Although I personally believe Candywriter's side of the story, I must say that offering customers free copies of any game in order for them to "report a concern" is itself an unethical and reproachable practice that could conceivably result in Candywriter losing its itunes developer account or having it suspended. I have no affiliation with either side, nor an interest in blackjack games, but noticed this thread and feel justified in stating my opinion regarding the offer of incentives to people in exchange for services.
I didn't see it so much as bribing people to report a concern against one individual, but almost as one of the only possible ways you could get a large number of people to try and get Apple's attention about the bad and unfair business practises that go on between developers. Some people did it for free, but most people need a better motive than mere morals.
A far more legitimate way of bringing attention to the issue would be to start the same thread, minus the promise of promo codes, and thus leverage the communicative power of the toucharcade forums to impugn the offending developer. Offering free copies of a game in exchange for people reporting concerns is wholly unacceptable and constitutes abuse of the system. Two wrongs don't make a right. This is just one app that's at stake, not some person who can only be freed from dungeon captivity by racking up "report concern" button presses. There are other ways of getting Apple's attention besides resorting to this, though admittedly they may take more time.
One man's abuse is another man's fair trade If it was a trade for something I didn't believe in, that'd be pretty cheap... but I'm sure the large majority of us wanted this stopped anyway so the little extra incentive wasn't exactly rigging the election or anything. Besides, this is the virtual world, we know nothing of right and wrong. We do what we want, and since we're the community (consumer), what we want is usually always right. I wouldn't have taken money off a mysterious guy in a trenchcoat to go and testify against someone I don't know in court, but taking an iPhone app to report a comment? You're not going to hell for that.
The fact that he's offering so many promo codes and has free versions of his game in a way proves his innocence. Candywriter was giving out codes before any of this happened. So it kinda shows that he's not the one who's out to make a buck anyway he can.
I can't say I know the whole story, but all the fighting thats going on is kinda stupid. There is a little war going on, you can't deny that. Candywriter has been giving out codes to his games for a long time though, so its not neccessarily because he wants to get people on his side.
Plus there are 50 sales he's never gonna get now, he does sound quite keen to get the whole thing sorted. If he just wanted to boost sales he could've done a competition with only five codes and the topic would've been just as popular.
First, how is creating a blackjack game copying your work? Second, how can you prove that these guys are responsible for fake reviews? As you said, you are the "only one" using your real name out there. Perhaps that is because they aren't doing what you claim they are. Perhaps you are just being paranoid. You are throwing out accusations...can you prove them? Kevin certainly can prove that you are attacking him and his app, since you use your real name. Your "reviews" come across really bad and only have a negative impact on your own name as a developer. Perhaps some of the more recent 1-stars are from people reacting to your behavior? I know I would not buy a game from a dev who does such things, right or wrong. It makes you look a bit foolish. I think, so far anyways, that you are assuming a lot. Your words are empty without evidence. Just a bystanders point of view here.
All I know is that I don't like those fake reviews. I just reported the review and hope we never see those again.
[LEGAL EDIT] More one star revs as well as the WorkLst account magically came once we got high on the top-20 list, which in turn removed the game from there. Doron
I should stay out of this, but...not yet... How do you know he is WorkLst? That seems rather important here.
Ehhhh. Now that both of you are here, why not try and work things out. OK I know that wont work for any of you given the bad taste both of you already have for each other. Still there`s no point in fighting with each other, all you are doing is hurting your own games. Just delete/edit those reviews(both of you) and forget that the other game exist. Try it out for a couple of weeks atleast and see if it works. Just edit the earlier reviews. I m sure there is enough room for both of you in appstore as long as your game is good enough.
Hey Doron! Aside from all the back and forth concerning negative reviews, I want to know a few things: Why do you rate your own apps? That seems unethical in the first place. Why do you announce updates in the guise of five star reviews, and not in the description (like you should be doing)? Why do you leave crazy "Poms Rule" reviews on the other casino apps? Those don't even make sense! Its behaviour like that which make us users think that YOU are the guilty party.
I buy my own game to test it on a non dev device, and I put updates in the reviews because that is what people see first. Many people do not read the description all the way, I use reviews to respond to posts of problems people are having, letting them know if it is a bug or not and if it has been fixed in the current or upcoming update. BTW: Many other developers do the same, as people do not read the marketing info. As for "Pom's Rule", I download the other games to see what they do, yes for research. It's a quick reply and 5-star so I don't try to hurt them. Some of these I think are not that good, but rather than say the negative things I don't like, I find it easier to just do a generic response and give it 5 stars.
