Why Slot Machines are the Perfect Casual Game
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Online casino games come in all shapes and sizes, some as simple as a coin toss, others more complex and reliant on strategy. Perhaps the most popular of them all are slot machines, available in an incredible variety – they have been the most-played casino games for more than a century, and their popularity, at least online, doesn’t seem to wane to this day.
Slots are often seen as the perfect casual game. Why? Let’s see what makes them such a popular choice even today.
Incredibly easy to learn
The best casual games are those that you don’t have to spend hours to learn – they are self-explanatory, with an incredibly steep learning curve, that you can start playing seconds after loading the game.
Slot machines are just like that. Their interface is very simple – little more than a big button that spins the reels. Their rules are equally basic: get a number of matching symbols on a line to win.
Require little to no commitment
“Casual” means “not regular or permanent” – and this describes “casual” games perfectly. They don’t require a long-term commitment like a city-building game or a shooter – you can literally start playing and then stop after a few minutes without losing progress or worrying about uncompleted tasks or unattained objectives.
Slot machines are, from this point of view, the perfect game. You can play one spin or one thousand before you set the game aside and you won’t feel the obligation to continue.
… but can captivate a player for hours
While casual games don’t require commitment, their players enjoy playing them and will dedicate significant portions of their time to them. This is true for pretty much every casual game type, from match-3 games to others similar to “Flappy Bird” – and slot machines.
The right slot machine can pin you to the screen for hours at a time (even though it doesn’t do it through long-term objectives or similar tricks).
They are rewarding
Finally, the perfect casual game gives players a sense of accomplishment, even without tasks and objectives set in front of them. In the case of slot machines, this sense of accomplishment comes from the times when the player has winning spins – each and every time the game pays out, the players perceive it as a reward, regardless of the amount they win. And the most satisfying reward in this type of game is a bonus game or the free spins feature – triggering that can be a reward in itself.
Constantly giving players the sense that they have accomplished something, that they were successful, will pin them to the screen for hours on end.
