Slot Machine Bonus Game with Progressive Expectation Value Stages
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gaming machines lack innovative features that enhance player engagement and satisfaction in bonus selection processes, leading to repetitive and uninteresting gameplay experiences.
Innovation Solution
A gaming machine with a symbol display device and input device that allows players to select from various symbols, triggering pick-up bonus games, progressive payouts, and winner-takes-all options, increasing the expectation value of payouts through repeated selections and offering special sound effects and random magnification factors for enhanced entertainment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a gaming machine awards a bonus when a predetermined condition is met, then the player receives game media or runs a special game, but the gameplay becomes repetitive and lacks innovation
Solution Approach 1:
The bonus game is segmented into multiple stages: base game with symbol selection, pick-up bonus game with object selection, and potential re-entry opportunities. This segmentation creates variety within the bonus structure without requiring entirely separate game systems, resolving the contradiction between bonus variety and structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The bonus game structure is made dynamic by allowing players to re-enter the pick-up bonus game after selecting certain objects (houses with higher expectation values). This dynamic re-entry mechanism increases adaptability and player engagement while maintaining a manageable game structure through consistent rule sets.
2Ease of operation
If the gaming machine provides multiple selectable objects with different expectation values, then player engagement increases, but the operation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Different objects (houses) are assigned different local qualities in terms of expectation values and re-entry capabilities. The straw house, stick house, and brick house each have distinct properties that affect future gameplay opportunities. This local differentiation enhances player engagement while maintaining simple selection mechanics.
Solution Approach 2:
The game provides immediate feedback through visual display of expectation values and clear indication of which objects can lead to re-entry. This feedback mechanism helps players make informed selections without requiring complex decision-making processes, resolving the contradiction between engagement and operational simplicity.
3Reliability
If the gaming machine offers progressive payouts and winner-takes-all options, then player satisfaction increases, but the payout control complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The expectation values and payout structures are predetermined and clearly displayed before players make selections. Progressive payout amounts and winner-takes-all conditions are established in advance, ensuring fairness and transparency while simplifying the actual payout calculation process during gameplay.
Solution Approach 2:
The game uses parameter changes in expectation values associated with different house selections to drive player engagement. By varying these parameters (expectation values, re-entry opportunities) rather than complex payout formulas, the system maintains reliability and fairness while avoiding excessive computational complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
To provide a gaming machine and a control method therefor, having a new entertainment characteristics, a slot machine 10 of the present invention, when a “BONUS” symbol 250 associated with a pick-up bonus game is selected, receives selection of any one of twenty little pig's noses 210 displayed. Then, a benefit associated with the selected little pig's nose 210 is awarded. When the benefit to be awarded is a “stick house”218 which means “step-up”, a step-up occurs to the stick house stage and the expectation value for a payout is raised. Thus, when one little pig's nose 210 is selected out of the twenty little pig's noses 210 displayed in the stick house stage, the payout amount of the benefit associated with the little pig's nose 210 is increased.