“Interactivity” has been a buzzword among slotmakers ever since they started putting bonus events on the games in the 1990s. At Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, International Gaming Technology showed it doesn’t just want you to be an active participant in the game, it wants to make you part of the game.
For the TMZ video slot, IGT partnered with Warner Bros. to develop a game based on the entertainment news and celebrity gossip website and TV show. There’s a camera built into machine, and when you sit down, it takes your picture and voila! You’re part of the TMZ team. Your photo is used as a reel symbol, in the background imagery and in bonus events.
In a demo, of the Celebrity Spin Cycle Bonus, I – or someone with my face – was at the wheel of the red car for the announcement, “Uh-oh. The cops have pulled you over for going 90 in a 30.” Then it was off to the races for my free spins and breaking news.
IGT also has upped the interactivity stakes with the pirate-themed Reef of Riches game. It has terrific 3-D imaging in a system that came with GTECH when the two companies merged last year. It also includes a motion sensor, and when an empty game senses a potential player in the vicinity, it goes into attract mode.
The main characters in the game are a black-bearded male pirate and a buxom blonde female buccaneer, and it’s the blonde who takes the lead when the machine senses someone nearby. As I stood just off to the left of the game’s chair, she strode forward and called out, “This is your lucky day. I’m looking forward to playing with you! Yo, ho, ho! Come here and sit down!”
How could I possibly not take a seat? That the game was fun, with plenty of bonuses to go with the pirate imagery, kept me lingering, but I just had to check it out.
