I wrote about Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook not too long ago. At least, it doesn't seem like that long ago. But based on the suddenly astronomical scores of my friends, it must have been years. Because people just don't improve that much overnight.
Or do they?
You see, I have a theory--that it's a demon. A dancing demon (no, something isn't right there). OK, a programming demon. Get ready kids, here comes the conspiracy theory:
I think PopCap is making the game easier to win.
OK, not win, exactly. This is not the kind of game you win. But easier to score those sweet, sweet badges that appear on your Facebook page the second you approve them. Why? Because people who used to top the charts around 6,000 points are now breaking the six-figure mark. Granted, practice makes perfect... or at least better. But from 6,000-ish to 100,000+ in a month? I don't think so. These are people with jobs. At least, I think they are. (There are friends and then there are Facebook friends...)
Now, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, necessarily. But let's examine the evidence:
- I just played for a half hour, and score five power gems (the glowy balls) without even trying. Literally. They just happened in cascades.
- Of the five people (including me) in my current score group, all but one have broken 100,000. And one is just 400 points from 175,000. (Way to go, Karie!)
- The number of multipliers and bombs also seems to be increasing without any added effort on my part.
- I can't lose, even when I'm trying to! That's right, tonight I intentionally did everything wrong just to see what would happen. I stopped short of not matching 3. I didn't take four-of-a-kinds, I ignored the power gem, and I steadfastly refused to match anything with a number on it. I still broke 25,000.
So why would Pop Cap (theoretically) make the game easier? It's obvious, really. Scoring big money (numbers) in the game is the key to getting into the better drawings. You gotta have friends with some mad scores themselves to get into that elusive laptop drawing. And let's face it, how many folks are really going to get that high?
I've been so very, very close to that thing many times--always just 150,000 or 200,000 away. Or, from a marketing perspective, one or two more friends. And as anyone who has watched The Amazing Race knows, there are always people who will beg, borrow or steal to get what THEY need to win a million dollars. (Just once, I'd love for a cabbie to say, "And if you win, my tip will be...?")
Congratulations, Bejeweled players – you are cogs in the marketing machine. Sweet, point-earning cogs. Anyone wanna be my Facebook friend?
I have to say, my experience has been almost the opposite. I've never had trouble cracking 100K - until the past week or so. Now I struggle to reach that milestone. It seems like the big cascades rarely come, or those multipliers sit dormant and don't help me.
A few tips from the (former) master:
1) If you're not in the zone, you won't do well. If your scores are falling consistently below 50K, hang it up and come back later. Try different times of the day. The game is luck plus skill - you need some seriously wicked cascades, but also the presence of mind not to miss the good matches that will maximize them when they come.
2) I almost never crack 100K with a Hypercube. Why? They're slow. The exception is if you use one towards the end of your run when you already have multipliers and bombs on the board. I try to zap a color that has one or more bombs or multipliers when I use it. Still, not usually a winning strategy.
3) Maximize bombs. To get the truly wicked scores, you normally need a lot of bombs that go off on the same cascade. Plus they're worth healthy scores on their own, so try not to miss any four-in-a-row opportunities.
4) Keep matching quickly. This is where it's tricky. Go too fast, and you'll miss some opportunities. But going at a certain pace will give you speed bonuses, which add up - particularly if you have multipliers active. I try to use more precision at the beginning of the minute and then switch to speed matching at the end.
5) If your game sucks, reset. After 30 seconds, if you're still stuck below 10K, give it up and try again.
ive been playing a while, its really all luck as far as long cascades go, and i think a lot of people stumble into them. Of course there is still a lot of skill in keeping a speed bonus throughout the whole game while nailing as many multipliers as well but it all boils to luck in the end.
Last week i broke my record with 193,200 points, hoping to break 200k soon enough.
Nope. We didn't make it easier to do better. :-)