Slot games are a fantastic way to analyse casino history. These games have enjoyed tremendous popularity over time, starting with the classic one-armed bandits with just one pay line and three symbols and their more modern video slots.
With the advent of online virtual casinos, a complete revamp of these games took place. Thanks to being free of the constraints of physical cabinets, game developers could work on many new features for such games.
Nowadays, it’s common to find slots with varied themes such as Ancient Greece, TV shows, magic, futuristic ones and much more. They offer unique features such as minigames, bonus rounds, and innovative mechanics such as falling symbols, multiple pay lines and more.
Where is the industry going, however? While that is anyone’s guess, some intriguing concepts will probably hit slot games at some point. Let’s take a look at some of the most essential.
A Fully Virtual Casino Experience
One of the top technologies currently is Virtual Reality (VR). It involves using a device that displays a fully-rendered virtual world for the user. In these virtual worlds, users can typically interact with objects and have experiences that aren’t possible in real life.
When you play top new slots today, you probably do so with your computer or mobile device. Even though this is already virtual, imagine what a complete virtual experience would mean for slots and online casinos.
For instance, you could walk through the virtual halls and rooms of the casino, check out the decoration and ambient music, talk to other players and move closer to your preferred slots to virtually interact with them.
It would be an incredibly engaging experience, and developers will find new ways to apply it to slots. For instance, you could be “inside” the game watching the action from every angle. It could offer minigames where you are the protagonist in first-person view. The possibilities are truly limitless.
Beefed-Up Artificial Intelligence
AI has been with us for a long time. Most people don’t know that the birth of Artificial Intelligence as we know it today happened in the 1950s. Its development hasn’t stopped since then. Today, you can converse with an AI or ask it to help you solve mathematical problems and develop code.
In video games, AI controls non-playable characters’ behaviours and how they respond to the player’s actions. It’s also used for many in-game systems, such as weather patterns, environmental interactions, etc. One can only wonder how it can be implemented in slot games.
One of the most exciting ideas is the ability of AI to customise content to your liking. For instance, it could be able to develop different settings, symbols and even gameplay features for specific players. Do you like free spins better than multipliers? No worries! The AI could create a game specific to your liking.
Augmented Reality for an Enhanced Slot Experience
Even though Virtual Reality is still in its infancy, its smaller sibling, Augmented Reality (AR), is more widespread today. Unlike VR, AR aims to provide additional details in real life. It can work like an overlay.
One of the best examples is the video game Pokémon Go. In this game, users roam real-life locations to find and catch virtual Pokémon. If you’re, say, in a park and there are Pokémon nearby, you can play the game with your camera where you see the actual life location and the Pokémon you want to catch.
Needless to say, it’s an enjoyable experience, and it can also be used for slot games. With the help of your phone camera, you might be able to check additional info such as statistics or perhaps hidden elements of the game.
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain
Another important emerging technology is the blockchain. While technical details are too complex and would require an article on its own, the principle is simple. Instead of one computer or server holding the information, it’s distributed among many computers where everyone can participate.
This system makes it difficult to censor or tamper with information because all the other computers would detect the anomaly immediately. This is the working principle of cryptocurrencies.
Slot games already work with cryptocurrencies. There are online casinos where you can play slots exclusive to cryptocurrencies. Blockchain technology also ensures that the games are fair and transparent.
However, it can go beyond that. In the future, it might be possible to use cryptocurrency directly with the slot game, such as inserting coins or tokens in the physical ones. And the blockchain can allow for more powerful games thanks to the network’s resources.
Of course, these are only assumptions, and reality will tell. However it turns out to be, slot games’ future looks pretty exciting!
I'm a published author and proud US Army veteran who happens to be a gamer, so I decided to combine the two and love every minute of it! Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments and I'll be sure to get back to you.
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