With the digital movement gaining greater speed around us, we are regularly seeing new entertainment options emerge on the online scene. The latest phenomenon to capture people’s imagination on a global scale is the iGaming industry. In particular, online casino play has enjoyed a significant rise in profile just in the last few years as advances in technology and programming capabilities continue to provide more innovative game features and interactive game play.
Across the wide range of online casino games, jackpot slots have proved the most popular amongst the casino community. with players increasingly impressed with the large array of titles. However, while variety can indeed be considered a spice of life, the evolving game mechanics powering this type of online slots game have continually pushed the standards and quality of titles such as Mega Moolah and Mega Fortune to new levels.
And game developers are getting a little help from their siblings over on the console gaming front to come up with mechanics that continue to draw new boundaries in online gaming.
Growth of Gamification
When console gaming first arrived on the scene to change the entertainment landscape forever, games were designed in a linear fashion. Storylines were the first feature to capture player’s attention. Having objectives to complete to fulfil a character’s narrative like in the Crash Bandicoot collection or Tomb Raider gave gaming purpose.
However, while objective-based gaming is always a successful design approach, games started to be gradually gamified, which added an element of competition and fresh objectives that are regularly updated and overall, a new purpose to gaming. This is an element that has been adopted by jackpot slots to provide more variety to its game play and add new goals for players to consider.
Levelling Up
One example of gamification on display in many modern-day games is the concept of ranking and levelling up. This idea dates to the original Game Boy on games such as Pokémon, where players had to upgrade their Pokémon by increasing their levels. Nowadays, the aim of improving a rank can be seen in multiplayer games such as Call of Duty: Warzone, where higher ranks unlock access to different setup choices, whether that is weapon-based or simply the appearance of an avatar.
Jackpot slots game designers have permanently borrowed and integrated this aspect into their titles with the use of scoreboards. The main premise of jackpot slots is to try and win the overall jackpot amount, which players contribute proportions of their wagers to until it is won. However, there are other instances of gamification at play in the form of daily prizes and challenges.
The one thing that knits this all together is a leaderboard. Scores can be displayed in a way that produces a ranking system and more importantly, an added competitive edge. Should you top the leaderboard when a game finishes, a prize is awarded. Simple but effective game mechanics.
Much like video games that use shared world events or milestone rewards, fixed and progressive jackpot slot games rely on visible goals and cumulative progression to create anticipation beyond individual play sessions. Even though gaming is predominantly played solo, there is nowadays a more communal feel brought to all forms of gaming from trying not just to beat the house on jackpot slots, but other players too.
Shared DNA
The concept of gamification is something that has united all forms of gaming. It has become obvious to designers and developers behind all types of gaming that competition and game mechanics that all players can strive for is what unites a global playing community. Recent forms of online gaming such as jackpot slots have proved that different forms of gaming can overlap and that there are strands of gaming DNA that can be borrowed and implemented.
As the digital movement continues, these game mechanics are certain to evolve further. In the future, it could be video games borrowing ideas and concepts created in the online slots world.
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