The most annoying and pointless slot mechanics

[johnnymcc1966]

People who are complaining about the sounds the slots make should do as I do and turn the sound off.You know how a slot is playing by how fast your balance drops but those annoying pretences of scatters for bonuses prevent you from moving to another game because you think you are 'due' a bonus. All games are played in silent mode for me.

 

[bigbear]

All those slots that announce CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE COMPLETED AN ACHEIVEMENT when a win drops in of 2x or less.Makes you want to give up there and then.

 

[Kentakofot]

Awesome rants ya'll, @OP you made me realise whats been bugging me so much.

 

[cappync]

When more than 3 scatters doesn't lead to big wins. Usually happens when scatters lead to a "pick style" bonus round.

(Got 5 scatters on RTGs Cash Bandits 2 once and only got 5 free spins x2)

 

[Klaaiboer]

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?

Beavis & Butthead take this to another level: a while ago I triggered the mega symbol with such a mystery feature. I was lucky, because it landed on the 1st 3 reels with some matching symbols on reel 4 and 5. Nice win I thought, but than one of those f*ckheads took his fishing reel and took that mega symbol away from the screen.....

Result: tilting, leaving the game and never playing it again. Developers: nice job; well done (I have to admit: never seen anything like this, super original!)

 

[johnnybagel]

Beavis & Butthead take this to another level: a while ago I triggered the mega symbol with such a mystery feature. I was lucky, because it landed on the 1st 3 reels with some matching symbols on reel 4 and 5. Nice win I thought, but than one of those f*ckheads took his fishing reel and took that mega symbol away from the screen.....

Result: tilting, leaving the game and never playing it again. Developers: nice job; well done (I have to admit: never seen anything like this, super original!)

The game can drop wins then take them away!? Thats well harsh haha

 

[k6kaysix]

Someone should make a slot where when you get 3 scatters, sometimes one of them starts moving again and moves out of the screen. That would be the worst.

Koi Princess will be right up your street

 

[electronictonic]

The spin button on any NetEnt slot, the ones that piss me off are the random bonus triggers that end up doing nothing, so thats nearly every Blueprint slot and the mechanics of the way Golden Glyph is blatantly designed to constantly troll the player over and over.

 

[Playford7]

Terminator 2 scatters that are as much use as tits on a tortoise in the bonus round.

 

[shadow123]

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.

slightly off topic sorry

If the UKCG were doing thier job properly, all Slingo games would have been outlawed years ago,
they are lethal to anyone who doesnt understand how fast the stakes build up, you can easily bet 100x starting
stake and end up with nothing.I have been playing them a lot and been very lucky so I have no complaint but they
are far too dangerous for the average player.
The Candy lines thing Blueprint have done as a Slingo type game
is a total joke and just takes the piss.

 

[colinsunderland]

Anything IGT have added to their games.
Can't remember the last time I played on one of their games for money, but been playing them a little in free tournaments recently, why would anyone spend money on them. Go ages without sniffing a bonus, then when you get it it pays 20x max. They wipe your balance out, did 25 spins earlier and it returned 0.4 x stake (2 x 0.2 wins).
They could half the spin speed and it still wouldn't be close to the UKGC limit of 2.5 seconds per spin.
Some still don't have autoplay.
Just literally everything about them is annoying.

 

[sufferinsilence]

This is not a mechanic perse but it's annoying and been happening since a couple of months on Novomatics: just before a winning spin or a spin that requires an animation it'll have a little lag or you see the reels "skip".

Just For The Win's latest game Silverback Multiplier Mountain also has this skip before it lands the bonus, so if it doesn't do the skip and teases with 2 scatters you know it isn't coming.

I've seen this happen on videos too so it's not just on my computer, I don't know if this happens on the mobile versions too.

 

[Klaaiboer]

Not a mechanic, but in general: dozens of spins without almost any win and then a win of 10x the stake.....: as if you've won a lifechanging jackpot, with all those applauses and endless animations: zum
Glad as a Dutch I can skip most of them.... (still annoying and irritating!)

 

[bamberfishcake]

Not a mechanic, but in general: dozens of spins without almost any win and then a win of 10x the stake.....: as if you've won a lifechanging jackpot, with all those applauses and endless animations: zum
Glad as a Dutch I can skip most of them.... (still annoying and irritating!)

Yes, completely agree. x10 is not a big win, its borderline insulting when the fan fair kicks in flashing 'Big Win!'

I like the brutal honesty of Punk Rocker.

