u/Sea_Satisfaction9215

Not a game dev myself, but I've spent many years around players and gaming machines, and something has always confused me.

People would have 50+ games available and still play the same 2 or 3 for months!

Sometimes we'd add something new, expect everyone to try it... and half the regulars didn't care at all lol.

So I'm curious from the dev side.

Do you actually see players asking for more content/variety, or do most people eventually find one gameplay loop they like and just stick with it?

Feels like sometimes we build 100 things when players really want 10 good ones.

Curious about this because people usually recommend whatever is making them money. But I’m sure there are businesses that pay well and are still a complete pain in the ass to run.

What’s yours and why wouldn’t you recommend it?)

Watching someone hit a nice jackpot... and instead of being happy, immediately ask: "What if I'd doubled my bet?"

Didn't matter if they won $500 or $5000. Some people could never enjoy winning because they were already thinking about what they could've won.

What do you think about it?

I've seen a lot of strange things over the years.

People trying to convince me a slot machine was "broken" because it hadn't paid in an hour.

Players celebrating a $5,000 win... then giving it all back before sunrise.

Someone proposing to his girlfriend after hitting a jackpot.

Someone punching a machine because they were convinced it was "LAUGHING at them."

I got into this business in my twenties and honestly had no idea what I was signing up for. It taught me way more about people than it did about gambling.

The business isn't nearly as glamorous as movies make it look. Most days were about fixing problems, calming people down, dealing with staff, regulators, and suppliers, and broken equipment... and occasionally reminding someone that, no, the machine doesn't know it's their birthday.

These days I'm working on the online side of the industry, but I still have plenty of stories from the land-based world.

Happy to answer anything.

The good parts, the ugly parts, the funny stories, security, cheating attempts, how casinos actually make money, why people keep coming back...

Ask me anything.