CCS is programmed to manipulate the episode races in such a way that the player has to pay money to win. I've noticed that when I start a 15-level episode race, one or two other players rush out ahead, and that puts me in the position to catch up. The idea of this is to stir up my competitive juices. So that gets me playing the game more quickly, during which I use up whatever gold bars I have to get through the early hard levels. Then, as I get to the end of the 15-game race, all the levels become hard, and that gets me paying King to get to the end and win the race.
I've also noticed that when I win an episode race, I'm not getting as many gold bars. Before, when I was winning one after another, I would get 40 to 45 gold bars. Now, I think that 30 (maybe 40) is the top number I can get by winning a race. If I win my races but get fewer gold bars, that puts me in a poor position to win the next race without spending a lot of money.
When I start an episode race and one or two other players rush out ahead of me, I think those players are fake players — "shills", I guess they are called. They rush to the end of the race and just sit there for a couple days for me to catch up. If those players were real people, they wouldn't do that — having gotten to the end, they would simply play the final level and win the race. But the programmers understand that if the shills win the race too quickly, then my motivation to pay money to win disappears.
God, I wish that King would make an honest game, and not one designed to squeeze as much money out of the players as it can. I seem to be addicted, but the day will come when I break this addiction. I am really coming to hate King.
