INSIGHT
continuing to rely more on gut feelings and
luck than on hard facts and research.
4. Social slots use gamification that
increases retention and virality
Social slot gamification includes: XP
advancement, unlocking new slot games,
a daily bonus, an hourly bonus, inviting
friends for rewards, gifting friends, etc. The
effect of all these things has been proven to
lose his/her job; and/or 3) the fact that no
one has realized it can be done differently
and quickly, based on research or expertise
rather than calculated guesswork.
Once a decision has been made, the
process repeats: Creating art, animations,
sound, math, and developing the games
for a big video slots company can take 4-6
months on average. While the top social
slots companies do all that in six weeks.
“Video slot companies can use math models that have
been A/B tested to improve monetization to social players
and test them out on their own games. Simply take existing
games that fit the bill and get the rights to use them”
increase retention and virality on a massive
scale. The slots have to be good – but
without those things, players eventually
leave the game.
Video slots companies have also failed
to adapt all the knowledge that has been
gained about gamification over the last
few years to create gamification specific to
their games. Failing to adapt and partake in
formulas that have been proven to increase
retention means you stay behind and lose
opportunities for profit.
5. Social slot companies make fast
decisions, work fast, and adapt fast
Not only do many of the top social slot
companies make research-based decisions
on which slot games to make (themes,
symbols, features, math), but they have to
churn out a new game every 2-3 weeks.
This means that the decision time has to
be very short, and the team that makes
the decisions has to be very small. In fact,
it’s often one person, and the CEO above
them, and that’s it.
Compare that to the bureaucratic way
some of the top video slot companies
work: endless meetings, going back and
forth, sometimes for months, before a
decision about a single slot game is made.
This stems from, at times, 1) the sluggish
nature of a big company; and/or 2) the
fear of the person making the decision to
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iGB Affiliate Issue 59 OCT/NOV 2016
6. Social slot virality is easier
People who bet for real money online don’t
tend to spread the word and boast about it.
It’s a secret. It’s private.
But that’s with real money. When played
for fun for ‘fake money’, players are happy
to spread the word through viral messaging,
recommending the game to their friends,
and even adding friends on purpose in order
to get more betting money.
faster simply by eliminating many of the
decision processes that make most of
their work so slow and by implementing
new procedures.
The shortcut
Changes are possible, but changes take
time. And so, here’s a shortcut: video slot
companies can use math models that have
been A/B tested to improve monetization
to social players and test them out on their
own games. Simply take existing games
that fit the bill and get the rights to use
them. Or get similar models from experts
that have created some of these models.
Perhaps I’ll talk about those models in
a future article. For now, just know that in
the same way social slots first used realmoney slots knowledge to create games,
that direction can be reversed.
Now video slots can use social slot
knowledge to create more retentive games
that monetize better.
Good luck!
In conclusion
That last item is a fact that probably can’t
be changed: the secrecy is part of the
nature of a real-money gambling game.
However, all the other items mentioned
above can be changed:
Some of the new video slots can
become ‘fun’, in the way the social slot
audience sees social slots as fun, with the
big video slots companies benefiting from
doing some research into why some of
their games are popular and why some are
not, which would help them make better
decisions, faster.
New types of gamification can be
implemented to make the games more
retentive and therefore pay more. In
fact, even a version of a malleable RTP
gamification can be added, if done right, and
taken into account within a game’s RTP.
Those sluggish video slot companies
I identified earlier can learn to work
GUY HASSON worked
for Playtech for three
years before becoming
Playtika’s Content Manager,
responsible for the content of
Slotomania and Caesars Casino.
He is now a social slot consultant,
specializing in game popularity. His
website: www.hassonslots.com