Wanted: Crystal Ball

[Abe Frohman]

I wonder what the future holds for the currently-available electronic machines?  I mean, I love IGT Video Poker, but otherwise I feel a tiny bit of regret that the "Old Days" are gone in that computers have infiltrated the once purely-mechanical world of slot machines.  Even the electromechanical devices still had "real reels" that spun and a spring-loaded metal lever which snapped into a sawtooth gear to decide your fate.  You could really moan when a "near hit" happened in that it really was a near-hit.  Now when I see people scream at how "close" their spin was I just think of an IGT executive laughing histerically in a board room somewhere in Reno.

For the same (or similar) reasons that we think pachislo games are "fake" - aren't the new games getting further away from chance gaming, and more towards stimulation of the senses?  As server-based gaming come online, banks of thin-client machines will pull any game down from a server, enabling a player to not even get his fat butt up off the seat to play a different game.  Aren't we really just turning gambling into gaming, and then into taxation, sitting mindlessly while a corporation provides a workstation into which we plug our brains and wallets, going home hundreds of dollars poorer and calling it entertainment?  If I'm sitting at what is essentially a network node that will serve me the pretty pictures and sounds of my choosing while it sucks me bone dry, probably taking credit cards, couldn't I essentially do this from home over the Internet?  I once joked about Lottery players just having an auto-debit taken from their paychecks and a governemnt computer emailing them if they won, taking all the "hassle" out of having to go to the store, buy the ticket, scratching off each number or looking up winning numbers, throwing it out...  Heck, if I win just auto-transfer it back IN to my account and that way I don't even have to be bothered by the whole thing.  The governments, corporations and slot manufacturers know that most people don't know or care how it works; they'll be thrilled by the moment and it's their right to stay ignorant of the mechanics behind the thrill.  It's like not wanting to know how a magic trick is done - it's not fun anymore, and in fact you get a little mad at the magician for having deceived you.

I'm a technologist at heart, and I know there's nothing you can do to stop the progression of bigger (smaller), better, faster.  I'm not even sure how or why I'm tying the progression of technology into the future of standalone games, but I wonder what we'll think of these games when they become "the good old days".

If I had unlimited resources I'd be as big a fan of a Watling or Mills as I would a Wheel of Fortune or of cutting-edge technologies.  But these games particularly, the S+ PE+ S2000 crowd, will we see these as cheezey Atari / Intellivision / Nintendo games in ten or twenty years?  Playing an antique nickel slot is nostalgic fun, not drinking with buddies on a Saturday night fun.  If I had a bank of Wheel of Fortune progressives in my house that would be fun.  But what will we think of a Double Diamond in 2020?  I always think of how much I love(d) Atari games until I actually *play* one for about ten minutes at which point I can't help but to laugh and ask "what the heck did I see in this game - it's soooo basic and cheezey!"  You have to put the experience in proper frame or perspective to appreciate it.

So...  Will these games still be FUN to the general public after a decade or so of server-based fifty-line video slots with bonus rounds and parimutual betting, and who knows what else?  Or will the machines of this era become laughable antiques?

[Neonkiss]

 I always think of how much I love(d) Atari games until I actually *play* one for about ten minutes at which point I can't help but to laugh and ask "what the heck did I see in this game - it's soooo  cheezey!" 

That's kinda what I think of when I look back the the hairstyle and clothes I was wearing in my high school photos.

[stayouttadabunker]

Quoting yountod  [So...  Will these games still be FUN to the general public after a decade or so of server-based fifty-line video slots with bonus rounds and parimutual betting, and who knows what else?  Or will the machines of this era become laughable antiques?] End Quote

They may be the only slots available 20 or 30 years from now because
we may or may not ever get our hands on the server software that runs the the server-based ones ?
Who knows, we may have in the near future some whiz kid that will design a program that may run these things.

or...gambling will be legal everywhere and all you'd have to do a pay a monthly cable subscription for a "Gambling Channel".

[jay]

I think you need to appreciate technology - for what it is. Any device is no more than a snap shot in time.
 
