Your Input Please Slot Psychology Documentary

[trancemonkey]

This thread feels like a "we don't like good game design" type thread. So what should we do? What exactly is the answer?

Some jurisdictions (no online ones yet that I know of) have minimum game times. On our land-based games we have 3 speed settings the player can choose from. In terms of game time I actually prefer it when I don't have slam stop (quick stop) as I spend less money.

Would you all prefer it if we had no music or sound effects on games? What is "good" for one person is another persons hatred so to say something like "don't have addictive music on games" would be impossible to achieve. So should we have no sound at all?

What about themes? Some themes are preferred more than others - are these "addictive" or just player choice?

The only way to 100% stop addiction is to ban slots outright - is that what everyone wants to see? A world full of illegal playtech casinos?

 

[brianmon]

MGS don't seem to take sound so seriously these days.

The sfx on most of their new releases are horribly cheap sounding.

They seem more of an after-thought, knocked up on an old Casio keyboard, than psychologically engineered.

But there again, I'm another one who plays with the sound off most of the time. I find the music and sfx just too boring and irritating

 

[petro]

A couple of years ago anti-slots groups here in Australia made a public appeal to "industry insiders" (people who work in the slots industry) to disclose the secrets that make slots addictive.
It was on the 6 o-clock news on TV and in the papers.

I believe there are things added to slots to make them more addictive. Some examples are near-win features.

 

[interlog]

This thread feels like a "we don't like good game design" type thread. So what should we do? What exactly is the answer?

Some jurisdictions (no online ones yet that I know of) have minimum game times. On our land-based games we have 3 speed settings the player can choose from. In terms of game time I actually prefer it when I don't have slam stop (quick stop) as I spend less money.

Would you all prefer it if we had no music or sound effects on games? What is "good" for one person is another persons hatred so to say something like "don't have addictive music on games" would be impossible to achieve. So should we have no sound at all?

What about themes? Some themes are preferred more than others - are these "addictive" or just player choice?

The only way to 100% stop addiction is to ban slots outright - is that what everyone wants to see? A world full of illegal playtech casinos?

Give the player the choice - pretty simple in my opinion.

Bonanza - no option to turn the music off. Why?

Book of Dead after the upgrade - option to speed the game up even further, yet no option to slow it down. Why?

If slot designers gave options to eliminate some of the things they are being accused off, then they can't be blamed surely.

 

[trancemonkey]

Give the player the choice - pretty simple in my opinion.

Bonanza - no option to turn the music off. Why?

Book of Dead after the upgrade - option to speed the game up even further, yet no option to slow it down. Why?

If slot designers gave options to eliminate some of the things they are being accused off, then they can't be blamed surely.

It differs greatly by manufacturer as you well know... I do agree that some don't help themselves sometimes!

 

[goatwack]

This thread feels like a "we don't like good game design" type thread. So what should we do? What exactly is the answer?

Some jurisdictions (no online ones yet that I know of) have minimum game times. On our land-based games we have 3 speed settings the player can choose from. In terms of game time I actually prefer it when I don't have slam stop (quick stop) as I spend less money.

Would you all prefer it if we had no music or sound effects on games? What is "good" for one person is another persons hatred so to say something like "don't have addictive music on games" would be impossible to achieve. So should we have no sound at all?

What about themes? Some themes are preferred more than others - are these "addictive" or just player choice?

The only way to 100% stop addiction is to ban slots outright - is that what everyone wants to see? A world full of illegal playtech casinos?

Bit dramatic isn't it? Acknowledging clever sound design and addictive hooks in games is not a criticism, it's just an observation at how well- designed half these games are, and highlighting the components of what makes them so addictive. That was the gist of the documentary after all...

No one wants to play C-64 style slots, we want the full experience. But as evidenced in the film, sound engineers play on all manner of responses that go that little bit beyond just good design, tapping into the players' emotions directly. It's nothing new of course but still fascinating in itself.

Yet as for the default speeding up of existing games, that's just simply greed and is unnecessary from a 'fair game' point of view.

 

[Sonict]

At least yggdrasil has done one thing right in terms of "reel speed" and has a setting on every slot so you can adjust how fast you want to win or lose. Such a great feature. Should be a thing in other providers as well.

 

[nikantw]

....
Bonanza - no option to turn the music off. Why?
Book of Dead after the upgrade - option to speed the game up even further, yet no option to slow it down. Why?
......

oops


Honestly, my 1st thought about the new speed at BoD was how many battles I would be able to play at the next happy hour.
Don't use autoplay most times anyway, not with real money.

 

[interlog]

oops

Honestly, my 1st thought about the new speed at BoD was how many battles I would be able to play at the next happy hour.
Don't use autoplay most times anyway, not with real money.

You turn that off but it turns everything off including the reel sounds and the scatters dropping in. Would have been nice to have the ability to turn the banjo shite off but still being able to hear the bell ring knowing the bonus is in eventually.

 

[Alexandre]

OK, OK point taken - I'll leave the female slot characters alone from now on.....

Back to point, the Tasty Street slot by MG I reviewed recently is possibly the worst example of this sexualisation. Mind you, Scandinavian Hunks my redress the balance a little bit for you....

Maybe you should try Bikini Beach, The Forbidden Chamber and World Soccer Slot from GamePlay.
Bonus games take it to the next level...

 

[bamberfishcake]