Online Bingo News
CALM KENO V. MADCAP MULTI PLAYER BINGO
17/03/2005This piece is not going to be overly-techno-geeky, don't worry. I just want to explain something that for some reason online bingo sites don't feel the need to explain.
There are many moons, in terms of experience, that separate the single player bingo site from the multi-player bingo site. Go to Think Bingo, Kiss My Bingo, Jackpot Joy, Bingos.co.uk and GetMinted Bingo and you can play multi-player bingo. Pitch up at Virgin Games, Mecca Games or Littlewoods Game On and any bingo game you play will be single player, also known as bingo keno. The difference in a nutshell: fixed odds v. not fixed odds. A single player bingo game gives you fixed odds, you are effectively wagering on a randomly-configured card of numbers. A multi-player game, on the other hand, is dynamic, it is constantly changing according to who else is playing, how many people are playing and how many cards they have bought.
Multi-player games are structured like the High Street Bingo Hall experience. If there is one player, she has a 100% chance of winning. As more people join the game her odds decrease, although the winning pot size increases. This paradox entirely encapsulates what is so compelling about multi-player online bingo games. You are drawn to a bingo site for its ambiance, which is created by the other players, who become your friends. At the same time you know that the more friends you play with the less chance you have of winning that bingo game, but if you do win, you will win so much more... go figure.
Some single-player online bingo sites offer group chat. But on a multi-player site, the chat is integrated. You are chatting with you friends while playing with them and monitoring their fortunes. It also opens up the way for the chat moderators to run chat games that raise the stakes of the bingo game on a game by game basis. The most successful sites have the coolest chat games, like Think Bingo and Bingos.co.uk.
I can only assume that it is technically easier and cheaper to provide single player bingo or bingo keno games, as I see no advantages in going for a single player, fixed odds environment - even if chat is not your thing you can play on a multi-player site without chatting and your online bingo game will be frankly more interesting.
The internet has brought us opportunities for unprecedented interactivity and integration. Why play alone when there are thousands out there waiting to play with you??