If you think about it, technology will continue to evolve and its just like a Merry Go-Round in the playground you choose when to hop on and when to hop off, but the ride keeps on spinning and there is nothing you can do about it. You can buy a flatscreen TV today, tomorrows will be faster, larger, thiner, with more integrated features etc... but you will continue to use your current TV for 3,5,15 years ?

It is easy to become passionate about a technology. For instance to say you love PC and hate Mac or vise versa is easy to do because you are empowered by knowledge and functionality and when faced with competing technology you become crippled. I love my Galga but hate  Metaloid. Why... because I am trained to move a joystick and hit one button. When faced with 6 buttons and a very unfamiliar joystick coupled with combo-moves I am out of my element. I am sure if I spent as much time playing on the new consoles as I did in the arcades of the past I would be equally as enamored as my son is.

Slots are the same way. I love my S+ 3reels spinning etc. In reality the internal is a computer having selected a combo long before exact stepper motors are employed to display the results. No different than a video slot simulates spinning wheels with improved graphics. I hate video slots and that has a lot to do with the presence of the machine being too computerisk in nature.
More and more jobs are spent in front of a computer screen. Regardless if that is for a cabinet maker doing auto-cad design or operating the e-saw to maximize materials auto-run by the autocad generated cut sheet.

My prediction is that the bricks and morter casinos will only be around as long as goverment regulations allow them to be relevant.....
What happened to the Video Arcade --- Its been replaced by the home gaming console. The social aspect is now online, the Playstation, and Xbox do allow you to compete with other people around the world. Nintendo does this to some degree but not nearly as well.  Internet gaming could easily take over, state run casinos, increased native gaming parlors have eroded or diluted the need to go to Vegas. People now go to Vegas as a resort destination - Shows, Grand Hotels, etc as much as the gambling.
I like the people watching but as social networks evolve more and more people will be just as - if not more comfortable with this. The facebook generation.

Here in Calgary we had Kingsman Bingo (kingsman is a service org like the shriners, etc) - Bingo over the TV. You buy your cards at the convienience stores and play at home. Because the cards are numbered they know when a card has won and give you 5min to call the station. This is now gone but in reality why go to a bingo parlor when you can stay home.

[stayouttadabunker]

When I was younger, I dealt on blackjack tables...when I had enough, I went to the other side...
the other side of the table...to play blackjack...

That was and still is a blast...the thrill of reading, counting and trying to zoom in for the kill...
But the other part of it that's equally enjoyable...is the interaction with the dealer,
watching the pit bosses staring at me, and bantering with the other players at the table.
Like Facebook, you can be whoever you want to be...real or unreal...because they'll almost never see you again...
You cannot do that playing at home alone with the bingo cards you've bought at the local depanneur...
However, it can be fun if you play radio bingo with some friends at the house.

[Abe Frohman]

jay - good point on the brick and mortar casinos.  Has legislation been protecting us, or protecting them all this time!  What happens when you can make the same bet in your living room...

A few companies are trying to broadcast live casino acton and take real-time bets, so you can be at home in your underwear watching a roulette wheel at Bellagio and placing bets on that spin along with the live players physically at the table.  I don't know if that's approved yet but one product was called Roulabette or something like that, it's been a penny stock for years waiting to emerge before it tanks, if it hasn't already.  First pilgrim over the hill stuff.

I love to hate video slots for the same reasons - too computery.  But to be mad at the advent of the RNG is just one of my silly quirks.  Besides, mechanical's not all it's cracked up to be; I have two matching Pace slots and one of them never wins, there's obviously something wrong with it but who would know if they only lost their ten bucks and moved on?  I wonder how the gaming commission tested the payout percentages on mechanical devices without playing them 10,000 spins or so...

[jay]

What draws a regular joe to a casino is the dream of winning, but average joe won't go to a casino if he suspects he would never win.
Ie the gangsta movies with the rigged roulette tables, slots that will never pay and dealing from the bottom. Vegas offers that sanctity of a a fair game.
The house edge is high enough that they don't have to steal but most people don't understand that.
Internet gaming and the internet in general does not have that same reputation.

So as gaming evolves to server based gaming (terminals) and then hand helds within the casino, and then the hotel room then your living room I think a level of that confidence will be eroded.

