Where to Get Gifts?

[Birdbrain]

Close the app and reboot the app and the video option is there

[MVNLA2]

@proteus — I’m envious in the extreme, I haven’t seen a blue present in level 9 in days.
@all — I’m on an iPad Air 2, and tend to do things very quickly. The hard-close doesn’t always close the app immediately. In fact, sometimes when I do a hard close followed by a hard shutdown (maybe not the kind where you can wait 20 sec before restarting), all the apps I think I closed are still there when I power up. Best to check and make sure you really got rid of them. Probably also works if you take a few deep breaths or some other break between the hard close and restart.

[pilotxaq]

Tried 2 hard resets and no luck, still no second play in arena. I’m on Android. Its funny tho how it was working and then suddenly stopped, and i don’t remember the app updating, hmmm… @proteus @mvnla2 apparently some people get much better stats than others. Finally now I got some feathers from last 2 daily chests (10, 25) but level 9 gave no gifts yesterday. This morning i got a gift on the 4th try, first room. I must be out of my loooooong dry spell

[Maiasatara]

@pilotxaq – if you go back into the arena after 30 minutes the video for a second play will often appear. The one that should have been immediately available after your first free play. The “no video” started happening more often to me so instead of waiting three hours I started going back sooner. Usually 15-30 minutes.

I have to vent a play that just happened that others have seen but I’m just so frustrated I need to get it out. I was behind by about 600,000 and on my second to last bird my OPPONENT, who was already greyed-out and WAY ahead got the free bird, a bomb. That refilled his meter (sorry but one bird NEVER does that in late rooms) and he got another bomb. THREE TIMES IN A ROW for a total of four extra bomb birds at the end of a game he was already winning. When my video came, I got BLUES. Against three stone structures. In my best Boston – Thanks a wicked lot, Rovio. Final score: 2,845,309 – 3,759,699.

@mvnla2 – as I mentioned in the msg, I’m tweaking my method and will be going another week starting tomorrow. I’ll share it privately and will then contact the person we discussed. I’ll put a general “Yes or No – Can you win Arena without $” here.

[pilotxaq]

@all, so the videos in the arena started working again all of a sudden my last 3 entries, tho I’ve run into cheaters a few times. Also I haven’t run any stats, but i am seeing blue gifts faster, maybe just a good streak. Since there are no red gifts I really only play to get 1 for the daily reward, and i don’t have anyone much to give the blues to anyway.

[kedik22]

@bankler

Hi.
I have a suggestion.
Maybe AFTER we watch one of your forced and unsolicited videos during normal gameplay, you make sure that in the previous 10 levels a blue gift could be randomly placed.
I believe that would even the playing field, you take a lot and this would be a way of giving back a little.
You make money selling advertising, and our friends are rewarded with gifts.
That would be a beautiful gesture!
Or would this make such a huge dent in Rovio´s pocket thus not allowing its implementation?
Please let us know.

Kind regards.

[MVNLA2]

@pilotxaq — You didn’t mention what levels you were playing when you started seeing more blue gifts.

@kedik22 @bankler — Wow! You really don’t ask for much for watching an ad. You’re saying that you would be willing to play and win 10 levels for a single blue gift?

[kedik22]

@mvnla2

Yes, and the first one would always be sent to you!

@all

Think of it.
I have lately seen blue gifts in earlier two room levels.
Say you play level 11 and Rovio hits you with a video and you watch it.
So now you know that the next time you play levels 1 through 10 you are certain there will be a gift.
And it also helps with the daily accumulation of stars and popped birds.
It takes guessing and luck a little bit out of the equation.

Kind regards.

[pilotxaq]

@mvnla2 sorry I meant in levels 9 and 13 I see blue gifts now on like my second or third tries. I normally jump back just once per day now to get a quick blue gift for the daily bonus gems.

[Birdbrain]

The arena is so predictable now, that I know when I might as well exit or carry on after the first two round. I’ve done a tally of whether I think I’m going to win or lose after two rounds and I was right 23 times and wrong twice. I’m certain the results are premeditated. I’ve got some screen shots where a pig has been hit with bomb and fallen from the top of the screen to the bottom and survived. I’ve got a pig on a 45° slope and not rolled off.

