Gaming Machine and Methods of Allowing a Player to Play Gaming Machines Having Modifiable Reel Features

A gaming machine, comprising:

• a display device for displaying a game, the game including a plurality of reels, each reel having a reel strip including a plurality of symbol positions and a plurality of game symbols displayed in each of the symbol positions in a predetermined order, the plurality of game symbols including at least one trigger symbol;
• a user input device configured to generate a signal indicative of a player's selection input;
• and
• a controller coupled to the display device and the user input device, the controller for allowing the player to make a wager on the game, the game including a primary game and a secondary game, the controller for initiating the primary game and responsively spinning the reels, randomly determining an outcome of the primary game and responsively stopping the reels to display the outcome of the primary game in a grid, and awarding a first award to the player based on the primary game outcome, the controller for detecting if a triggering condition occurs in the primary game outcome, the triggering condition being defined as the at least one trigger symbol being displayed in at least one reel of the plurality of reels in the primary game outcome, the controller for responsively modifying a reel feature of a reel strip associated with the at least one reel to generate an outcome of a secondary game including the modified reel strip and awarding a second award to the player based on the secondary game outcome.

A system, comprising:

• a plurality of gaming devices, each gaming device including a user input device for accepting a player selection input and a display device for allowing a player to play a game;
• and
• a system controller coupled to each gaming device of the plurality of gaming devices for displaying the game including a primary game and a secondary game on at least one of the gaming devices, the game including a plurality of reels, each reel having a reel strip including a plurality of symbol positions and a plurality of game symbols displayed in each of the symbol positions in a predetermined order, the plurality of game symbols including at least one trigger symbol, the system controller for initiating the primary game based on the player selection input and responsively spinning the reels, randomly determining an outcome of the primary game and responsively stopping the reels to display the outcome of the primary game in a grid, and awarding a first award to the player based on the primary game outcome, the system controller for detecting if a triggering condition occurs in the primary game outcome, the triggering condition being defined as the at least one trigger symbol being displayed in at least one reel of the plurality of reels in the primary game outcome, the system controller for responsively modifying a reel feature of a reel strip associated with the at least one reel to generate an outcome of a secondary game including the modified reel strip and awarding a second award to the player based on the secondary game outcome.