Are slots becoming video games?
It is still quite surprising that when many people think of video games, they associate it with kids or teenagers. However, the global video game industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, and was worth around $151.06 billion in 2019, and is enjoyed by 3.1 billion people around the world. And to be clear, it is not enjoyed the most by kids and teenagers, but those aged between 18 and 34, which is probably because they can afford it.
Another industry that has shared similar success, is the casino industry, specifically the online casino industry, which was worth about $59.6 billion by the end of last year, and provides services to around 1.6 billion people. In the last few years, however, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between the two industries.
This is because online casino games, especially slot games, are becoming more and more like video games, you have the likes of CasiTabi at the forefront with aspects like Kaji’s Journey being implemented into their slots games. If you want to find out more about CasiTabi specifically refer to this article by Japan 101.
To understand why and how slots are progressing into games, we first need to understand what makes them different at the moment.
How are video games different than slot games?
When defining what a video game is, it can become quite complicated, in the same way that for someone who has never watched a movie might have difficulty understanding how it is different to series. A video game, in its most basic definition is a form of entertainment whereby a person interacts with some kind of input device in order to generate visual feedback.
Already this sounds like it could describe any casino game on an online casino. The difference becomes more apparent when categorizing the certain elements that different video games consist of into genres, such as role-playing games, action games, action-adventure games, sports games, puzzle games, strategy games and many more.
More than that, almost every video game has a few elements that are shared; a storyline, characters, some sort of mission objectives for each level or quest, and a beginning and end. Traditional slot games however have none of that, and only require a player to press a single button and hope to win money.
Examples of gamification
Online casinos began using gamification a few years ago, and it was met with great success. The earliest example of gamification is the leaderboard visible on online casino sites, which was adopted from classic arcade games such as Pacman. It didn’t end there though; one of the most popular forms of gamification used on casino sites is leveling up.
This can be seen when playing any slot game in the way that the more a person plays, the experiences they receive and the more features they unlock as their level rises. Many slot games also include challenges into the gameplay; certain symbols that are required to be matched in order to get a bigger reward, or a certain amount of money to be won to enter a bonus round of free spins.
Slot games also use high quality animations and sound effects that are on a very similar level to that of those used in video games, and more and more slot games are using cutscenes, which is another feature of video games. Aside from slot games, the actual casinos are also adopting video game elements, such as animated characters that show new players around the site, and tutorials to follow in order to learn how different games work.
What does the future hold?
One of the newest developments in the online casino industry is the use of actual video game genres. Newer slot games are utilizing many RPG (role-playing game) elements, such as traversable maps with slot games that are themed to the design of the map, progression to different levels and storylines that follow the characters of the game.
In addition to that, those slot games also include bosses to defeat when completing a certain set of levels, and chests to obtain as a reward, which can contain anything from free spins to money to be used on the site.
There are even slot games being developed that are modeled after MMORPG’s (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), with the ability to play with other players on a large map. It seems that the more video game features slot games adopt, the more they are beginning to look like video games, to the point where it will be virtually indistinguishable.
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