[StatFreak]

What draws a regular joe to a casino is the dream of winning, but average joe won't go to a casino if he suspects he would never win.
Ie the gangsta movies with the rigged roulette tables, slots that will never pay and dealing from the bottom. Vegas offers that sanctity of a a fair game.
The house edge is high enough that they don't have to steal but most people don't understand that.
Internet gaming and the internet in general does not have that same reputation.

So as gaming evolves to server based gaming (terminals) and then hand helds within the casino, and then the hotel room then your living room I think a level of that confidence will be eroded.

Perhaps, but it could also serve (pun intended) to increase confidence in the new games as players use them and find that they still win occasionally, and with the same frequency or better that they have in the past. (I would expect casinos to slightly increase the paybacks in the introductory phase for just that purpose.) I also think that people would be more inclined to try the new styles of server based gaming if they knew that it was backed by one of the casinos that they had come to trust, and in a state in the U.S. that had laws to protect them, as opposed to a server and company in South Africa or Europe, against which they would have no recourse.

Maybe us baby boomers are truly a dying breed, but personally, I prefer real surroundings to virtual worlds. I want to handle clay cheques and real cards and interact face-to-face with the casino employees and other patrons. I want to get dressed and leave my house and go somewhere with lots of LEDs, neon and tasteless busy carpeting, as well as great food, shopping, and other attractions. Sitting at home in my underwear and losing $500 in an evening doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile way to spend my gaming money. Are they going to send me a voucher for a local restaurant or supermarket to comp me? (there are no four-star restaurants within 50 miles) ..or are comps going to end up being limited to cash back online?

[stayouttadabunker]

Begin Quote [Sitting at home in my underwear and losing $500 in an evening
doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile way to spend....] End Quote


This.......my friends,  is a scary thought!......

[StatFreak]

Begin Quote [Sitting at home in my underwear and losing $500 in an evening
doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile way to spend....] End Quote


This.......my friends,  is a scary thought!......

  I was just referring to Abe's post, not trying to evoke lost lunches. 
Have I given you a K+ yet today? 

jay - good point on the brick and mortar casinos.  Has legislation been protecting us, or protecting them all this time!  What happens when you can make the same bet in your living room...

A few companies are trying to broadcast live casino acton and take real-time bets, so you can be at home in your underwear watching a roulette wheel at Bellagio and placing bets on that spin along with the live players physically at the table. 
...

[CaptainHappy]

Begin Quote [Sitting at home in my underwear and losing $500 in an evening
doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile way to spend....] End Quote


This.......my friends,  is a scary thought!......

Good for a DIET for sure, cause I think dinner is out of the question anymore tonite for fear of losing it! Where do you go in your brain to erase an unwanted image??? 

Sorry couldn't resist commenting here!

CH

[StatFreak]

Begin Quote [Sitting at home in my underwear and losing $500 in an evening
doesn't seem like a particularly worthwhile way to spend....] End Quote


This.......my friends,  is a scary thought!......

Good for a DIET for sure, cause I think dinner is out of the question anymore tonite for fear of losing it! Where do you go in your brain to erase an unwanted image??? 

Sorry couldn't resist commenting here!

CH

CH perhaps Charlize Theron will help you get your mind back on the right track.

[a69mopar]

Sloty

 

[stayouttadabunker]

yeah...but a nice sloty...lol

[CaptainHappy]

Stat,

That was a better image! It worked! 

CH

[Abe Frohman]

I love the live experience too, and so many people do.  But the percentage of gamblers feeling like they have to physically go to Vegas shifts when more states legalize, or when riverboats come online, or with online options, etc...  Online casinos will be just as secure and heavily regulated as banking systems, etc, we've already seen a lot of action to take down offshore gambling systems and what-not.  If you want to play at a reputable place, pick a site that is regulated by the Feds, etc.  I think the server and terminal thing will actually cheapen the experience in the long haul, making it "computery" enough that people will feel they can stay home and get the "exact same game".  With the overall dumbing-down of society people will increasingly do what the commercials tell them to do, not what they really enjoy.  And as huge corporations see new options to begin competing against gaming tourism, inducing people to get the thrill without going to Vegas, the formerly-protected market share Vegas enjoyed will fade.

