MyOpinion Of MyVegas.

So, I DL'ed and played the MGM MyVegas Android and iOS game last week. I was...not impressed.

The game itself is actually pretty engaging, it keeps you interested and you can fairly quickly advance to other slot-style games (some of them MGM themed) so you don't feel stagnated on one game. The graphics and especially the sound effects are very Vegas-esque, you feel a bit like you are playing a genuine slot machine, and you do feel genuine excitement as the reels spin.

It's in the chips system and rewards that the game falls flat. You get a small kitty to begin with and winning at the start is pretty easy, I got from around 500 chips to over 40,000 on the first day, only to lose it ALL on the next day. I DL'ed the game separately on my Nexus 5 and my iPad Air, and both times the pattern was the same. Build you up, give you the illusion that the game will be easy then cut you down to size rather quickly.

Accumulating chips allows you to continue playing and gaining "Loyalty Points", which are the real currency in the game, as these are the points that you can eventually cash in on Vegas rewards at MGM resorts. The problem is it takes FOREVER to accumulate any real useful points. On both Android and iOS it took me 5-6 hours to get to the first tier of rewards at about 1500 Loyalty Points, which are paltry at best. We're talking 2 for 1 drink offers (at Circus Circus!) or what amounts to about $10 off room rates, and only for select resorts. To get to any meaningful rewards you have to get up into the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of points, and even then you're really only talking about comped weekday rooms or show tickets. You're not going to be staying at a Presidential Suite at the Bellagio on this game.

The insidious thing about the game is that A), you would have to play the game FOREVER to get anything meaningful out of it, and B), unless you're very lucky early on you have to BUY chips to continue playing. The game is constantly throwing up pop-ups asking you to buy more chips, and charges up to $99 REAL AMERICAN DOLLARS for the privilege. Doesn't this seem a little counterproductive? Buying several hundred thousand chips so you can spin virtual reels for hundreds of hours to get a free room that you could just...BUY WITH THE MONEY YOU SPENT ON CHIPS?

If it took 5 hours to get to 1000 points, and meaningful rewards are at, say, 100,000 points, that's 500 HOURS playing the game to get anything out of it. There are only a little over 2000 hours in a normal work YEAR. No thank you.

Sure, there are apparently tricks and hacks to maximize your chips out there, and that might accelerate your point accumulation, but I don't have a job or life where I can spend 4-5 hours a day trying to get myself a free steak at the Mirage. My time is way more valuable than a 300 hour rib-eye. The game's also a device battery killer; my normally battery-sipping phone was damn near drained after that first session.

I understand why MGM does this, it's another way to build brand loyalty and undoubtedly the game pulls in way more cash in chip purchases than it ever dishes out in rewards. Even if the rewards do add up, they still have to be redeemed in MGM resorts, thus sucking in the very people who think they're getting over with cheap rewards to the real cash cows, the actual slot machines in the casinos.

So I ask myself...why am I so loyal to MGM again?

UPDATE:
Eh, I've been playing it again. It IS fun to play, unlike most mobile games, and what the fuck else do I have to do, really? I'm up to about 5500 Loyalty Points now and will be around 6K by the time I go to Vegas (the real one), so at least I'll get a free appetizer or monorail ride out of it.