A tile-matching video game is a type of puzzle video game where the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other. That number is often three, and these games are called match-three games .
141-393: Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play tile-matching video game released by King on April 12, 2012, originally for Facebook ; other versions for iOS , Android , Windows Phone , and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game Candy Crush . In the game, players complete levels by swapping colored pieces of candy on a game board to make a match of three or more of
282-462: A Bejeweled -like tile-matching game, Puzzle Quest added elements of a computer role-playing game atop this. The player would take turns against a computer opponent, making matches on a common game board, with the types of tiles matched representing role-playing game elements like attacks, defense, and magic which the player used to battle their current enemy, the larger game component had the player improve their character and obtain gear that improved
423-574: A board game . The game was first released for Facebook in April 2012, at the time featuring only 65 levels. The game quickly gained popularity, gaining more than 4 million players within a few weeks of release. King later released mobile versions for iOS and Android that same year, adding a feature that allowed mobile users to synchronize their progress with the Facebook version. Knutsson stated that at that time, with Candy Crush Saga as popular as it
564-532: A debit card , which can be used like currency by the owner of the card. As of June 2018, there were 7.753 billion credit cards in the world. In 2020, there were 1.09 billion credit cards in circulation in the United States, and 72.5% of adults (187.3 million) in the country had at least one credit card. The size of most credit cards is 85.60 by 53.98 millimetres ( 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in × 2 + 1 ⁄ 8 in) and rounded corners with
705-456: A freemium model; while it can be played completely through without spending money, players can buy special actions to help clear more difficult boards, from which King makes its revenues—at its peak, the company was reportedly earning almost $ 1 million per day. Around 2014, over 93 million people were playing Candy Crush Saga , while revenue over a three-month period as reported by King was over $ 493 million. Five years after its release on mobile,
846-485: A magnetic stripe conforming to the ISO/IEC 7813 . Most modern credit cards use smart card technology: they have a computer chip embedded in them as a security feature. In addition, complex smart cards, including peripherals such as a keypad, a display or a fingerprint sensor are increasingly used for credit cards. In addition to the main credit card number, credit cards also carry issue and expiration dates (given to
987-456: A receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a card not present transaction (CNP). Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify in a few seconds that the card
1128-572: A 300% annual interest rate. On 19 October 2010, Hideki Fukuba became the first operator of such an online cash back service to be charged by the police. He was charged on tax evasion of 40 million yen in unpaid taxes. A credit card issuing company, such as a bank or credit union, enters into agreements with merchants for them to accept their credit cards. Merchants often advertise in signage or other company material which cards they accept by displaying acceptance marks generally derived from logos. Alternatively, this may be communicated, for example, via
1269-515: A card for spending a guaranteed minimum income , rather than borrowing, making it more similar to a debit card . Beginning in the late 19th century, charge cards came in various shapes and sizes, made of celluloid (an early type of plastic), copper, aluminum, steel, and other types of whitish metals. Some were shaped like coins, with a little hole enabling it to be put in a key ring. These charge coins were usually given to customers who had charge accounts in hotels or department stores. Each had
1410-416: A card that few consumers used. Bank of America chose Fresno because 45% of its residents used the bank, and by sending a card to 60,000 Fresno residents at once, the bank was able to convince merchants to accept the card. It was eventually licensed to other banks around the United States and then around the world, and in 1976, all BankAmericard licensees united themselves under the common brand Visa . In 1966,
1551-527: A charge account number, along with the merchant's name and logo. The charge coin offered a simple and fast way to copy a charge account number to the sales slip, by imprinting the coin onto the sales slip. The Charga-Plate, developed in 1928, was an early predecessor of the credit card and was used in the U.S. from the 1930s to the late 1950s. It was a 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -by- 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch (64 mm × 32 mm) rectangle of sheet metal related to Addressograph and military dog tag systems. It
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#17327973261431692-400: A credit card holder presenting an accepted form of identification must be issued a cash advance over the counter at any bank which issues that type of credit card, even if the cardholder cannot give their PIN . A Japanese law enabling credit card cash back came into force in 2010. However, a legal loophole in this system was quickly exploited by online shops dedicated to providing cash back as
1833-406: A credit card of items that are viewed as cash are also considered to be cash advances in accordance with the credit card network's guidelines, thereby incurring the higher interest rate and the lack of the grace period . These often include money orders , prepaid debit cards , lottery tickets, gaming chips , mobile payments and certain taxes and fees paid to certain governments. However, should
1974-418: A daily basis; the game had a daily revenue of $ 633,000 from the United States section of the iOS App Store alone. By 2014, the game had over 245 million active players each month but has since dropped off, with that count falling to around 166 million by 2016. It again rose back to 293 million active monthly players by November 2017. Though initially released with advertising to help with revenue, King removed
2115-481: A deal with Microsoft to automatically install/reinstall the game on all new computers with then latest Windows operating system and already sold devices that had been upgraded to Windows 10 Home , even before Microsoft acquired King's parent company Activision Blizzard in October 2023. Candy Crush Saga is considered to be an addictive game as it uses a compulsion loop that provides pleasurable reinforcement
2256-477: A different challenge to the user, such as removing jelly on tiles or clearing candies in a fixed number of moves to bring special ingredients to the bottom of the board. Boards have a number of different configurations and may include special spaces that have their own unique rules, such as spaces covered with jelly that must be cleared by making a match on that space. If the player meets the level's goal, they will be given stars based on their score and can proceed onto
2397-410: A different interest rate, possibly with a single umbrella credit limit, or with separate credit limits applicable to the various balance segments. Usually, this compartmentalization is the result of special incentive offers from the issuing bank, to encourage balance transfers from cards of other issuers. If several interest rates apply to various balance segments, then payment allocation is generally at
2538-399: A few hundred other games they had designed for the portal. Candy Crush ' s concept had been based on an early game King made, Miner Speed , that borrowed gameplay elements from Bejeweled . Candy Crush added new animations for the candies, and expressive paper doll -like characters that helped to make the game one of five most popular ones on the site by 2012. At that point, the game
