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Games people play
I finally got the 1024 tile in 2048. Twice! I am ridiculously pleased about that. :D Of course, it gets harder the higher you go, so getting from 1024 to 2048 is going to be the really hard one ...
This game is stupidly addictive. I don't normally find myself getting hooked on this kind of thing, but for whatever reason 2048 just happens to hack my attention span perfectly -- I think it's a combination of the numbers and strategy combined with the incredibly simple gameplay providing constant rewards for little effort. I'm having to severely limit my access to the game, just allowing myself one game every now and then as a reward, because I played it for four hours a few evenings ago and then I was seeing little sliding tiles every time I closed my eyes, which wasn't fun.
One thing I discovered about the game after a while is that pursuing the low-hanging fruit (that is, combining every tile that can be combined) is not a strategy that will get you very far. I plateaued at the 512 tile level for a really long time, because it's SO TEMPTING when you have two 32's or two 64's to combine them, but if you pursue those tempting combinations, you end up isolating "islands" of twos and fours that are what eventually kills you in the end.
(Kills in the metaphorical sense. This isn't that kind of game.)
Also, it gets increasingly frustrating as your 32's and 64's and 128's chase each other around the game board, never melding.
No, the more systematic the better. I got so frustrated at being unable to get past 512 that I ended up peeking at strategy sites and discovering the recommendation of always swiping to the left and down ... which is now what I'm doing most of the time, and it gives you neat stacks of 32's and 64's that are tidily located for combining when you get enough of them. It still takes a lot of attention to the direction that you're swiping things -- it's still entirely possible to isolate "islands" if you aren't careful, which get harder and harder to get rid of, until finally the board locks up completely ... but it seems to me that some variation on this regular, systematic swiping is how you can eventually get to the highest level, with attention and luck.
I can't believe I'm spending so much time playing this stupid game.
This game is stupidly addictive. I don't normally find myself getting hooked on this kind of thing, but for whatever reason 2048 just happens to hack my attention span perfectly -- I think it's a combination of the numbers and strategy combined with the incredibly simple gameplay providing constant rewards for little effort. I'm having to severely limit my access to the game, just allowing myself one game every now and then as a reward, because I played it for four hours a few evenings ago and then I was seeing little sliding tiles every time I closed my eyes, which wasn't fun.
One thing I discovered about the game after a while is that pursuing the low-hanging fruit (that is, combining every tile that can be combined) is not a strategy that will get you very far. I plateaued at the 512 tile level for a really long time, because it's SO TEMPTING when you have two 32's or two 64's to combine them, but if you pursue those tempting combinations, you end up isolating "islands" of twos and fours that are what eventually kills you in the end.
(Kills in the metaphorical sense. This isn't that kind of game.)
Also, it gets increasingly frustrating as your 32's and 64's and 128's chase each other around the game board, never melding.
No, the more systematic the better. I got so frustrated at being unable to get past 512 that I ended up peeking at strategy sites and discovering the recommendation of always swiping to the left and down ... which is now what I'm doing most of the time, and it gives you neat stacks of 32's and 64's that are tidily located for combining when you get enough of them. It still takes a lot of attention to the direction that you're swiping things -- it's still entirely possible to isolate "islands" if you aren't careful, which get harder and harder to get rid of, until finally the board locks up completely ... but it seems to me that some variation on this regular, systematic swiping is how you can eventually get to the highest level, with attention and luck.
I can't believe I'm spending so much time playing this stupid game.

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It's really fun, this game. And not as nervewracking as Portal.
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I've got 2048 three times now, though I've not gone much beyond that. My top score is 24188 -- anyone beat that?
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You are going to hate me...
Re: You are going to hate me...
... I'm a a point where I'm borderline giving up, because I can't beat my 12K high score and it's gone from being fun and challenging to simply frustrating. Which probably isn't a bad thing; it means more time for other things, I guess ...
Re: You are going to hate me...