Tin hat time! But it's not just our culture that encourages excessive materialism. The app store environment promotes apps that sell for less than they're worth.
What you must realize is, no matter how awesome a game, there will be people who complain. That's reality, that's life. Modern Warfare 2? Complain about noob-tubes and quick scoping. Black Ops? Complain about slow gameplay and glitchy servers. Halo? Complain about it being a sell-out series and terrible plots. You're not going to escape criticism.
True, for everything in life. Everyone has different tastes, and there's many idiots out there who just want to badmouth something for no reason.
Isn't it just human nature to want everything for nothing? This is a generic term not aimed at anyone in particular, but everyone wants to have good stuff at a decent price, or free if possible within legal means. (or even illegal with regards to piracy).
Justifying piracy by saying it's a human need to have everything for free? Actually, your point makes perfect sense and I agree. Not that piracy is good though!
craigix from gp32x? izzat you? Well on the other side of it you have the people who will only buy the expensive stuff ("I am Rich" App) because it makes them feel very exclusive. Honestly, I wonder what would happen if some serious heavy-duty-quality unreal-powered game with a deep storyline to boot launched for $50 and stayed there. Lots of people would complain, hoot and holler, but they'd also drooooool and you bet more than a couple people would snap it up. It might not chart in the top 200, but definitely in top grossing. I am waiting to see who steps up to the plate to try - if this ever happens. __________________ twitter - HeadcaseGames.com Puzzling has Evolved - Get 180! FreeAppTracker.com Win ANY app you want, daily!
I'm starting to wonder what would happen if a dev decided to make a game with the same production values of the best Megadrive/Snes games with lots of content and a control system that suits the iDevices. A game like this would need a lot of investment to make and the price would have to be set at around 3.99USD for sale. A game like this would be better than the 99c affairs with more playability. It wont be in the same league as a Unreal powered game but has the potential to have fun play mechanics - I really feel that fps on the iDevice are very limited because of the controls. So in theory you would have a game with lots of gorgeous 2D graphics, lots of interesting gameplay elements, coupled with large content. To do this I suspect most users would complain about the price and expect it to be 99c - even though a lot of investment in the development took place. A developer is taking a load of risk upfront - I guess this is why we don't see these types of games. It's sad in a way because those cheap buyers who complain are holding the App Store market back... But it will take a ballsy developer to try this out.
I cringe when I see reviews of users rudely demanding their money back because they didn't like the game for some silly reason or another, especially when it's something that is 99c or, as I am Australian, $1.19. I often tend to find that people are happy to post criticism when they find something they don't like but it doesn't seem to be the opposite case when they find they like it. I try to post reviews for every single game I get and I try to mention the postive and negative, as I would appreciate people doing the same for the games I work on. I think that people simply don't realise the work that goes into these games but it's probably the same for any product. While I am posting, I'd just like to say what I DO find ungrateful and pretty rude; Lurkers who take promo codes and don't take a measly five seconds to post the code they took. How hard is it to cut and paste a code and click submit? It would be nice of them to actually bother to leave reviews too.
@dreadwench: ooh ya- that's definitely a bad one! I never even considered taking such codes before i was a registered user here; i think that devs who have promo codes available should either require a PM, or only give them to registered members- otherwise it's unfair since people who don't give a damn, and only want free stuff, will just take them. For better or worse, those who DO care will hopefully give feedback, or wriite a good review, suggest bug fixes etc.
IOS gamers, in general, are cheap, stubborn, spoiled, selfish, self-entitled, unrealistic, unreasonable, and completely delusional. I'm not going to read TC's wallO'text rant. But if that is the short answer you are looking for, then you have it. This is the single biggest contributing factor to what is holding back advancement of the iDevice as a dedicated gaming machine. People are unwilling to accept an appstore pricing structure that is even remotely competitive with every other gaming platform in existence today. I've been saying it for a long time. Clearly, people Don't like it. But you know what they say. The truth hurts. I'm not the one who brought this up again. A contrarian view point would be to say that iDevice "gamers" are simply too casual in nature to care. Touch Arcade is in no way representative of the typical iDevice owner. Who the heck makes a casual game 12 hrs long anyway? A casual gamer isn't going to play a 12-hour game to it's conclusion.
There is such a thing as "expected value." Whether you pay 0.99, 9.99, or 99.99 for an app or for anything for that matter, you should expect to get value for the money you spend. If you do not, warped values included, then you have a right to be upset. How you express that, well that is a different story. So, with that being said, the reviews that some people leave on the app store are more moronic than ungrateful. Should the app store consumer be grateful that an app is 99 cents? Should we hold the app store to a lower standard than we would in the regular world? If you get a candy bar and it is entirely melted and mushed and spoiled, won't you ask for your 79 cents back? That is not ungrateful - say, thanks 7-11 for selling me that spoiled Snickers bar -- no that is holding the seller to a proper standard. Storming into the 7-11 saying - you bleeepity bleep idiot I want my Snickers bar to last me 15 hours and it was only 3 bites --- is moronic. App store mentality is unique to the consumer industry I find. It is filled with entitlement, people that should not have access to a computer as they hide behind a veil of internet anonymity to spout stupidity. So, yeah, morons. But that is why I rely on the forums for reviews, not the app store. On the forums people by and large can put together a complete thought and write a full sentence. On the app store just about anything goes. Entitled morons yes, ungrateful no.