2679-585: A few merchants. There had been a dozen attempts by small American banks, but none of them were able to last very long . In 1958, Bank of America launched the BankAmericard in Fresno, California , which would become the first successful recognizably modern credit card. This card succeeded where others failed by breaking the chicken-and-egg cycle in which consumers did not want to use a card that few merchants would accept and merchants did not want to accept
2820-444: A form of easy loan with exorbitant rates. At first, the online store sells a single inexpensive item of glass marble, golf tee, or eraser with an 80,000 yen wire transfer for a 100,000 yen (1,200 US dollar) credit card payment. A month later, when the credit card provider charges the card owner with the full fee, the online store is out of the picture with no liability. In effect, what the online cash back services provide are loans with
2961-448: A given point on the board. King , which had made similar tile-matching games for browser-based games, explored a different approach with its first mobile app, Bubble Witch Saga , which had puzzle-oriented gameplay like Puzzle Bobble , but applied finite restrictions on the number of moves the player could take and setting target goals such as score or clearing the board. This enabled them to create numerous levels that could be completed in
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#17327973261433102-432: A great variety of puzzle game experiences. This section discusses a number of these mechanics. Early puzzle games like Tetris were timed – that is, new tiles are continuously added and the player is under pressure to make matches before the board fills up. The rate of tile addition often increased as to make for a more difficult challenge in longer games. Untimed (turn-based) games, in which new tiles are added only after
3243-446: A greater number of similar tiles. In some tile games, when tiles are matched and removed, pieces above them fall to fill the space (as with Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga ). This creates the potential for additional matches and creating scoring combos, with all subsequent matches scored at higher point values. Some games drop tiles at random, others according to algorithms . In most tile-matching games, new tiles are randomly added to
3384-428: A large drop in players at their game portals within a year. At this point, King started to determine how it could enter the Facebook and the associated mobile game markets, breaking up its web development department to work on Facebook and mobile games in 2010, including bringing several of their existing browser games to those platforms. Most of these existing games were introduced as beta versions to Facebook users, and
3525-484: A new type of tile-matching game based on creating games broken up into levels and establishing goals to reach within a limited number of moves. This "saga" approach also extended to other genres of mobile games. The second innovation in tile-matching games was the incorporation of their mechanic into other genres. One of the first such games was Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords released in 2008. While based on
3666-479: A number of features specific to businesses. They frequently offer special rewards in areas such as shipping, office supplies, travel, and business technology. Most issuers use the applicant's personal credit score when evaluating these applications. In addition, income from a variety of sources may be used to qualify, which means these cards may be available to businesses that are newly established. In addition, some issuers of this card do not report account activity to
3807-446: A physical check, such as an electronic transfer of funds from a checking account. Depending on the issuer, the cardholder may also be able to make multiple payments during a single statement period, possibly enabling him or her to utilize the credit limit on the card several times. The cardholder must pay a defined minimum portion of the amount owed by a due date or may choose to pay a higher amount. The credit issuer charges interest on
3948-409: A positive credit history. Although the deposit is in the hands of the credit card issuer as security in the event of default by the consumer, the deposit will not be debited simply for missing one or two payments. Usually, the deposit is only used as an offset when the account is closed, either at the request of the customer or due to severe delinquency (150 to 180 days). This means that an account that
4089-432: A radius of 2.88–3.48 millimetres ( 9 ⁄ 80 – 11 ⁄ 80 in) conforming to the ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 standard, the same size as ATM cards and other payment cards , such as debit cards . Most credit cards are made of plastic, but some are made from metal. Credit cards have a printed or embossed bank card number complying with the ISO/IEC 7812 numbering standard. The card number's prefix , called
4230-466: A restaurant's menu or orally, or stating, "We don't take credit cards". The credit card issuer issues a credit card to a customer at the time or after an account has been approved by the credit provider, which need not be the same entity as the card issuer. The cardholders can then use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card. When a purchase is made, the cardholder agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates consent to pay by signing
4371-424: A short time, making the game ideal for mobile players, and apply a microtransaction model to provide players temporary boosts and power-ups for more difficult levels. This approach proved highly successful and King reused it for the tile-matching game Candy Crush Saga in 2012, itself which was inspired by Bejeweled . Candy Crush Saga became one of the most financially successful mobile games , and established
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4512-412: A specific color are collected, such as converting a candy on the board to a wrapped candy. This game earned $ 5.6 million in its first month, and $ 10 million by June 2019. CBS produced a live-action Candy Crush game show in partnership with King that premiered on July 9, 2017. It was an hour-long competition among several two-person teams using interactive games that are based on Candy Crush . The show
4653-589: A survey referred to by Juul, tile-matching games were the second most popular game type in 2004 and by far the most popular in 2005. After that, their popularity declined: they were the fourth most popular of several genres in 2006 and 2007, and in 2008 a games publisher referred to them as a "niche" genre. But as they became well known and therefore assumed to be immediately playable by many people, tile-matching games migrated to other, more ubiquitous distribution channels such as cell phones and smartphones. Despite their commercial popularity, tile-matching games are among
4794-437: A traditional video gaming ethos that demands games be challenging and with complex mechanics. Match-three games are NP-hard when generalized to an n × n {\displaystyle n\times n} playfield and played such that the player knows in advance all the tiles that will appear, with no random chance involved. Credit card This is an accepted version of this page A credit card
4935-404: Is a payment card , usually issued by a bank , allowing its users to purchase goods or services , or withdraw cash , on credit . Using the card thus accrues debt that has to be repaid later. Credit cards are one of the most widely used forms of payment across the world. A regular credit card is different from a charge card , which requires the balance to be repaid in full each month, or at
