Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
    but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

• Proverbs 14:31

Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
    and do not crush the needy in court,
for the Lord will take up their case
    and will exact life for life.

• Proverbs 22:22-23

The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud.

• Hosea 12:7

saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales,

• Amos 8:5

“‘Do not steal.
“‘Do not lie.
“‘Do not deceive one another.

• Leviticus 19:11

I have admitted that in my down time – I do have some – I try to keep my mind sharp by playing a variety of puzzle games.  Jigsaw puzzles, word games, number games, and logic games.

Have you ever played one of those games and an ad pops up for its competitor?

When that happens, I try to solve the puzzle without playing it.  I get halfway through the puzzle without touching the screen, and I find that you cannot win the game without breaking the rules of the game.

For example, these color style sudoku puzzles.  One star, dog, car, queen, etc. per color, one per row, one per column.  If you have played them enough and the sample puzzle is in the mid-range of difficulty, you can solve it in your head.  You realize that you have to put two stars diagonally next to each other – a violation of the rules.  So, the next day, the same ad comes up and you confirm what you thought the day before.

And sometimes when the ad limits the time that you have to look at the sample, I might have to play it in my head a few times, but the as might appear several times each day.

Are these people poor ad writers?  Do they even know how to play their own game?  Or is it their own game?  Did they steal a beta version (one with bugs in it) from a competitor and quick released it to get the cash from advertisements before people delete the game because it locks up all the time?

But, the big question is that if they are that eager to publish without seeing that their ad sample does not work, then how many virus-laden ads will you get if you download it?  And if you know the game might have a level that is impossible to solve, why download it at all?

The thing is that most people do not look at a game ten moves into the play.  The screens have pretty colors and it seems easy enough to play, or for more advanced players, it looks like it could get challenging at some point.

Another example is a tap a cube with an arrow on it type game.  If two arrows point to one another, the cubes can only go straight.  Thus, no matter how well you do elsewhere, those two arrows can never be moved.  You cannot win.  Again, why were they sloppy with the sample in the ad?  Are we supposed to trust them, when they cannot get the ad correct?

And a crossword puzzle game that I recently deleted is running an ad for a totally different game.  The game play is totally different in the ad, but when you go to download the game, it is the same game that I recently deleted.  I am glad I deleted it now.

And there is a sample game of removing color cubes from a grid. They limit the number of cubes that you can remove or the time that you have to move them, but why even start? There are red, orange, yellow, green and blue cubes, but there is no exit point for the yellow cubes. You cannot win. That one is easy to spot without even trying to play the game.

There are enough problems with playing games on your phone.  Playing a game with a sloppy ad is simply asking for trouble.

They try to deceive you with a flashy ad that does not last long enough for you to see their mistakes, but some people do not need to take that long.

Which comes down to the bottom line, why should we believe someone who is trying to deceive?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.