Not sure why people are surprised- every 14 y.o has an iPhone these days.. You want better reviews to upp the quality for others to read- you post em..
"There is such a thing as "expected value." Whether you pay 0.99, 9.99, or 99.99 for an app or for anything for that matter, you should expect to get value for the money you spend. If you do not, warped values included, then you have a right to be upset." Okay, you're going to have to help me out on this one. I remember playing arcade games in the 1980's that required two quarters PER GAME. This perceived lack of value is mind boggingly to me. A $1 game does not live up to someone's expectations, so the call it a rip-off? Come on! I think reasonable people can agree that too many of the App Store reviews are written by kids who are in desperate need of a little context. Pay $50 for a game and finish it the same day, fine rant away. But when you see so many developers adding features, updating levels, tweaking performance for a game that costs a title I'm simply amazed. I've had so much fun playing "Trenches" for instance, and I could not believe there were not only negative, but down right rude reviews of the game. For a ninety-nine cent game. Crazy.
Exactly. A kid would go to an arcade, spend 50 cents - $1 a game, and not complain about it. But they buy a game for their iPod that's only 99 cents and they just rant about what a waste if money that was!! Either the game is moronic or the reviewer is, I'm thinking it's more of the latter.
No, no, you and I are in agreement. There is expected value and there is a way to express dissatisfaction. I was enraged when my arcade games went UP to 50 cents - or skee ball was more than a dime! So I understand what you are saying. Could I do anything about it - no. And I had to suck it up if I wanted to continue to play. People on the app store can either take it or leave it. If they feel even 99 cents is too much to play they can leave it. I hear arcades are even up to a couple bucks for one play. So the app store is the best gaming bargain in town from where I stand. That is also why I said that the entitled are writing the reviews rudely - I don't believe it is a matter of being ungrateful because the opposite would mean they are grateful a game is 99 cents. Developers are not pricing their games as a favor to consumers. They are not out looking for thank you's that their game was x cents. First off it is a developer's business - they can price how they want. The consumer should not treat the developer poorly in reviews, in demands, in anything if they happen to disagree. There is a right way to state things and a wrong way. The reviews in question seem to be written by spoiled demanding children. Children are learning a rudeness that was unheard of in prior generations. And their excuse is - well it's the internet. That is just plain wrong.
Maybe I am being a bit of a sook or have unreasonable expectations, but I post a bunch of codes, which were gone in a few minutes and not one single person posted the code they took, bothered to say thanks, or posted a review. I think its okish that it got more people playing, but I think because they can't even bother to take a few seconds to post what they took or a review, I doubt they would appreciate it enough to even tell one friend. So I am thinking it was probably a waste of time and codes.
a lot of things to say. If someone buys a melted Snickers for $1.50 they think "oh well, my bad" and eat it anyway or toss it. That's it. I would suspect less than .0.1% actually complain or do anything about it otherwise. I looked at the Tilt to Live reviews today and wanted to vomit. So many people echoed the same sentiment: " I love this game, it's sooo much fun and so polished, but I already paid a buck and now they expect an extra dollar for this update? I am so unhappy and this developer deserves to get cancer and die" Well, maybe not those words exactly, but honestly close enough. It's ridiculous. Things have changed so fast. As I said earlier, it's hard to blame the customer base because, come on.. and don't quote this out of context down the road, please - you guys are sheep! Group think! Whatever that wave starts out as, it just keeps rolling and "everyone goes along with it" and I daresay that to some degree, everyone - even those participating in this thread (present company not excluded) has participated in some way. How many times have you seen a game on iTunes that looked like it actually might be particularly fun, it had heaps of excellent reviews, the graphics looked tight.. but you thought to yourself "but geez.. it is 2.99?" And that was 9 months ago. Now it is "oh crap man, it is 0.99, so never mind then" It's not hard to pinpoint the problem. There's oversaturation of product to the Nth degree. We love these games, but they come so fast and furiously, it's really true that things have been devalued and honestly, we want less. Nothing can be special anymore, and it just turns people into A-holes as a result I am super interested to see how this entire situation plays out, for a number of reasons. It really is Pandora's box, as it's been thrown open it can never be closed again. It changes the way this game is played. The promocode things has a special place for me. I can't believe people still post them visibly anymore, anywhere. You might as well give them all to alligators __________________ twitter - HeadcaseGames.com Puzzling has Evolved - Get 180! FreeAppTracker.com Win ANY app you want, daily!