5076-827: Is also a minor feature in some larger games. Video game researcher Jesper Juul therefore considers tile matching to be a game mechanic , rather than a distinct genre of games. The mechanism of matching game pieces to make them disappear is a feature of many non-digital games, including Mahjong solitaire and Solitaire card games. Video game researcher Jesper Juul traces the history of tile-matching video games back to early puzzle Tetris and Chain Shot! (later known as SameGame ), published in 1984 and 1985, respectively. While both are puzzle games, they differ in important design points such as time pressure, tile manipulation, and solving criteria. While there may have been earlier video games with tile-matching mechanics, Juul stated that
5217-581: Is having the player shoot the tiles onto the board, such as in Plotting and its descendants including Zuma . The first method, which allows only moves that create a match, results in a more strategic, thoughtful style of play, whereas the second method requires hand-eye coordination in addition to pattern recognition skills, and makes for a more hectic style of play. In most tile-matching games, players obtain points for each match. Higher scores are awarded for more difficult matches, such as those involving
5358-448: Is late paying the balance, finance charges will be calculated and the grace period does not apply. Finance charges incurred depend on the grace period and balance; with most credit cards there is no grace period if there is any outstanding balance from the previous billing cycle or statement (i.e. interest is applied on both the previous balance and new transactions). However, there are some credit cards that will only apply finance charges on
5499-481: Is made the balance already reflects the funds were spent. In a credit card's entry, the deposit column shows the available credit and the payment column shows the total owed, their sum being equal to the credit limit. Each check is written, debit card transaction, cash withdrawal, and credit card charge are entered manually into the paper register daily or several times per week. Credit card register also refers to one transaction record for each credit card. In this case,
5640-431: Is restored every half-hour), or purchase them. Initially, when a player makes a purchase for new lives, they receive five new lives for a specific dollar amount. In a recent update, when a player makes a purchase for new lives, the player receives gold bars, the quantity depending on how much money they spend. Gold bars can be used for new lives, extra moves, boosters or to unlock a new episode. At certain points, primarily at
5781-445: Is still expected to make regular payments, as with a regular credit card, but should they default on a payment, the card issuer has the option of recovering the cost of the purchases paid to the merchants out of the deposit. The advantage of the secured card for an individual with negative or no credit history is that most companies report regularly to the major credit bureaus. This allows the cardholder to start building (or re-building)
Candy Crush Saga - Misplaced Pages Continue
5922-433: Is to match two, three, or more tiles of the same type, which merges those matched tiles into a single tile with a different value that then can be matched further. For example, in 2048 , players are given random blocks with numbers 2 or 4 on them, and much match two blocks of the same number as to generate new blocks with values in the multiples of 2, with the goal to try to get a block with the value 2048 (2 ) or higher. While
6063-401: Is usually detailed in a cardholder agreement which may be summarized on the back of the monthly statement. The general calculation formula most financial institutions use to determine the amount of interest to be charged is (APR/100 x ADB)/365 x number of days revolved. Take the annual percentage rate (APR) and divide by 100 then multiply to the amount of the average daily balance (ADB). Divide
6204-416: Is valid and the cardholder has sufficient credit to cover the purchase, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or point-of-sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is called Chip and PIN in
6345-577: The Air Transport Association simplified the process even more with the advent of the Air Travel Card . They created a numbering scheme that identified the issuer of the card as well as the customer account. This is the reason the modern UATP cards still start with the number 1. With an Air Travel Card, passengers could "buy now, and pay later" for a ticket against their credit and receive a fifteen percent discount at any of
6486-548: The Bank Identification Number (known in the industry as a BIN ), is the sequence of digits at the beginning of the number that determine the bank to which a credit card number belongs. This is the first six digits for MasterCard and Visa cards. The next nine digits are the individual account number, and the final digit is a validity check digit. Both of these standards are maintained and further developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17/WG 1 . Credit cards have
6627-490: The Candy Crush Saga series has received over 2.7 billion downloads, and the game has been one of the highest-grossing and most-played mobile apps in that time frame. As of September 2023, it had reached over $ 20 billion in lifetime revenue. King has since released three related titles— Candy Crush Soda Saga , Candy Crush Jelly Saga and Candy Crush Friends Saga —and most of the company's other mobile titles follow
6768-518: The Game Boy version of Tetris with the Game Boy handheld system upon its North American and European releases in 1989. The game helped to sell the handheld system, making it a killer application , and sold over 35 million copies over the Game Boy's lifetime. As it drew in players that normally did not play video games, Tetris is considered one of the first casual games . The popularity of
6909-536: The International Air Transport Association . The concept of customers paying different merchants using the same card was expanded in 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank McNamara , founders of Diners Club , to consolidate multiple cards. The Diners Club, which was created partially through a merger with Dine and Sign, produced the first "general purpose" charge card and required the entire bill to be paid with each statement. That
7050-520: The United Kingdom and Ireland , and is implemented as an EMV card. For card not present transactions where the card is not shown (e.g., e-commerce , mail order , and telephone sales), merchants additionally verify that the customer is in physical possession of the card and is the authorized user by asking for additional information such as the security code printed on the back of the card, date of expiry, and billing address. Each month,
7191-423: The "saga" approach in contrast to typical tile-matching games, where instead of having the game continue through a fixed amount of time or until the player reached an unplayable state, the game was divided into discrete levels that required the player to complete certain goals within a fixed set of moves, and where the next level could only be reached after completing the previous level. These saga elements allowed for
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#17327973261437332-550: The 1978 Supreme Court case Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp., led to substantial reforms that made the credit card industry more competitive. A 2024 study estimated that these competitive reforms resulted in substantial welfare gains, in particular for low-income groups. The fragmented nature of the U.S. banking system regulation under the Glass–Steagall Act meant that credit cards became an effective way for those who were travelling around
7473-899: The People's Choice Awards for Favorite Mobile Game 2016. Other nominees were Fruit Ninja , Despicable Me: Minion Rush , Plants vs. Zombies and Temple Run . It was also the winner of 9th International Mobile Gaming Awards for the Best Social Game. King filed for applications for trademarks on the word "candy" in January 2013 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office , which became publicly known in January 2014. News of these pending trademarks raised concerns from other developers, who feared that King would use their trademark to intimidate smaller developers. In response to this criticism, King decided not to pursue
