When a group of slot machines seems to be hopping and paying out, is it worth sitting down to play an open machine?
A bank of themed slots that are all the same, seem to be paying all at the same time and seem to get cold at the same time. If a crowd is gathered at one bank of machines and everyone is getting bonuses and there is an open chair, do you go for it or not? This seems to work for me, but I don’t know why or if it is just chance.
Rich
It’s just chance. But part of the design of a slot machine is how it’ll look and feel in a group. Dragon Link was marketed as having a bonus occurring on average once per minute in a group of 4, so that tends to make those banks feel pretty active at times, since there always seems to be something going on (and the banks always seem to be busy).
There’s a bit of chicken and egg here too – are the banks active because people are playing it, or are they playing it because the banks are active? And are the banks active because they are busy or are they busy because they are active?
When we asked players on Brian Christopher’s YouTube page whether a busy bank of slots made them want to play, more than half said no – so in and of itself that doesn’t necessarily drive everyone to sit down.
When people get on a good run or are really into a machine, they’re more likely to stay put. And players are more likely to get drawn to banks that are busier for various reasons. So it can be a bit self-fulfilling in that way, but machines don’t pay out more as a group of machines either, since every machine has its own random number generator, and the machines aren’t talking to each other in that regard.
In this case, we tend to get drawn into banks that feel fun and active, or games that look interesting. Ones where we see other players succeeding is a natural scenario that will catch our attention, and busy banks are often where players want to be, so it’s just chance.
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