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What Makes a Slot Game Stick? A Look at the Features Players Actually Care About
Public Group active 1 month, 3 weeks agoSlots are the most popular casino games, online and in person. Basic versions are considered easy to learn, while more advanced games offer more advanced features, including bonus games, free spins, respins, and more. Variable stakes and paylines, along with bonus buy and other optional buy-in features, enable players to customize the playing experience to suit them.
Although every player’s preferences are different, some features tend to make certain slots sticky – bringing players back to place more wagers.
Online Slots
Online slots cover every genre and theme, with ancient Egypt and the Wild West being particularly popular themes (source: https://adventuregamers.com/online-slots). The games also come with a wide variety of features, as well as, according to online gambling expert Jovan Milenkovic, some beneficial bonuses.
Some bonuses are especially geared towards slot players, providing free spins of chosen games, and some casinos will even offer free spins to existing players when they launch or introduce a new game. But certain slot features encourage players to come back for more games.
RTP
Return to Player is the average amount of wagered money returned to players in winnings. It is the slot equivalent of house edge and expressed as a percentage.
A 96% RTP is considered pretty standard for online slots. It means, on average, for every $100 of money wagered by players, $96 of it is returned as winnings. This figure is an average, and you will see different results according to how the reels land and what type of slots player you are. But it does give some idea of the machine’s performance, especially when combined with volatility.
Volatility
Volatility is essentially a description of how often and how big players tend to win and is described on a scale from low to high, although some games are also described as very high.
A machine with low volatility pays out relatively often but doesn’t have big jackpots. It is a slow and steady game. Games with high volatility have big jackpots. They don’t usually pay out as often, but when they do pay out, the jackpots can be huge.
Prizes
Because most slot machines have variable stakes, prizes are generally depicted as being a multiplier of the player’s stake. So, a 100x prize means that a player wagering $1 per spin would receive $100 if they land that prize. Jackpots can range from 1,000x to 20,000x or more.
Some players prefer machines with lower jackpots, because these have lower volatility. Others prefer to go big or go home, only considering machines with the biggest possible returns.
Progressive Jackpot
The biggest jackpots are progressive jackpots. Progressive jackpot machines don’t have a fixed jackpot. Instead, a portion of every dollar staked is added to the jackpot. The jackpot keeps climbing with every dollar staked until it is won.
The player who hits the jackpot takes everything, and some prizes can total in the millions, although hundreds of thousands of dollars is a more likely figure. Once the jackpot is won, it resets to a minimum level, and the progression starts again. These games are popular with players who want to win life-changing sums of money.
Free Spins
There are a lot of extra features that are seen on certain machines, although not necessarily all games. Free spins are a common addition, and it is one of the most popular. Generally, landing specific symbols, or combinations thereof, will trigger the free spin feature.
The number of spins awarded may vary according to the number or position of the symbols, but they act exactly as the name suggests – the player gets to spin the reels as normal, but without having to pay. Winning with a free spin feels even sweeter than winning when you’ve paid the stake.
Bonus Games
While some people appreciate the classics – three-reel machines with minimal fuss – others prefer games with as many features and bonuses as possible. You can find some that incorporate bonus games.
The exact nature of bonus games varies, but, for example, in Pragmatic Play’s Fruit Party slot, the bonus game gives players free spins where they can also land stacking multipliers, and this can really see prizes rack up quickly.
Multipliers
The biggest wins usually come from jackpots and prizes combined with multipliers. These may be found as part of free spins or other bonus games, and they multiply your prize. Land a 12x multiplier on a $100 prize and you suddenly find yourself $1,200 to the good. Players like multipliers because it not only feels like they’ve won something, but it almost feels like they’ve cheated the game to get the bigger prize.
Bonus Buys
Bonus buys are only available in certain jurisdictions around the world – they are prohibited in some countries, including the UK. A bonus buy enables the player to pay extra money and to buy straight into the bonus round. Considering bonus rounds are where the big prizes are usually won, it is clear to see why players enjoy this feature.
Be aware, however, that bonus buys can be expensive, so always know how much you’re spending and what your budget is.
Megaways
For players who like some degree of randomness, even anarchic gameplay, Megaways slots have become very popular. In these games, the number of symbols on the reels, the payout table, and other mechanics can change with every spin.
They include other entropic features like cascading reels and variable paylines that really mix things up. Megaways games can offer massive jackpots of up to 200,000x the player stake, which is another reason these games are so popular.
Closing Thoughts
No two slot players are the same. One player might enjoy a classic three-reel slot while another prefers a video slot with 6 reels and thousands of paylines. Similarly, some prefer traditional themes like fruit or cards, while others get more enjoyment from music, TV, or movie themes.
Thankfully, there are tens of thousands of slots variants for players ot choose from, which means every player is well catered for.