HEARTS

Stuff on my desk

Microsoft chose not to include Hearts in Windows 8;  instead offering, among others, Random Salad Games "Hearts Deluxe."  They kept pestering me to write a review so I finally did a week or so ago.  I wrote that while I have yet to catch a renege, in other respcts it seemed like Hearts Deluxe was beginning to cheat, and even suggested that they were hiring erstwhile MS Hearts people to program, and if so balls-out cheating and blatant reneges could not be far behind.  This morning "John" broke hearts early on when "Sandra" led clubs.  Clearly an attempt to end my incipient Shoot the Moon atempt. Later John played a club.  I had them! But that's not what this is about.  This is. I've noticed that several internet games of chance offer Easy/ Hard options.  WTF?  It's a game of chance.  The only way the game can have easy/hard options is if the programmers are cheating.  Right?  The earliest MS Hearts game was real.  I once won 27 straight games before tiring.  That was in the 90's, before the Clinton Culture had time to fully seep in.  Now it has.  Everything is cheat cheat cheat.  Nothing is real.  There are no hard and fast rules for anythong.  That's all. Mentalist fans will understand why I'm reminded of Lisbon, for whom I've developed something of a crush.