Play Nine: Golf Card Game

I love the card game and, like many on here, I saw the insert advertising the app. So I downloaded it last night. Played two multiplayer games and lost. No big deal, everybody loses from time to time. Played some more today and lost several more games in a row. This game is designed for you to lose. It becomes glaringly obvious after the first 4-5 games. But (and what is really sinister about this app) the more you lose, the more money the developer makes. They will bleed you dry of your initial batch of coins by rigging every game for you to lose. They do this with the hope that they trigger some urge in you to win. They're hoping once you run out of coins you'll buy more coins for the chance to win. I'm really not sure how the developers sleep at night. They are greed personified. They've taken a great game and corrupted it to the point of unplayability. I'll be reporting the app to Apple. It's not much, but there exists a non-zero chance that Apple sees my report and removes this app from the app store. And even if that chance gives the developer only a second of anxiety, it'll be worth it.

I play guest, just myself, and nine holes. Too many ads. I have to turn off my smartphone to end the nauseating ad. Then I turn on. Cheat mode: If my opponent, the app, is really behind in its putts, it will suddenly readjust to cheat mode to give itself big negative scores. My opponent, the app, will quickly give itself all matches, (usually low numbers), while giving myself high cards, with no or few matches. Then my opponent, the app, will go out early so I end up with a high score so I eventually lose the game. If I have a nine over zero, and I made six consecutive attempts to get a nine or zero, but with no luck, and if my opponent, the app needs a zero, it will suddenly give me a nine. I then match nine over nine for zero in that column, and the app gets its zero to score even lower than I. Then it goes out early. My opponent, the app, is determined to win, no matter the cheating the app usually does to win. My opponent, the app, may even figure out the math wrong to its advantage. Often my opponent, the app, gives itself minus fives and low cards. Often certain low numbers are rarely seen by me to get in my play, but are often seen by my opponent, the app, to get in its play.

The game itself is super fun, but there are huge issues with the app. 1) it glitches out frequently. Earlier today it skipped a round entirely and gave us each the score for that hand we were initially dealt. I went from being in first place to last. Sometimes it will glitch during a round and show you a card and then you place the card and it sort of freezes up and then shows that you chose a different card and put it in a different spot when it comes back. It has also shown me everyone’s hand they were dealt before. 2) there appears to be no way to report players that I can figure out, and players will frequently (1-2x/week) “slow play.” In other words, they will purposefully let the entire timer run out and then let the computer move for them. They do this for every move for the whole entire game, apparently in an effort to get the other players to quit because it’s so infuriatingly slow. I cannot imagine why they do this (I don’t think there’s an incentive - I think even after everyone quits the game keeps going??), but there’s nothing you can do about it when it happens, and if you leave you’ve wasted a ticket. Not the biggest deal (tickets are easy to get), but incredibly annoying.