I’ve also just beat someone by 500k and it gave me another advert for a bird, I thought wired and watched it, came back and I had another 300k so won by 800k and it said I lost. I’ve had a win and whilst it was adding my final pig for extra stars I pressed fast forward with rocks and timber still in the air and it ended abruptly and gave me 5 stars, I must have been near 8/9 stars on that particular game. It also gave me a third advert for a third go, weird, then put me up against a player with level 8 birds and 5 spell cards, I lost by 4 million!!! Rovio are clueless. I also have the same people in diamond league that I’ve had weeks ago, I’m thinking Rovio have about 50 customers

[MVNLA2]

@pilotxaq — I’m still finding very few gifts in level 9, even if I play both rooms. Have pretty much stopped farming for presents. Also, I’ve finished all current levels, so there is very little chance of finding a friend’s gift.

[Birdbrain]

I get a blue gift in level 9 at least every 10 games

[Birdbrain]

@mvnla2 what do you mean ‘even if I play both rooms’ surely you aren’t quitting if a blue gift isn’t in the first room, it’s often in either

[James Peden]

I found that when I went back to levels that I either haven’t 3 stared or played since they started using the bird multiplier that I get blue gifts all the time. I played levels 20 to 35 and received 9 blue gifts. Now instead of playing level 9 every day to get my 15 gems for sending a gift, I just go on and play levels I haven’t 3 stared. Usually I need only play 1 to 3 levels to receive a blue gift.

[kedik22]

@james-peden

Hi.
Do you get 15 gems for sending a gift?
I only get 10.

@bankler
Do gamers receive different amount of gems when sending gifts?

Kund regards.

[James Peden]

Yes I get 15 gems for sending a gift, 9 gems for getting 10 stars, 3 for playing the arena and 3 for popping 30 pigs. I do have the upgraded red that gives 50% bonus maby that is why I get more gems.

[pilotxaq]

@mvnla2 @furious @james-peden I just play 9 and 13 now, just to get the gift, and move on. Usually within 6 games i get one. I think farming is a dead art now, from all indications. Oh, and by the way, I also leveled up and got 3 gems…oh joy…smh.

Two days ago in the arena I took screenshots of cheaters, star levels 5 and 6, 5 birds in flock some at level 8. Was gonna post the images but figured why bother, its like the norm now. Met them in half of arena games i played that day

[Maiasatara]

It’s getting worse for me. I secretly hoped that @bankler might have taken pity on my frustration and thrown me a gift of gems. Instead, my reward for all my research, screenshots and being driven to the brink of insanity…

my opponents in the Arena get the free video birds every single game – EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ALREADY WINNING. And I’m talking whether we each still have a card left or he’s already greyed out, whether he’s winning or he’s losing. And he’s not just getting a crappy duck or the blues like I used to get. He’s getting 3-4 bombs in a row to guarantee his win. Because by some miracle his single bird is filling up a massive point meter as a strike then he gets another which fills up an even bigger meter, which gives him another.

This isn’t new. It was a regular occurrence but at least in the past it only happened when my opponent was losing. To do that when I AM LOSING? A slap in the face. The only time I win is when I beat my opponent with EVERY SINGLE BIRD. It has to start from the very first bird, I have to be given a fair score for every bird, and I have to have a score nearly double when we each still have 1-2 bird cards left. But the whole thing is obviously rigged because I play the same all the time.

For the record, I have added a few friends whose playing I greatly respect that I have known here for years. Based on how badly the Arena has been scoring me, I really expected these three people to have higher scores than I do in ALL the levels. THEY DO NOT! And some have more birds at a higher rank. So that tells me I am not exaggerating my playing ability when I lose OVER AND OVER AND OVER. We’ve been into the week for about 30 hours now. I have between 45-50 stars so far. (I just won my first game for 10 stars after 6 losses in a row. Number 1 in my league already has 176. Unless I start setting my alarm for every 3 hours I won’t be able to come back. After a DAY! Oh wait. I can’t win even when I play. And with red gifts gone altogether, and the one tiny pleasure of farming that about 20 of us were enjoying I’ll never earn the 1800 feathers needed to get everything to Amethyst so I’ll get more points. Not 10 at a time. So. Yeah. Fun!

