The Future of "Role Playing" Slot Machines?

After hearing about the Lord of the Ring slot machine on this forum, I was excited to see and play the game for myself. So when I was in Las Vegas this past week, I did exactly that.

For those of you who have not heard of the Lord of the Ring slot machine, a player is able to create a log in name and password and save their progress to help Frodo and the ring travel from the Shire all the way to the Uruk Hai battle outside of Rohan. The more you play, the more further you travel through the world of Middle Earth and have access to different video cut scenes and bonus rounds.

The Lord of the Ring slot machine appeared to be the most highly desired games this past week in Las Vegas. While I must admit that I did not find very many of them in the MGM properties on the south end of the Strip (I was staying at the Mandalay Bay), every machine I walked up to during normal daylight and evening hours was being played. And these players stubornly held on to their machines and sat there for hours on end. One "team" of players even reserved machines for each other as they took turns going to the bathroom or grabbing food from the nearby sports bar.

I watched for a while and quickly understood why the game was so addicting. One of the players had progressed their characters up to Moria and all of the other players would turn and drool whenever the Moria player would hit their bonus sequence. Everyone seemed to be very diehard about progressing through this role playing game and were willing to spend hours upon hours at the same machine to do just that.

My chance to play happened at 4:00 a.m. one morning when I woke up at the ungodly hour due to screwed up sleep schedule and time change. However, I quickly discovered that there are speakers built into the seat, and for the life of me I could not adjust them to be quieter. So after a few minutes, I left with a pounding headache and wandered off to the craps tables.

Regardless, I think that these "role playing" slot machines are going to be the wave of the future. Allowing players to save their progress and "level up" is a fantastic idea. I wonder what the expected loss to complete the game is.

My wife absolutely loves this game. She'll sit there for hours, and yes she has all the bonuses opened.

That being said, while I don't see them quite being the wave of the future for slot machines, I do see them having a solid place in the gaming market for quite some time. My wife was also a big fan of the Star Trek game that was big a few years ago, where you could also save your progress and open new levels/bonuses.

More important than the saving of progress, I think, is the fact that this machine manages to tell a story that the player already knows and likes. Imagine a slot machine w/ a Spiderman theme and a kissing Mary Jane upside down bonus. This would do very well. Anything with a good, known story like that will do ungodly amounts of business.

I've long thought that a video machine made kind of like a video game would do well, one where if you didn't do well enough on a bonus, you didn't pass it and had to try again. Progress could still be saved, but simply sitting there and hitting the buttons long enough wouldn't ensure beating the game. My wife hasn't played LOTR nearly as much since she opened the last bonus. She has nothing new to look forward to from the game.

That, or a slot that doesn't steal your money so damn quick. I'm a VP guy.

I've seen these, but haven't played them. Are the Star Trek machines suppose to have a similar role playing action in the form of missions? Although I played STs ones and saw other games on the screen, they never became available while I was playing, so I didn't really understand what the purpose of it was.

There is a way to log in and out of those machines, I believe thru the options menu. The wife would know better. The extent of the experience I have with this machine was putting in $20, playing 1 line times 1 credit at the Palms and getting a whole bunch of strong drinks from a hot meth head looking waitress.

The really neat thing about LOTR is that they have the log-in linked with your players club card, logging you in automatically.

Quote: rdwy29

I've long thought that a video machine made kind of like a video game would do well, one where if you didn't do well enough on a bonus, you didn't pass it and had to try again.

Kind of like this Pong game?

When I first read about these I thought they would be fun to try, and I remember seeing a bank of them at the Silverton. I didn't play them at that time figuring I could do it later but they didn't last long enough for me to ever see them again. Neither Boyd nor Caesar's shows them in their inventory.

Something like that. I was more thinking that it probably shouldn't have an actual skill component, as women don't play video games as much as men, yet play more slots. I was thinking it should be like a regular bonus, random. All slot players know that some bonuses are good, some are bad. The more you play, the more good bonuses you get, the more new bonuses are unlocked.

