RovioMobile suggested that we should have a thread for developers with free apps to post their app links and trade reviews/ratings. My app is [app]ActionChess Lite[/app], and it only has one (5 star) review in the US store. (Unfortunately there are also about 10 one and two star ratings.) It wouldn't take many 5 star ratings to offset those, fortunately! Who's in? Post your app links and let us know if whose apps you intend to rate. UPDATE: In the interest of fairness and decency (you know, the kind that everyone knows exists on the app store), I'm not asking for 5 star ratings. I AM asking you to commit to downloading the apps posted here, and rating them if you feel it's appropriate. Of course, I'd love it if, in the case of my app, it was a 5 star rating, and if you don't feel it's worth that, you can use your own judgment whether to rate the app. I'll still be downloading all the free apps posted in this thread myself, and rating them FAIRLY.
Downloaded played and review left! Tis a very cool concept and good game. Innovative and smart. I think the graphics could obviously do with some attention though. My game is Movie Challenge Lite
just to interject something... I think leaving automatic 5-star ratings on other apps is a bit sketchy and generally "frowned upon" We don't allow shilling on the site, so I don't think we should be organizing effectively the same thing in the App Store. arn
I agree pretty much with this. Personally I'd rather someone download my app and give an honest review. Not just for other users but an honest review is a lot more useful to me. That said, I think when the apps in question are free I don't think a biased review is really all that big a deal. It's not like you are deliberately cheating someone or potential customers out of their money. I know its a bit of a grey area but hey the person who reads the review is only losing a few minutes on the app if they dont like it, not actual cash. At the same time they are potentially going to download a game that they really like that otherwise a negative review might have put them off getting. In terms of paid apps I certainly dont and wouldnt advocate biased reviews.
I know this is slightly off topic, but what does it actually take to get a 5 star average on the App Store?? My app iScreamer! has 2 four-star and 8 five-star, but on the computer it has a 4.5 average, but on the mobile app store it is a 5 star average. Any thoughts???
Hmm. I had actually not considered this "shilling", although I do see how it could be construed as such. I've modified the post to be less explicit about asking for a 5 star rating. Of course I'd be happy to have more downloads at all, so that is now the primary goal. I think there are a lot of factors that go into a person's review, and we've all seen app store reviews where the text is simply glowing praise, but the rating is only one star. I think the UI for ratings in the app store leaves a lot to be desired (with the most egregious omission that of any sort of confirmation when your review or rating has been submitted). I guess another thing is that I don't think there's any harm in asking for a 5 star rating. I feel like, as something I've created, it's my duty to be as positive about it as possible. I guess I justify the moral ambiguity of asking for others in at least in a couple of different ways. 1) I think this is a relatively small number of folks, most of whom are struggling just to get our apps noticed, much less rated. 2) As I said, there are a lot of factors that go into how someone feels about an app: art, gameplay, sound, etc.. I think another of those factors is brand and/or brand awareness. By posting here, and asking for help from other devs, I'm essentially asking them to rate my app based on their opinion of me. As the dev, I am essentially the brand. I don't think that's any different than some ngmoco fanboy rating the new game he just downloaded before he even plays it. (Of course, we all know how crap that is, so maybe that argument is turning on me.) Another thing is that asking for a rating is not at all like asking for a review. Any press is good press in terms of getting eyeballs on your product. But when a product has fewer than 20 ratings or reviews, everyone should know they aren't looking at a useful rating. There simply haven't been enough eyeballs to make a fair assessment. I suppose where I'm falling now is just wanting to get more downloads. I assume that, once you've played my game, of course you'll want to rate it 5 stars. But if you can't say anything nice... I would just rather you not say anything at all. But that does not apply to the forums, or personal communication! I want to hear all critical feedback, I really do, and my plan is most definitely to update the game based on that kind of feedback.
Beware that, as a consumer, if I can tell that ANY reviews have been written by the development team or other shills, I will walk away and not look back. I understand that developers face an uphill battle and that this is "a whole new marketplace", but at a certain point, the App Store "being new" doesn't excuse behavior that would be more than frowned upon out in the "real world".
Interesting... I actually feel pretty much the opposite. I see all these apps that haven't been rated at all, and I think "that poor guy, doesn't he have any friends or co-workers who have iphones at all?". Ratings in the app store are not professional reviews. They are not meant to be objective reporting. And in fact, if they were, we'd have so few of them that the idea would be pointless (or anyway no different from an aggregate listing of reviews anywhere else.) I cannot, nor would I want to, stop my friends and co-workers from reviewing my app. My wife is by far my biggest fan. I hadn't seen any reason to discourage that, but perhaps you've given me one. Unfortunately, if I took your criticism to heart, I'm not sure that I would have any reviews whatsoever. It's probably good for me that I don't rely on this endeavor for my livelihood. I have no marketing budget, so oh well!
I agree. Developers can get 50 promo codes.. if an app can't get 5+ ratings it makes you wonder how bad the game is. It is more a marketing/popularity indicator.
I still think it's somewhat unethical not to note any possible bias, BUT as long as your wife and friends HAVE played your game and rate it fairly based on their own impressions, then that's not really whatvis meant by shilling. What I'm talking about is when a dev team writes reviews for their own games under ordinary consumer names. I've seen this happen, and I find it very dishonest. I would have more respect for a developer who gave himself a 5 star review and identified himself honestly. If there's nothing wrong with reviewing your own game or getting your wife to do it, then why hide your identities?
I've downloaded movie challenge lite, i'll review it late. Check out Totomi lite, the links in my signature. I can't understand why developers helping other developers is a problem personally. We all need a way to compete with the big boys
App Store review system considered harmful I think the App Store reviews are frankly useless. An unmoderated five-star rating system is easily gamed, and Apple doesn't have the resources to properly police the apps themselves, much less the ratings system. They should scrap it entirely and let users rely on third parties like Touch Arcade. I suspect the vast majority of users simply look at the Top 25 anyway; everyone else is in the noise, particularly for games.
