Choose Your Volatility Games

By John Grochowski on Monday November 7, 2011

games, gaming, global-gaming-expo, new-games, tourism, tunica

Each year at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, I’m on the lookout for new trends in the games slotmakers will be offering us. It seems that one thing we’ll be seeing more of are slots that let us choose our play experience. Both International Game Technology and Spielo International showed new games with “choose your volatility” options.

At the IGT booth, I made my choices in trying out The Twilight Zone. The machine explains the difference between high, low and medium volatility. With low volatility, you get more frequent small wins, and with high volatility you have a better chance a large win, but with fewer small ones to keep you in action. The look of the reels changes as you decide to enter the First Dimension for low volatility, the Second for medium and the Third for high.

Iconic Twilight Zone images are used — monsters, dinosaurs, spaceships, the flying window and clock from the TV classic’s opening sequence. A Rod Serling-like voice tells you “The time to press the button is now,” to launch a wheel-spinning bonus, or “You are entering the Third Dimension” as you change game volatility. It’s rich in special features, a game that could hold the attention of this old “Twilight Zone” fan for a long time.

Spielo brought a fun twist to the volatility switch in Goldify. In the rollout version, reel symbols are from ancient Greece, with Spartan helmets, lyres and the winged horse Pegasus.

Players touch a symbol to Goldify it — the symbol turns golden on the screen. Then winning combinations of that symbol pay five times the values on the usual pay table. Goldify a low-paying, frequently occurring symbol, and you bulk up small wins and reduce volatility. Goldify a big jackpot symbol, and you open a chance at a really big win, while leaving small pays small, and that increases the volatility.

The best choice? The one that best fits your style of play. Have it your way.