Digital Leisure’s Casino: A Gambler’s Paradise
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
In real life, I’m not at all a gambler. I don’t even play the lotto.
Partly it’s because I’m not one of those people who basks in luck’s shiny aura. I rarely win prizes of any kind — in fact I can count on one hand the times in my life I have won anything. The other part is that I don’t really understand the thrill behind it. Of course, I know about the adrenaline rush when you win or the feelings of pleasure knowing that you somehow beat the system, but it has just never held any allure for me.
Thus when the new casino from Digital Leisure hit Home, I went in with open eyes unclouded by a gambler’s mentality. I looked at it without any preconceived notions, as I have never even been in a real casino in my life. I was impressed by the layout immediately; this space has a genuine feel of being a hotel casino, like the many I have seen in movies and television. There are telephones ringing at the desk area in the background, and the murmur of many people hums as you walk around any area in the space. This brings a great deal of authenticity to the area.
Bigger than a bread box?
You arrive in the front foyer or lobby of the casino where there is a message that greets you from the management welcoming you and telling you that you have received one hundred complimentary chips and a free budget hotel room for your stay. The room is actually a small personal space, so in this it is very much like the Midway which does the same.
Since I mentioned the personal space, lets talk about that first.
“Small” is an understatement. This is by far the smallest personal space I have ever seen. Clown cars are bigger than this. It has the sound of traffic whizzing by outside the heavily draped window and a room that has seen better days with an attached bathroom, with a shower/tub area that I would never get into. It can be decorated, which is nice, but for once I had the opposite problem: there is no way I would ever be able to put a hundred items in here unless I wanted to make it a storage closet and never walk in it. Having eleven friends in here would fill the space like a sardine can and they would have to stand on the bed to do it — but it’s free, so I guess you can’t complain there.
There is an elevator back at the casino near the stairs on the second level that will take you directly to your room and the door out of the room will do the same. This adds to the continuity of the space; once back at the casino I continued my exploration.
There is a desk area and a gift shop across from each other as you enter the top portion when you first load into the space. A nice seating area greets you to the right where you can lounge about with your friends if you choose, but I didn’t see anyone really using it. The second level near the elevators holds both Keno and Casino War games and the VIP entrance area. There are both information and cashier kiosks scattered all over the casino in various place to both show you the rewards available and urge you to buy the chips necessary to win them. Casino War is a monetized version of the card game War you probably played as a kid at some point. Keno is played here several times an hour with a little chime that sounds whenever it is going off and a thirty second warning that shows in your text box.
The games themselves are nice enough; the Casino War has a ten-chip buy-in and Keno starts at five. These two are the cheapest ones available in the casino and I was told that Casino War has the biggest potential to win you some nice chips to use elsewhere. The games are fun and I like the fact you can place a Keno bet and leave the game to watch the numbers you picked get used on the board as you continue to converse with your friends.
There is a fake bar in the center of this area, with no way to get behind it. Personally, I think they should’ve made it like Scorpio’s in Sodium and had a drinking mini-game here for people to earn some chips to spend. There is ample seating here as well, but as before, no one is interested in sitting down in this place it seems. You can hear the back beat of the music from the dance floor below; the music is reminiscent of the music from the Ratchet and Clank space — very upbeat and meant to make you want to move about.
As you travel down onto the main floor of the casino you find the ever present slot machines you will always find in casinos, and three areas that lead you to Poker, Black Jack and a game called the Big Six. This is also where the large wooden dance floor is located with a display of lights and speakers. You can use the slots located here, but if you want to use any of the other games you have to relocate to them by hitting X. This also adds to the continuity of the space, though you can’t see anyone in any of the areas from another area when you are there.
Now I will discuss the games themselves, and this is where I have some issues with the space. They give you a hundred chips to start, but these are quickly lost just learning how to play the Keno, War and slots. In order to even play poker you have to have won five hundred chips out of sheer luck or you need to spend at least a dollar to buy them. The buy in for Black Jack is twenty-five chips and the buy in for Big Six is fifteen minimum. This is very much like the Midway, but with one exception: in Midway you can play for free on any number of games if you hang around long enough. I have even known some people to beat the whole thing for free.
VIP play area
Now I know that this is a business, and Digital Leisure is in this to make money, but they missed the boat here. Even though they recently added giving us a hundred free chips a week to satisfy the masses of people who were upset by the total pay-to-play idea, one of the allures of Midway that has kept the green ticket sales in the top ten forever is the fact that you get those free plays. People stick around a space long enough to get those and the potential for them to buy something eventually goes up exponentially. How about giving four free plays an hour on the two games that are in the front, Casino Wars and Keno instead? This will bring people back everyday to play, not just one day where they lose all their “free” chips in an hour and never return til the following week.
