Changed levels, changed game

candysodacrusher

Interesting discussion.  I play CCSS on a mobile app.  I don’t connect to Facebook. When I’m asked to “”send lives” I have absolutely no idea who these so-called friends are.  I do frequently send lives to those people and accept lives from them.  Other than that, no interaction.  Same thing when I look at the leaderboard.  I have no idea who any of those people are.  I know that some of my live and in-color friends play CCSS, and there are probably others who play that I’m unaware of.  It simply isn’t a hot topic of discussion for us.  
When I first joined Facebook, I played one of the games available there for about six months.  However I quit when I got sick of sending lives and “whatever” or asking for lives or “whatever.”  I also tired very quickly of either sending or receiving messages to join particular games.  I’m still very active on FB and have a larger than average (according to the info I’ve read) number of friends ranging in age from teens to a few in their 90’s.  Everyone of those friends is someone I personally know.  I won’t accept friend requests from strangers. Other than an occasional post about game progress generated by some of the games, I seldom, if ever, see anyone posting game progress anymore.  
I think that people who are accustomed to playing console type games are probably more interested in the “social” aspect of gaming than someone, like me, who plays on an app.  However, there is also the whole “online safety” issue, and there are plenty of people who avoid the “social” aspect of those games for that reason.  And, yes, I recognize that there are just as many, if not more, who enjoy socializing with total strangers online (I suppose to a certain extent, that’s exactly what I’m doing in these forums. 😉)
As for the CCSS team events, I can understand King’s desire to dip Kimmie’s toes into those waters, especially if they want to attract younger players who are more attracted to online interaction with other players.  However, since neither the Soda Squad nor Mr. Toffee allow communication with teammates, there really isn’t any interaction with other players than than being randomly placed on a team with a bunch of strangers.  
I do play a game that was designed for multiple players, but only with people I know personally.  As others have pointed out, CCSS was designed as a single player game and as such, it is awesome!  In one of the other discussions I made a comparison between the changes in Soda Saga and New Coke.  It seems like that is what is happening here.  The powers that be think that data, surveys, focus groups, etc. show that people want a more social game just like the folks at Coke thought that people wanted a beverage more like Pepsi.  
Please don’t ruin a great game by making it into something it wasn’t designed to be.