Let's break this down.
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Let's break this down.
You start.
I gambled on making the damn thread. Why is there a * after power tool?
I could have added more options, like Voting, but just went with the default
Gambling. You need a stake and a percentage, the odds. The stake can be anything between money and honour. The odds have to be larger than 0, and smaller than 1.
In other words, I don't know why there's a * after power tool.
I thought you created games for a living. You should know more about what makes humans tick, or why they keep buying computer or video games. Shouldn't you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust
*
I even create gambling games. But the motivation why people play those isn't that intricate. They want to beat the game just like any other game.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
My job is really to create illusions in the Gambling. For instance when we present a double or nothing gamble, you'll see the animation switching rapidly between the "double" and "nothing" symbol. The player will try to press gamble at the moment the "double" symbol is lit. He doesn't realise (and doesn't want to realise) that the decision whether he loses or wins was made at the start of a game, so it appears to be that his input had an impact. His timing is not important, when he presses gamble, the symbol the controller decided on will light up.
So merely entering the game is, in fact, the user flaw that you (or your employer) try to exploit?
Do you find yourself using such machines outside of work (in a pub say and not testing competitors machines or your own - leisure use basically) even though you work in the trade?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust
I hardly use the machines but I've heard people talk about various ways of telling if you'll win anything. For example one guy believes that each machines has 2 compartments for where change is held, if one is full and you hear the coins going further down the machine it will pay out. Sounds like bollocks to me.
Why is it a user flaw?Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Nope, I never play themQuote:
Originally Posted by Lor
Does to me as well. Every manufacturer has their own control of course, but the hopper where the coins are held can be filled by the operator at the start of the day as empty or as full as you like. After all, you can't start the machine with an empty hopper, because you couldn't pay out the first customer if he won something. If that operator overheard this guy's strategy, he simply would fill it to the brim.Quote:
I hardly use the machines but I've heard people talk about various ways of telling if you'll win anything. For example one guy believes that each machines has 2 compartments for where change is held, if one is full and you hear the coins going further down the machine it will pay out. Sounds like bollocks to me.
It's a user "flaw" because anyone with sense says it's bullocks and doesn't play?
It's just a way to pay to play to kill time with a chance of winning something now and again.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Our pay-out percentages are almost double that of most lotteries by the way :)
Didn't know that! Food for thought.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust
Not sure whether it works or not, but I remember from when I worked in a bar with one of thse machines, that if you played after someone lost a lot of money, you would almost always get a decent profit if you played for a while. One of our regulars made a decent amount of money like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust
Well, that used to work yeah. Funny thing is that the government made it mandatory our machines behaved a certain way for ages and this was the result. Losses and wins had to be compensated immediately. So, if you'd draw a graph, you'd get a saw shape. Big win, loss, loss, loss, loss, big win, loss, loss, loss, etc. This also made the machines boring, predictable and make players avoid certain machines. Because we get a little more leeway now, and gotten quite a bit more creative with our controllers (like setting aside some wins so we can give the big wins more irregularly, regardless what the behaviour of the machine is at the time). If only the sharks are playing it's bad for business.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flixy
When did that change start?
BTW, I really don't get those machines. I've tried one once or twice to see what was it about, but I never undertood what the hell I was doing besides pressing random numbers, seeing values at the top and bottom, and occasionally some money came out, god knows why.
Was tight before 2002, tightened in 2002 (Euro time) we've been chipping away at them ever since. Mostly by not trying to ef the rules, and working with the government against gambling addiction by trying to spot those troubles with regulars in our halls, and getting them into touch with professional help. Addiction seems to be beneficial to us at first glance, but isn't actually helping us. Of course you have the social implications, the usual aggressive nature of addicts and the fact that once they hit rock bottom we don't get any money any more from them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flixy
Then last year we were shafted by Mr. Fuckface de Jager who decided to lay a tax on us which is usually only applicable to games with a jackpot over 450 Euro (from 1.000 Guilders). We don't have that kind of jackpot, but asshole de Jager argued they couldn't check that. While they check every machine we make inside and out, including the code. In short, it was just a cheap trick. The biggest addicts can be found in Holland Casino though, where you really can lose a lot of money. But that's government owned, so yes they have to pay those taxes too, but that also goes to the government.
I better shut up about that or I'd be ranting all night.