In previous posts I have talked about Persistent State slots, which build equity as you play them until you unlock the equity at its conclusion.
I have also talked about Accumulators, the visual indicators that evolve as you play the game and fill up in various states. Accumulators have become a very common feature of slots in an era of large screens with a lot of space to fill.
But there are plenty of examples, like the pot on Dancing Drums, where the pot does not actually signify anything is coming. As such it looks like a persistent feature when it is not at all.
At G2E this year, I learned there is a term for this: Perceived persistence.
The reality is the visualizations are designed to give some extra energy and action to the game while in the end mostly just for show and fun.
Some players react to these full pots and so on and want to play the game too, which of course helps the game’s success. So developers are keen to incorporate these features.
The three pot/bag games that are proliferating are often similar. They will fill and glow and so on, but often will not give the player any information on when a bonus will hit.
It was good to see the game makers being very clear and honest about which accumulators and elements were true persistence and what were perceived persistence.
The pay tables, too, are being increasingly clear about these things, even as they were pretty transparent before but are now more explicitly worded that they do not indicate anything.
Perceived persistence is a pretty established part of modern slots and is not going to go away anytime soon, so it helps to know the term and what to look for to know when that is in play on a game.