7614-444: The U.S. regulations. Many banks now also offer the option of electronic statements, either in lieu of or in addition to physical statements, which can be viewed at any time by the cardholder via the issuer's online banking website. Notification of the availability of a new statement is generally sent to the cardholder's email address. If the card issuer has chosen to allow it, the cardholder may have other options for payment besides
7755-439: The United States, however. A secured credit card is a type of credit card secured by a deposit account owned by the cardholder. Typically, the cardholder must deposit between 100% and 200% of the total amount of credit desired. Thus if the cardholder puts down $ 1,000, they will be given credit in the range of $ 500–1,000. In some cases, credit card issuers will offer incentives even on their secured card portfolios. In these cases,
7896-489: The accepting airlines. By the 1940s, all of the major U.S. airlines offered Air Travel Cards that could be used on 17 different airlines. By 1941, about half of the airlines' revenues came through the Air Travel Card agreement. The airlines had also started offering installment plans to lure new travellers into the air. In 1948, the Air Travel Card became the first internationally valid charge card within all members of
8037-455: The advertising in 2013 and solely has earned money from the game in the form of in-app purchases. Only a small percentage of the player base has purchased in-game items, up to around 4%, but this has led to millions of dollars in monthly revenue for King. In 2014, Candy Crush Saga players spent over $ 1.33 billion on in-app purchases. This is a decline from the previous year since in the second half of 2013 players spent over $ 1.04 billion. By 2015,
8178-760: The ancestor of MasterCard was born when a group of banks established Master Charge to compete with BankAmericard; it received a significant boost when Citibank merged its own Everything Card , launched in 1967, into Master Charge in 1969. Early credit cards in the U.S., of which BankAmericard was the most prominent example, were mass-produced and mass mailed unsolicited to bank customers who were thought to be low risk. According to LIFE , cards were "mailed off to unemployable people, drunks, narcotics addicts and to compulsive debtors," which Betty Furness , President Johnson's Special Assistant, compared to "giving sugar to diabetics ." These mass mailings were known as "drops" in banking terminology, and were outlawed in 1970 due to
8319-481: The app icon, the art for the candy pieces, and sound effects like the level-completion "Sweet!". While details were not given, Ransom stated that he had "amicably" resolved the matter with King by April of that year. During this same period, it was discovered that King had applied for a trademark on the word "saga", and they had taken action against Stoic, the developers of The Banner Saga ; King had attempted to block Stoic's registration of "The Banner Saga", and after
8460-415: The bank and to easily look up past transactions for reconciliation and budgeting. The register is a personal record of banking transactions used for credit card purchases as they affect funds in the bank account or the available credit. In addition to checking numbers and so forth the code column indicates the credit card. The balance column shows available funds after purchases. When the credit card payment
8601-438: The basics of social gameplay, but did not require the time investment that then-popular titles like Zynga's FarmVille required; players could play just for a few minutes each day through the saga model. The success of Bubble Witch Saga establishing King as a viable developer in this arena, becoming the second-largest developer by daily player count on the Facebook platform by April 2012, trailing only Zynga. Candy Crush Saga
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#17327973261438742-413: The beginning of the 21st century, it was common for a merchant to accept a charge, especially below a threshold value or from a known and trusted customer, without verifying it by phone. Books with lists of stolen card numbers were distributed to merchants who were supposed in any case to check cards against the list before accepting them, as well as verifying the signature on the charge slip against that on
8883-493: The billing cycle, the outstanding balance will increase in what is called negative amortization . This practice tends to increase credit risk and mask the lender's portfolio quality and consequently has been banned in the U.S. since 2003. Credit card advertising regulations in the U.S. include the Schumer box disclosure requirements. A large fraction of junk mail consists of the credit card offers created from lists provided by
9024-466: The board continuously, either turn by turn or in real time. This may continue indefinitely or for a given period of time or number of turns. The player must continuously remove the newly added tiles through matching. The game may end with a loss when the board is filled with tiles or if there are no more possible matches. It may end with a victory when the player clears the board or reaches a given score. Among downloadable casual video games, according to
9165-415: The board was cleared of all candies of those two colors, and the player gained a few turns of additional matches without needing to balance colors. After this, Odus returned to sleeping and two new colors were randomly selected for the balance. This continued until the player completed the level or ran out of turns as in the main game. Dreamworld levels used a different set of lives from the main game, allowing
9306-476: The board. This may create a new matched set of candies, which is automatically cleared in the same manner. The player scores points for these matches and gains progressively more points for chain reactions (called cascades). Additionally, creating matches of four or more candies will create a special candy that, when matched, can clear a row, column, or other section of the board. The game is split into many levels, which must be completed in sequence. Each level poses
9447-466: The booklets readily enable the location of a card's current available credit when ten or more cards are in use. Business credit cards are specialized credit cards issued in the name of a registered business, and typically they can only be used for business purposes. Their use has grown in recent decades. In 1998, for instance, 37% of small businesses reported using a business credit card; by 2009, this number had grown to 64%. Business credit cards offer
9588-433: The card. Merchants who failed to take the time to follow the proper verification procedures were liable for fraudulent charges, but because of the cumbersome nature of the procedures, merchants would often simply skip some or all of them and assume the risk for smaller transactions. The early credit card industry in the United States was characterized by regional monopolies. Several landmark anti-trust court cases, including
9729-438: The cardholder is sent a statement indicating the purchases made with the card, any outstanding fees, the total amount owed and the minimum payment due. In the U.S., after receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that are thought to be incorrect (see 15 U.S.C. § 1643 , which limits cardholder liability for unauthorized use of a credit card to $ 50). The Fair Credit Billing Act gives details of
9870-405: The commercial success of both Tetris and Chain Shot! established the popularity of puzzle games, leading to a second generation of influential games – Puzznic , Columns , Dr. Mario and Plotting – which were published in 1989 and 1990. Another early Mahjong-style pair matching game was Shanghai (1986). The popularity of the puzzle genre was further boosted when Nintendo bundled
