The most annoying and pointless slot mechanics

CasinoNinja

Meister Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
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UK
So, I have thought about this for a while, and it just annoys me that there are so many slots out there which have annoying and pointless mechanics. Thus not very good at the whole customer experience.

So I've created a short list for now, this is not to be confused with the high volatile slots and missing "Ds" , but just mechanics in slots which seems so dumb, in my opinion anyway :)
And as we have a few slot developers in the forum, it would be good to get some input from these also.

First off is a relative new one, Gem Bonanza by Pragmatic:

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This game features a bonus round if you win with enough symbols (or cheat and bonus buy), along the way you can trigger different modifiers along the way if you connect the highlighted spots. These modifiers include giant symbols, wild gems, random wilds, squares (sets of symbols) and often considered the worst nuclear which wipes the board and gives you a fresh one for a new chance of connecting.

The gimmick with the bonus round is that you have all these modifiers from the start and if you collect enough symbols you level up and get higher multipliers and go again.

So so far all good right? Well, how about making the worst modifier even more.. pointless? That's right. When you trigger a bonus round it starts the bonus round when you have no more wins in the base game, but it actually dosen't give you a new board. Instead it USES your nuclear modifer to clear the board so you can start the round. I mean, what where they thinking?

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So basically, you get 4 modifiers by making one useless. @PragmaticWolf would love to hear what your design team was thinking when they thought this was a good idea.

Next up is .. Ghostbusters Plus by IGT

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So this games gimmick is that you get certain wild rewards for catching ghosts, either by landing them in the middle of the reel or triggering the bonus. These wilds could be a 10x wild, which places itself in the best possible position to give you a win times 10, or expanding wild which could expand left, right up down, or all the ways. Sound good right? WRONG.

For some bizarre reason, they have done it so when you get an expanding wild, it chooses the best position prior to expanding. So say you manage get an expanding wild that expands in ALL directions, maybe you got it from the bonus round which could be hard to trigger. Well, if you are really unlucky (or maybe most of the time!) it will place itself in the lower left corner of the screen to create a win and then expand. Making FIVE wilds expanding into the void, instead of putting itself in the middle of reel 2.

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This is seriously what has annoyed me the most, it's either some very strange reasoning behind it or just bad bad programming where they can't program the best position after expanding. Would LOVE to get an explanation from your online team @trancemonkey

Oh and as a bonus..

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Geeee, how generous.... (again why? Not a great experience!)


Next up is Yeti battle of Greenhat Peak by Thunderkick

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You know in most slots where wilds replace the symbol and if you say have 3 wild symbols in a row they are actually worth more than 4oak of say Q or A and you get paid for the 3 wilds instead? NOT IN THIS GAME.

Here they have decided that if you say have 4 wilds in a row and a J at the end, you get the wins for J and not 4 of the top premium symbol, which makes you lose out on 30x. The reasoning? Because of this rule:

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"Only the longest pay line is paid out" /facepalm


And now to the special shoutout to a whole bunce of bad mechanics in slots

- Slots where more than 3 scatters does NOTHING extra (Pimped, Jack and the Beanstalk and many many more)
- Slots which spends time doing animation for nothing, like expanding wilds when there is no win possible. Please don't waste our time.
- Slots where the freespins paytable are alot WORSE then the normal paytable, thinking you have hit the jackpot when you get wilds or multipliers (I even created a thread thinking I had been cheated on one game by Gamesys, only to find out that the paytable during freespins is like 5 times worse, so getting a 6x multiplier barley gives you anything extra)
- Slots who give you the rarest/highest paying symbol as an extra wild during freespins (Like Great Rhino)
- Slots who shoots out fireworks, lightning, big sounds, with celebration for ages for a ... 10x win. It's not a big win stop it!
- Slots who slows spins for the same reason for a 5x win. "Old" pragmatic slots where notorious for this like Madam Destiny.


Anyway, There is probably way more things also that annoys people who play slots, please comment with them. Maybe slots developers can improve by seeing this.


