There's an app for that...

[feeder22]

So, this is can either go good or bad, I'm hoping the former. Something I've been thinking about for a while.

Part and parcel of playing machines is the allure of winning money, be it in a casual or professional way, the goal is to win some money and preferably have some enjoyment in doing so. Heck some enjoyment can even be found when people are losing money.

We all have our favourite machines, the ones we seek out for various reasons. Ease of play, chances of winning, visually appealing etc etc.

A lot of people who play fruit machines do so on a regular occurrence, they'll frequent the places they know that offer them their choice of machine. Even in an unfamiliar territory a fruit player will do some "checking" to try and seek out their favourites

Wouldn't it be great if there was an app that showed you where all the machines are in any specific area, or even let you search for your favourite machines?...

Well there is...ish

I'm currently(well not me, I'm just the money man) developing an app that will do just that. Without going into to much detail everything has been worked out. It'll be a simple to use app.

Now I'm going to be offering this app out for FREE to anyone who wants a copy. When i say anyone I mean ANYONE. Internet discrepancies aside I'm not arsed if we've had a pop at one another, the ultimate aim is to have something
that can only benefit us all.

You'll need an android phone of some sort. iPhone will come later depending upon success of this. If you haven't got an android phone, buy one they're cheap enough and the small investment should be worth it.

There's one condition if you agree to have the app I ask in return for help in keeping it updated. I can cover a lot of the country but not all of it. So I'd ask users of the app to contribute their machine locations to the end database. I need details like. name of location pub/arcade/bowling etc, full address and obviously what machines there is.

Now obviously there's a chance of abuse. People could send me a list of machine locations that is just a made up bullshit list, Well Nothing will go on the database until it was confirmed and anyone who abuses the app will have their access to it revoked.
Again without going into too much detail (at this present time) all this has been thought of and we think we have it all covered.

I've committed to getting this app up and running but would still be interested in your thoughts and ideas.

Also I've decided to hold back on the release until the the £100's are here and settled in, but in the mean time would be keen for some beta testers in various parts of the country.

[Oscar]

Nice idea in principle.

You say there is a chance of abuse which is certainly true but say for example someone worked out a method or an empty they have instant access to locations, but aren't going to bother updating the site because they won't need to search any pubs other than the ones which site the machines they are after.

And they won't thank you either.

Whilst your intentions of helping everyone is commendable, ultimately you are only really assisting the top earners. Personally I don't care if a machine has no artwork, it boils down to whether I can beat the machine or not. I can still appreciate the visual appeal of a machine, and the sound effects etc but I'm not going to lose money to experience that. So if Mr Smith is on his dinner break and pops into a pub for a quick pint and a £20 note in a machine for visual stimulation and amusement purposes that is fair enough, but if he were then to add the location to the app and at some point the machine in question became a target for players he is going to start losing that £20 without experiencing the factors which made the game so enjoyable initially, and eventually he will probably ponder on why he contributed to the app.

I'd like to think that fellow players would help each other out in regards to locations for the benefit of everyone but I think it is a tad fanciful. Most people in the game have a 'fuck everyone else, I've got bills coming out of my arse' attitude and such an app is only going to spark interest amongst a wider audience. This will in part result in more people casually feeding machines which is of course a benefit to players, but from the perspective of a player there is the risk of converting some of the casual end users into semi professionals.

[feeder22]

Nice idea in principle.

You say there is a chance of abuse which is certainly true but say for example someone worked out a method or an empty they have instant access to locations, but aren't going to bother updating the site because they won't need to search any pubs other than the ones which site the machines they are after.

And they won't thank you either.

You get out what you put in so to speak. If you're not contributing to the upkeep of the app you won't have access to it in the first place. So if you do stumble upon something like a method or an empty then it'll make your job a bit easier finding machines to play
If you worked out an method and decided to leave the method machine out it would be plainly obvious you had.

Whilst your intentions of helping everyone is commendable, ultimately you are only really assisting the top earners. Personally I don't care if a machine has no artwork, it boils down to whether I can beat the machine or not. I can still appreciate the visual appeal of a machine, and the sound effects etc but I'm not going to lose money to experience that. So if Mr Smith is on his dinner break and pops into a pub for a quick pint and a £20 note in a machine for visual stimulation and amusement purposes that is fair enough, but if he were then to add the location to the app and at some point the machine in question became a target for players he is going to start losing that £20 without experiencing the factors which made the game so enjoyable initially, and eventually he will probably ponder on why he contributed to the app.