10011-408: The company used player counts and feedback to determine which of these titles had the most prospect for moving forward, allowing them to focus more intensive development on those titles while dropping the rest, in the style of a rapid prototyping approach. The Facebook platform allowed them to explore expansion of their existing tournament-style games and the ability to include microtransactions within
10152-420: The counter at a bank or other financial agency, up to a certain limit; for a credit card, this will be the credit limit (or some percentage of it). Cash advances often incur a fee of 3 to 5 percent of the amount being borrowed. When made on a credit card, the interest is often higher than other credit card transactions. The interest compounds daily starting from the day cash is borrowed. Some purchases made with
10293-413: The country to move their credit to places where they could not directly use their banking facilities. There are now countless variations on the basic concept of revolving credit for individuals (as issued by banks and honored by a network of financial institutions), including organization-branded credit cards, corporate-user credit cards and store cards. In 1966, Barclaycard in the United Kingdom launched
10434-399: The date of each purchase if the total balance is not paid. For example, if a user had a $ 1,000 transaction and repaid it in full within this grace period, there would be no interest charged. If, however, even $ 1.00 of the total amount remained unpaid, interest would be charged on the $ 1,000 from the date of purchase until the payment is received. The precise manner in which interest is charged
10575-420: The decline of paper slips, some credit cards are no longer embossed and in fact the card number is no longer in the front. In addition, some cards are now vertical in design, rather than horizontal. The concept of using a card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward . Bellamy used the term credit card eleven times in this novel, although this referred to
10716-399: The deposit required may be significantly less than the required credit limit and can be as low as 10% of the desired credit limit. This deposit is held in a special savings account . Credit card issuers offer this because they have noticed that delinquencies were notably reduced when the customer perceives something to lose if the balance is not repaid. The cardholder of a secured credit card
10857-412: The discretion of the issuing bank, and payments will therefore usually be allocated towards the lowest rate balances until paid in full before any money is paid towards higher rate balances. Interest rates can vary considerably from card to card, and the interest rate on a particular card may jump dramatically if the card user is late with a payment on that card or any other credit instrument , or even if
10998-444: The end of each statement cycle. In contrast, credit cards allow consumers to build a continuing balance of debt, subject to interest being charged at a specific rate . A credit card also differs from a charge card in that a credit card typically involves a third-party entity that pays the seller, and is reimbursed by the buyer, whereas a charge card simply defers payment by the buyer until a later date. A credit card also differs from
11139-455: The financial chaos they caused. However, by the time the law came into effect, approximately 100 million credit cards had been dropped into the U.S. population. After 1970, only credit card applications could be sent unsolicited in mass mailings. This system was computerized in 1973 under the leadership of Dee Hock , the first CEO of Visa, allowing reduced transaction time. However, until always-connected payment terminals became ubiquitous at
11280-472: The first credit card outside the United States. Although credit cards reached very high adoption levels in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand during the latter 20th century, many cultures were more cash-oriented or developed alternative forms of cashless payments, such as Carte bleue or the Eurocard (Germany, France, Switzerland, and others). In these places, the adoption of credit cards
11421-568: The form of casual games distributed or played over the Internet, notably the Bejeweled series of games. They have remained popular since, with the game Candy Crush Saga becoming the most-played game on Facebook in 2013. Tile-matching games cover a broad range of design elements, mechanics and gameplay experiences. They include purely turn-based games but may also feature arcade -style action elements such as time pressure, shooting or hand-eye coordination . The tile matching mechanic
11562-491: The game being able to be played in a pick-up-and-go manner ideally suited for mobile devices. Tommy Palm, one of the four developers for Candy Crush Saga , stated that the first weekend numbers after the game's mobile release were over ten times greater than the estimates they expected. By January 2013, Candy Crush Saga overtook Zynga's FarmVille 2 as the top-played game on the Facebook platform. King had not planned for Candy Crush Saga to be as popular as it was, expecting
11703-845: The game for combat-related actions. Both Push Panic and Heroes of Kalevala arrived in 2010. In 2011 New Puzzle Bobble was released for iOS while Bubble Safari , Ruby Blast , Gems with Friends and Puzzle & Dragons were first released in 2012. Juice Cubes , Tower of Saviors , Alien Hive , Marvel Puzzle Quest , Jelly Splash and Doctor Who: Legacy were released for mobile devices from 2013 onwards. In 2015 Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle , Ironcast , HuniePop , Hex Frvr and Sailor Moon Drops were all released. By 2016 millions of players were logging into titles such as Gardenscapes: New Acres . The genre continues to appeal to gamers, with numerous titles including Boost Beast (2017), Dr. Mario World , Crystal Crisis (2019), and Royal Match (2020) among
11844-512: The game more accessible to less skilled players. With the introduction of Candy Crush Saga , games with levels featuring limits on the number of moves were introduced. In this, the player may be challenged to achieve a certain score, or match enough tiles of a specific color before running out of turns, or otherwise would have to complete the level again. Tiles may be arranged on a horizontal surface or vertically (that is, stacked atop one another, and dropping down when tiles below are removed). In
11985-538: The game received an average review score of 79/100, indicating generally positive reviews. Ellie Gibson of Eurogamer referred to Candy Crush Saga as one of 2013's Games of the Year. By 2013, Candy Crush Saga had been downloaded more than 500 million times across Facebook, iOS, and Android devices. It was considered the most downloaded app from the Apple App Store, and had at least 6.7 million active users on
12126-482: The game released in January 2014, it issued a cease and desist letter to the developers (King's trademark application was still pending approval at this time). Similar to the CandySwipe situation, Stoic announced in April 2014 that the situation with King had been resolved with both sides coming to an agreement allowing Stoic to continue to use their name. Candy Crush Saga also received criticism when it struck
12267-454: The game to celebrate the milestone of over 1 trillion Candy Crush Saga games having been played. More recently, with the game offered as a free-to-play model, King seeks to provide new content on a weekly or biweekly basis, including time-limited content. Zacconi saw this approach as a means to keep players, who otherwise have not purchased anything, to keep coming back and playing the game. According to review aggregator website Metacritic ,