And if there is anyone who needs a beta tester, you know where to find me ;)
 
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- Scatters that make their "scatter sound" even when they cant give you a bonus or even a win. (piggy riches as example, stop f*cking oinking)
- Slots that only have scatters on reels 1-2-3, 1-3-5 etc. God gave you 5 reels, use them.
- Slots with obvious tells if its going to be a winning/losing spin. Thanks for ruining the fun.
 
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I too played ghostbusters plus a lot too. I am at like level 8 on it in ladbrokes. That shows you I played it a lot.......

Features are impossible to trigger on it. Random features are not to hard to trigger but the actual main 3 scatter feature is....

I also thought the same too. I always thought it was 100% rigged. It does clearly state it places those wilds in the best position to give the maximum win from it. But it never ever does. usually one every 100 it puts it in the best place.

Totally rigged. So eventually it dawned on me to not play that rigged IGT slot ever again. lol
 
I don't think online does it as much but on £500 arcade slots they often justify £2 stake over £1 stake with DOUBLE HEIGHT bonus symbols or BONUS RESPIN if 2 bonus symbols land

Why?! The machine has already decided if I'm getting a bonus or not for the spin, if it has decided I'm not getting it you could BONUS RESPIN 100 times and...I still wouldn't get it! Double height symbols just seem to mean 'oh look how unlucky you can just see me peeking from the top or bottom of the reels!'

Also SG £100 compensated games have a repeat chance if you win the £100, the player can press a 'Cancel' button on the screen to forefeit the chance...EH?!
 
I don't think online does it as much but on £500 arcade slots they often justify £2 stake over £1 stake with DOUBLE HEIGHT bonus symbols or BONUS RESPIN if 2 bonus symbols land

Why?! The machine has already decided if I'm getting a bonus or not for the spin, if it has decided I'm not getting it you could BONUS RESPIN 100 times and...I still wouldn't get it! Double height symbols just seem to mean 'oh look how unlucky you can just see me peeking from the top or bottom of the reels!'

Also SG £100 compensated games have a repeat chance if you win the £100, the player can press a 'Cancel' button on the screen to forefeit the chance...EH?!

I don't think the first point is quite the same as with these. I do believe they are programmed to give you a higher chance with bonus when you have double height and bonus respins. They also usually have higher RTP on £2 stake. It is of course decided from the moment you pressed spin, but that's how all slots work.

As to your last point, yes it would be pretty pointless to press cancel. But I do believe it costs you £1 to try the repeat chance, so I would think thats why they have that option there.
 
Pragmatic play has this double your chance to get feature to bet 25% more of your stake... Ill bet that is just there to make people bet more for nothing... Where is actual proof that it doubles my chance ? Does it double chance so instead of 1/10000 spins is feature , now its 1/5000 ?
 
Pragmatic play has this double your chance to get feature to bet 25% more of your stake... Ill bet that is just there to make people bet more for nothing... Where is actual proof that it doubles my chance ? Does it double chance so instead of 1/10000 spins is feature , now its 1/5000 ?

I don't particular like that feature either, especially with the likes of Stakelogic and Koi Princess where you stake DOUBLE of your original bet for a slightly higher chance, and a tiny improved bonus (in terms of Koi Princess anyway)
But, I do believe at least for the Pragmatic games the state they have twice the amount of bonus symbols and also have slightly higher RTP. So that's all good, even though I think they could do without.
 
I don't particular like that feature either, especially with the likes of Stakelogic and Koi Princess where you stake DOUBLE of your original bet for a slightly higher chance, and a tiny improved bonus (in terms of Koi Princess anyway)
But, I do believe at least for the Pragmatic games the state they have twice the amount of bonus symbols and also have slightly higher RTP. So that's all good, even though I think they could do without.
I really dislike that trend.
Since i mostly play 10p or 20p spins, it just makes me avoid those slots since i have to play alot of them at 40p if i want to have all the fun mini features etc.