The town made a huge migration towards family-oriented resorts, and they're now reversing that trend.  But if they commoditize the games, and if everything is just an RNG outcome, they won't sustain the volume they need in gambling revenue to sustain the empires they have half-built as we speak.  That's why the Strip is surging ahead with timeshares; the megaresorts are seeing the vulnerability through technology and decentralization of gaming districts domestically and worldwide; we may have already seen the biggest resorts Vegas will ever be capable of sustaining long-term.  I don't know to what extent SBG has to do with all this, but I predict a few tough years ahead and the failure of some really big resorts that can't be solved through acquisitions.

Maybe my skepticism has to do with the fact that the heart-pounding moment of truth the ball drops in the pocket or the dice land or the reels stop is about the thrill of the conflict, the mano-a-mano beat-or-get-beaten competition.  In the old days you saw your mark - it was probably a hotel owner shaking your hand and sitting you down at a game.  The money you were about to win was sometimes literally right there in his pocket.  With machines the human element was removed; with electronics the dirt and grime reality was removed; with corporations the "beat the house" element was removed; every development makes gaming less human, less real.  And each development further obfuscates where your money "is" that you were trying to win.  Before TITO you imagined your money right there on the other side of that warm belly glass - and if you won big, some guy would march over with guards and grease your palms with big phat bills.  Now you get a voucher like you're buying vegetables at the grocery store, or you get a bigger balance in your account like online banking which is somewhere near the opposite of fun.  Vegas has to maintain the human element or they will fail to differentiate themselves from far more convenient options becoming available to the general public - they'll become a mammoth strip mall with hookers.

[Ron (r273)]

This pretty well sums it up for the old school (development makes gaming less human, less real).
K+ for your thoughts!

I wonder what the new school thinks about the new developments.

Ron

[Abe Frohman]

Ha, so that's what all thsoe "K+'s" are!  Now I get it - Thanks! 

[jay]

I standby my prediction that casinos are doomed in the long run.... I agree with Stats comments about being in the casino experience and its one of the reasons that I go to vegas and try and get to the NLG BBQs and such however the next generation of kids don't go outside and play, they don't go next door and ring the door bell, they don't pick up the phone and call, they txt, they twitter, and facebook is replacing email as a perferred way to communicate. In an age where Eharmony is preferred to the bar scene...... online gaming is the trend. Just like the home console was the arcade killer, on-demand will be the DVD killer.

[StatFreak]

So in the larger context, are we slowly becoming a society of agoraphobes? Will we end up cocooned in our homes, experiencing everything through virtual reality?

I read a science fiction short story dealing with this very issue once a long time ago. People mostly interacted with one another in a four-dimensional virtual reality where each was represented by a virtual image of themselves. A Martian philosopher had discovered a concept that would advance mankind immeasurably, but he had suddenly become ill, was dying, and required an operation within hours to be saved. The only doctor who could save him was an agoraphobe on Earth who had rarely left his home in decades. He had slowly worked up the courage to leave and travel to Mars to perform the operation on the Martian, who was also a close personal friend, while he had been waiting for the emergency transport to arrive that the government had sent for him. He wondered finally why it was taking so long and inquired of his android servant. The servant replied that the ship had arrived, but that he had sent it away since, after all, why would the man possibly want to go anywhere?
The story is called "Huddling Place" and was written in 1944 - 65 years ago.

[Thor777]

So in the larger context, are we slowly becoming a society of agoraphobes? Will we end up cocooned in our homes, experiencing everything through virtual reality?

I read a science fiction short story dealing with this very issue once a long time ago. People mostly interacted with one another in a four-dimensional virtual reality where each was represented by a virtual image of themselves. The story is called "Huddling Place" and was written in 1944 - 65 years ago.

Hey Stat... I was at the movies last weekend and seen a preview for a new movie soon to be release dealing with exactly this...I'll be darned if I can remember the name of it but It actually caught my interest and I thought it was a good idea for a new movie not realizing there was already a similar topic in book form..  (kinda wondered where they got the idea)