In a previous article, as well in Brian’s videos, we’ve shared examples of the Mystery of the Lamp tell. However, we began receiving reports from players that it wasn’t always doing it. Here’s an example:
The machine “tell” has been removed on some of the Magic of the Lamp games while other machines with the exact same game still have the tell. Was that done intentionally? If so, why? Do manufacturers think it’s bad to have a tell? I really like it…
Karen
We reached out to our friends at IGT and learned that, yes, they did update the slot with a new version that reflects this adjustment. We weren’t able to confirm if it was outright removed, or if it became an optional setting, but we would suspect that the new versions of Mystery of the Lamp coming out would also address this.
This isn’t the first time a tell has vanished on new versions. The tell on Wild Wild Nugget/Samurai was eliminated on newer versions of the game like Wild Wild Emerald, for instance. We suspect it’s done to ensure the anticipation of the game isn’t ruined by something unintentionally giving something away, especially when that wasn’t the design intent.
We asked players on Brian Christopher’s YouTube channel how they felt about slot machine tells – and 60 percent of you were in favor of knowing about them. Only 10 percent said outright no.
In the case of Mystery of the Lamp, the game can sometimes play with us with fakey shakeys and other elements, and even the game won’t necessarily respond to the next spin button press right away, but if the gem wasn’t zooming in and out a bit, you’d know it was all for show and the bonus wasn’t coming.
By changing this, it restores a bit of that anticipation, presumably to try to make the game more fun and engaging. But to some degree we won’t know, other than they decided to make the change. But yes, this means the tell occurring is no longer guaranteed.
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What is a ‘tell’ that the article above is talking about?
A tell is some sort of visual indicator that gives away that something’s about to happen. Check out more here!