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Untitled Document
GAMES ROOM - Ah, I see you've come back again. Excellent! Last time I discussed
the gambling games you can play that are based on pure luck. Pure luck games,
if you have forgotten, don't really require you to do very much to win... or to
lose for that matter. This week I will steer you towards the games of chance that
require you to make some minor decisions, even if it's really nothing more than
choosing between TWO buttons instead of just mindlessly clicking on one button.
If you are still fuzzy on this topic, "games of chance" are games that you
have to PAY to play. That means Kacheek Seek, although it's located in "Games:
Luck/Chance" and seems like a hit or miss proposition, is NOT a gambling game.
You don't have to risk anything to play it. And no matter how good you are at
guessing, Lenny Conundrum and Mystery Pic aren't games of chance either. They
are technically puzzles. And the biggest part of the puzzle of these games is
why they are in the "Luck/Chance" category of games and not "Puzzles". And don't
even try to solve the mystery of why "Storytelling" is in the "Luck/Chance"
category because you'll wind up with brain freeze.
So what is the real difference between pure luck games and make your
own luck games? It's quite simple. Since you have the option of making at least
some sort of decision playing certain games, it means that you could actually
steer the outcome in your favor. The choices you make are the difference between
winning and losing. Whoa! Nothing like adding a little pressure to your gambling,
huh?
Scratchcards
Location: Ice Caves, Terror Mountain
Cost to Play: 600 NPs
Limit: You can only buy one once every two hours
When you buy one, you get a random scratchcard. With certain scratchcards,
like the Icetravaganza scratchcard, selling for up to 90,000 Neopoints on the
Shop Wizard, half of the trick of this game is deciding whether to sell them
or scratch them. The most common scratchcards you could get are the Race to
Riches and the Terror Trove. Next up in value is the Faeries Fortune, followed
by the rare Peak O Plenty and the emperor of all potential jackpots-- the Icetravaganza.
The rarer cards have bigger jackpots which makes them worth more, but ONLY if
you win.
After you buy your card, you are given a drop-down box and the option to scratch
your card. If you choose to scratch, you select six of nine circles. If you
get three of a kind you win whatever that prize is. It could be Neopoints or
an item. But usually the item is a worthless plushie or a wet snowball or something,
so even if you win, it's not worth the 600 NPs you coughed up for the scratchcard.
However, you could win thousands of Neopoints, so you could more than make your
Neopoints back. I wouldn't recommend buying and scratching a half a dozen cards
a day, but if you buy them and resell most of them, you could make enough of
a profit to scratch one a day and not lose Neopoints, and the chance of winning
a big jackpot makes it worth the gamble.
Tower of
Turnips
Location: Meridell
Cost to Play: 100 NPs
Limit: None
Personally, I would rather go to the dentist and have my teeth drilled than
play this game, especially since a trip to the dentist at least improves my
teeth slightly. The idea behind this game is to stack turnips. The drawback
is that not only is 100 NPs a lot to gamble, but the game doesn't even start
to pay off until you reach a certain level. If you are stacking straight up,
that's at about level 4. And since the tower seems to collapse a lot between
levels 6 and 7, you don't even make your Neopoints back. I have tried the "pyramid"
method, the "straight up" method and a combination of both. I have falling turnip
bruises all over my body to prove it. Anyone who actually makes Neopoints off
of this game has my undying admiration.
Guess the Card
Location: Games: Luck/Chance
Cost to Play: 10 NPs
Limit: None
For 10 Neopoints, I suppose you could play this game a couple of times a day,
but it hardly seems worth it. You "win" 50 Neopoints if you correctly guess
the card your pet is "thinking" of. Deducting the 10 NPs it costs to play, that
means you only win 40 NPs if you win. Since there are six cards to choose from,
you only have a one-in-six chance of guessing right. The game claims that it
could improve your pet's intelligence, but I've never seen that happen.
If you want to increase the intelligence of your pet, play Cliffhanger. Not
only does it pay off a lot more, but the IQ boosts seem to be more frequent
too.
Poogle
Racing
Location: Faerieland
Cost to Play: Bet up to 300 NPs
Limit: The races are held every 15 minutes
I rank this game with Gormball in the "you-think-you-are-doing-something-but-it's-really-still-just-blind-luck-if-you-win"
category. Even so, it's kind of cool to watch the flash video of the race. Before
the race, you have the option of picking one of five Poogles to bet on. Their
names are: Poogle One, Poogle Two, Poogle Three, Poogle Four and Poogle Five,
which are pretty catchy names if you ask me. You are also given the option to
feed your Poogle before the race. I have noticed though that only Tiki Tack
Tombola foods seem to show up in the drop-down box. So my theory of feeding
them different categories of foods to see if it helps sort of goes down the
u-bend of great justice drain pipe. But I did notice that cheering for your
Poogle probably doesn't do anything because if you don't even bother to watch
the flash video, but click on the "return to main page" button as soon as the
race starts you will get the results.
