+1. Correct. We're critical... well, nearly the whole thread is critical versus FAAD. So many people also agreed to us. No campaign, just the truth.
Yet everyone disregards all the developers who were happy with the FAAD advertisement? Doesn't the positive experiences of developers trump the peanut gallery of complainers?
FAAD I thought paid something to get them to be free for a day? (not sure how it gets its money back though)
FAAD makes a single (occasionally more) app free for a day on the App Store so that it is available to everyone.
Ah! Finally someone who don't refuses to discuss and brings up good statements. Well, I do, actually. I don't visit the site and I don't download their promoted games. But I thought I am free to speak on the internet and write about my legitimate concerns. See - I don't disregard that a bunch of developers was really happy with FAAD, I don't disregard that there are a hundredthousand FAAD fans who really like the site and I also don't disregard that they had successes. I don't hate FAAD... well, I nearly hate nothing, because this feeling is much to strong to be wasted... and it's not good for my job either. But I tend to see things different, to see both sides of a coin. The good and the bad side. In my opinion, the FAAD system lacks a lot of forethoughs. I think this system has quite some dangerous sides. Even ICS Mobile admitted that I've got some valid points. Do you disregard that? So I just beg to differ that there are: - more and more people, who are refusing to buy indie games now and are waiting for the coming FAAD (or other sites) promotion. Do a poll about that on TA, the results might surprise you. - drops in the initial sales of indie developers - despite the fact that more and more iPhones and iPods are sold. - a growing list of games, who are already on a second or third promotion on FAAD (or other sites)... and I wonder why, when the system is working so flawless? - not the same chances for everyone - the AppStore ratings are dropping because of the idiots, who delete the app after a few minutes and give just 1 star - a growing number of people who don't like the FAAD page because of one of these reasons. There's much more; I wrote about everything on the pages before this one more specific. Is it wrong to speak out against a system that I believe to be wrong?
All of your reasons sound fine, except when you actually look at the profits: http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/MouthOff/news.asp?c=20986 FAAD gives developers a chance to gain a lot of publicity that they normally wouldn't. There is a clear correlation between the FAAD promotion and then increased profits afterwards. This has been repeated over and over and over again, but people continue to come into these threads with arguments that are nothing more than hearsay, without any actual FACTS. It works. GET OVER IT.
Your first incorrect assumption is that the vibe of things on the TouchArcade forums exists anywhere else. The forums are a great community, but make no mistake that some people here are remarkably cheap and would rather wait for eternity than spend 99¢-- A sum of money most people don't even think about when buying a large coffee instead of a medium, two apple pies at McDonalds on top of their order, the under-carriage wash at a gas station car wash, etc. These people aren't the majority of the App Store user base, hell, even if you considered the entire user base of the forums, active and inactive, we'd still barely be a rounding error when compared to the number of people out there buying games/apps on a daily basis. If Free App a Day or any of the other sites managed to capture even a few percent of this audience of over 100 million devices in the wild it would be the best place to advertise your game imaginable and worth basing your entire App Store sales strategy around. ...But, the fact of the matter is, they don't generate that kind of traffic. None of the free app sites, app price tracking sites, or any of the other sites do. Because they're happy with the service they're getting from FAAD? Because they've developed a business strategy that works with free promotions? That's like standing outside of a restaurant and being like "Hmm, this person has been there for their second or third time... and I wonder why." Yes, like all things in life and in the business world. Things aren't fair. If your game sucks, people won't download it regardless of whether or not it's free and as much as indie developers who haven't succeeded like to post sob stories and "post-mortems" they all failed in one way or another and at the end of the day really don't have anyone to blame but themselves. Whether this means they should have spent some extra time polishing up their art before releasing, coming up with a more provocative marketing angle, not getting involved in an unrealistic development budget/schedule, or tons of other things. All too often I hear developers who have completely settled on the fact that their game failed because they didn't get reviewed on TouchArcade, when in reality, if your entire business model hinged on getting reviewed on TouchArcade, it was flawed from the get-go. The same thing can be said for putting all your eggs in the Free App a Day or other free site promotion basket. If the App Store was a place where all developers universally saw guaranteed success, every man woman and child on the planet would be quitting their jobs and rushing to the nearest store to pick up an Objective C book. As more people adopt iOS 4, this will decrease more and more as they've removed the rate on delete functionality and people will actually have to go out of their way to leave negative reviews. And again, this goes back to my previous point in that developers need a varied strategy with how they approach the App Store and if the entire success of their product hinges on having an App Store listing with no drive-by one star reviews, not taking this in to consideration before putting their game up on a free game promotion site and dropping the price to free is a failure on their part. A growing number? Judging by the traffic we get whenever we post about free games on the front page along with the number of comments we usually get and the surge in activity the associated forum thread sees, I'd say people who take issue with getting games for free are in the absolute minority. At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is if Free App a Day didn't work for developers, no one would use this service. There isn't any shortage of indie developers hopping onboard the iOS platform-- Quite the opposite. In fact, so many developers are still getting onboard that this odd little sub-economy of conventions, books, services, and other iPhone developer specific products have sprung up. This likely won't stop either until another hardware vendor offers an even more compelling platform. With the momentum the App Store has... I don't see that happening anytime soon. And when it does, Apple will be to blame for not remaining competitive and compelling for developers in the marketplace... Not Free App a Day for promoting a price drop. In the grand scheme of the iPhone and the App Store, Free App a Day is remarkably insignificant.
