Feeling manipulated…

Hehehe, this game is crap.

Manipulation is putting it mildly. The entire game has changed to the point that the only goal for the player is traveling through a never ending world with wildly unbalanced scenarios designed solely to require the expenditure of jewels and the viewing of ads. One week you are allowed an extra bird for viewing an ad, the next week the option disappears. The cost of purchasing 3 extra birds at the end of a scenario suddenly escalates from 60 jewels per 3 birds to an sliding scale with the price in jewels rising per three birds with each purchase of 3 birds increasing 60, 80, 100 and I imagine even more. Ads are inserted in more and more places in the game.
It is mandatory a player participates in the arena if he/she wishes to obtain feathers but the rewards to winning outside 1st, 2nd or third are insultingly low. Achievement of diamond league is a dead end and really means nothing. If my memory serves me, the higher levels of achievement used to be rewarded through the reward of feathers. Now it is just placement in your group of 15. Feathers, which now give each bird more power are rewarded by daily arena play and advancement- sometimes- advancing through each world to obtain treasure chests. The feather rewards are so damned random, players have some birds stuck at, say, the five level while other birds continue to get feather rewards.
It is my guess there has been a sharp drop off of players who become frustrated with the many changes in game rules/ rewards, the widespread hacking by some in the arena and the increasing costs of the game. Sad because this birds version had a lot going for it. Rovio has just blown it.

Awesome post @rjallenxxx – this is my first AB2 forum post but pretty much sums up what I’ve experienced thus far.

I do really enjoy the game but feel pushed into spending jewels and am now being forced to buy extra cards in order to pass through increasingly difficult levels. And I’m probably still a fair way behind a lot of players out there.

@rjallenxxx’s post deserves a “like” button.

To elaborate, there is almost no reason for any player to continue on this game. The entire activity is nothing but a hamster wheel to generate revenue for Rovio, disguised with colorful animation and repetitive gameplay. The rules are changing daily and often ‘tweaks’ are made without notifying players via an app update or bulletin, which causes mistrust towards Rovio. Next step is to keep an eye on your CC activity because you never know when innocuous little charges may start appearing as a result of you “agreeing” to certain in-app purchases. I suspect this app will go the way of several other freemium games, where it will no longer be voluntary to watch paid ads… they will pop up and play regardless of if we allow them to (I have already seen a few games move in this direction when they aren’t already getting enough user permission to generate revenue from watching them).

It’s really too bad because this game started off being wildly fun and one of the best in the series… but I guess in this business, money trumps all.

I’m constantly complaining about the never ending flow of 5 spell opponents that are basically unbeatable, that is unless I want to BUY 5 spells, which I won’t- EVER. Well anyways my last 15 opponents have had 5 spells and I attempted to back out of the last 3. This is no longer an option for me because when I back out I lose my game. Lost 3 in a row doing this and I’m not gonna spend any more money on this game until MAJOR changes are made. It’s time for me to take a sabbatical from this game. Take care folks.

I feel exactly the same way. I’ve been playing for months and today after losing many Arena matches in a row I finally realized that many of the “players” in the multiplayer game are AI Bots and not actual players. One came up today that were all two levels higher than me and also had every spell.

I didn’t realize you can back out of the game, but you shouldn’t have to. To me it’s a complete misrepresentation of a multiplayer game. Bots don’t have to spend the time or hard earned cash to level their birds up over time and to have them involved in a multiplayer game is unacceptable and in my opinion fraudulent.

Just to be clear, in the recent incarnation of the game, you cannot close the game without registering a loss. This is primp evidence of Rovio’s intent. While there still may be cheaters lurking about, I firmly believe these multiple charm opponents are creation of staff equipped with the designer package. With the proper programming tools, staff can create an opponent with any number of stars, feather levels and # of charms. Clearly done to encourage the expenditure of gems and the need to purchase more. Rovio claims opponents are “matched” with similar levels. I ask you, in your experience, if you feel this is true. Also, I believe, the assignment of opponents is not random. Seems the longer the winning streak, the more likely you will be over matched by the assigned opponent. Also note manipulation is also accomplished by the creation / change of the scenarios. Notice the appearance of what I call the “micro pigs”. So easy to fall through a crack and they are far more resistant to damage.

When angry birds first arrived almost all scenarios could be solved by the right bird flung at the right place. How about now? In fact it seems many of the newer boss levels have so many rooms, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO EVEN GET TO THE LAST BOSS PIG LEVEL WITHOUT BUYING MORE BIRDS.

