If This Was My Casino: Part Two
by keara22hi, HSM team writer
Any smart business owner knows that it is much more profitable to hang on to your good customers than to pend the money to try and find new ones. Digital Leisure is a developer in Home who has mastered the art of keeping their finger on the pulse of their Casino.
When we decided to take pics of the new Penthouse Suite, Paul from Digital Leisure kindly showed up for the photo op. Then he patiently listened while we campaigned for various pet project ideas. One of those ideas (“please put a Poker Leaderboard upstairs in VIP”) got implemented almost immediately. Others, not yet (and maybe never), but the ‘under construction’ site – which we discovered this week to be the casino – already has us buzzing in anticipation.
So, what were the other recommendations the group decided should be added to this list? Here we go:
1. New Card Games: most mentioned were five-card draw and deuces wild;
2. Single Deck Blackjack: At least one more table in VIP Room and preferably two;
3. Video Blackjack machines. Take out the bar area in the VIP Room and put in more games;
4. Keno board in the Penthouse Suite for private play.
5. Jacket colors for Leaderboard winners: different color for each game, such as Black for BlackJack, Red for Poker, Green for Craps, etc.
6. Hat awards and other clothing rewards: the present ones available definitely do not look good on female avatars. Plus the hairstyles are dreadful
7. Gift shop items available for purchase ONLY with chips. No cash value otherwise. Or make it possible to buy chips to give to a friend in need.
8. End-of-season “Wall of Fame” with thumbnail shots of all the Leaderboard Champs.
9. All Digital Leisure reward clothes on hangers in that closet, even the t-shirts.
10. Visible Tier awards for Levels 5 and 6. Either wearing apparel or handheld items that identify the player as someone who has maxed out all the games to that level. Bragging rights are what many of us play for, and symbols of those bragging rights are in high demand!
11. Add more tiers – why stop at Level 6? If the Casino overall is going to level 10 soon, why not the game tiers also?
12. Craps table in VIP Room. And split VIP Room into two rooms with Craps and Roulette in one room and Poker and Blackjack in the other.
13. Cocktail waitresses (like the ones in X-7, but classier) only carrying drinks instead of money.
14. Penthouse Club Room. A place where Penthouse Suite owners can hang out, play high stakes games, and go for the bigger payouts. No way to buy-in. Must be a Penthouse Suite owner for entry into the club.
15. Increase the items sold in the Casino gift shop: more clothing items, shoes, accessories, and furniture.
Then we got the bombshell: Superlatives told us that he believes the poofing problem in the VIP room is due to a lot of causes, some of which could be rectified. We discussed all the game animations going on in there and all the activities that can affect ping speeds. So, the question became, what would the VIP players be willing to give up if it would mean lessening the poofing problem. We kicked around a lot of ideas and identified some of the unnecessary actions that could be eliminated.
To take the pulse of the rest of the VIP players, I circulated around, adding people to my Friend List for surveys, asking questions, and discussing various options.
Here are the things that most players said they could live without, if it would help the situation:
1. First and foremost: use of wardrobe in the VIP Room. It’s no big deal to go elsewhere, change clothes, and return, so there is no real need to do it inside the VIP room. Whether or not this should apply to the entire Casino or not is another question. It would take a random sampling of Casino players to determine what repercussions that might have. We discovered, however, that if it means the poof problem would be alleviated, most players would back that decision 100%. However, if the change is implemented without an announcement from Digital Leisure or community management, it would be a bad situation. Thankfully, Digital Leisure has such excellent communication ongoing with the Casino players that this should not pose a problem. When people understand that it is for their own good, a little sacrifice is no big deal.
2. Leave the pets/companions at home. If those animations are interfering and are eating up bandwidth, remove them.
3. Cut back on special moves, skateboards, wings, and other personal animations if necessary.
While in theory this all sounds like great ideas, the bottom line here is this: none of us are programmers. This is guesswork based on the increase in the poofing problem since the last core change, which added all those new moves. It would be wonderful if a reader who does understand the programming problems could shed some light on this situation, or if Digital Leisure would take this opportunity to lay out the problem and possible solutions for open discussion.
Let’s face it: Digital Leisure is rapidly becoming one of the most popular developers in Home history. And their open channels of communication are one of the biggest reasons for this. So, we really hope they will see this as our effort at trying to help with constructive suggestions in this wishlist format.
December 8th, 2012 by keara22hi | 4 comments
Keara is also known in Home as DarthGranny. She is a wicked little old lady with a wild sense of humor.
I stopped playing Poker in the VIP room because of the poofing reason. It’s hard to lose 2500 chips for basically no reason. If this is fixed I can once again continue to work on moving up the poker tier. That is if I can get away from the War tables 8)
Very good article. loved reading it and the ideas are evenly great. it would be great if we were able to use the mic on all games. like roulette and bingo. i mean, for poker it “could”be used for cheating. but i really miss talking to my friends on mic whenever i`m playing roulette
just a small thing.. but i agree on disabeling wardrobe/companions/etc in VIP. that would help much i`m sure.
At this meeting: Superlatives, Madonna, Weasel182, DarkSky25,SUSZANA, esco887,CJTTHEHSLR,Mermaid-KT, and as moderator of the meeting, wweMcMahon, HSM guest writer. Paul from Digital Leisure was NOT at this meeting; the pics of him in this article were from an earlier photo shoot. I was there to take notes as everyone gave their ideas on what their ‘wishlist’ for the Casino would include. I want to thank everyone who so generously gave of their time and expertise. And we all want to thank Digital Leisure for their marvelous creation: the Casino!
A very good article. Some excellent ideas. You have a way of focusing on “player experience” that is a huge asset to Home. Keep it up!