Game developers and casinos market high-volatility slots as the exciting, premium option. What they do not market is the bankroll depletion rate during the long dry stretches that are mathematically inherent to the format.
A player with $200 playing a high-volatility slot at $5 per spin has forty spins before broke. Forty spins is not a meaningful sample for a game designed to pay in rare, large bursts. You can be eliminated from the session before the game's variance has had any realistic chance to express itself in your favour.
Volatility as session experience
I translate volatility not as a marketing label but as a description of how your balance will behave over a typical session. Low volatility: gradual, smaller swings. High volatility: extended flat periods punctuated by occasional large hits — if your bankroll survives long enough to see them.
Practical bankroll sizing
A useful rule of thumb: your session bankroll should withstand at least 200–300 bets at your chosen stake on a high-volatility game if you want variance to matter at all. Below that threshold, you are not really "playing the game" — you are playing a short lottery ticket.
That is not moralising. It is arithmetic. The industry prefers you not do this arithmetic before you deposit.