You now seem to get a few more spells out of the chests but nowhere near enough to make progress at a reasonable rate.

Have not spent one dime in many, many months and will not do so. My play time seems to dwindle every day and was finally demoted down from diamond. In fact, I don’t even visit here at all any more. I was just notified about this most recent traffic today and decided to add my last 2 cents.

@aeshna I’ve seen what you’re showing and also low star players with an 11 or 12 bird rank. And, I keep seeing these same players over and over and over and over.

@dwhite40704…I’m with you. You’re not paranoid, you’re spot on. Win or lose, I’m through with the Arena after this week. I think I’ll win; I have a 348 point lead as of now. I don’t want to give that up but I won’t be starting a new week. Of the last 50 or so opponents I’ve faced, every one has had 5 spells and more than half have been low star, high bird opponents. So Rovio has made the DC playable/winnable and made the Arena nearly unwinnable. That is, unless you want to cough up some jack. And, even then, it might not be enough. So you need to cough up some more. So, Rovio…buh-bye.

I’m star level 63, all birds at 10 with quite a number of “banked” feathers that will be added when elder silver goes live. I’ve played countless video games from Pong, to Pacman, numerous DOS games, games on floppy disks, CD games, role playing games, fps games from Halo to Wolfenstein to all iterations of Diablo and so many others. I’m very good at them and I know when a game is being manipulated. Skillful shots are only part of game play in AB2; sometimes a very small part. Sometimes the manipulation is subtle, sometimes it is so obvious as to be laughably and patently obvious. When I make a shot that I’ve made 100s of times before resulting in a strike and see the bird, right before impact, slow down dramatically and bounce harmlessly away, I call that algorithmic manipulation. Sometimes when I am certain of a win and have several birds left after the opponent has none, I have to fire many more birds than normal in order to clear an easy room, thus my score is being held down agorithmically so as to reduce the amount of stars I’m awarded for that win. Other examples abound but you get the picture. And how about all the times when a bird’s special ability fails to deploy, e.g. Matilda’s egg doesn’t drop, or if it drops doesn’t explode. Or when Blues doesn’t split. Other examples ad infinitum. Obviously, this could be player error but when it happens to very good players frequently and at critical times, are these glitches, bugs or manipulation? Does it matter to the player the cause? No. What matters to the player is that he was deprived of the opportunity to compete fairly. As for hackers/cheaters, it seems that Rovio is incompetent and unable to control and eliminate them. Other game companies have staff dedicated to eliminating hackers/cheaters and when uncovered are banned for life. These are among the many reasons players are dissatisfied and leaving AB2. They’re saying auf wiedersehen, ciao, adieu, adios, goodbye.

I’LL make this my last post on this subject. I don’t question Rovio staff integrity. It’s their competency to fix things that is in question. It just seems that they have a mess that they don’t know how to correct. And @cognitive and @captstern, you both offer insightful and cogent observations and comments that make this forum lively and interesting. You’re both youngsters, however. Oh, to be 50 or late 50s again! ?

But this forum topic is about manipulation. To bolster my earlier post, I offer this: A couple of hours ago, I finished a 7 win streak in the Arena. When I reached the last room, the opponent had a good but not insurmountable lead. Opponent was out of cards and I had 3 left to surpass. I fired 3 well-placed shots. Bomb, direct hit, no points. Terrance, direct hit, no points. Chuck, direct hit, no points. Since 500 feathers were on the line, I spent 60 gems to get 3 birds. Guess what…exactly the same result. No points. Still wanting those 500 feathers, I begrudgingly spent 120 more gems for 3 more birds. I barely won on the last bird. What should have been a 7 or 8 star award only gained me 5 stars. Nine birds to do what I should have been able to do with three. And again, Bomb exploded with zero damage, Matilda didn’t drop her egg and Chuck bounced off wood doing zero damage. A Pyrrhic victory? Probably. If that’s not algorithmic manipulation, I don’t know what to call it.

I’ll finish the Arena this week because I have a very big lead but, then like @dwhite40704, I’ll need to take a sabbatical to decide if I want to continue. I’ll still do the DC, regular levels when they’re released and play the Arena enough for the daily gems. Otherwise… I’m out.

Cheers, everyone. I’ve really enjoyed exchanging thoughts and ideas with you.

What Captain said Kelshe. Genuinely enjoyed chatting with you and hearing your experience and ideas. Keep in touch with us!!