I had a bunch of Linux-loving, anti-ad, tinfoil hat employees in the early 00s. They tried to convince me of how bad things will become. It turns out that their tinfoil hats weren't nearly thick enough.

How long before so much of daily life is governed by such algorithms, models, dark patterns? "Oh, you didn't pay rapt attention to the entire chain of ads. Guess your car is going to have to break down this week and your egg prices will go up 25% at every grocery store."

yeah i saw the writing on the wall around that time too. started self hosting as much as possible. paid dividends pretty well so far.

We will lease our underwear soon

There are gambling companies who are using all this surveillance ad tech and AI to retarget gambling addicts who are trying to quit. This will also apply to other addictions. So if you are trying to quit drinking, you will still be in the "interested in alcohol" segmentation and will get a lot of ads and coupons for alcohol. Struggling with your weight? If those ad companies are noticing that and they will, you will get ads for sweets and ads shaming you for being fat trying to sell you quack medicine.

I never use 'revives' and I hardly ever see an ad. Yes, it gets quite hard when you get to your high score, that's the time to take a break. I usually get excited and power through and choke. It's important to keep the field clear and place stuff in the middle when you can. Maybe this guy just sucks at Block Blast?

This guy unpacked the code to show that once you're 1000 points past your high score the game has an increasingly higher chance of being impossible. Not "quite hard", but literally unable to win. There's a good little interactive sample of how the game builds the impossible hands that it then serves.

Your note on "time to take a break" is funny to read, because the game accounts for this, too.

Increasingly higher doesn't mean impossible though. If your field isn't scattered and you're busting lines every deal you can keep going. As soon as you mess up a couple times they'll screw you. The strategy does change once you've reached your high score. I think careful placement beats line-every-time at that point.

I find taking a break to be better mentally, because you've been working towards a goal and get there and then I get rammy and overconfident. 20 minute sessions max.

The article explains that these death deals are in fact impossible, though. There's even a test board for you to try.

I guess I misunderstood the test board because I beat it or something.

It's "5 of 5" on the test board, and the page plays it for you and shows you the what's happening. It's fine if you like this game, but this article is about the aggressive practices to maximize ad revenue.

I get it, and it does play dirty tricks and will stiff you. But you can keep the algorithm at bay, until you dirty up the board. You see a lot less ads when you're good. I'd guess I see one ad per 5 sessions and it's almost always a "trial game" thing.

Here are times I beat the 10% mark

The game isn't even "free". My wife had it on her phone, and it was available through a netflix subscription.

I showed her her that the game is deliberately handing her a losing hand so it plays a Temu ad, and there's no luck or skill involved.

Uninstalled. Now I wanna can Neflix too for dishing this shit up to my family.

You guys just suck at it. There aren't ads if you always be blastin'.

You don't understand. The only winning move is not to play.

Oh I see, you're a table flipper. You can't win the game so it must be rigged.

It's objectively, irrefutably rigged.

Keep telling yourself that boss. It's unpossible.

Dude, just play some game without predatory tactics. You are getting abused here.