(no subject)

[phosfate]

All right. My copy of Monarch is one of those no-frills jewel case numbers, with no instruction, so sometimes it presents me with a puzzle and I have no idea about what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing. I solve this by clicking randomly until something explodes. This works fine (hello level 129).

But I've noticed something. If I go too many moves without making any real progress, or get near to the end of a level and need a particular match, quite often the bits I need for a match, or large quantities of handy board-clearing explosives, will start to appear like...some suddenly appearing thing. Ants at a picnic. Mice in a pantry. Nerds at a sneak preview. Whatever. I refer to this as 'pity mode.'

My question is, is it actually possible to program a game to do this? Or is it just my imagination combined with normal random mathemagic? (Like, I'm concentrating on a particular area, so naturally it's going to get more activity and the illusion of more favorable results.)

Comments

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Hinting actually does a lot of good in a matching game, though you're often docked points if you ask for one. Monarch offers hints on its own, but then the board is freaking huge.

It also keeps giving me extra lives. Which is keen, but I'm not entirely certain that it's possible to die in this game.