Let’s see. Assume every feather earned in a day went to the same bird.
40 for the – see a Red “i” on your bird.
10 for the chest gift.
—-
50 a day with 1800 needed is 36 days each bird.
7 birds needing this is 36 x 7 so 252 days.
252 days with a 30 day month is 8.4 months.
8.4 months now just to earn one rank between Emerald and Amethyst.
Does this sound fair or fun?

@mvnla2

[Dwhite]

I concur with your frustration. I will use the same bird to hit the same spots and get totally different results. I can also tell after the first board in the arena whether or not “the fix is on”. Right now in the Diamond league I’m drawing an opponent with 5 spell cards a little over 85% of the time.

[MVNLA2]

@maiasatara — A couple of comments: According to what Rovio has said, your opponent’s game play is recorded from one of their previous attempts at the identical set of rooms, so whether or not they get an extra bird is not dependent on whether or not they are winning. As for getting multiple cards, that I find very suspicious.
In the thread on extra cards at the start, someone said they thought if your opponent did not use any spells, but showed an extra card in their hand at the start, that was an indication that they got an extra card at the end. I’ve started paying attention to this, and it may be correct. The extra card also seems to disappear after the first room, or first bird, but it does reappear at the end after the opponent is greyed-out. I have not yet seen someone with more than one extra card at the beginning, but I’ve not been paying careful enough attentions long enough to know if they sometimes get multiple extra cards at the end even when they show only 1 extra card at the beginning.
You mentioned that your scores were higher than some of your friends even though they had higher level birds. This is not surprising since many of us have not bothered to go back and replay all the levels since the scoring system was changed. I have 3* on all available levels and almost no motive to replay old levels. People have said that they are finding more blue gifts when they replay levels, but that sure is a hard way to get them.
I started out entering my scores on the ABN leaderboards, but stopped even before they changed the scoring system.

[DJLarryt]

@maiasatara I feel your anguish and this is interesting to hear from your side of the fence. The reason I say this is because for some strange reason I ended up in your Arena league (I recognize your icon :) ). Over the course of the past week, I have played somewhere around 30 arena matches and lost 28. It’s ridiculous. It seems that suddenly as of last Thursday all pigs take more hits to pop and all construction materials need more hits to wreck them. For example I used to clear screen 13 with exactly 3 birds. Now it takes 5 or 6 making the exact same shots with the exact same birds.

Anyway some of these ‘matches’ were against your recorded ‘games’. Whenever I start a match I always compare my birds against my opponent’s. If they are incomparable, I do the reset trick and try for another opponent.

@maiasatara Yours and my birds are pretty close… so I go ahead and play the round. Even though I pretty much “strike” or “birdie” EVERY SINGLE BOARD I still get beaten by a whopping 300,000 or so points. And this happens on my last bird, just as you say, even though the icon is greyed out, suddenly 3, 4 cards whip out of nowhere and even though I am amassing points for destruction, I watch my blue bar go flying down. WTAF.

But what angers me about the whole concept is that I know the same thing is happening to you, as you’ve stated above. And even when you “beat” me, you don’t get anything for it. I must have lost at least 6 games against you in the past week. Maybe I could feel better about it if I knew you got a few gems in return. But I know there is nothing… Rovio just awards a win at real-time with a few stars IF there’s a win. But for players that lose, this way they just don’t have to give anyone anything… it really does make me believe this Arena thing is rigged.

It would be helpful if when we went into a round, we could see the score we have to beat- at least then we could bail out and not waste any more time thinking we actually have a chance at getting anywhere… Because nothing happens on your opponent’s side anyway. But this would mean Rovio being upfront with what is going on and that’s not something they’re willing to do.