Quite a few good points. I'll think about them and answer another time. P.S.: I was really laughing about "but make no mistake that some people here are remarkably cheap and would rather wait for eternity than spend 99¢". I say that they would hack their feet of before doing that.
Have fun with that. Developers will continue to pursue reliable sources of revenue because...i don't know. Maybe that's the entire point of selling a product.
Writing about legitimate concerns once is OK, but repeating it 43 times in a 260 posts thread is better known as trolling in internet terms. Coz you have pretty much repeated the same thing over and over again complaining about it without providing even a single better solution. Do a little research and find out how many people follow FAAD, or a member of TA, or keep an eye on Appshopper sales list and the compare it to total number of iDevice owners in the world and the result WILL surprise you. Again, this drop in sales started a long long time before FAAD. You're holding it wrong!! Making your app free for a day gives you a temp boost afterwards and thats about it. All the devs working with FAAD know this and are looking for this temp boost only. Let me break it down how it works (thought everyone knew about it already but whaddya know) - Why devs make their apps free? - Devs make their apps free for a limited time to get some exposure. Its the cheapest way of marketing your apps, - How is making the app free marketing? - 10000s (possibly more) of people download it for free. If they play the game and show it off to their friends, there's your free exposure. - Why it doesnt work for all of them? - Advertising cant sell crap. If your app isnt anything special, no one is going to ever show them off to anyone. Hence no sales boost. But thats the worst which could happen here. Since you arent paying anything for this (assuming they are on a revenue sharing system) you dont lose anything. It's the safest and cheapest way to market your apps (right now). As far as a better solution is concerned, I personally think iAds has the potential to become a better solution than FAAD. But only time will tell if iAds are going to be a real success or not. And even with iAds one will need to market his (free) app to make sure it stands a little higher than the 200000+ other apps. Be practical. EDIT: WTF hodapp. I wasted all this time typing this post only to see you posted an essay which covers everything I said ><
This kind of reminds me of all the people who were up in arms over ngmoco's entry (and success) in the freemium market for the past 10 months. How many of those slippery slope arguments regarding how this was the end of iPhone gaming as we knew it, every game released was going to charge you per minute to play it, and all the other ridiculous things people couldn't help but get worked up over ended up coming true? Oh that's right... None of them.
Hi, I am just surprised at the apparent lockdown on those who do not think of FAAD as a positive mechanism for what aills developers and the appstore. I am on many forums and open and frank discussion is usually encouraged, even when opinions differ from the populous. This thread looks to be one of those that differing opinions is not encouraged and in fact, is ridiculed by comments such as "Get over it". Very, very strange. David
User Name Posts Vovin 46 Harpgliss 25 Mondae 21 ICS Mobile 16 The problem is both you and Vovin are posting in this thread with the same opinion more than the owner of FAAD.
Hi, We are active posters who have something to say? this is what I see. Opinions are interesting and differ from each person, thereby should be allowed to be voiced, even if they are not popular. I know I am not going to change the opinion of you or Hodapp here but does responding to someones post constitute trolling, seriously? David
Hi, You are repeating the same thing over and over again with no solution or nothing new to add. In my book thats called trolling. IMNS
Why giving a solution? Criticism analyzes structures which are seen as flawed and aims at reform or even change. The starting point can be the experience of a minority within a society. We don't need to be hundredthousands to criticise.
