I recommended in a previous post and was shot down by a few of you saying it was the very thing wrong with our business. And I disagreed and still do. Now there is an app with the very idea. There is nothing wrong with developers downloading, playing and giving an honest review on other developers games. If you would organize instead of keeping to yourselves you would be much stronger. I am new in this business but it has the same problems when I got into the Apple accessory business. No one wants to help anyone else. It is the Coca Cola CEO method, When you see you competitor drowning help him by sticking a fire hose in his mouth.
You don't need to make another thread about. If you google a bit there are sites which offer app exchange reviews. It is also against the terms and conditions of your App developer account so it could result in it be closed down.
An honest review? Any review exchange will end up being the opposite. Only two things can come of it, Dev's giving each other's games positive reviews in exchange for positive reviews. Regardless of their actual thoughts on the game and, more than likely, often without even trying it. Or, one dev giving his/her honest opinion. Often hurting others feelings. Leading to ill-will against their own games and negative reviews. Possibly, often without even trying it.
Realistically, the only solution, that I can see, if you're serious about this is an application that tracks number of reviews left on your app and offers a pool of games for you to review to match the number of reviews that have been "traded" to you, while keeping all data anonymous. Alternatively, make a game that will garner community support at places like touch arcade, neogaf, pocket tactics forums, Twitter users that focus on iOS releases, possibly gift said app to some prominent people inside these communities and if it clicks with them they will put in the effort of helping you get your game out there. That's what these forums are about. People helping people promote and find games that they enjoy. Seems a more organic and less easily abused system. At the risk of sounding rude, and this is not aimed at you, many of the people that complain about not getting exposure have made a sub par or extremely derivitave app that may not ever garner a lot of attention. Some may not deserve that attention. Last I checked something like 300 games were released in a 24 hour period on the AppStore. Most of those were "shovel ware". Most had no real time or dedication put into them. Most did not deserve support from a community of fans or developers. Anyway, I wish you luck in future ventures. If you can get a community of fans behind you, it'll help more than a developer exchange. In my opinion.
The solution isn't devs swapping 5 star reviews with each other. That makes a complete mockery of the App Store. That's practically shilling. You give me a 5 star review for my below average app and I'll do the same for you etc
I think it is should be removing positive reviews when the app is removed off the device. Lowering the weighting for reviews in searches.
What happened to honesty All of this online stuff, not know the people we affect with our comments is part of the problem today. We need to use the need as an extension of ourselves not creating demons. By the way my skype is LajoCymbalski if any of you want to connect and exchange experiences and ideas on how to move our business forward in a positive way.
When some app developers realised they could pay rings to get 100 ratings and 10K downloads from people who would never play. That whole side of the industry can be pretty shady.
Honesty ? You're asking devs to review each other's games not actual players who buy the games. This is just a case of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Just fake reviews. That's not being honest
100% agree. All these people writing 5 star reviews for 'some' crappy apps in competitions, we all know they delete the app the second the competition finishes
I have to laugh to think you guys live outside of the real world because you be you as a developer and cannot view a game like a normal person playing a game because ......... And you believe it is all about I got to be nice to get something nice back you know one for the boys. I saw interviews with Michele Caine in which he said he could not wait to get his pack of movies nominated for the academy awards because he was part of the process. But I guess there is a difference between the movie business, actors, directors etc from the game app business. You guys are your worst enemies.
There is nothing wrong with reviewing each others apps. Nobody here is suggesting that. The problem comes when you only review if they review yours, so it is the exchange part.
Totally agree. There is nothing good with fake reviews or ratings. You should rate the game and only review it if it is extremely bad or extremely good. All of these companies that prey on new developers, complimenting you on your game and telling you they can produce X number of downloads for a fee should be put in the same folder as telemarketers. That goes for close friend reviews, rating. Worthless because they can only say one thing. You need arms length players.
Sadly I don't think this is a solution. When I've completed a game (that can be completed mind you) I'll rate my experience and move on. I don't have the space to leave games I've finished on my device. I don't have a problem with rating an app in exchange for a rating of my own, but I agree with whoever said it should be anonymous. Simply a rated / not rated status with neither party learning the ID of the other. This way there's no peer pressure to give a rating (either positive or negative) in response.
The thing that's sucks about the App Store rating system is that it is anonymous. There's no way for a developer to help out a user. Users seem to think the review system is a way to get support about complaining about a bug or problem but that's not the case. There is nothing worse as a developer than feeling helpless because there's no way to contact the reviewer and help them.
Agree with this. I see lots of apps where the people who tested it were the devs friends or family. They must have said 'yes a great app.....' when in actual fact the apps dire, devs need proper teams of people testing their app (most will do it for free) but too many indie devs dont seem to do this. Plus you can often spot a fake review by the devs friend a mile off, either here at the forum or at the app store. All those weeks and months of work and they ruin it in minutes by having a 1 post shill account saying 'hey great game....' Laughable.
Why do you want "faked" 5-star ratings? From my experience many reviews doesn't equals to more downloads / better rankings. I've done an app (its not a game) that's been downloaded more than 2 million times. Lately I've included a button (for a limited time) where the user can leave a review and will get premium content (to clarify: I don't beg for a good review, I just asked nicely for a review in exchange for a review). I've got over 2000 reviews in a very short timeframe. Most of them were positive. Download Rate or Rank haven't changed notably. So I'm wondering why are developers are so crazy about having lots of reviews? I mean it's very nice to get feedback from your users, but it doesn't help that much to put a lot of time / effort in trying to cheat Apples system I think.
So what exactly are the metrics that gets an app more prominently featured on the APpStore, as well as higher rankings? It's gotta be a combination of factors, and ratings seem to be one part fo the puzzle. Higher ratings can lead to more downlaods, which lead to improving the app's standings.