Another thing i dislike is providers that put min stake at 40-60p. (kalamba for example)
I dont get it really, wouldnt they make more money if they put it on 20p and people like me played their slots instead of avoiding them?
 
- Slots which spends time doing animation for nothing, like expanding wilds when there is no win possible. Please don't waste our time.
- Slots who shoots out fireworks, lightning, big sounds, with celebration for ages for a ... 10x win. It's not a big win stop it!
These are my two biggest "pet hates" :mad:

You should play that exclusive "Captain Rizk Megaways" at Rizk Casino - shoots up a coin fountain for any win over x1 :eek:

RizkWin.jpg

KK
 
I don't think online does it as much but on £500 arcade slots they often justify £2 stake over £1 stake with DOUBLE HEIGHT bonus symbols or BONUS RESPIN if 2 bonus symbols land

Why?! The machine has already decided if I'm getting a bonus or not for the spin, if it has decided I'm not getting it you could BONUS RESPIN 100 times and...I still wouldn't get it! Double height symbols just seem to mean 'oh look how unlucky you can just see me peeking from the top or bottom of the reels!'

Well to be honest, a lot of games don't really work like that. The decision on whether you're going to trigger the bonus or not is usually made by randomly spinning the reels and landing them. What a lot of game providers do (because the jackpot is £500 on both £1 and £2 stake) is have the bonus pay something similar to the average value on the £1 stake and then increase the hit rate into it. But rather than put extra bonus symbols on the reels and hope the player assumes they are there or feels the improved frequency over time, it's much better to enhance the game in such a way that the benefits of staking £2 are obvious to the player straight away. So increasing the reel height or having a respin on two bonus symbols is a good way of telling the player that they will trigger the bonus more often on £2 stake, if that is what will actually happen - I mean, it would be stupid to increase the reel heights to suggest an improved chance of hitting the bonus, only to then remove bonus symbols from the reels to neutralise that perceived advantage - but I've seen some ridiculous things over the years.
 
Another thing i dislike is providers that put min stake at 40-60p. (kalamba for example)
I dont get it really, wouldnt they make more money if they put it on 20p and people like me played their slots instead of avoiding them?

This boils my piss and I'm glad you mentioned it. Why the fuck would you have a 20-line slot and not allow the player to set the line bet to less than 0.03? It's just pure greed and alienates people who like to play at max lines with a penny per line. I'll take my 20p and play somewhere else, thanks...
 
Hey @CasinoNinja :)

There'have been threads like this before, and i'm sure there will be more in the future, but yeah, there are so many examples, like you yourself and some of the other posters that entered the thread made clear: al very recognisable as some of my own slot 'pet peeves'...

My worst enemy is the mighty useless animation..the more intrinsic the more annoying: a small example for instance being the Red Tiger mechanic that will bring out a random feature thingy, which can pop up in three different wayts, but can also uniquely fob you off in 4 different ways! :eek:

A bit of teasing is fine but some providers love to take that to another level and troll the hell out of you..which in my opinion is bad business..the whole idea of slots is excitemnt, for which you pay dearlyy, and possibly will once every now and then win big. Not cool to rub the losing sessions in with uber-teases and trolls

Not only animations for random features but also special mystery symbols that can form a winning line and then always miss, funnily enough also one of Red Tigers uber-teases, they have slots where it can turn a mystery symbol in something different THREE times, and of course showing you one of the actual possible winning ones, as the second option, only then to fob you off with a complete losing one..

And then there are the symbols that already obviouslty can't form a winning line, or combo, that still all do the useless animation...
That's so pointless and i'd love to talk to the guys that come up with stuff like that! :D

Well you get the picture - i could complain for hours but don't feel like it ^.^
Will keep checking the thread for a few 'a-ha, that's me too' moments :)
 
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Hey @CasinoNinja :)

There'have been threads like this before, and i'm sure there will be more in the future, but yeah, there are so many examples, like you yourself and some of the other posters that entered the thread amde clear: al very recognisable as some of my own slot 'pet peeves'...

