Is Bigger Always Better? Real Talk About Slot Machine Hold!

This GGB article is an interesting look at the impact that RTP (Return To Player) changes over time have had on the casino industry.

As a 25-year industry veteran, including more than 10 years designing highly successful slot machines, I certainly relate to and agree with many of the points contained in the article. Without giving away too many of my own professional secrets, here are a few additional comments/observations:

• TRUE: Players can't tell from a single brief play session whether any given machine holds more or less than another on average.
• ALSO TRUE: A player need not know anything about RTP or slot machine math to make the plain observation that $100 doesn't last as long at the casino as it used to.
• IT'S ALL RELATIVE: Moving from 8% hold to 12% is "only" a 4% increase in absolute terms, but in relative terms the house is keeping 50% more of the player's money. The player will definitely notice that effect if not the cause (after all, that's the reason $100 doesn't last as long as it used to!)
• FALSE: Players won't notice if you increase hold by pushing out the frequency of relatively low value (but fairly common) pays, because:
• TRUE: The more frequent an event is, the more sensitive the player will be to changes in that frequency, particularly when those frequencies fall well within the typical play session length. If you move a smallish pay from 1:40 to 1:50 the player is much more likely to notice the reduced frequency than if you move a huge pay from 1:2,000 to 1:2,500, even though the change (25%) is the same in both cases.
• TYPICAL VS. AVERAGE: The average or "mean" statistics for pay per spin, spins to bonus, etc. are important for verifying the theoretical RTP, but in most cases are absolutely irrelevant to the player because the player rarely, if ever, experiences the "average". It is much more important for game designers to focus on the typical player experience (e.g., pay attention to median and modal values rather than mean values) because that is how the player will judge the game.
• TRUE AND FALSE: Higher RTP is always favored by the player. True in the big picture (see the point above about how long the player's money lasts) but not always when comparing one game to another, because:
• HOW YOU PAY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HOW MUCH YOU PAY: RTP is just one factor among a multitude that define the "ride" of the game. Thinking that it doesn't matter to players is a mistake, but so is thinking that tighter games must always necessarily be worse games for the player.

To illustrate that last point, I offer two hypothetical math models:

• Model A consists of only one award, worth 9x wager, which occurs once in 10 spins for 90% RTP
• Model B consists of only one award, worth 9,500x wager, which occurs once in 10,000 spins for 95% RTP

Of the two, which model do you suppose the vast majority of players would prefer?

Neither is a great game, of course, and these are extreme examples just to prove my point, but overwhelmingly players would prefer the game that in this case theoretically keeps twice as much of their money!

Why?

Because while the average player experience is better with Model B, the typical player experience of Model A is far superior. In a play session consisting of 100 spins, Model A could be expected to deliver reasonably close to 10 hits for a total of 90x in pays, while Model B could be expected to deliver NOTHING in spite of the significantly more generous RTP.

Related to all of the above, I challenge the conventional wisdom, as expressed in the article, that "we are in the entertainment business."

Entertainment is often an important element of our games, but I believe that as slot designers and operators, we are NOT selling "entertainment" per se. If that's all a product has to offer, it will ultimately under-perform.

So what is the secret ingredient that all successful games do actually "sell" to keep players happy?

My clients know the answer.

(Hey, I told you I wasn't going to just give away my professional secrets!)

If you'd like to make a great new slot game, or perhaps could benefit from an analysis of your existing products, reach out to me at Neon Diamond Enterprises, LLC today. I'll be happy to share my experience and insights to help find a solution that meets your needs and keeps your players coming back for more!