If a human prereview system would be used, it could be well done with the apple review team. When a reviewer tests an app for release, he should give a prerating for that app. Then it could be seen as "official" prerating. However apple's review system is a mess on every level at this time as the provided picture shows, so that would be hard to implement in a satisfying way for everybody. An external review board is even worse, because who the ef wants to review hundreds of apps daily on his free time? If that board is paid and employed by apple, they are not more than the standard review team. And an external review board can be paid to favor certain apps, what would make cheating even easier, than now.
I agree with you that Apples Review System is not optimal. You misunderstood the idea of the external reviews, however, at least as Nullroar described it. It isn't meant in a way that every app gets tested. Just like now, only "good" apps, that are worth attention of professional reviewers like TA, will get tested. The only difference is, that IF an app has got such a review or metascore, this score'll be shown inside the App Store. Not every game on Steam's got a metascore, too.
Apparently you can game IAP too? http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Hoolai+Games+news/news.asp?c=37723 Frankly, this seems to me the even bigger scandal...because at least botting doesn't steal from others.
Apple's current review process is skewed and their "Featured" list is even worse. Big companies do have contacts at Apple that they can reach out to and inquire about getting their app featured. The little guys, well, hope you hit the lottery. That's not to say that the system is totally rigged because it isn't. I see crap apps listed in the "Featured" section all the time. However, don't fool yourself into thinking that it's a democratic process.
You don't think there's any kind of corruption going on there? I mean it's the same 4-5 companies featured almost all the time in various ways and it ain't because they got the best quality, that's for sure. http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/App+Store/news.asp?c=37691 talks about two more companies being pulled (one restored) but the thing that strikes me is that the ones that get the boot are all the smaller guys. Never heard of them before but the guys botting their way to the top are all the big guys too, why are they still around? If this was the SFC they'd have us some investigatin'
talking about relationship + big players, take a look at this (current & past): http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimasabi
The biggest problem with such external reviews is that there is no way to cover any ground. Hundred of apps are being released everyday and who knows how many games are not even looked at properly because the first impression was not to the likeing of someone. Big websites write about big things to attract big audiences. They usualy dont have the ressources to check out and play everything on the appstore.. So youll end up with more or less the same system. Big and prominent games will receive an metascore or whatever the ios eqivalent would be and the mayority wont have such one. Life is not fair and no system anyone can think of cant be gamed. There is no such thing as a bulletproof system to please anyone. Imo the current ranking and customer review systems apple has in place are more than fine. They just need to put more ressources into monitoring proactive and not wait till half of the ios related media talks about frauding their system. Honestly the competition on the store rises daily and you have to offer an amazong product to be visible in the mass no matter what the ranking system is or how it can be manipulated. If you have nothing worthwhile to offer to a very tough casual crowd nothing will turn they gazes onto your product. The ios gold rush was over the moment you've read about it 2 years ago. Now its a highly competitive market that still has a low entry barrier but doest give a rats ass if product x is made by a 12 year old or electronic arts. It needs to blow them away. What chance should an average product have in a market where even polishes high quality offerings are not guranteed to make a profit. Where the user expectation is tenfold higher than on classic platforms if you consider what they have been teached to expect to pay. Its a tough free for all death match market.. and the others have the bfg.
My concern now is if more and more users are affected by these scams, and shy away from app store = market reduce = no future for honest iOS developers.
wow...isn't that like total conflict of interest? Woe to the little guys. Manager in Apple of Games and now handling partnerships with Zynga? I wonder if that role really is handling (apple) partnerships for Zynga exclusively.
They are not untouchable, but yes, that person absolutely does call their Review team to get them featured. The difference here though is the mobile "pie" continues to grow, it hasn't leveled off yet in terms of market size and should continue to grow very nicely for the next few years at least. Zynga, EA and other large players will attempt to move in and take over as much as possible. Zynga is doing pretty much what they did with Facebook and that was game/abuse the system until Apple changes it. So they will get more Featured perhaps but at the same time, you have to remember they make the same damn game over and over and over and over, they really are a one-trick pony but as long as the masses keep flocking to that decorate your farmrestauranthotelzooapartmentcastlebuilding crap, they'll keep making it. Personally I hope they do because it means smaller devs can go carve out their niche.
Apple does have an incentive in preventing things like this from happening once the quality of Top 25 apps falls to a point where customers don't even find anything great at the top of those lists. Most of us are probably not aware that millions own iOS devices but don't ever download apps at all, not even for free. My impression is that not even half of those people who have an iPhone ever downloaded an app (anybody has data?). On the other end there are the crowds of the simple minded who do enjoy cheap entertainment, keeping the system running in a local optimum. But after all, Apple is very principled with ethics and they do seem to believe much more than many other companies that good things usually win. Let's hope for them and us and everybody that they push much more strongly ideas such as 'genius'.
Again... 'Dream Cortex' renamed their company to 'Sumo Games' and seem to be botting AGAIN -_-; Does anyone know if you are allowed to offer in-game points for a download of another game because they are doing this... and.. what is the best way to report to apple?
Totally agree, the problem is that it can get to a point were wild accusations, without changing it to the algorithmic level any company that is seen in the charts can be accused of botting. The size of the apps market is large enough that there is an incentive to spend to stop someone and from the looks of it, has already happened.
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/Various/PocketGamer.biz/feature.asp?c=37765 What a week for Apple developers? The story that I didn't get however is this one, does this make sense at all? http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/iTunes/news.asp?c=37761 "Then we released a Chinese language game, which became popular and then the problems started. When we checked our log of IAP against the revenue we got from the Chinese App Store, it was much less than it should have been. In other territories, the deviation is much smaller. The reason is Chinese law is very weak when it comes to such credit card criminals. You can see on many popular Chinese website how these transactions work." Because chinese law is weak that's why there is IAP fraud?
"As we understand it, the process works like this: A player pays money to a hacker to buy virtual items or currency in a specific iOS game at a much lower price than the official rate. The hacker then uses a stolen credit card or iTunes account to complete the iTunes payment. If the owner of the legitimate iTunes account or credit card complains to Apple, they are reimbursed the purchase. The revenue is then deducted from the developer, but the original player keeps his object or currency." How would one get a ingame item that someone with a different itunes account/credit card payed for? Sounds to me like a made up story.
No, you're wrong. If you Google on that topic, you'll find forums with dozens of complaints. A lot of iTunes accounts have been hacked or otherwise misused, IAP's were done with CC or gift card credits. This happens very often with Kingdom Conquest.
Ok, if thats the case it shouldn't be too hard for apple to improve the situation concerned ranking. They could just use an algorithm that reacts slower like it seems to be used for android and windows phone. On android even if an app is featured and the downloads skyrocket there is a certain timespan with good downloads necessary until it has reached a top ranking. With this there would be more time to remove the fraudulent in app purchases. Using bots or paying for special services and short term "cheats" would also get less effective as such methods would need a much longer investment with high download numbers to work.
This problem only exists with Apple because it uses an ancient and outdated method to determine ranking. That's why android is truly the better platform, it has it's separate issues but certainly when it comes to figuring out which apps ought to be on top, it does it in a way that makes it impossible to "game".