My worst enemy is the mighty useless animation..the more intrinsic the more annoying: a small example for instance being the Red Tiger mechanic that will bring out a random feature thingy, which can pop up in three different wayts, but can also uniquely fob you off in 4 different ways! :eek:

A bit of teasing is fine but some providers love to take that to another level and troll the hell out of you..which in my opinion is bad business..the whole idea of slots is excitemnt, for which you pay dearlyy, and possibly will once every now and then win big. Not cool to rub the losing sessions in with uber-teases and trolls

Noit only animations for random features but also special mystery symbols that can form a winning line and then always miss, funnily enough also one of Red Tigers uber-teases, they have slots where it can turn a mystery symbol in something different THREE times, and of course showing you one of the actual possible winning ones, as the second option, only then to fob you off with a complete losing one..

And then there are the symbols that already obviouslty can't form a winning line, or combo, that still all do the useless animation...
That's so pointless and i'd love to talk to the guys that come up with stuff like that! :D

Well you get the picture - i could complain for hours but don't feel like it ^.^
Will keep checking the thread for a few 'a-ha, that's me too' moments :)

Yes I totally agree on the teases. The biggest grip I have is that sometimes it teases to trigger a mystery feature, which is fine. But then when you finally get it, you don't hit anything. Take Blueprints games, they have a wide arrange of random features that gives you a mega symbols covering 3 reels, but I would say more often or not it places it in the middle of the 3 reels and then proceed to miss, not only is that very tilting it just dosen't feel rewarding when you trigger a rare feature.

Surely they could have programmed that "Ok, mystery feature triggered, but looks like it will miss. Lets not show the customer this" and keep everyone happy. Just bad, annoying and frustrating. Customer experience surely is everything?
 
A new one is Chocolates ×6 wild when no win is possible,goes through the animation making you look to see how much you may
have won when there is fuck all.

Even if no win is possible, it has POTENTIAL ok!
 
I really enjoy The Goonies but there is an animation where the key on the right can pulse then light up and trigger a random feature.

Sometimes though it pulses and starts lighting up then gives up and doesn't trigger anything. It's well annoying. Why be a prick tease!?
 
So many annoying mechanics (and ever increasing in number), so little time!

Any slot which, with almost deliberate glee, puts a “bonus” wild in a non affecting pointless location. Example: Moon Princess and clones. Actually almost any Play’nGo drop game.

Any game which charges increasing amounts to spin a single reel or similar. Slingo is exceptionally dodgy in this respect to be honest. It’s one thing to be able to do say £20 spins which you can control from the off but these actively encourage spending 5, 10, 20x your stake and upwards repeatedly.

Mystery symbols on Megaways slots which leave a gap on one of the first 3 reels then with a cast iron guarantee reveals a symbol not already on the screen. In fact I believe some are designed to do this so the minute you get a gap you know you are winning nada. That these now almost always are no more than 10x max makes the whole exercise tiresome.

I’ll throw my two penny’s worth in respect of teases as I have hated these ever since they were introduced and have commented on previously. Could never understand why someone thought it’d be a good idea to wind up someone who is often going to be irritated as they are losing by pretending to offer something then take it away. The fact early instances of this more often teased than bonused made this deplorable. I’m sure the designers got a good laugh out of it. Unfortunately pretty much all companies have this crap programming to one degree or another. Funnily enough Blueprint, the original instigator of this have tamed their teases down some what. Red Tiger, however took this to the max along with countless other annoying things all their slots seem to do.

And finally, not so much a specific mechanic, the “boy these slots are bloody boring when you don’t have the option to bonus buy” award! Yes, slots which do pretty much F all for hundreds of spins, sometimes thousands. Bonanza is still pretty much top of the pile but at least it’s base game is reasonably balanced. No, the slots which have a bonus hit around the 350-400+ bracket, then spit out 10-20x more often than not. Good job I’m not looking for fun while I lose.
 

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