Rovio has abandoned the basics
As a Finn and ABNer I am worried. Rovio has obviously thrown away most of the basic things, that used to make AB-games so addictive and successful:
1. A player used to be able to play as much as desired (without paying) - not so anymore
2. Episodes used to be independently playable - not so anymore
3. Highscore used to be visible while playing - not so anymore
4. Scoring on levels used to be clearly indicated - on AB2 (among others) scoring is fuzzy to be polite
5. 1* used to be for passing a level achievable for most players (without PUs/iap) - 3* used to be achievable, without PUs/iap, for experienced players - not so anymore
6. The currency used to be Birdcoins - now they are anonymous gems
7. There used to be one click quick replay no matter how you ended a level - now it is click-wait-click-click-click-wait-click
For me the most telling sign is - funnily enough - #6. The governing vision of the tomorrow of Rovio appears to be looking through windows at anything outside Rovio with $-sign tagged on. If there still are visionaries inside Rovio they must be dreaming of the day after tomorrow when Rovio would be the next Disney forgetting that tomorrow has to happen for that to even be possible.
Enough ranting, just a final notion. I'm close enough to the end of 2nd episode of AB2 to go that far. Then I'll let the game lay in the corner waiting for an update in (vain) hope that the update will collect the worst garbage. Luckily I still have enough of AB/ABS/ABR/ABSp unplayed to last the next 6 months. By that time there are bound to be updates for the old games.
I hope @bankler reads all of this forum and relays the info to colleagues since all of these comments are by people who actually care about AB games.