Tyranu Evavu
Location: Tyrannia
Cost to Play: 30 NPs
Limit: None
The rules are pretty basic. There is a deck of 52 cards and one at a time
is flipped over. You are given a choice of deciding if the NEXT card will be
higher or lower than the card shown. Sometimes this is easy. Just about everything
on the planet is higher than a two. But sometimes it isn't so easy to guess.
I cringe whenever I see a seven or an eight. The easy part is that aces are
always high. The tricky part is that instead of the words "higher" and "lower",
they give you the words "tyranu" and "evavu". And the REALLY tricky part is
that they sometimes switch the order in which the words tyranu and evavu are
placed, so you have to pay attention and remember which means higher and which
means lower. If you need to write "tyranu = higher" and "evavu = lower" on the
back of your hand, go for it. Just remember to wash it off before you go to
school. The good news is that it is cheaper to play than Tower of Turnips. The
bad news is that it doesn't even begin to earn you your Neopoints back until
after you have guessed correctly five times in a row. The good news is that
that can be easy to do. The bad news is that you probably won't win very much
more than your investment. This game is filled with more highs and lows than
you thought, huh?
Scorchy Slots
Location: Games: Luck/Chance
Cost to Play: 5 NPs
Limit: None
This is a great game to play and can win you big Neopoints for a very small
investment. You click on the "Play Again" button forever because there is no
link to leave. This is probably like this on purpose because this game is very
addicting and you will just keep clicking on the button until cobwebs start
to grow across your computer screen. Believe me, if you don't set a limit for
yourself, like losing 100 NPs, you will keep playing until you have no Neopoints
left. Even in the bank. The game may seem a little confusing at first, but here
is how it works: You click on the button and if four of a kind of ANYTHING shows
up, you get Neopoints or objects based on what those four of a kind were. Here
is the prize list:
Three Cherries: 15 NP
Three Strawberries: 30 NP
Three Grapes: 60 NP
Four Cherries: 75 NP
Three Melons: 90 NP
Three Apples: 120 NP
Four Strawberries: 150 NP
Three Peaches: 180 NP
Three Bells: 240 NP
Four Grapes: 300 NP
Four Melons: 450 NP
Four Apples: 600 NP
Three Bags of gold: 600 NP
Four Peaches: 900 NP
Four Bells: 1,200 NP
Three Map pieces: A Map Piece
Three Faeries: A Bottled Faerie
Four Map pieces: Three Map Pieces
Four Faeries: Six Faeries
Four Bags of gold: THE JACKPOT!!!
Every few turns you will get bonus events. They don't occur every turn and
there are two types. The first one has to do with the little chart underneath
that has numbers and footsteps on it. You will get a notice that says "FEATURE
HELD FOR NEXT SPIN". Sometimes the objects and fruits on the slot machine will
have numbers on them. If those numbers add up to eight the volcano will erupt
and either something good will happen or something bad will happen.
"THE VOLCANO ERUPTS!!! It's raining Neopoints, you pick up as many as you
can carry!" (In my case it was obvious I could only carry 18 NPs).
"THE VOLCANO ERUPTS!!! An evil Scorchio flies out of the Volcano and steals
10 Neopoints from you!!" (And you thought you only had to worry about the Ghosts
and the Tax Beast).
The second type of bonus event actually gives you the option to do something.
You are given four squares and can choose to "hold" any or all of the objects
that you have showing from your previous spin. This means if you have numbers
you may want to click on them to hold for the next spin. If you have several
of the same kinds of fruit, you may want to hold them. This definitely gives
you an edge on your next spin and increases your chance of winning. But it also
increases your "well, just one more spin" chance of spiraling down into bankruptcy.
The good news is that this game seems to be a random event magnet. You can score
codestones, Faeries and paint brushes without ever winning a game. Sounds like
a great gamble to me!
Grarrl Keno
Location: Tyrannia
Cost to Play: Maximum bet varies from person to person
Limit: None
The most difficult thing about this game is trying to figure out how much
you are allowed to bet. The maximum you are allowed to bet is based on how many
days you have been playing Neopets. If you have been playing Neopets for 54
days, then you are allowed to bet twice times 54, plus an additional 50 Neopoints.
Put another way, your bet can be 54 x 2 + 50 = 158. Your maximum bet is 158
Neopoints. If this is too tricky, the game tells you how much you are allowed
to bet, so you don't have to whip out your calculator. I just thought I would
explain how the game comes up with that number.
This is a sort of instant lottery. You can choose from two to ten numbers
from a game board that goes up to eighty. How many egg numbers you select and
how much you bet determines how much you can win. There is a prize chart at
the bottom that tells you what your winnings could be, so you still don't
have to worry about hunting up your calculator. The winnings can be pretty huge
on this game, but it is also extremely hard to win. Definitely worth a couple
of shots a day, but not a game you would play for hours.
So these are the gambling games that actually give you some choices to make.
Of course the biggest choice to make on these games is, "should I quit now?"
That's the only choice you make in these games that actually has an outcome
you can predict with accuracy. Unless of course, you count selling stuff in
your shop as a game of chance.
NEXT TIME: Gambling on Success: Part 3: The Card Shark Way
In the next article I will tell you the games of chance you can play that actually
require you to develop a strategy and are a lot more complicated to play!
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