Why is Net Ent ruining their games?

[Valkyrie]

I guess this would be a perfect question for the "Meet the Supplier" series, but since we haven't gotten to Net Ent yet and I need to get this frustration off my chest now, I'm making a new thread. (But , please keep this in mind when/if their time comes, okay. :))

As I've said a number of times before, I prefer Net Ent's older slots, like Piggy Riches, Blood Suckers, Wild Witches, Dead or Alive etc. - and the major reason for that is - or rather, was - the fact that you could change the number of lines to play and also "click/stop/click" the spins to play a bit "smoother". The only thing I didn't like was the max bet button.

But what does Net Ent do...?

They keep the max bet button (albeit slightly less "dangerous" now that it takes a double click to set off a spin), but decide to lock the paylines, so it's now impossible to choose how many lines to play. And on top of that - after every little win you also have to wait for an annoying pop-up counter to finish before you can spin again. Seriously, why count out    e v e r y    s i n g l e    c o i n   instead of simply showing the amount won - or better yet, (like before) just add the wins to the balance?

The locked paylines is the most annoying part, however, and when they first changed Mega Fortune it was irritating enough so I was hoping it was a one time deal for that slot only, but no such luck... So far they've changed Piggy Riches, Blood Suckers, Flowers, Starburst and more, so I assume it's only a matter of time before my beloved Dead or Alive and Wild Witches suffer the same fate. 😞

I've seen many other players voice their irritation over these changes as well, so why, Net Ent, why...???!?! :sad: I understand that as technology evolves you need to make changes to accommodate that, but transitioning to HTML5 doesn't mean you have to ruin your games in the process. These slots were perfect the way they were (minus the max bet button), so why in the world would you go and make your games less user friendly? Shouldn't you be aiming for the opposite?

[JeppeL]

That's some well constructed criticism , thanks a lot for posting it and letting us know your opinion, I'm sure Fredrik will have a look at it :)

[Fredrik-Unibet]

Thank you for sharing the feedback ! NetEnt has confirmed their participation in "Meet the supplier" but in the meantime I have shared this feedback with them directly over email.

Kind regards, Fredrik

[Valkyrie]

Thanks  and  - appreciate you passing along the feedback. 👍 I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, and since this community offers a somewhat direct path to the suppliers I felt it was the best place to bring it up.

I don't have much hope that they'll change the games back, but the chance is even smaller if no one says anything - and the point is, if they make the games for the players it should be essential to them that the players are satisfied with their games - right? So why "fix" something that isn't broken, and instead make it worse? 😞

Anyway, no matter what happens, at least I got to air my frustration. 😃 

[steppek77]

I think the casinos can decide what kind of versions they want. Because many trustworthy casinos still have the old versions, like Betsson, Betsafe,Casinoeuro etc etc. So I just change to play at another casino than Unibet casino. Sad :(

 

[Fredrik-Unibet]



That is not accurate. Many suppliers offer two versions, one for desktop and one for mobile. That situationen is however changing and more suppliers are moving over to a single game launch URL (and game id) and logic determins which version to serve, mobile or desktop. It is quite common that suppliers have two different versions (of the game interface) since the experience in terms of for instance screen area, usability and interaction is different between desktop and mobile.

A corner case is that certain markets have certain requirements and that is affecting a game. An example of that is a reality check ("You have been playing for X minutes.." or rules around auto play. Another corner case is that an operator sometimes can ask for specific bet levels and get another version of the game.

Finally, a supplier can have old and new games. The older games' interface, settings, help files, buttons etc can indeed be different from the new games. If you find descrepencies between two sites for the exact same game and same device it probably means that one of the sites is doing beta testing for the supplier.

Kind regards, Fredrik

[JeppeL]

 I'm thrilled to see you back on the community, was afraid we'd never hear from you again after your poor experience with customer support which you explained in this topic.

I don't know if you ever saw my reply, but the whole thing seems like a glitch in the sending and/or receiving of the email. In any case, I'll still fix the bonus on your account as per your wishes(there were two different options made possible by the norwegian customer support team)! If you're interested, feel free to let me know either here, via private message or in the original topic, and I'll get right on having the bonus offer re-added to your account :)

[tomek009966]

 You’re absolutely right.

[steppek77]

Sorry, but at the moment I don`t care.