There are many rewards available for those who do decided to spend money to win them, including a so-called VIP area with higher stakes tables, and a VIP personal space to win along with many t-shirts (which they could have kept as far as I am concerned) and some other prizes like pants, masks, earrings and ornaments for your apartments. I’ve seen the VIP personal space, and I wasn’t really impressed with it. It’s just a fancier version of the other room, just as small, with access to a long hallway that makes you feel as though you are on a floor of the casino/hotel.
VIP Personal space
There are various package deals available for purchase ranging from a dollar for five hundred chips to twenty dollars for forty thousand chips, but that one comes with VIP access silver hat and the VIP personal space included. For five dollars you can get the gold hat to give you access to the VIP tables which have higher buy ins, but it doesn’t give you any chips to go along with it, which seems like a bad buy to me.
The game play itself is nice enough here, it has the feeling of being in a real casino so in that they have succeeded, but I think they might need to rethink some of this to keep people coming back here like the Midway. Perhaps that drinking game in the bar to win free chips or free game plays at Keno every so often would help or at Casino War, the two that are accessible without relocating.
The aesthetics of this space are very nice, so I will give them that at least. But I for one probably won’t spend much time here unless it is to come to friends here and have a conversation or two. I am glad to see a new developer come into Home with a new and exciting idea and I hope they decide to stay and add to their repertoire as time goes on, but I also believe they have room for improvement.
- Pleasing environment.
- Nice ambient sounds in background.
- Great games if you like gambling.
- Free personal space.
- Nice continuity of space.
- Rewards are decent, but the price to win them is too high.
- VIP hat has no chips attached.
January 25th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 9 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
A few comments…
1: The similarities the Casino and Midway have is a pay-to-play option, with free games given weekly (casino) and every 15 minutes.
2: Midway can be won 100% of the time. It’s only luck depending on your skill level/knowledge, while:
3: At higher levels, there is still a higher lucky factor in the Casino, no matter what your game knowledge/skill level is. You cannot win 100% of the time in the Casino.
Midway is a far friendlier space for the “free type” player. 100 Chips doesn’t last very long in the casino. It’d probably take a “free type” player over a year to get all the items in the Casino, while the average in Midway is about 4 months.
Average in Miday is 4 months for a free player? How did you come by these statistics?
There’s around 10 people that I know who’ve beaten Midway for free, and that’s the average.
This is skewed if any of these players have access to the special “time sheet” that shows order of all games being set up, though.
One of these exist, and no it’s not my own work.
I walked in and had a great time! I doubled my 100 chips in the first 5 minutes playing casino war, and got some more free swag!!!
Then to top it off, they comp. me a room, How sweet is that?
Very Sweet, because typically I would have to rent a similar room by the hour.
After some gambling, I picked up a couple of hot female brimstone dancers took and took them up to my Free Hotel room. Lets just say “DLC” gave me that George Jefferson feeling all night long.
Great article Burbie. Yes, I’m not a gambler either, but I love casinos and love Vegas. A while back I used to go there a lot as there are lots of promo gigs there to work. I almost considered moving there lol. But yes, I think the ambience of the space makes you feel like you are in a casino. I think it is quite expensive to play though. It’s cool they gave you a free personal space, but it seems kind of small and little dirty in parts lol. The VIP suite seems nice, but where is the bathroom? LOL Other than that, it does look like some kind of high-rollers suite. It would take me forever to get that by playing. the games they offer at the casino are good tho. they seemed to have covered everything except roulette and i guess they didn’t include craps cuz that is at the alien casino.
Wonderful review Burbie. I actually LOVE the personal space. I think it might actually be one of my favorites now! I love that its small, cramped and perfectly fitting for what it’s supposed to be.
I wish there were a penthouse “high roller estate” that could be owned by one person and one person alone. The space could change hands depending on the person with the highest $$ amount. in the event of a “tie” the person who had that amount first would retain the rights. They would need to be “dethroned”.
The devs of this space said that the casino will grow and games will be added. Let’s hope they read this article and take your suggestions to heart.
I often just go there and soak in the ambience of the place…I love blackjack….but am kinda frugal about using them…25 chips is quite a lot as a starting bet for BlackJack..But I’m sure the more you bet the higher the return I’m just very cautious How I spend them :)…But I love the How realistic it looks…Very swanky and like The Corleones might own it
I hear alot of people prefer the free room over the VIP room. It gives you that (better cover that mattress) feeling! Don’t unpack we are only gonna be here for the night!LOL
I like the blackjack! Lose my chips at FTL speed though.
Great review Burbie. I like the space because you can get the real gambling experience without real money. Also I love it when they give us free stuff!
I waited my whole life to for someone to use “clown car” in an article…I can die happy now!