providers and casinos. This is reducing significantly the chance to be one of the very few who are winning something substantial on any given slot.
On top, we have seen a huge increase in super high volatility games such as Bonanza, Jungle Spirit, pretty much all Yggdrasil / Red Tiger games, etc. Hitting something decent on these games can take months or might never happen as you need 1,000's of losers (of which probably 50% are getting a very poor RTP) to finance those few super high wins.
What has clearly changed though is the "addiction" capability by building in a lot more psychological aspects into the design of the games. This is the statement on the website of one game provider:
Note, "psychologists" are the first mentioned. And i am not talking just the near-miss avalanche we have now on all slots, the worst being Red Tiger where you need bonus symbols on 1, 3 and 5. Get the first two and you see 3, 4 or 5 bonus symbols passing on reel 5 and stopping just outside the window. But the more severe part in building in psychological aspects are the underlying subconscious items to which all mankind is susceptible to. Chase a bonus round, build up achievements, the right sound and visual effects, animate to chase losses, e.g. the slot on a slightly improving curve indicating something might happen soon (the famous 2 scatter teasers on the last 10 spins before bust out).
Whereas in the past game developers had mechanical reels or reel strips (early online games), the new generation is not bound by these restrictions. Game developers can choose to display every spin as they like as long as the random win combination is shown correctly. The rest is just the "psychological fanfare" to get players to hit that "spin" button again.
To top it all off, the game designers have launched with their latest slots heavy attacks on the young and most vulnerable part of the player community in what they call the "future" gamblers. Get them hooked as young as possible and you will have them as customers for the longest possible time.
I have all but lost interest in online gaming in the past few months (visible by my rather streaky appearance on CM). My cashback at VS used to be $50 - $200 weekly and is now down to $5 - $15. There are too many fish in the pond to get a chance for at least a decent play time, let alone to make it to a withdrawal. I had two big ones this year which kept my new budget limits in check, but boy oh boy...how quickly $1,000 can disappear on just $1- $2.50 is absolutely astonishing and remarkable.
That Slots Tracker looks like a pretty cool (and time-intensive) project! So i hope you dont take it as an offense, if i question your math on the rtp%-example quoted above. Shouldnt it be more like:
