The difference between haves and havenots. How can this be the same game???

christinewupp

So I'm competing right now as two players (two flowers: Echinacea and Sunflower) playing exactly the same levels. Why oh why is one of my two games such fun and the other so frustrating????

I know why: Sunflower is fighting hard to survive, losing all the gold she accumulated since the summer.

Echinacea is rich, really rich in gold bar terms, with 15,000 + gold bars in the account.

Knowing you can buy yourself out of any situation is indeed very powerful and actually earns you more gold: Echinacea is making gold, still, whereas Sunflower is losing gold, same person playing the same levels using more or less the same strategy. Is it all psychological?

I'm not sure, but @Alienscar you are right when you state that players who can spend money are at an advantage: Anyone rich enough to buy 10,000 gold bars (costing £1000 sterling at today's prices) will be able to both enjoy the game and perhaps really rock it through into the next round of All Stars. Only, please don't anyone try this, because that is a huge risk, given that if we all did this, or if even more that 10 players tried that, you would lose it all! But to some people that amount of money for a bit of fun may well not matter..?

Candy Crush is not fair to all players, so much is certain.

christinewupp

I've just played exactly the same two episodes in these two games and I really think @Pyrolight that they both get the same levels with the same difficulty, the same seed as you call it. I also have the same top win streak in both my games. And yet, one game I enjoy, the other is frustrating.

Could this be why you are enjoying the game @cookiemae when so many others complain about it? I think now that it really makes a difference to our enjoyment of Candy Crush if we are rich or poor (in gold terms). And of course, if you are rich in gold you can play a lot more quickly because if you do slip up you know it won't be fatal: Rich players can always do what it takes to keep their win streak (oops levels excepted) and win Candy Royale, so it's relaxing fun for the rich. Poor players just get frustrated.

Rich man:

Poor man:

Of course the best thing making it enjoyable for rich man is the fact that the game has reverted to landscape mode on my iPad for the day! Such fun!!

Pyrolight

There is no doubt that having a ton of gold would make the whole process much more fun. Almost everything comes down to having to consider when you can spend gold and when you have to just suffer.

At no point do you have to consider what strategy to use ahead of time and as you say, losing a streak is not a concern.

On a side note, Allstars is just brutal as we are missing out on so many gold side events.

Alienscar

Yesterday @christinewupp I received 15 minutes of lives from the Treat Machine, 15 minutes Colour Bomb from Season Pass, timed boosters from the Choc Box, my Daily Win boosters and timed UFO from the Royale. The game was a joy to play and I flew through and Episode and won forty gold. I didn't win every level on the first attempt, but that didn't matter as the unlimited lives and the number of timed boosters meant that I could just replay the levels until I completed them and I didn't have to use any of my own inventory.

It is something I have noticed before, and I think the message from King is clear, the more boosters you can use (especially UFO) the easier and more enjoyable the game is.

So the evidence seems clear that if you have plenty of boosters, or/and gold you have more of a chance of completing level after level quickly and easily.

I would say the game is fair though. Everyone without gold and boosters will struggle equally and those with gold/boosters will fair equally well.

Is it all psychological?

The more you have the more you spend is a well known saying and it exists for a reason. If you only have £50 to last a month you will have to make a lot of choices. If you have £50,000 to last you a month you could spend £50 like the £50 person spends a £1 and spending is easier.

It is the same with boosters and gold. If you don't have many you can't use them as freely as someone that has loads.

christinewupp

Your points have set me thinking @Alienscar:

Years ago I used to spend small sums of money on this game. I used to purchase the weekend offers of 2 or 4 hours unlimited lives plus unlimited boosters, and I found exactly what you found. I had 4 hours of fun, and £2.99 was a sum I was willing to part with to have 4 hours of fun playing a good game. I stopped spending money when I found that I this offer was no longer value for money. One day I found that my purchase did not buy me fun any more, but frustration. That was the time when King took out lucky boards. I remember the day I noticed this. My strategy used to be to use the infinite lives and unlimited starting boosters to keep quitting and restarting a difficult level until the colour bomb and wrap or stripe ended up side by side on my starting board. One day, suddenly, it no longer happened…….! Chance would dictate that once in a while the colour bomb and wrap should start of side by side on the starting board, but on that particular level it NEVER happened. That was an eye opener to me of just how very fixed and pre determined these level algorithms really are. It became really obvious the moment King took away the lucky boards from some of the levels. Since then I no longer spend anything on the game. Infinite lives are just adding to the frustration when you have to replay a legendary level until your fingers get cramp knowing that however long you try, you won't get anywhere because the algorithm demands that you pay gold or play a UFO.