I played myVEGAS slots, a 17+ slot machine game developed by Playstudios, Inc. It is available on iOS and Android devices, and interestingly, it is also a Facebook game. On the iOS store, this game is categorized as “frequent/intense gambling”, and I would suggest people stay away from this game regardless of their age. One unique thing about this game is that is it the official game of MGM Resorts, one of the largest casinos in the states. Players can earn discounts for hotel rooms, meals, and show tickets by playing this game (see picture below). Therefore, players have more external motivations (aka excuses) to play this game.
This game is a single-player game, but as I was playing it with music on, I noticed my boyfriend sitting next to me got intrigued by it immediately, and asked if he could play it. This game definitely puts people at risk for addiction. In class, I learned about sound design, and the sound design for this game perfectly matches the casino vibe. The game also provides attractive user feedback via sounds. For example, every time I win tokens, the game will play the sound of coins dropping. The game’s visual makes it addictive as well. There is always something shiny and moving on the screen that calls for players’ attention. Moreover, the game has multiple interesting mechanics. For example, in one of the slot machine games called Sweet Land (see picture below), players can win “60k chips”, “+1 race”, and “+8 spins” when they reach a certain number of spins. I played this game for a while. Even though I still do not understand how winning is calculated, I get very excited about winning every once in a while. I found myself attributing my winning to my good spinning, which I thought was very interesting especially because I knew it was completely false. In the “Addiction by Design” article, I learned that the slot machine game is programmed in a way that I have very little chance of profiting and I have no real power to change the outcome of my spins. However, I still “turned off” my knowledge of the slot machine and got mesmerized by the shiny signals and addictive sounds. I just wanted to see more shiny sparkles and hear more coin-dropping sounds!
While the sound and visual design sets this game apart from other games that use chance such as Poker, this game has another layer of mechanic that makes it extra addictive: Today’s Mission (see picture below). Players have many daily missions they need to complete within a certain amount of time in order to gain free tokens. This mechanic brings in time as a valuable resource in the game and hints to the players that the more time they invest in the game, the higher return (aka free tokens) they will get. Tying back to what Randy mentioned in his guest lecture, people always think they will win after consecutive failed attempts. Based on the probability theory, swinginess does go down when the base attempts go up. However, that does not mean players are guaranteed to win after a certain number of spins. This daily mission further complicates the players’ illusion that they are going to win by offering them free tokens and encouraging them to do more spinning.
