Players of the new Lord of the Rings™ game can now extend their gaming experience outside the casino by logging on (by computer or mobile phone) to playerslife.com, a website that lets EGM players play “casual games” for bonus points. They can then use those bonus points on the casino game, which incentivizes return visits to the casino. Players also have the option of playing the same casual games at the EGM to earn bonus points.

The site creators have done a nice job of creating a community space, with a player forum and developer blog. Real-time game play updates of both casino and online players dynamically display on the home page,providing  a sense of excitement and connection with the game experience.

But my purpose in pointing Player’s Life out to you isn’t to do a review.

What I find exciting about the Player’s Life concept is that it represents a move toward connecting current technologies and trends with the gaming floor. WMS took a good look at casino players and their interactions with both technology and gaming, so they knew exactly where to start.

Some people believe that the technologies that open-standard, high-speed networked gaming make possible will be too much for customers – and that may well be true for certain player segments. But what they forget is that same technology will allow casinos to be many things to many people. If personalization is the way of the future, then open standards are a must because the slot floor will need to be versatile and extensible, making plug-and-play applications indispensable. Monolithic slot floors that simply offer variations of the same type of games and technologies aren’t going to cut it. There are simply too many other entertainment options for perspective players.

The casino players of the future will want entertainment and excitement from the casino experience that they can’t find elsewhere. To succeed, gaming must find a renewed, technologically savvy attraction for players. This will take close collaboration between vendors and casinos, flexible technologies, a clear understanding of players and a vision for what gaming technology could be. Player’s Life is an important first step in that direction.

(Anyone working on that?)

http://mobilephone.firstblogfirst.com/2010/10/15/eldorado-launches-mobile-application/

Video Conferencing

We know, video conferencing has been around for awhile (think Skype). Unfortunately, serial connections have not been able to support video conferencing at the game. With high-speed networking, you can now interact with your players in new ways. Notice a hot player is starting to slow down? Offer him tickets to the buffet. Have a high-roller who is playing into the wee hours of the morning? Maybe he would like a room.

The future is all about establishing relationships with your customers – making them part of your community. Whether they have an issue, question or just need to chat, video communications will give your players instant face-to-face access to casino representatives and let you better anticipate your customers’ needs. What better way to build customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Social Networking

Not only will technology make it easier for players to connect with you, it will make it easier for them to connect with each other. Whether it’s posting, texting, chatting, following or tweeting, many of you already use this technology to reach players. But these applications could be much more tightly integrated into the gaming experience to build your player community, bring players together and bring the excitement of playing with friends - even over long distances – to your properties. Best of all, social networking is increasingly becoming a real-time endeavor: players won’t wait until they get home to tell their friends about their experience at your casino – they’re more likely to give real-time updates and invite their friends to join them. This makes individual players even more important to your business because they have the potential to attract additional players during their visit.

GPS

There are so many possibilities for GPS technology, it’s hard to know where to begin. From a marketing perspective, GPS adds a new dimension to recommendations (for example, the “Trips” feature in Gowalla). Players can now, not only give your casino a thumbs up, but provide specific location information about the best places in your casino to visit. You can entice players into your casino by sending rewards directly to their phone if they come within a certain range of the property. Or, increase play on new games by sending players game-specific coupons as they walk through the slot floor.

As with social networking, integration of GPS technologies into the slot machine could add interest to the gaming experience as well as to expand your player base. What if players could use Google-Earth-like technology to find other players for multi-player games – not just in the casino they’re in, but in casinos around the world?

Smartphones

Smartphones give you instant access to players and let you keep the excitement going after they have left the casino. What about sending bonus games to the player’s smartphone? Or, did player X tell you that she’s a fan of Really Cool Game Y? Send her real-time, automatic game updates:

“HotPlayer6 just beat your high score on Really Cool Game Y! Come in today and we’ll give you three free spins to try and top it!”

Augmented Reality (AR)

What if AR adventures involved playing slots in your casino? Maybe even card games? What if players not only raced around one of your properties, but several, trying to be the first to earn the final reward? Sure 3D and Wii-like interactions are cool, but we think gaming companies should go in this direction:

While the above video is conceptual, the technology already exists. AR gaming has the potential for the competitiveness, interactivity and excitement to take gaming to a whole new level.

What technology would you like to see on the gaming floor?

The #1 thing I see is the feedback loop. The most successful apps, the ones that are downloaded the most, constantly have reviews that say “the developer listened to me and got back to me.” Even for the apps that have growing pains (adapting to new hardware, adapting to OS updates or adding new features) the customers are forgiving if they feel part of the process, part of the loop. Otherwise excellent apps are downgraded if the developer, for whatever reason, chooses not to respond to customers.

I am a prime example. I have worked with a small development shop with an app that worked on my original Droid, but died on my Droid X. I am pretty sure the developers couldn’t afford to get a Droid X, so they used me as their test lab. They were very responsive, very involved and I never felt abandoned. This feedback loop kept me from dumping their app and looking for an alternative.

The #2 thing that I see in the most successful apps is a continuous stream of releases. Bug fixes, corrections for different hardware, new features, even small tweaks are part of a steady stream of updates. And the best developers go out of their way to acknowledge that the changes are driven by their customers.

There are a number of other interesting attributes of successful apps that I could add, but these are the main factors that strike me as revolutionary in terms of software developed for the consumer market.

Whether by choice or by the desires of the market, the Android marketplace has adopted many of the practices found in the Agile movement. I would venture that with the proliferation of these devices, the way customers interact with, and the expectations they have from, software developers in markets of all sizes and shapes are going to fundamentally change. A new relationship is being forged between the customer and the developer. I think this new relationship will be a primary factor in deciding who wins and who loses going forward.

Here at RadBlue, we live Agile, breath, Agile and see its benefits daily.

Welcome to the new world.