Deconstructing the Multiplayer – Part Two

Last month we posed a series of questions to Luigi Cacciapuoti, Vice President of Specialty Product and ETG at IGT, asking him about the creation of the multiplayer – GameAce. In Part Two, we continue to delve further into the intricate changes Luigi and his team implemented during the design process. 

Luigi, the GameAce wheel maintains its stability for more than four months – reducing the need for servicing. How is this achieved? 

It is a combination of things. To create the additional bounciness of the ball, a high-pressure cannon was being used to fire the ball. It was so strong it was increasing wear-and-tear on the ball, which when not perfectly round starts to cause problems with the cannon mechanism. When we revised the wheel interface, we found that the wheel had roughly 15 different error states, including vibration errors that we didn’t know about. Now, with the new interface protocol, we receive all those error messages, and we can react to the outputs from the wheel. 

Reducing the speed of the ball and the bounce reduces a lot of stress on the wheel. It was a side-effect of reducing the spin time of the wheel. If you think about it – it’s straightforward. If you want the game to speed up, then you spin slower, and as a result you encounter fewer problems as you also increase stability.

How does the sightline of the wheel affect player engagement – and how has IGT sought to deliver the best experience in this respect?

Our sightline changes were born from direct observation of the player focus group. We found that many players were playing standing up. Why? Because they wanted to witness the moment when the ball stops. In fact, 70+ percent of players wanted better visibility of the wheel, which is also an ergonomics issue. If you’re standing up, you’re going to get tired. If you get tired, you’re going to stop playing. Plus, if you can’t see the ball then your enjoyment of the game is diminishing and, again, you stop playing. 

In designing the Mesa4K terminal we ensured there’s nothing ‘extra’ at the top of the machine. We made everything as low as possible to ensure that we didn’t break the player’s point of view. Additionally, we designed a new wheel housing to be flush with the top of the machine. We also conducted a simple experiment. We put the roulette wheel on a ratchet and tried to find the optimum geometry between the units and the wheel. We learned that the farther you put the wheel from the terminals, the higher the wheel needs to be. So, we maximised the height of the wheel to meet customer expectations. Previously you could see around 35 per cent of the numbers while seated. For the GameAce, we’re now at 70-72 per cent visibility of the wheel. 

Tell us more about the technology of the GameAce and specifically why opt for a 4K ETG display?

I’ll tell you a story. So, there’s an adorable lady who loves our products. She’s playing in her local New York casino, and we like to conduct market research on-site. We visit the properties of our partners to study players interacting with our products in real environments. We find they’re much more relaxed, open and willing to share their feedback. She was telling us how annoyed she’d become with the previous iteration of our ETG. Her issue was that all the game statistics were placed exclusively on the overhead signage, which forced her to keep switching glasses. She had reading glasses to play, and far-sighted glasses to read the statistics. She was moving back-and-forth throughout her play sessions, which was uncomfortable and annoying.

What we found was that 95 per cent of players also enjoyed having the statistics on the gaming terminal, because line of sight is not always optimal. Placement is often more for real-estate optimisation than for player enjoyment. If the player has the statistics on the gaming terminal, this is the best outcome, but the issue then becomes the multi-table interface, which needs to show four tables at the same time. 

Our solution was to create three different versions of the interface. One if it’s full-screen, one if it’s half-screen and one that’s quarter screen. So, we have all these versions that optimise what is being shown. Adding extra onscreen information becomes increasingly difficult with a traditional HD screen as it quickly become unreadable, especially if you’re playing four baccarat tables at the same time, with the possibility to see all the roads on all four tables at the same time. 

Additionally, we noted that competitor products have the bet chips at the bottom of the screen, whereby you play each game with the same bet chips. However, this is not optimal, because if you play roulette, you want smaller sized chips as you need to place a lot of bets, as opposed to blackjack where you place only a few bets. We needed, therefore, to optimise the UI so that you’re always playing the game with the right sized chips. 

Ultimately, our interface became a bit busy, which is why we needed a 4K screen. It’s also why the previous terminal was 23 ins. HD, whereas we have now moved to 27ins. 4K and have 32ins. in the pipeline, because this ensures visibility is optimised. It’s also a mandatory requirement in certain jurisdictions that we ensure the visibility of the player interface. Therefore, 4K is not a marketing gimmick, it is a key feature of the interface and something that ensures we keep the player happy. 

Do players really review the historic outcomes of roulette wheel results to the degree offered by GameAce – and for 200 hands of baccarat too? How does this influence player confidence in the ETG?

Every time you spin the wheel the chances are the same, no matter the hot and cold numbers. However, sophisticated players like to play on a series. When you play 100-200 spins then the significance of historic outcomes becomes much more important. Many players like to have their methodology for betting and the visibility of historic numbers helps. You see players taking notes to help them decide how to bet based on a particular series. What this means is that wait until around100+ spins, playing at minimum bet, before they are confident regarding the series, and before they start betting. So, if we give the player the series they can immediately start to bet. Many players also believe that the history reveals if something’s not ‘right’ with the wheel. There is a perception that if you are not showing a lot of history, it’s because you’re hiding something. Adding the history means we are completely transparent, and we are giving confidence in our product. 

What are the banking options available – what are the configurations that are proving most popular, jurisdiction by jurisdiction – and how do you build that functionality into your ETG solutions?

Banking is dependent upon placement and clientele. Are you creating a bank in a high traffic area? Are you adding to a secluded area of the casino to attract bigger bets? The old Dynasty ETG was a monolithic unit, as we were attempting to recreate the experience of a table game. For the GameAce, we believe that flexibility is king. You can place the units however you want – which gives customers the possibility to change the configuration whenever they want. 

Many customers don’t know how their floor will change over time, so maintaining flexibility is a big advantage, and it’s part of our service. We visit the customer and adapt the product to their floor – even to the extent that we’ll remove units. Every time that we take a couple of units from the floor – we are back with a vengeance later as the customer recognises the fairness of what we are doing. And we know the performance of the units increase over time. The customer is not forced into taking more – they can start small and increase as they need. 

​Last month we posed a series of questions to Luigi Cacciapuoti, Vice President of Specialty Product and ETG at IGT, asking him about the creation of the multiplayer – GameAce. In Part Two, we continue to delve further into the intricate changes Luigi and his team implemented during the design process.  Luigi, the GameAce wheel…