12408-443: The game to have only a six-month window after which players would move on to a different game, and thus had committed only minimal resources to its ongoing support at launch. Instead, with the game's popularity still high by the end of 2012, King became more serious about supporting the game for the long term, looking into deeper game mechanics, adding more levels, and other methods to extend the game. Since its release, Candy Crush Saga
12549-583: The game's first major expansion, the game added a separate set of levels in the Dreamworld. While levels had the same goals, the players had to balance matches of candies of two randomly selected colors to avoid disrupting the sleeping Odus the Owl; if they failed, the level had to be repeated. If they collected enough matched candies to fill a meter, the game would automatically activate the Moon Struck power:
12690-586: The game, the player solves puzzles so Tiffi (short for Toffette) can solve problems plaguing the residents of the Candy Kingdom. These include tutorial guide Mr. Toffee, whose voice was changed from an over-the-top French accent in the original version of the game into a more modest deep male voice; the Easter Bunny ; the shop owner Mr. Yeti; Odus the owl from Dreamworld levels; the villainous Bubblegum Troll; and many others. In Candy Crush Jelly Saga ,
12831-469: The game. In April 2011, King released its existing portal game Miner Speed as its first cross-platform (Facebook and mobile) game to figure out the transition between Facebook and mobile games for this new direction. King's first major success in this area followed with Bubble Witch Saga , released in October 2011; by January 2012 it has attracted over 10 million players and was one of fastest rising Facebook games at that time. Bubble Witch Saga introduced
12972-709: The game. In December 2013, King entered the Japanese market with a series of television commercials in Japan , and by December 4 it had become the 23rd most downloaded game in Japan on Android devices and number 1 most downloaded from the App Store. It is also the most popular game in the UK of all time. 58% of the players are women, while 46% of the players are of Gen X , though more youths and children play it. Candy Crush Saga won
13113-406: The games with the lowest status among video game enthusiasts, to the point where reviewers have advised gamers not to be ashamed of playing them. This may be because critics consider that there are too many of these games, which differ only slightly from each other. It may also be because, as casual games, tile-matching games are designed to be easily accessible and simple to play, which conflicts with
13254-424: The goal is to create clusters of three or more identical items on a grid, was Shariki (1994). It led directly to the successful Bejeweled (2001), which became a very successful series and inspired many similar games including Zoo Keeper (2003), Big Kahuna Reef (2004), Jewel Quest (2004), and Chuzzle (2005). Later games such as Tidalis (2010) developed the idea further with 20 game modes and
13395-424: The goal of creating the longest possible chain of matching colors. Towards 2010, new trends in tile-matching games appeared. The first was driven by the popularity of mobile games. Prior to 2012, most tile-matching games had no end goal, instead challenging the player to continue as long as possible until the board reached a state where no turn was possible, or, in the case of Tetris , where tiles have filled up past
13536-402: The issuing bank decides to raise its revenue. A credit card's grace period is the time the cardholder has to pay the balance before interest is assessed on the outstanding balance. Grace periods may vary but usually range from 20 to 55 days depending on the type of credit card and the issuing bank. Some policies allow for reinstatement after certain conditions are met. Usually, if a cardholder
13677-483: The largest of merchants; although stored value cards (such as telephone cards ) are used as alternative currencies , the trend is toward RFID -based systems inside cards, cellphones, and other objects. The design of the credit card itself has become a major selling point in recent years. A growing field of numismatics (study of money), or more specifically exonumia (study of money-like objects), credit card collectors seek to collect various embodiments of credit from
13818-542: The late 1980s puzzle games continued to bring new titles to the market, generally building on ideas introduced in these early games. Games building on Dr. Mario' s mechanics include Puyo Puyo (1991), Baku Baku Animal (1995) and Puzzle Fighter (1996). Building on the shooting mechanic introduced in Plotting , Dr. Mario also influenced Puzzle Bobble (1994), which in turn inspired Puzz Loop (1998), Hexic and Zuma (2003), and Luxor (2005). Columns
13959-566: The latter case, some games allow moving or rotating new tiles as they fall down from the top of the playing area, as in Tetris or Dr. Mario ; or they may allow only the manipulation of tiles that have already fallen, as in Yoshi's Cookie . Panel de Pon introduced, and Bejeweled popularized the mechanism of tile swapping, in which tiles may be moved by exchanging the position of two adjacent tiles. Another frequently used tile manipulation method
14100-422: The major credit reporting agencies . In the United States, the three major U.S. credit bureaus ( Equifax , TransUnion and Experian ) allow consumers to opt out from related credit card solicitation offers via its Opt Out Pre Screen program. Credit card issuers usually waive interest charges if the balance is paid in full each month, but typically will charge full interest on the entire outstanding balance from
14241-427: The match to become jelly-filled, with the goal of making all squares on the gameboard filled with jelly to complete the puzzle. A third sequel, Candy Crush Friends Saga , was released on both iOS and Android in October 2018. Prior to each round, the player may have the ability to select one of the series' characters to assist with the puzzle. Each character has a power that activates after a certain number of candies of
14382-401: The merchant not disclose the actual nature of the transactions, these will be processed as regular credit card transactions. Many merchants have passed on the credit card processing fees to the credit card holders in spite of the credit card network's guidelines, which state the credit card holders should not have any extra fee for doing a transaction with a credit card. Under card scheme rules,
14523-498: The merging mechanic had been part of other video games since as early as Darwin's Dilemma in 1990, the genre saw a boost following the success of Threes on mobile platforms. Tile-matching games that are set in a fictional background are normally based in a "bright and positive" fiction, as opposed to the warlike background of strategy games or the fantasy background of massively multiplayer games. Tile matching game mechanics have been combined with other mechanics to produce
14664-412: The minimum payment by the due date, the issuer may impose a late fee or other penalties. To help mitigate this, some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the cardholder's bank account, thus avoiding such penalties altogether, as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds. In cases where the minimum payment is less than the finance charges and fees assessed during
14805-425: The monthly revenue was estimated at $ 120 million, but with declining players purchasing in-game items, down to 2% by 2016, that revenue has dropped to just over $ 53 million per month. Again, by the end of October 2018, the monthly revenue rose to $ 128 million. Five years after its release on mobile, the Candy Crush Saga series has received over 2.73 billion downloads. Its revenue for the quarter ending September 2017
14946-465: The more one plays. The game was investigated by the UK Office of Fair Trading concerning exploitative game mechanics with regards to younger users. In May 2014, a sequel titled Candy Crush Soda Saga was soft launched by King, with a similar design but new gameplay dynamics, such as a soda bottle piece that can shift gravity. On October 20, 2014, the Facebook version of Candy Crush Soda Saga