The best role-playing game I've played was the Jeopardy! slot at the Silverton. Not the old reel Jeopardys -- these were video slots with Alex's voice and everything. I was disappointed there was no trivia element, however. But it was fun (and I won!).

Funny, I've never seen them anywhere else but the Silverton. They always seem to have the newest and greatest variety of slots there.

I can see how these will be popular with at least part of the gaming population. Harrah's here in St. Louis has had a bank of the Star Trek machines for a couple years, and every time I walk past them, all seats are filled. The concept strikes me as one that would appeal to a younger demographic, but I've seen mostly middle aged people playing the Star Trek games here.

I played the Star Trek game here once, and had the same issue as gambler did with the incredibly loud speakers & no volume control.

Both Star Trek and Lord of the Rings are called adaptive gaming by their maker WMS Gaming.

They also make what are called Sensory Immersion games (loudspeakers and vibration games)
1) The Wizard of Oz
2) The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers
3) Time Machine
4) Dirty Harry
5) Top Gun
6) Attack From Mars/ Revenge from Mars

In their annual report they consider both of these types of games as important to the corporate long term health. Adaptive gaming in particular they hope will bring in people who don't normally play slot machines, a hard core minority group.

WMS is considered one of the best bets in the gaming industry right now.

Quote: pacomartin

Both Star Trek and Lord of the Rings are called adaptive gaming by their maker WMS Gaming.

They also make what are called Sensory Immersion games (loudspeakers and vibration games)
1) The Wizard of Oz
2) The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers
3) Time Machine
4) Dirty Harry
5) Top Gun
6) Attack From Mars/ Revenge from Mars

In their annual report they consider both of these types of games as important to the corporate long term health. Adaptive gaming in particular they hope will bring in people who don't normally play slot machines, a hard core minority group.

WMS is considered one of the best bets in the gaming industry right now.

I thought the idea of saving progress quite clever. Many video games allow you to put in usernames and PIN codes to get your settings, high scores, progress, etc., from a central server. It makes sense to do this with story based video slots. However, I can see the problems with player's losing interest after opening all the levels. Another problem is what happens when communication with the central server is lost? I saw a bank of Star Trek machines displaying "cannot connect" messages. More complex interaction, means more maintenance headaches.

The "envy bonus" rounds on the Wizard of Oz variant I saw at South Point was well received. It encourages "teams" of players to occupy all the seats since the bonus spins are distributed to all the active players on the bank of machines. I can forsee (if it doesn't already exist) a LOTR machine where groups of players can assume the avatars of characters from the story, teaming up to open new, "group" bonuses. There are millions of World of Warcraft / Starcraft players all over the world. It seems like that would be a natural for one of these themes.

Quote: Ayecarumba

However, I can see the problems with player's losing interest after opening all the levels.

When that happens to home PC games, the manufacturer releases expansion packs. No reason why they can't do something similar with video slots. The trick is in letting the players know. I don't suppose the slots ask for your email address?

Oh, I played Star Trek a bit in 09 at IP, maybe $20 for ten minutes or so. I'm not big on slots.

Quote: Ayecarumba

The "envy bonus" rounds on the Wizard of Oz variant I saw at South Point was well received. It encourages "teams" of players to occupy all the seats since the bonus spins are distributed to all the active players on the bank of machines. I can forsee (if it doesn't already exist) a LOTR machine where groups of players can assume the avatars of characters from the story, teaming up to open new, "group" bonuses. There are millions of World of Warcraft / Starcraft players all over the world. It seems like that would be a natural for one of these themes.

There are lots of these "Social Gaming" multi plyer bonus banks, one based on The Amazing Race, another on Monopoly, and there are others I am forgetting right now. Its not much of a stretch to expect more of these coming through, especially with stronger themes.

I enjoy playing these type of slot with my wife, as it means we both get the bonus at the same time.