The mechanics of slot machines aren’t too complicated to understand: you pull a lever and hope beyond all hope that the symbols on the spinning reels match and you hit the jackpot. Otherwise, it eats up some of your hard-earned cash, and you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself. That’s why it’s always been called the one-armed bandit.
It’s not hard to see why slot machines have remained so prevalent. There’s nothing to playing it – all you actually do is sit in front of the machine and keep pulling that lever. Still, for some strange reason, slot machines remain popular. In fact, it may very well be because playing slots is such a mindless activity. In Germany, which is largely considered Europe’s biggest gaming market, GTAI says that online gamers are proving to be almost as interested in playing brain-teasing and casual games as they are in grinding levels in MMOs. On the other hand, Gala Casino explains that much of the popularity of online slot games comes from the fact that products and user interfaces have both significantly evolved, leading to better customer experience.
While the way slot games are played hasn’t changed all that much, the games themselves have developed quite substantially. Decades ago, slot machines only had symbols of fruits and bells on their spinning reels, but now it seems that they’re featuring more and more of our favorite characters. Superhero-themed slots like Superman slots and X-Men-themed slots, where the images on the spinning reels are characters and elements from their respective franchises.
Fans of old games have also been treated to slot games featuring old favorites. Atari teamed up with IGT, a leading slot machine developer and manufacturer, to release a slot game based off of their Centipede game, where the bonus level actually has the player reliving the old Centipede game.
Even board games and classic tabletop games haven’t been immune to the slot machine craze. Konami, a company many recognize as a game developer but don’t realize actually makes slots, teamed up with Wizards of the Coast to release two Dungeons and Dragons slot machines last year.
Just about the only company that’s been steadfast in disallowing gaming is Disney, and being a family-oriented brand, we can see why. They even pulled out Marvel and Lucas Arts’ contract to lend their characters to slot developers when they acquired the company, much to the chagrin of many gamblers who went to casinos to play Star Wars slot machines.
We can see why slot machines are so popular – they’re easy to design and easy to play, and should serve as easy sources of revenue for the companies involved. We’ve seen hardly any brands able to resist the urge to team up with casino developers and release themed slot games, and it’s likely these themed slots will only continue to grow in number in the coming years.
(image credit: 7minutemiles.com)
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