15087-402: The more recent. Many casual tile matching games continue to be published. Their development is characterized by gradual evolution, where new games makes only small changes, if any, to a formula known from previous games. In the highly competitive market for downloadable casual games, new entries must be familiar enough to appeal to players of earlier games, but innovative enough to differentiate
15228-465: The nearest month), as well as extra codes such as issue numbers and security codes . Complex smart cards allow to have a variable security code, thus increasing security for online transactions. Not all credit cards have the same sets of extra codes nor do they use the same number of digits. Credit card numbers and cardholder names were originally embossed, to allow for easy transfer of such information to charge slips printed on carbon paper forms. With
15369-461: The new game from earlier ones. This leads to developers, according to Juul, "simultaneously trying to out-innovate and out-clone each other". A new style of tile-matching game arose from games like Triple Town (2010), Threes (2014), and 2048 (2014), typically called merge-style games. Here, the player either can place tiles in a limited area, or can manipulate tiles such as sliding all tiles as far as they can move in one direction. The goal
15510-434: The next level. Otherwise, they will lose one life and must try again. If the player runs out of lives, they have to wait for some period of real-world time while their lives regenerate before attempting the level again. Completed levels can be replayed if desired. The game has been expanded with a number of episodes, adding a 15 new levels per episode as well as new gameplay mechanics. Each episode has 15 levels of gameplay. In
15651-500: The now familiar plastic cards to older paper merchant cards, and even metal tokens that were accepted as merchant credit cards. Early credit cards were made of celluloid plastic, then metal and fiber , then paper, and are now mostly polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. However, the chip part of credit cards is made from metals. A cash advance is a credit card transaction that withdraws cash rather than purchasing something. The process can take place either through an ATM or over
15792-439: The owner's personal credit, or only do so if the account is delinquent. In these cases, the activity of the business is separated from the owner's personal credit activity. Business credit cards are offered by American Express, Discover, and almost all major issuers of Visa and MasterCard cards. Some local banks and credit unions also offer business credit cards. American Express is the only major issuer of business charge cards in
15933-440: The percentage market penetration levels achieved in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. In some countries, acceptance still remains low as the use of a credit card system depends on the banking system of each country; while in others, a country sometimes had to develop its own credit card network, e.g. U.K.'s Barclaycard and Australia 's Bankcard . Japan remains a very cash-oriented society, with credit card adoption being limited mainly to
16074-430: The player has made a move, used to be the exception, although the 1985 game Chain Shot! already had an untimed mode. In untimed modes, the player is able to continue to make matches until they reach an unplayable state, in which case the game is considered over. The addition of an untimed mode to Bejeweled! was integral to that game's success, as well as one of its most important influences on subsequent games, as it made
16215-482: The player to switch back and forth between these modes. The Dreamworld is no longer accessible. The game is primarily monetized through in-app purchases (through either a credit card , iTunes credits or Google Play credits); players begin with five "lives", lost whenever a level is failed. This applies to all of King's games. When lives are exhausted, users can either send requests to their Facebook friends for more lives, wait for them to replenish themselves (a life
16356-430: The previous or old balance, excluding new transactions. The flow of information and money between these parties—always through the card associations—is known as the interchange, and it consists of a few steps. A credit card register is a transaction register used to ensure the increasing balance owed from using a credit card is enough below the credit limit to deal with authorization holds and payments not yet received by
16497-399: The result by 365 and then take this total and multiply by the total number of days the amount revolved before payment was made on the account. Financial institutions refer to interest charged back to the original time of the transaction and up to the time a payment was made, if not in full, as a residual retail finance charge (RRFC). Thus after an amount has revolved and a payment has been made,
16638-402: The same Saga freemium format. Candy Crush Saga is a "match three" game , where the core gameplay is based on swapping two adjacent candies among several on the gameboard to make a row or column of at least three matching-colored candies. On this match, the matched candies are removed from the board, and candies above them fall into the empty spaces, with new candies appearing from the top of
16779-406: The same color, eliminating those candies from the board and replacing them with new ones, which could potentially create further matches. Matches of four or more candies create unique candies that act as power-ups with larger board-clearing abilities. Boards have various goals that must be completed within a fixed number of moves, such as collecting a specific number of a type of candy. The game uses
16920-438: The start of new "episodes", users must also either purchase or receive a request from at least three friends before they may access the next set of levels. An update meant players waited for only three days to unlock the next episode. Boosters, to make the levels easier, can be bought using in-app purchases. While the game includes freemium content, 97.7% of those playing the game do so for free, while only 2.3% pay. Throughout
17061-468: The trademark. The mobile game known as CandySwipe created in 2010, two years prior to the release of Candy Crush Saga , had many similarities that its independent developer Albert Ransom noticed as Candy Crush Saga became more successful. Following news of the "candy" trademark, Ransom issued a statement in February 2014, claiming that King had intentionally copied elements from his own game including
17202-475: The two main characters that the player plays against are the Jelly Queen and Cupcake Carl. Prior to the release of Candy Crush Saga , most of King's games were browser games offered through their website or partner portals such as Yahoo! . This included Candy Crush , a straightforward tile-matching game released in 2011 which King's chief creative officer and co-founder Sebastian Knutsson said came after
17343-415: The unpaid balance if the billed amount is not paid in full (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). This impact accounts for roughly 8% of all interest ever paid. Thus, hiding the minimum payment option for automatic and manual payments and focusing on the total debt may mitigate the unwanted consequences of default minimum payments. In addition, if the cardholder fails to make at least
17484-435: The user of the card will still receive interest charges on their statement after paying the next statement in full (in fact the statement may only have a charge for interest that collected up until the date the full balance was paid, i.e. when the balance stopped revolving). The credit card may simply serve as a form of revolving credit , or it may become a complicated financial instrument with multiple balance segments each at
