I’m in my late 50’s and have been an avid gamer since the days of Pong. I agree that there seems to be a spectacular amount of variation in AB2, leading to what was perfectly described above as “punishment has gone on long enough” type resentment.
But a lot of gaming is really just that. Selectively random. Before AB2 I spent a lot of time playing online and computer Backgammon. With pretty much two or three exceptions they all cheat. One of the best backgammon phone games – I won’t name it, ask via PM – is particularly good at cheating to the point that it really looks like a good player. But after I spent a couple of years, 15k games, and a lot of math I found how they did it. It is very clever, but it’s still unfair.
To Rovio’s defense, there’s a fraction of this in AB2. Not a whole lot. Any game that involves physical world simulation has some variation. Back in the 70’s we had Pacman, and if you had a good machine (meaning the joystick was in good shape) and could repeat the pattern after level 15 or what not, you could play forever. We figured out the behavior of the 4 bad guys and the path, and all you had to do was to follow the path. I ended up the 80’s with the university high score.
30 years later I would hope we can do better, and certainly Rovio has done so. There’s an inherent amount of unfairness – I see a lot fewer ‘wow’ than ‘aw schucks’ when I play. But that’s life. By comparison, single player Halo (on Xbox) is not really manipulative at all. But I play AB2 a lot more than I play Halo these days.
I’m not sure at this point whether the 5 spell miracle guys are Rovio’s choosing or cheaters. I don’t like either option, but I think it’s more likely to be cheaters than intentional. Think about it. Rovio is recording our games for playback against other people. If they’re only recording great games and the cheaters have added free spells the cheaters will be picked as opponents. Not some ‘just made it to Diamond with all birds at 4 and a 5’ type guys. Of course this is the crux of the issue, whether it is fair to select only the ‘best’ runs for opponents.
I’m at 50 stars, 1 7 bird, 3 6’s, and 3 5’s, and have won 15-16 Diamond leagues in a row.