Slot Machine Failed Features: Ideas That Didn’t Stick
Slot Machine Failed Features
Today we have the luxury of looking back and see all the slot machine failed features that didn’t make it to the present day. You have to keep in mind that back in the day, your average slot machine relied on nothing more than the three spinning reels and the players wanting to win. If you like, it was more about the pure essence of gambling. The desire to win the jackpot being the salient factor that drove players to stand for hours in front of these machines, steadily feeding them with coins. Likewise with slots tournaments. There were no fancy bells or whistles or anything else to distract from playing.
But as technology advanced, so did the expectations of the punters. No longer were simple spinning reels enough. It was as if the thrill of gambling in it’s purest sense was being pushed aside by features and distractions. Suddenly a machine that was able to offer more in the form of multiple bonuses or cascading reels, were becoming more and more popular. Soon certain features became fixtures across all slot machines. But there were some efforts that didn’t stick.
Certain ideas, like TV blackjack, that were meant to be attractive, ended up falling out of favor with the players, and thus being discontinued by the manufacturers. Let’s have a look at some of them…
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720 Ways
This was a feature from Microgaming. It was a new format which the company rolled out in 2009 and was called “243 ways”. For the first time, we had a slot machine without pay-lines. This machine made payout based on getting matching symbols to line up in adjacent reels. In this you had 243 ways to win. In some ways, it’s this sheer number of ways of winning that was used to attract punters. So, as night follows day, other developers though, that why not up the number of ways to win? And so 720 ways of winning was born.
These machines had 5 x reels and a rather strange 3-4-5-4-3 setup. The 720 machines played from left to right, which was the polar opposite of all other slots. But the exciting factor about 720 machines is that they practically tripled the payout possibilities of the 243 slots. But where they failed, and the reason for their demise, was that the design and layout were just too left-field for regular punters. No one could understand how to win the jackpot. It was too complicated. Whereas the 243 slots looked “normal” these new 720 slots looked down-right weird.
Slot Machine Failed Features: Seven-Reel Slots
Traditionally slots machines had just three reels. Then things went up to five. More recently there have been efforts from the game producers to up the ante even more. Today you can find games with 8 reels stacked 8 spaces high (8×8). Going back a few years, WGS Technology was the first online game developer to try this idea out on the general public. Their first efforts were called “Farming Fortunes” and “7-Reel Slot” (no points there for original naming).
But in spite of being advertised as something new and different, these games totally failed to bring anything new to the table. They were neither loaded with great features nor offering anything new. Scratch the surface and you’d find just a regular slot machine. Essentially, WGS was relying on the novelty factor of having 7 reels instead of the usual 5. But the players never bought into the idea. Today, 7 reel slots are popular, but they also bring a lot more to these jackpot games than these older versions.
Spiral Win Mechanism
Though NetEnt are today considered to be one of the most innovative developers in the gambling space, they have had their fair share of misses. A couple of years back, in 2017, they released a new slot called “Finn and Swirly Spin”. This was the game to introduce their new idea of the spiral reel mechanism. Essentially, symbols enter the screen bottom left. They then move around the outer rim of the reels. eventually, they make their way towards the center of the screen and then exit through a window in the screen’s center. Thus we have a spiral pattern starting from the outside and working its way towards the center.
Presently NewEnt are sticking with the spiral reel, though they are only found on two games, this one and its follow-up, Finn’s Golden tavern. It’s noticeable, that other manufacturers haven’t started producing games with this format.
Slot Machine Failed Features: Skill-Based Bonuses
It has to be admitted, that skills-based slots are one of the industry’s biggest failures to date. The idea was to have a game that would appeal to millennials but so far are failing to attract anyone. But just what are “skilled based slots”? Well, these games are very similar to regular slots. But the bonuses on offer require an element of skill. An example would be having to shot, in first-person shooter mode, a target in order to secure a bonus. They based these games around old video games, with “Centipede” and “Space Invaders” being their headline products. The idea is great, but the marketing tone-deaf. The problem is that regular slots players don’t want anything else to distract from their gaming experience. And millennials bought up on more advanced technology, don’t like old arcade games.
Generic Betting Strategies
Elk Studios have a string of successful jackpot slots to their name. Ecuador Gold, Electric Sam, and the Taco Brothers to name but a few. But they’ve also had some stinkers. And these have failed over their “betting strategies”. These were “guides”, that you could turn on or off, which would “help” you in any given situation. The problem here is that playing slots is risky enough. Without introducing another element of chance. So, this “system” was really for nothing as it simply threw more volatility into the mix.
Slot Machine Failed Features: Colossal Reels
These reels were introduced by WMS are available both online and off. There are 2 sets of reels with one being a 5×4 grid and the other a 5×12 grid. Both of these are set to combine 100 pay-lines. The thing with these machines is that having 2 sets of pay-lines can be pretty confusing. They make the machines look ugly. But having a 100 pay-lines certainly increases your chances of winning the jackpot.
Synced Reels
This refers to a design whereby 2 or reels contain identical symbols. Depending on the number of these identical symbols, this can lead to an increase in the number of prizes. For example, if you’re playing a 5 x 3 game. So you spin the reels. Reel number 2 and number 3 flash that they’re being synced. Then a diamond symbol fills up both reels. These sync features can show up on all five reels. Of course, by that point, you’d be due a huge payout. in spite of this, they never really caught on. Yes, it’s true that NetEnt still have them featured in their games library, no other manufacturer or producer has followed up on the format.
Conclusion: Slot Machine Failed Features
It’s a developers’ job to be constantly inventing new features and ways of both gaining and then keeping punters happy. That’s why we have new bonuses and new formats in an attempt to retain new players and increase your jackpot winning chances. But some of these features just don’t work on any level, except in the minds of the producer. Just like the failure of live dealer slots, there can be any number of reasons for this. Ugly design, confusing layout, and the novelty effect. But 7 reel slots and different betting strategies would fall under the “novelty” category. The problem is that they’re not offering anything to the player apart from being unique in their look and feel. And in the case of new strategies, well, these come across as “add-ons” as opposed to something new and exciting.
Spiral win formats are nothing more than a confusing headache for many players. And as far as “skilled-based” games go, they were a complete failure to understand the end-user. The synced reels from NetEnt looked in every way destined for success. So far this great idea is maybe too soon for it to stick. But it’s time will come. Maybe.
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