Not necessarily. People seek out different machines for various reasons. A casual is likely to go for something they had a decent time on previously or they could also be attracted to a machine they've never played before purely because they haven't.

I'd like to think that fellow players would help each other out in regards to locations for the benefit of everyone but I think it is a tad fanciful. Most people in the game have a 'fuck everyone else, I've got bills coming out of my arse' attitude and such an app is only going to spark interest amongst a wider audience. This will in part result in more people casually feeding machines which is of course a benefit to players, but from the perspective of a player there is the risk of converting some of the casual end users into semi professionals.

Not really. I can't see how the app would create a semi professional no more than the internet or mobile phones do.


The abuse and cynical side of things is not really a priority. Whilst not full proof the app will certainly have prevention methods.

[AMK]

They have a similar thing in Vegas, where the slot operator tells you which casinos their slots are in and where to to play specific games.

A full list of working machine X's would indeed be useful? Are you going to list things as chipped/unchipped.


You could also make it fun by adding a MHI,
Mega Heat Indicator.

[streakseims]

You could have a flame rating next to it lol
0 flames your laughing
1 flame if you get "beer on you" if you win more than £40

5 flames is police turned up when 3 cherry's spun in

[Oscar]

You could rate the location in terms of potential for hassle, but people would just lie saying they got threatened etc just to keep other players away from a good hit. In such circumstances it would be hard to verify whether people are telling the truth or not without going into the premises and judging for yourself. You can't go upto the landlord and say 'Hi there, according to the Fruit Locator (TM) app on my mobile phone your pub has a 4.5 out of 5 Fire rating. Is this true, or is it alright if I crack on with the bandit?'

Another concern for a player would be if he were seeking locations for a specific machine he was targeting for income, and the app came up with some locations, would his search be safe? Would there be someone sat in a dark room in front of a PC with a takeaway coffee in his hand saying to himself 'This guy has requested locations for machine A specifically, I can see from his GPS that he is currently in Leeds, the app has given him these pubs so if I don some overalls and turn up half an hour before opening I can pretend I am here to perform general maintenance, hide in the ceiling and film him playing the machine.'

He will then chuckle loudly to himself like a super-villain.

I can't imagine players would be comfortable with other people knowing where they are or what they are playing.

[mr lugsy]

you could include a feature where you could upload pictures of wanker landlords, evil bastard arcade owners and devious staff members and distribute them nationally to all your members along with the times that they are most likely to be off duty'

eat your heart out Gary Pettengell.

[HornyNick]

Another problem is how mobile savvy are your customers? If the app is not on the app store, that means the app had to be "side-loaded" onto the phone/tablet. But an app cant be side-loaded unless the phone is rooted (afaiw).

[johncluedo]

This simply won't work, I wouldn't waste your time!

[Spyder]

The concept was attempted on the internet... I cannot remember who or where but someone tried this about 10'years ago with a members only forum...

It didn't work then.

It probably won't work now.

[trayhop123]

it simply cant work , too much jealously and oneupmanship in the game ,

the first flaw your gonna have is the confirmation aspect , how will that work again? example johny newmember says theres a wankybars in the dog and bollock in cliquesville , , , , erm which your not gona put on the site without confirmation,,,,,, so erm how will anyone know that it needs confirming ? , erm if you haven't put it on the site in the first place ??? hmmm ??? what are you going to do personally, drive 300 miles to cliquesville to erm confirm it yourself , then post it up ?

next misdirection, jimmypro decides that he's gonna send everyone of his rivals out of town for the day by posting "hi my names johny munter and ive just seen a machine x in the wankandfaggot , so everyone round the country heads to it while johny cleans up on the normal stuff.


its a nice idea and all that m8 , but in reality it will never work

[Lilly Satou]

The concept was attempted on the internet... I cannot remember who or where but someone tried this about 10'years ago with a members only forum...

It didn't work then.

It probably won't work now.

Gaming Alert?

The one that was on Dragon's Den?

[Spyder]

No, before that.... I think it was in the members only forum on r-cadia....

[bubbles]

the relentless would clean up even more. goodbye to "untouched jems!". wouldn't like to see this sort of info freely available. lists were okay before everybody had them....which makes this "venture" a non starter. i'd rather pay for exclusivity than freely give hits out to the bitter, twisted and selfish who already abuse and exploit anyone that gives an inch!

[Oscar]

Tired?

Sleepy?

There's a nap for that.