I love playing slot machines. It’s my favorite game in the casino, and playing online slots helps me pass the time and endure many moments that otherwise would have been pretty dull. Partly it’s because my girlfriend left me for a cabana boy in Mexico, she took “our” car with her, and I’ve been left with few options for ways to entertain myself. Even if I had a life, though, I would still love to hit the slots. Even something I love, though, can always be improved. Here is the first part in what will be a recurring series of ways that I would improve online slots.

A virtual supportive friend: When you go to a brick and mortar casino, you can go with your friend and have that friend support you while you play. It makes the game more enjoyable. When you play online, though, you’re on your own, unless you invite your friend over to watch you play games on your computer. And if you do, you need another hobby. Go out! Have fun! Playing on the computer is what you do if you can’t get a friend to come over!

Anyway, my idea is to have a virtual supportive friend. This would be an avatar that stands next to the online slot and interacts with you while you play. If you’re losing, your virtual friend, or vriend for short, will comfort you:

“Hey, man, don’t worry about it. Bad luck on that spin, but you still have $___ left. You have plenty of chances to make your money back.”

If you lose all of your money, your vriend can give you a big, consoling hug and then buy you a drink to take your mind off of the game. The vriend can also offer you encouragement, saying that “you had a bad time today, but next time you could win a lot of money. Since it’s all chance, you never know!” You can also make your virtual friend the same sex as you or the opposite. If you’re really down after losing a lot of money, your vriend can buy you drinks and take you back to his/her place.

If you’re winning, though, your virtual friend takes on a different role. Your vriend helps you celebrate. You can pre-select a certain personality type for your vriend. You can make your vriend a frat boy and he will celebrate your winning spin by holding up a beer bong for you, doing a drunken dance, or saying this like “Wha-paw! You just kicked that slot’s *ss!”

You can make your vriend a gold-digger who will ask if you’re going to spend the winnings on her. You can make your vriend a street performer who does a freestyle rap when you win. Pretty much anything is in play here. You can make your vriend a cowboy who politely tips his hat and says “congratulations.” You can make your vriend like an annoying character Jack Black would play, who overreacts to everything and is incredibly over the top. Or you can do anything in between.

A virtual friend to support you in good times and bad will make playing online slots more interactive and more enjoyable. I don’t know if this will happen anytime soon, but I can only hope. In the meantime, I’ll have to continue annoying my friends by sending a lot of text messages when I play.

Tags: better online slots, brick and mortar casinos, how I would improve online slots, Jack Black, online casinos, online slot improvements, online slots, Slot Machines, virtual friend, virtual supportive friend, vriend