[Valkyrie]

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@steppek77 wrote:

I think the casinos can decide what kind of versions they want. Because many trustworthy casinos still have the old versions, like Betsson, Betsafe,Casinoeuro etc etc. So I just change to play at another casino than Unibet casino. Sad :(

 

@steppek77 (I assume your last post just above was in response to @JeppeL so I'll skip that.) Anyway, I've noticed that some sites still have the old versions, but most likely it's just because they haven't gotten around to changing them yet. Unfortunately I think @Fredrik-Unibet is right and it's only a matter of time before all casinos implement the new (not improved) versions. But I believe Unibet would have benefited from keeping them as long as possible as well, because like you, a lot of people probably choose play where they're still available. :Sad:

I just wish the suppliers would ask the players what they want before making changes like this. Setting up a poll - or asking the casinos that offer their games to do so - isn't a difficult task and would provide them with lots of important information about their players' preferences...

[Fredrik-Unibet]

 One of the reasons we've started with "Meet the supplier" is precisely that - to give the suppliers a chance to interact with the players. I know from past experiences how hard it can be for them to have a direct channel to player insight and that is something we at Unibet want to change. In the meantime - I am sending all player feedback directly to our suppliers so again - thanks for contributing!

[Fredrik-Unibet]

Hi!

NetEnt has responded and I am posting this on their behalf.

Kind regards, Fredrik

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Hi ,
Thanks for highlighting your opinion. Player input is always valuable and this forum offers a perfect platform as we can also provide feedback. In this case we can explain why our transition from Flash to HTML5 has affected the possibility to choose your bet lines.

As you’re probably aware, Flash is a dying tech. Google has announced that Chrome will not support Flash as of January 1, 2017 and other web browsers are due to follow during the coming year. We started preparing for this some time back and launched our first HTML5 game, The Invisible Man, in December 2014. Since mid-2015 we have ensured that all new NetEnt games are built solely in HTML5.

There are a lot of advantages with HTML5. For example, it offers improved security, reduces power consumption, and allows faster page load times. To ensure that all NetEnt games benefit from these advantages, we’ve been working hard to bring older games, including your favorite titles, up to date. This means we must build them in our latest framework, perspective and criteria, which comes with fixed bet lines.

We apologize for not having the variable bet lines on the updated version of the game but, according to our data, the use of bet lines was very minimal. As such, we felt it was better to ensure the long-term life of the game, with no bet-lines, rather than players having a bad experience loading the game when – or if – Flash issues occur.
We hope this answer gives you some clarity as to why the change in our games, and that you can continue to enjoy and have fun while playing our games.

Best regards, NetEnt

[Valkyrie]

Thanks for posting the reply @Fredrik-Unibet. I appreciate Net Ent taking the time to answer - even though some issues (like the existence of the max bet button and the pop-up counter) were not addressed. Those features don't contribute to the usability of the games, so I really would have liked to hear the reasoning behind keeping/implementing those.

I understand that game developers need to keep up with technology, but when it comes to the awesomeness of HTML5 I respectfully have to disagree - because my experience is the exact opposite. I've never had any trouble with the Flash based slots, they've always loaded quickly and run smoothly. Many of the HTML5 based slots, however, get stuck while loading, lag during play and sometimes even freeze my browser or my whole computer. 😞 So unfortunately, for those of us who don't own super new computers a lot of the enjoyment has gone with the transition to HTML5 and been replaced by the very irritation and bad experience they said they wanted to avoid. Kind of ironic, isn't it? :sad:

Don't get me wrong, I really do appreciate getting a reply, even though I'm not exactly thrilled with the answer. Then again, I didn't expect them to change the games back to the way they were, I just wanted them to know that many of us don't like the new versions. And if they ever decide to make any major changes in the future, I really hope they take the opportunity to use forums like this one to find out what the players want and don't want - beforehand.

[Fredrik-Unibet]

Thanks again for the feedback ! As always, good stuff and this thread is monitored by NetEnt. I cannot say if they'll respond or not but at least you can be sure that they've read it.

Judging by your comments I take it you are desktop only user? What NetEnt states about Flash is accurate and most of our suppliers are now working on converting all content to HTML5, including older games. We will see this happening over the next year and the reason is that Flash is vanishing as a technology and even Adobe has realized that (took some years). I am personally impressed to see how suppliers have been using HTML5 and one game that impresses me with rich animations is the upcoming Superheroes from Yggdrasil (scheduled to go live on Unibet on Thursday) which you can try out here. What I do not like is when games only feature one/same interface for mobile and desktop - I prefer if there are two versions that adapt according to channel.