 

[Gam Blor]

I don't play slots any more, but a major bugbear was any slots (I'm looking at you BTG) that didn't let you turn the volume off when you hit a bonus. They used to have that option (so you didn't have to listen to the music normally, but could turn it on for a bonus), but then they hid it behind an options screen that you can only access when you're not in a bonus. I realise you can do things like use the volume mixer, but even then - if you're watching a Youtube video etc in the same browser, still outcome.

Not as annoying as getting a wild line on some circus based slot some years ago and not being paid ANYTHING. It turns out that wild lines don't pay anything on their own. I pointed out that they could substitute the highest paying symbol, but it all fell on deaf ears.

Or the time I got a FOUR scatter trigger on The Cube at 60p stake, and it paid 3p.

 

[curremon]

@NolimitCity - Pelle Ice Ice Yeti... Reels expand when ice breaks resulting nothing... Some random shiny wild symbol appears some times to slow reels resulting NOTHING...

 

[Masquerade67]

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!?

You get a stiffy over The Goonies' skull-key ?? - Now, if only they had Steph and Andie on the reels...... that would bring back my childhood

 

[johnnybagel]

You get a stiffy over The Goonies' skull-key ?? - Now, if only they had Steph and Andie on the reels...... that would bring back my childhood

Haha well what can I say, lockdown has left me with limited options to get excited about

 

[xraymitch]

People who are complaining about the sounds the slots make should do as I do and turn the sound off.You know how a slot is playing by how fast your balance drops but those annoying pretences of scatters for bonuses prevent you from moving to another game because you think you are 'due' a bonus. All games are played in silent mode for me.

Unless I like the music - I usually play with the sound off and the radio on. I suspect music and sound are used to encourage play - I keep the sound on when playing Starburst - and possibly induce a trance like or hypnotic state.

I wonder if there are any game music composers on this site ?

 

[Odds4slots]

All fancy teasers will be a history soon. At least in UK,thanks to our beloved UKGC which really like to kill the game in any aspects. We've got net position counters on the site visible now,so once you pressed the button you can already see if your balance changed up or down,so all these fancy animations are going straight to the bin, at other hand, treating players as brainless monkeys falling into fancy ,splashy,near miss screens to keep them going will be history too.

 

[johnnybagel]

There was one I used to play a few years back with brilliant music, I think I might have just played it for that to be honest... It was like a retro, space themed slot. Wish I could remember the name of it, the music had a slight 80s vibe.

 

[johnnybagel]

It was Neon Staxx! I've just gone and found the music and i'm banging it out right now haha

 

[mcgameboy]

What are the most pointless and annoying slot mechanics, asks the OP?

All of them. F*cking all of them. Mainly because they will (at one point or another) provoke the following reaction from me.......




Needless to say, I have NEVER played online slots on my mobile while eating out at any of my preferred dining establishments....

 

[brianmon]

All fancy teasers will be a history soon. At least in UK,thanks to our beloved UKGC which really like to kill the game in any aspects. We've got net position counters on the site visible now,so once you pressed the button you can already see if your balance changed up or down,so all these fancy animations are going straight to the bin, at other hand, treating players as brainless monkeys falling into fancy ,splashy,near miss screens to keep them going will be history too.

Good riddance to all those 'fancy teasers', they were only meant for the 'brainless'.

NetEnt appears to have got rid of them and their games are actually much more enjoyable now.
No more sitting waiting to see if that 3rd scatter lands. it's either there or it isn't.

it was just one of the psychological tricks that game producers used to keep the punters playing.

Just like the less than stake wins sounds. those 'wins' were just there to give the impression you were winning more than you actually were.
It would have been expecting too much for the producers to remove those 'wins' altogether. The games would have had to be completely redesigned.
So removing the sounds was the next best thing.

Personally, I'd rather play and decide whether to continue playing from what's actually happening,
Rather than be guided by psychological 'tricks of the trade' like deliberate near-misses, 'heart-stopper' moments and sub stake wins.

If you don't like the net position indicators. Don't look at them.
Although all the ones I've seen, only update after the spin has finished.

 

[satchnz]

Good riddance to all those 'fancy teasers', they were only meant for the 'brainless'.

I guess you could argue it the other way as well. People who think that they are close to winning from teasers could be brainless for thinking so?

Personally, from a player who plays minimum stakes primarily for fun, I enjoyed all the teases and noises. Without them playing slots becomes boring. Without the bells and whistles you might as well just put you money in a black box for it to spit some cash back out, in my opinion.