binary128
Dormant account
- Joined
- May 18, 2009
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Hello. For those who don't know me, my name is Chris Colby and I am the President of Galewind Software Corp.
It seems so much longer than 7 months ago (17 September 2011) when I started a thread titled Return to Player - Critiques Requested.
In a nutshell, the reason for my starting that thread was to request feedback (criticism, suggestions, shredding) from Casinomeister members about a new page for our Help system that we had just finished writing. This new Help page was our attempt to create "... a file that will (definitively?) address the subject of Return to Player (RTP) Percentage."
Although the focus of that first post, and of the linked Help file, was RTP data, it took less than one day before spiderlegz posted:
My response:
(The request for Volatility data, or Standard Deviation data, was brought up several more times by other members throughout the thread. My response to each was pretty much the same as what I've quoted above to spiderlegz.)
So, anyway, spiderlegz, finally ... Link Removed ( Old/Invalid) . (Or perhaps only a part, albeit a significant part, of it.) It took us 7 months to do it - it moved from the freezer to the fridge to a small pot on a back burner. But ultimately, mission (mostly) accomplished.
(BTW - when you open this page in a full browser window, it may look a little funky. That's because it was designed to load into the much smaller Help system popup window. In that small window, it looks just fine.)
The title of this thread is "Critiques Requested". Once again we are looking for input/criticism/suggestions from Casinomeister members. The numbers are what they are - IMO there is nothing there to criticize. (Unless we made a formatting error with one of the numbers, in which case I'd appreciate knowing about it.)
The area that we think, or more accurately that we know, needs help is within the Definition of Terms section. There are only 3 terms included here: Standard Deviation, Variance, and Line Pay Hit Frequency.
We think that we have some pretty decent content for both Standard Deviation and Line Pay Hit Frequency. For Variance - we have absolutely nothing. As in squat, zip, nada. Thus my statement that this mission is "mostly accomplished".
So, I ask Casinomeister members - please give us some words. What does Variance mean to you? If there is a range, for example Low, Medium and High, then what are the cutoff numbers? Is 20 Low? Is 50 Low? Or 100?
If anyone is aware of Variance numbers from other software suppliers, then these might be helpful to include in the discussion.
BEWARE - eye-glaze zone ahead.
Here is the equation used to calculate the Variance. It was applied to sample runs of approximately 20 million rounds for each of our slots. The margin of error for our reported Variance values is in the range of +/- 1.5.
(S2/WRB^2/WRC) - (S1/WRB/WRC)^2
WRC = Wagered round count. Example: For a Free Spin win slot, this is the number of non-free spin rounds.
WRB = Wagered round bet amount. For a line bet of $1 on all lines of a 20 line slot, this value would be 20.
S1 = Sum(Paid Amount). Example: A $20 round "Pays" $6. Technically, this is a $14 loss, but for this calculation it is summed as a $6 win.
S2 = Sum(Paid Amount Squared). The $6 amount above would be summed here as 36. This gets tricky with a Free Spins slot. For a series of Free Spins, the paid amounts are first summed, then squared, and this value is what is then added to the S2 total. That is, the Free Spin amounts are not squared separately, and each value added to the S2 total. They are first added together, this sum is then squared, and the result is added to the S2 total.
The Standard Deviation values were then calculated as the square root of the Variance values.
I could look up Variance in Wikipedia, but that doesn't give me what I think Slot Players in a Casino are looking for. Maybe Casinomeister members don't know either. But I think it would be great if we could somehow put some human meaning to these numbers.
Thanks in advance.
Chris
It seems so much longer than 7 months ago (17 September 2011) when I started a thread titled Return to Player - Critiques Requested.
In a nutshell, the reason for my starting that thread was to request feedback (criticism, suggestions, shredding) from Casinomeister members about a new page for our Help system that we had just finished writing. This new Help page was our attempt to create "... a file that will (definitively?) address the subject of Return to Player (RTP) Percentage."
Although the focus of that first post, and of the linked Help file, was RTP data, it took less than one day before spiderlegz posted:
You could list the volatility of the games, especially for Slots.
My response:
spiderlegz - Re: volatility.
We thought about it.
We decided against it because we wanted to try and keep the scope of the page focused on the issue of "Return to Player". Even then, we still found it necessary to wade into House Edge, "statistically perfect" game play, Element of Risk, etc.
I agree that the issue of volatility is important for slot games (versus, say, Video Poker games). If we wanted to discuss how volatility and House Edge combine to create the player experience for slots, I think that would best be done on a separate page.
(The request for Volatility data, or Standard Deviation data, was brought up several more times by other members throughout the thread. My response to each was pretty much the same as what I've quoted above to spiderlegz.)
So, anyway, spiderlegz, finally ... Link Removed ( Old/Invalid) . (Or perhaps only a part, albeit a significant part, of it.) It took us 7 months to do it - it moved from the freezer to the fridge to a small pot on a back burner. But ultimately, mission (mostly) accomplished.
(BTW - when you open this page in a full browser window, it may look a little funky. That's because it was designed to load into the much smaller Help system popup window. In that small window, it looks just fine.)
The title of this thread is "Critiques Requested". Once again we are looking for input/criticism/suggestions from Casinomeister members. The numbers are what they are - IMO there is nothing there to criticize. (Unless we made a formatting error with one of the numbers, in which case I'd appreciate knowing about it.)
The area that we think, or more accurately that we know, needs help is within the Definition of Terms section. There are only 3 terms included here: Standard Deviation, Variance, and Line Pay Hit Frequency.
We think that we have some pretty decent content for both Standard Deviation and Line Pay Hit Frequency. For Variance - we have absolutely nothing. As in squat, zip, nada. Thus my statement that this mission is "mostly accomplished".
So, I ask Casinomeister members - please give us some words. What does Variance mean to you? If there is a range, for example Low, Medium and High, then what are the cutoff numbers? Is 20 Low? Is 50 Low? Or 100?
If anyone is aware of Variance numbers from other software suppliers, then these might be helpful to include in the discussion.
BEWARE - eye-glaze zone ahead.
Here is the equation used to calculate the Variance. It was applied to sample runs of approximately 20 million rounds for each of our slots. The margin of error for our reported Variance values is in the range of +/- 1.5.
(S2/WRB^2/WRC) - (S1/WRB/WRC)^2
WRC = Wagered round count. Example: For a Free Spin win slot, this is the number of non-free spin rounds.
WRB = Wagered round bet amount. For a line bet of $1 on all lines of a 20 line slot, this value would be 20.
S1 = Sum(Paid Amount). Example: A $20 round "Pays" $6. Technically, this is a $14 loss, but for this calculation it is summed as a $6 win.
S2 = Sum(Paid Amount Squared). The $6 amount above would be summed here as 36. This gets tricky with a Free Spins slot. For a series of Free Spins, the paid amounts are first summed, then squared, and this value is what is then added to the S2 total. That is, the Free Spin amounts are not squared separately, and each value added to the S2 total. They are first added together, this sum is then squared, and the result is added to the S2 total.
The Standard Deviation values were then calculated as the square root of the Variance values.
I could look up Variance in Wikipedia, but that doesn't give me what I think Slot Players in a Casino are looking for. Maybe Casinomeister members don't know either. But I think it would be great if we could somehow put some human meaning to these numbers.
Thanks in advance.
Chris