Industry person open for questions.

[borgcontact4]

Matt Thanks for the input. I had never seen this thread. I only used to jump on this site every now and then. As you know Nick, Gameswarehouse guy, got a major bollicking for posting and dodn't want that to happen to me. i am prety safe and whilst there will be attempts to out me i am confident that by laying a secure path before this post will be Ok for some time. Biggeest danger is that as time goes bye people will be able to eliminate others so I will be wary of revealing info which may assist them. OK Bacta the trade organisation is there to protect the industry and do a fine job overall. without them the establishment would have stifled payout and stakes, on AWP's.
it is interesting to note that the operators did not wish to apay AMLD when it wqas applicable to SWP's only £250 per week and made a stupid move to put all games on 50p and save money. This they now know was big mistake. So since 1st August 2006 £1.00 games have appeared and disappeared. Obvious reasons. Anyway back to unfair games. Is it right for a company to constrcut a game, crossword for instance when it cannot be fully completedsuch as a word does not exist?. No, well this STD is in the same category. STD is a long standing game and is highly regarded as a earner. It runs just out of top ten games, but is a steady earner, as it is not question based, as is Bingo, which is number two game after DOND. Bingo is in free standing machine on £1.00 game and is top earning SWP in the country. It earns more that twice the total of any terminal period. Now interestingly the payout on that game is 45%. We have had a machine in our developement dept as has all other SWP companies. It appeals to a great deal of people and you think you can win every time on the game. The palyer always tries to play faster and then it is easy to make a mistake. All of us tried the game to win the jackpot and after many weeks it was 45% payout. the terminal game is 50p and is not as good, but it is the game to beat. DOND is not beatable so we dont even try.
Anyway tring to get back on topic, someone mshould make a formal complaint regards STD. Then the appropaiet action will be taken as operators do not want unfair games on terminals. By the way STD is done by outside company so no conflicts there.
Hope that helps.

[cool]

I would be interested how the gaming industry know what are the top games as the companies involved are competitive and are not likely to swap statistical information. Its not a level playing field as some games are found on every type of terminal whilst others get an exclusive tag and are restricted to one machine. Is it on number of games played or on the amount of profit the game generates? where is this information displayed?
thanks

[BJ2006]

An interesting thread this, thanks Borgcontact for taking the time to answer these questions.

Regarding STD, there is something I need to mention that I have kept to myself for quite some time. The JP on STD deluxe is not completely impossible however achieving it requires luck as well as skill. It is true that round 9 always displays 1 less difference than you actually need (i.e. if you have no helps then there will be 4 differences visible, if you have 1 help then there will only be 3 differences visible) however randomly pressing the screen will sometimes result in a circle being drawn on that spot even though, on close inspection, there was clearly no difference there. Does this mean that STD deluxe complies with the relevant law even though you can't reach the JP with skill alone?

In case anyone is wondering, round 9 has been rigorously tested by both myself and another STD player, we have found that the chance of it giving you a circle is clearly too small to be exploited, hence why I will now post about it!

[rogerthymes]

I'd like to ask Borgcontact4 why most of the music games disappeared? I mean, pop quiz, Top Of The Pops and Q (and to a lesser extent Mike Read's Pop Quiz). They always seemed very popular and surely could have been updated so they weren't suck in a timewarp....

The other question would be - how come if DOND is the top game (and personally one I play a lot and find just about fair) then why don't more games copy the structure but with little variations?

[JG]

I disagree that Skillball Bingo is 'the one to beat' on 50p play.
It's harder to play as it's a smaller display area that the large TFT on the dedicated Four Seasons cabs and it feels faster.

If it doesn't want to pay it'll just not drop in the balls to complete a line. You can go apporx ten seconds with nothing being available near the end of game. Best win seen was two lines (£5) + £5 instant bonus.

Anyone seen full house + stars?

[borgcontact4]

Cool. First yes the industry is very competitive however the operators revela this infomation and also brewers release charts and demand games from terminal suppliers. It is a backbiting business as brewewrs play one operator off aginst another for comercial edges, and will coerce terminal exclusives to be shared if the game is good. Look at DOND, BellFruit game, not exclusive it is on all terms. Gamestech would have liked it exclusive and have an edge, brewers said we want it on all the terminals. The tables are on cash box retained, nobody is interested in how many games, which of course is a function of the cash box. No tables of swp games are published as nobody is really concerned.

[borgcontact4]

BJ. STD seems to have luck element which now a great deal of games have. The gaming commision are not consulted regards these games however the law says skill must prevail and if chance, luck is involved then the game would fall under the gaming act!!!!
If this happened forget SWP's period.

[borgcontact4]

Rodger. Ok music games have differnet sorts of problems, first a lot of terminals have no sound, turned down by locations. Biggest problem is the licences required, such as MCPS then the artist agents etc. So no more music games!!!! Sorry thats the way it is.

[borgcontact4]

Streaky poos impressive use of Skill Ball Bingo tied with Four Seasons name, Nova is the company behind it. So 9 out of ten. Failed on 50p the one to beat, I am sorry if I wasn't clear, Bingo is second on terminals but way out in front on £1.00 game on the arcade machine, . Failed on Four Seasons as this game is Super Skill Ball Bingo and is not as popular as the arcade which is the original released in 2004. They are still building them and advertised in Coinslot last week as new at £6,995 by AMG distributor. This is unheard of,, that a game would still be in manufacture after this length of time.
I have played this game for days on end and tested the payouts, yes it does pay out and yes the five star balls gives you a j/p only if you get a full house. yes i have seen a collegue get this also. This was a street machine in our place for a time.

[borgcontact4]

Rodger, sry missed last point, copies of DOND are all over the place and we all would love to emulate the success but the regular player will always take DOND dont worry as this game will always have a decent amount of the 30% available due to the punter and not the pro.

[grecian]

So the fact that by common consensus DOND seems to have become so much harder of late is down to a reduction in player numbers / cash throughput than a centralised upping of the difficulty level from industry HQ?

[Istenem]

i've given up on this thread it makes my brain hurt trying to read it.

[borgcontact4]

Grecian. DOND is self levelling game. The game was ldownoaded to terminals in 2006. No updates have been made. So it is down to punters not putting so much money in so the 30% availbale is smaller, in terms of cash wins. Therefore one would expect it to seem harder.

On Unkown last post!!! pity!!! As he will never read this, no point is replying to his comment.

[Ernest W. Quality]

BJ. STD

Well, you should have known better.

[Istenem]

spotters badge for Ernest. nice one