So here’s how I retaliate- Rovio gets a kickback whenever someone watches one of their paid ads. For the umpteen dozen times I’m not even close to beating my opponent, and the “Watch a video for one more bird” (which not surprisingly that bird never seems to get me enough points anyway IF I go ahead and try) I click out the “X”. So Rovio doesn’t get paid for wasting my time watching the video in which I wouldn’t beat the opponent (or current level) anyway.

I missed hitting a blue gift box this morning when trying for the gem award. I played this POS game until my battery died, trying to get another one, (just for a probably over the course of an hour and a half). Forget it. No luck.

There is no more incentive to play further screens. I’m in the 400s somewhere and every single board that opens up with 6 levels and pigs on little structures in all 4 corners of the room is the same as a big sign saying “Spend gems or you’ll never succeed on this level”. It takes 4 or 5 birds to clear one screen, let alone the entire round. Even though I’ve ranked up a few birds they seem to produce the same amount of points/ damage as they did when I was in lower levels. And my next ranking is an eternity away at this rate. So why even play on? My bird squad can’t clear these levels and I can’t even win in the Arena to advance them, what, 10 feathers at a time? Screw that.

Rovio it would also be nice if we weren’t forced to collect gem awards whenever we earn one. I think I know by now what I need to do, I don’t need that red bird popup locking the game and telling me to collect all rewards as if I’m doing it my first time every time.

And for the last time: WHAT IS THE POINT of even trying to stay in the Arena Diamond league? Do players get higher rewards than if they are in the vanilla league? NO. Do they get advanced gem rewards for being ranked higher? NO. Do they get anything that counts as worthwhile for even making it there? NO. So better to let them get demoted back to vanilla league and wipe out beginning players there with a powerful bird squad to rook a 100 gem award at the end of the week. But you see what that will do to the beginning players, right?

Anyway, Rovio is not getting one more cent of my money no matter how hard they try…. I don’t mind paying into a game that I’m at least enjoying. But I’m beginning to think it’s time to move on- all my friends have dropped the game from their app and I’m close to doing the same which is a shame, this could have been the game of year if it weren’t for all this greed, inconsistent play, hacker-friendly attitude and freemium disruption. It’s all TAKE and very little give- even when it’s REAL money in exchange for VIRTUAL items.

BTW I had a brief career in game development and QA (and have my name on a few titles out there as well) and I recognize crappy in-game programming logic gimmicks when I see them. @bankler, I know you aren’t personally responsible for the shettiness of the game and the money-machine Rovio wants this to be. And I know since they’re paying you to do your job you’ll keep your mouth shut because you need to feed your family. But just remember when you chase players away, they don’t come back- no matter how popular you think your titles are. There are millions of more fun games to waste time playing than to be addicted to a single one that frustrates players to no end. And we’re no longer in the days of the arcades when kids blow their entire allowance trying to beat that next boss. Gamers have come a long way since then and the gaming industry demands something worth their time and expenses.

Bring that to your higher-ups and let them think about that one.

[kedik22]

@djlarryt

@maiasatara

@mvnla2

@bankler

Hi.
I believe these forums participants share your frustration and furthermore angriness.

What I cannot fathom is how a beautiful, intelligent and fun game has become such a money grabbing mess.

Rovio: Would you like to comment???

[Maiasatara]

@djlarryt you’re my new BFF. I’ll friend you here so we can find each other in Facebook (do you play Friends? Not a picnic there either – Matilda Glitch) I feel two ways about hearing about “my” playing – first I’m glad to know I don’t have some warped, inflated sense of my playing as I’m winning SOMEwhere. Then it infuriates me that they use that AGAIBST others but not for my own BENEFIT. It’s a double whammy that makes a decent player complicit in the money grubbing while simultaneously you-know-whatting them. (@mvnla2 – I know basic percentages and I referenced levels in the 300’s – after birds were comparable whrn I compared my scores; not the replay of early levels.)

