Regular viewers may already be able to guess the answer to this one. But for those who were curious or didn’t know, this one’s for you!
Hi Brian, I wanted to know before you tape do you ever read the instructions/info on a slot machine? I know I do not, it is just too much and overwhelming.
Anna W.
I don’t. Sometimes I probably should, but I don’t.
For me, part of the enjoyment of learning a new slot is to be surprised by the various features. Going in without reading the pay table means I get to learn the game by playing it, which can be fun, and over time I’ve learned many of you are the same way.
Sometimes I like to try to guess how a bonus is triggered. (Sometimes you see me do this on camera, and some of you get a lot of enjoyment telling me that I’m wrong when I’m wrong.)
If I get really confused about how something works, I will on occasion take a look at the pay table, but I save that as a last resort, and usually I will work out what’s happening before I have to get to that point.
Most slots don’t have a particularly complicated structure, especially if you’re familiar with how modern slots work, but there is the occasional one that is more complex, and the pay tables can get into the dozens of pages. I have a set amount of time do film the episodes I’m at the casino to record, so time spent reading the rules is time not filming.
Fortunately, many slots are designed with various visual clues and helpful hints to make clear to a player what’s happening. For instance, the better paying symbols take up more of the space available for a reel’s symbols. Bonus symbols and other scatter symbols tend to be the biggest of all.
When making my slots, I had originally asked if we could skip the bars and bells and those sorts of standard symbols, but it was suggested players get to know what the symbols you want to root for are quicker if the lower paying symbols and symbol hierarchy leveraged familiar themes.
This is why you see the royal symbols (like A and K) with similar colors even by different manufacturers, for instance, or the single/double/triple bars. These are symbols most players have encountered regularly over time, and know what they mean in general when it comes to a slot’s payouts. And in fact, Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More used bars and 7s among it symbols, while Brian Christopher’s World Cruise leveraged the various royal symbols.
So no, I don’t read the pay table, although I appreciate it’s there if I truly get stuck. The reality is most of the time I work things out pretty quickly. And when I don’t, I know my viewers will be there to chastise me accordingly 🙂
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