WMS Gaming
Company: WMS Gaming, Waukegan, IL
Company Description: WMS Gaming is a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of gaming machines to the global gaming industry, offering a diverse array of top-earning video and mechanical reel-spinning slot machines and video lottery terminals to commercial and tribal gaming operators worldwide.
Nomination Category: New Product Awards & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Media & Entertainment
Nomination Title: WMS Gaming's The Lord of the Rings™: Player’s Life® Web Services
Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and sales to date. You may include hyperlinks to product photos and data sheets. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
WMS Gaming’s newest innovation, The Lord of the Rings slot game enabled with
Player’s Life Web Services, is the industry’s first product to utilize powerful
web-based tools to enhance the player’s in-casino (“off-line”) entertainment
experience. This integration between an in-casino slot game and a web-based
experience takes players on an episodic journey that is based on the award-
winning feature film trilogy and features video and sound clips taken directly
from the big screen. Leveraging Adaptive Gaming technology, players create a
unique login that allows them to collect miles – as they play in the casino or
online – that help unlock new and exciting elements of the legendary adventure
for an “epic” gaming experience.
Focused research and development efforts have enabled WMS to lead the industry
in creating unmatched games and experiences. The Lord of the Rings represents
an industry-first combination of the in-casino and at-home gaming experience
through the combination of the Company’s Adaptive Gaming foundational
technology and the newly introduced Player’s Life Web Services. The
combination of these two powerful platforms enables players to save their
progress through the game, collect miles and achievements that are displayed on
the gaming device and online – including leader boards that create global
recognition opportunities and trophy rooms that enable players to track their
achievements – as well as use the web to access their login and play casual
games at home that extend the gaming experience and further the in-casino
gaming experience. In addition, WMS’ Sensory Immersion foundational
technology, the proven Bluebird2 gaming cabinet, WMS’ innovative surround-sound
gaming chair and an integrated Bose 3SPACE Audio System combine to elevate the
in-casino experience by fully immersing the player in the game.
By integrating the new Players Life Web Services into The Lord of the Rings,
WMS is able to take advantage of the exploding popularity of social media
applications to again elevate the excitement and offer operators the chance to
provide their players a form of entertainment online in order to maintain their
connection with them when they leave the four walls of the casino. The Players
Life Web Services integration provides a suite of applications that combine
WMS’ industry-leading gaming content and systems applications to create an
integrated gaming experience in the casino and at home, all in an effort to
enhance player engagement and customer loyalty. Players can login at home to
access an array of casual games that are tied into the in-casino experience and
designed to ensure that player entertainment never ends. In the casino, the
work done online unlocks new features and content and earns additional status
to enhance the experience when the player makes a return trip.
The operator gains access to valuable information that they can then turn to
and utilize to fine tune their own businesses and improve their marketing
efforts to players. In addition, an extensive array of applications that
support their marketing efforts and enhance the product’s performance are
available. These include web applications that can be added on to casino
websites maintained by operators with a robust marketing department or a
destination site that operators with a leaner IT department can leverage.
Furthermore, when players who have created logins return to the casino, the
operator can use the information captured by and provided through the
enterprise portions of Player’s Life to deliver personalized messages to the
gaming device ranging from advertising to incentives through their player
rewards program. Player’s Life also allows operators the chance to see,
measure and understand its impact on the usage/performance of games and the
impact of their integrated marketing efforts.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, product reviews, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.wmsinnovations.com/?cid=22
http://www.youtube.com/user/PlayersLifeTV#grid/user/4225CFDDE68A8AF8
http://www.playerslife.com
http://playerslife.com/games/features/31
http://www.totalrewards.com/lordoftherings/?rd=hcomflash_lordoftherings
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:
Larry Pacey -- Executive Vice President, Global Products and Chief Innovation
Officer
Mr. Pacey has led WMS’ global marketing and product strategy since July 2008,
with responsibility for game development, engineering, advanced R&D activities,
product management and marketing. Under his leadership, WMS has helped
transform slot machine play through first-of-their-kind revolutionary
technologies such as Transmissive Reels, Community Gaming, Sensory Immersion,
and Adaptive Gaming.
He joined WMS in 2001 as Executive Director of Games, became Vice President of
Game Development in 2002 and Senior Vice President of Product Development in
2005. Prior to joining WMS, Mr. Pacey served as an Executive Producer for a
variety of video game and interactive entertainment companies including n-
Space, Segasoft and Atari.