The tactics you speak of Larry, the “you’ll never win without paying” were the famous Candy Crush problems King (developers) had. Tgey literally frustrated players into paying money to relieve it. I played my last Candy Crush level for a MONTH – every day, 5-6 tries and never won it. That’s the day I deleted everything they created (Bubble Witch was another.) Right now I have one level in AB2 I’ve played for two days with all the typical crap – wood becomes stone, the air vent that hinders is activated rather than the helpful one, I get shot at but have no blues or have one pig surviving WAY out in Zimbabwe with no yellow so I waste my last six birds trying futilely. Like you, I don’t watch the videos anymore. A few times I forgot to screenshot my end scores I was so angered by everything. I finally just put 900+ photos onto a disc, ALL AB2, because my phone was getting too full. Oh – I posted above – I calculated it would take approx 8.4 months to get all birds from Emerald to Amythest using only free gifts and chests. Those red chests in Levels 9 and 13 were the ONLY thing keeping me around. (Well, that and my competitive nature.) I’ll probably back down to the other games until Rovio ruins those, too. Friend request coming! To you, too @kedik22!

[DJLarryt]

I wish I had been recording my last Arena game. Using the flowers, I sent Matilda into one of those teeny little pigs encased in a stone block, and the egg that got dropped into the flower got shot out afterwards on the same path. Both were a direct hit on the pig and sent it flying but the block never broke. Then I sent a yellow bird to at least try to roll it off a cliff. The yellow bird hit it and stopped dead. Then I threw the silver bird at it and it broke the stone but the pig flew out and survived (even after a piece of the stone flying up and coming right back down on the pig’s head). Finally I used my last bird, the blue ones and they hit the stone sitting beside the pig (the one that flew down and hit it) and rocked it over to hit the pig, who just rolled to the side and it still didn’t kill the f**king thing. This was all in the very first screen. I killed the app right then and there. As I mentioned earlier, suddenly pigs are harder to pop and structures are harder to demolish. This game sucks so many levels of azz.

As a matter of fact, I don’t recall ever killing an app as much as do this one.

@maiasatara I never touched those Candy Crush games, because I know how infinitely addictive they are and well, I don’t have a lot of time to spend playing games. I do it for fun and for relaxation. I’ve been a faithful player ever since the very first AB and it looks like my love affair with Rovio is finally coming to an end because of AB2. I really want to like the game, and keep playing it- honestly I do, it had such promise. But every Arena match uses the same structures and every screen uses the same structures and every world is just a slight adjustment of the last one… same old, same old. It gets tired really quick. Especially with the constant money-grubbing reminders to buy gems.

Whenever I used to watch the ads (remember, I “X” out of them every single time now), if the ad said “from the makers of Angry Birds” I laugh to myself thinking “If this game is as patronizing as AB2 has become, there’s no way I’ll ever be touching it”. Funny that the tagline would meant to encourage the opposite.

I’m at the point where I no longer even WANT to “play”. At all. When the tournament ended Saturday night I got on my phone Sunday morning to try the arena one more time and the leader is already up to 100+ stars. Seriously… why even bother? And of course the first two games I tried got me obliterated, so I burned my game with a score of 30,000 in hopes that maybe someone will get that recording as an opponent and thank the skies that they can collect 10 stars off of such a garbage score.

And after reading that other thread where Rovio promised “better returns from the blue and red gift boxes if you buy the upgrade” (which I stupidly did) and now they kaibosh the gift boxes, it doesn’t give me a lot of faith that they care about anything else but scraping in money. I hope the movie bombs too.. it looks as stupid as any other CGI kids movie… probably full of burp and fart jokes and overanimated dolls rolling around going “woooooAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh”. Yeah, funny. Rovio you won’t be getting one more cent of my money.

Rant over :-)

[Aeshna]

I completed the new levels on Saturday. One thing of note was there were NO red boxes/treasure chests during the levels. I would estimate there were five blue boxes in total.

The place to get gifts/rewards, is not on the new levels!

I am (think I am) finding more feathers in the free daily treasure chests but these are usually low.