(This is going to be one of my brainier threads, so if this is not for you look away now!)
Some players are seeing the tap function and luckily one of my accounts has it, so I've been able to test this out. It has allowed me to form a theory on why King are considering introduction of this feature, which to many of us in this community would seem pointless and disruptive. A lot of levels would need to be rewritten or become too easy or their mechanism pointless, for example. Well, the jelly fish already made many mechanisms pointless, but the tap function amplifies it even more.
My theory is this: King want to help players of the new type to achieve the goals written into the level algorithms. (I won't say "children", but basically it's people who like to not have to do much thinking)
The premise is this:
- King want players to crush a lot and try to keep a win a streak. Players who replay levels are not much of a consideration here since I am sure they spend much less. The profitable ones for King are those who try keep their wins streaks, so those are the ones they concentrate on with changes in the game.
- The algorithms concentrate mostly around first attempt outcomes. There are probably two types of algorithms, those for players with one colour bomb (from the win streak bag) and those with two or more (from starting boosters). Again, players who have no boosters are of little concern to King. They need to fend for themselves.
Each level has a set pre-determined outcome:
- Some levels - mostly those without skulls - you are meant to pass easily.
- Some levels you are meant to pass if you play a specific booster (lower levels a lollipop or UFO, higher levels and boss levels a party popper, highest levels and some Volcanic Panic levels both a party popper and a UFO), which will trigger a finish sequence between 1 or 5 moves in length. If you play that booster too early there might be a delay before the finish sequence presents itself. But the game will trigger this. You will be given the opportunities to pass.
- Some levels you are meant to pay gold bars to pass and then achieve a pass in a number of specific moves ranging from 1 to 7, but probably up to 25 for the hardest levels. The game will offer you a specific number of moves for 10 gold bars, which often ought to be enough if you are careful and make the right moves or play another specific booster. Sometimes it's not enough: Those are win streak blocker levels and it's then a question if you are willing to pay gold at the inflated price of 16 and then 25 gold.
So bearing these points 1-3 in mind: I think King want to introduce the tap function so that players with less strategic ability will see these opportunities and achieve the pre-determined outcome that is written into the level. They don't want players to come here and complain that they have spent 100s of gold bars on one level and are about to delete the app, when the developers know that they should have passed that level with 10 gold bars. So the tap function will help hugely for these players to achieve their goal: The game will mostly drop them jelly fish, and all they will need to do is tap them. Or the game will present them with colour bomb + fish or colour bomb + stripe combo, which are hard to miss.
Here is a nice example from one of my games, which does not have the tap function, so I had to use my brain to pass:
There is an opportunity to make a wrap+stripe combo, by matching the four greens on the bottom row.
This combo is the winning move. By "winning move" I don't mean it clears the level, but it is the key action required that triggers the finish sequence. This is the outcome:
At this point a colour bomb drops and we have one jelly fish. A tapping player would pass this easily by tapping on any fish, striped candy or colour bomb that drop, which reminds me a bit of the children's whack-a-mole game. Not having the tap function I now have to think and figure out the winning moves myself. I won't bore you with the result, which was a pass not having to use any of my fall-back timed boosters you see in the screenshot. Here the winning final move, a colour bomb + fish combo:
I think a lot of players would get it wrong at this point and just don't see the solution. Unfortunately some of us like to use strategy and brain power to figure out the last few moves for ourselves. So far the game allows us to do this, so we can save boosters and gold bars by choosing the strategic version. But I fear that you are right @MannyFae and this move towards the tap function will eventually dumb down the game to such an extent that we won't find it enjoyable at all. For now, you we can choose to tap, or not to tap. Some levels like this one above I think the non-tappers are at an advantage still.
I don't know how they get away with creating an addictive game that seems to be aimed at children.