17625-401: The value of the tiles they matched or created special effects on the tile board, such as removing all tiles of a specific type. Puzzle Quest was very popular and led to numerous games which uses the tile-matching as part of a battle system. While not directly influenced by Puzzle Quest , Puzzle & Dragons in 2012 was another successful mobile title that used the tile-matching part of
17766-458: Was $ 250 million, having gained significant improvement in year-to-year revenues from 2016. It remains one of the top gross-revenue earnings app for mobile in the four years leading up to 2017. By the end of July 2018, the total revenue earned by this game stood at $ 3.91 billion. Candy Crush received particular mention in Hong Kong media, with reports that one in seven Hong Kong citizens plays
17907-650: Was a basic score attack game. Knutsson said, "the first version was three minutes of great gaming, but that three minutes didn't really evolve." Candy Crush , as with several of King's other portal games, featured tournament-style gameplay, where players could spend money to enter competitive tourneys for in-game boosts, which served as one of the main forms of revenue for the company in addition to in-game item sale microtransactions and advertisements. Around 2009, Facebook began to pull in developers, in particular Zynga , to offer social network games that could be built on its fundamental services; for King, this resulted in
18048-556: Was a trademark of Farrington Manufacturing Co . Charga-Plates were issued by large-scale merchants to their regular customers, much like department store credit cards of today. In some cases, the plates were kept in the issuing store rather than held by customers. When an authorized user made a purchase, a clerk retrieved the plate from the store's files and then processed the purchase. Charga-Plates sped up back-office bookkeeping and reduced copying errors that were done manually in paper ledgers in each store. In 1934, American Airlines and
18189-411: Was embossed with the customer's name, city, and state. It held a small paper card on its back for a signature. In recording a purchase, the plate was laid into a recess in the imprinter , with a paper "charge slip" positioned on top of it. The record of the transaction included an impression of the embossed information, made by the imprinter pressing an inked ribbon against the charge slip. Charga-Plate
18330-498: Was expanded over the years by adding new episodes, each containing a number of new levels. This enabled King to also introduce new gameplay features alongside other game improvements. New features were first tested on King's own portal to see how players there responded and allowed them to tweak these as needed, then push them into the episodes on the Facebook/mobile version. By September 2016, King released its 2000th level for
18471-466: Was followed by Carte Blanche and in 1958 by American Express which created a worldwide credit card network (although these were initially charge cards that later acquired credit card features). Until 1958, no one had been able to successfully establish a revolving credit financial system in which a card issued by a third-party bank was being generally accepted by a large number of merchants, as opposed to merchant-issued revolving cards accepted by only
18612-420: Was initially much slower. Due to strict regulations regarding bank overdrafts, some countries, France in particular, were much quicker to develop and adopt chip-based credit cards which are seen as major anti-fraud credit devices. Debit cards , online banking , ATMs , mobile banking , and installment plans are used more widely than credit cards in some countries. It took until the 1990s to reach anything like
18753-558: Was on Facebook, they knew that they "had to get it right" in the transition process. King had previously discussed the nature of games that kept their state between a PC and mobile version with Fabrication Games, believing this was a necessary trend in the future of gaming, Both recognized several of the difficulties that would have to be addressed to provide both the progress synchronization and gameplay interface between mouse-driven PC computers and touch-driven mobile devices. King found that one issue with transiting Bubble Witch Saga to mobile
18894-601: Was produced by Lionsgate with executive producer Matt Kunitz , and with collaboration by Sebastian Knutsson, the creative developer of the first Candy Crush game. Mario Lopez hosted the show. Four teams play in each episode doing various challenges based on the Candy Crush game, with the winning team earning a guaranteed $ 100,000. The game is featured in Psy 's music video " Gentleman ". Part of The Emoji Movie takes place within Candy Crush Saga . Candy Crush Saga
19035-617: Was released in 1995 containing a two player competitive game. Sega Swirl for handheld devices was released in 1999. Microsoft bundled Jawbreaker Windows Mobile 2003. Several multiplayer modes, both local and networked, featured in early tile-matching games such as Columns and Dr. Mario and later with TetriNET (1997) and Tetris Worlds (2001). Multiplayer introduced elements of race and competition as players were able to attacks opponents in various ways resulting in more difficult matchmaking for their opponent. The first of what eventually became known as "match-three" games, where
19176-569: Was released worldwide and the mobile app was released in November on the Android and iOS platforms. The app was subsequently made available for Windows 10 and Windows Phone in October 2015. Among other gameplay changes, Candy Crush Soda Saga introduces soda candies that release soda that fill the puzzle board from the bottom up, causing candies to float up to the highest soda level. In September 2015, another sequel named Candy Crush Jelly Saga
19317-421: Was selected as King's next Facebook game based on the popularity of the portal version of Candy Crush . The basic cross-platform framework from Miner Speed were used to craft the foundation of Candy Crush Saga , adding the "saga" elements from Bubble Witch Saga . Initial ideas to expand Candy Crush into Candy Crush Saga were proposed by Knutsson, around 2011, including making the saga map visually look like
19458-503: Was soft-launched in various countries for the Android platform, followed by a worldwide release in January 2016. Initially it was not made available on Facebook unlike previous titles but was released on Android and iOS in May 2016. The Facebook version appears to no longer require Adobe Flash to play. The game introduces jelly-filled squares. Matches made with candies occupying jelly-filled squares will generally cause all squares that were part of
19599-412: Was that the gameplay elements were too small for mobile devices, and aimed to correct that for Candy Crush Saga on mobile. The mobile release delay for Candy Crush Saga was in part due to adding the ability to play the mobile version in an offline mode that would still synchronize once the player returned online. The mobile version helped to boost the popularity of the game, attributed to the nature of
19740-495: Was the basis of a line of development of tile matching games based on shifting or swapping tiles. It includes Yoshi's Cookie (1992) and Panel de Pon (1995), which introduced the swapping mechanic. Puzzled included multiplayer games and was released for the Neo Geo console in the same year. 1994 saw BreakThru! and Gururin published with FlipOut! and Vid Grid released the following year. Hebereke's Popoitto
19881-410: Was used as a challenge theme for an episode of the sixth season of Project Runway All Stars . Tile-matching video game The core challenge of tile-matching games is the identification of patterns on a seemingly chaotic board. Their origins lie in puzzle games from the 1980s such as Tetris , Chain Shot! ( SameGame ) and Puzznic . Tile-matching games were made popular in the 2000s, in
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