Cheers, Fredrik

[Valkyrie]

 I prefer to play on my desktop, yes, and one of the reasons for that is the fixed paylines in Net Ent's mobile versions. But now I guess it doesn't really matter anymore since they've made the desktop versions virtually the same. I just wish they'd done it the other way around, you know... 😞

Anyway, I know HTML5 is supposed to be "the way of the future". All I'm saying is, that for me - and probably others with not entirely new computers - it's mostly caused trouble so far, while Flash still works perfectly - so honestly, that's one piece of technology I'll be sad to see go. :teardrop:

Thanks for the game tip, I'll check it out. 😃

[Jone83]

it will not help if they passing your feedback. only they care of taking your money. all the old games has been updated and they not give you winnings like before or what you have been used for. Netnet games are totally bad and new ones has are allmost all the same just different theme and more and more they become greedy when there is people who feed them. so the answer for your question Why is Net Ent ruining their games? is simply the want more MONEY

[Valkyrie]

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@Jone83 wrote:

it will not help if they passing your feedback. only they care of taking your money. all the old games has been updated and they not give you winnings like before or what you have been used for. Netnet games are totally bad and new ones has are allmost all the same just different theme and more and more they become greedy when there is people who feed them. so the answer for your question Why is Net Ent ruining their games? is simply the want more MONEY

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You're absolutely right, but it's not quite that simple. The point is that Net Ent has chosen the wrong way to do so, because in the end it will backlash on them. All markets depend on supply and demand - and there's no difference in the casino gaming industry. Net Ent claim they like gaming themselves and want to provide a great experience for their users and while I believe that's at least partly true, I also have no doubt what so ever that their main goal is to make money. Why else would you even think about starting a company, if you don't want to make a profit? I don't blame them for that, but happy customers and making money go hand in hand and you can't have one without the other. By playing their games we all contribute to their profit - and sometimes our own - or we wouldn't play at all. And for the record, the RTP of the games haven't changed, but the fact is we can potentially win on any slot from any supplier, so in the end quality means everything when it comes to which product the customers will choose. So if they want to keep making money, they need to keep us happy.

Sometimes it's easier to get a point across with metaphors, so let's compare one of the new Net Ent slots to a car. It looks shiny on the outside and has lots of flashy details inside - but it dents easily, the seats are uncomfortable and none of those flashy buttons actually work - and on top of that it's not run on environmentally friendly fuel, the engine coughs constantly and the car inexplicably stops every mile - would you buy it? I sure wouldn't, and it's the same with casino games - if you don't like it, you won't play. Having fancy graphics and the latest technology means nothing if it doesn't work properly. And if it only gives the driver/player a bad experience chances are they'll choose another less flashy model that is more reliable. So like any other company Net Ent has to learn to pay attention to what their costumers want - or we'll abandon them for other suppliers that give us a better experience with the same potential of winning. It's as simple as that.

If they don't want to take our feedback to heart it's their choice, but taking into account how many players actually dislike the new versions of their games, they'll eventually find out the hard way why they should have listened before they went ahead with the changes. At least I tried...

[Valkyrie]

Here I was thinking I couldn't get any more disappointed at Net Ent than I already was... but now they've gone and removed some of my favourite slots, "Wild Witches" and "Trolls" all together! What, they couldn't be changed into HTML5 so you take them away completely? Seriously? 😠

And from the looks of it another old fave "Dead or Alive" is only a hairs' breadth away from dying the HTML5 death as well. Btw, Net Ent, did you notice that

of the new version already has way more dislikes than likes? Shouldn't that tell you something? :Wonder:

[seetank]

and added comments is of course disabled😛

[Valkyrie]

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@seetank wrote:

and added comments is of course disabled😛

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Yeah, very convenient indeed...

Btw, I don't have a Youtube account, so none of those dislikes are mine, but you can add one more for the record. 😛

[iLLIDAN11]

absolutely agree 👍

[Playerke025]

Not only  the developers are messing this up ... i lack the appriciaton for casino players , you only good too boost there  profit marges , it is insane how  low wins you get on days with there so called promotions!!! and no i don't wanne win all the time, but winning 5 euro ( if that even happen) and losing after that 20 games in a row is not very amusing , and this is allready going for some weeks .and i play daily ..even if you play another game it stays the same ,very low wins .. a couple years ago i told my collegue  to try this site out ,   well i would not do that again @ this moment ... but anyway , happy holidays guys ,go get some pie and watch your insane  profits ...

kind regards , santa

[Reinrebane]

@Valkyrie i' m agree with you. I liked the old version much more !

[Sect7G]

For whatever reason Net Ent games are unavailable to me (Canada) but they were just a few weeks ago.  This problem happened 6 months ago and then disappeared.

[Valkyrie]

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@Sect7G wrote:

For whatever reason Net Ent games are unavailable to me (Canada) but they were just a few weeks ago.  This problem happened 6 months ago and then disappeared.

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Do you get an error message when you try to open a Net Ent game or doesn't it load at all...? Maybe @Fredrik-Unibet can check if they've changed their licencing or something?