I just downloaded an app, (stress toy) I don't think it really matters, anyways I played with it for a minute, then deleted, like I do with 80% of the crap I download... Except this time it's asking me to rate it before I delete?!
thx, I figured that. I just thought it was weird that they want a review star from everyone even if they didn't give it a good play through. But I guess it doesn't really matter for free apps anyways.
Wait, so can you rate it any other time? I don't delete what I like or had spend money, unless I really hate it. When I'm removing stuff to de-clutter I usually do that from the iPhone options in iTunes, not on the phone. Won't this offset the rating system? By most accounts, if someone is deleting it, they probably don't like it, thus give it a low rating. But people with the same app and like it will continue to use it and never rate it. We'll only get the side of people who deleted it. Oh, is this only for free apps? That makes me worry less.
As part of the new 2.2 FW, it will ask you to rate the app every time you delete it (free or paid). I hear your point about it skewing the ratings, but anyone can still rate an app by simply reviewing it. You can review it through iTunes or even the app store. Only caveat is that you have to own the app (which I think is great).
I love that they changed that you must actually own the game before you can rate it. I think this new system may skew the ratings a bit, but only for free apps, and that doesn't really matter to me...
As a developer, I absolutely hate this feature. What's the point of building up a high star rating for months, only for it to be destroyed in a few days by impatient customers? What's to stop people from downloading my Lite version, and deleting and 1 starring it, because they never bothered to watch the tutorial (which I give them the opportunity to watch during the first run of the game, and from the Info menu any time after that) to learn how the game works? If you haven't noticed, many of the games now have a review count much higher than the number of text ratings. Some are even hundreds more. This all started yesterday, and I'm terribly afraid these are all from deletion ratings. They don't seem to be affecting the star ratings yet, but they're sitting there like a little mystery time bomb, ready to ruin a developer's day.
I'm sorry to hear that, I brought it up because this was exactly what I was thinking could happen. As a devoloper do you have any input to apple on how the system works???
Not really any more than anyone else. Generally, any developer email to Apple takes weeks or months for them to respond, and the response is rarely helpful at all. But I'm sure if we all get bombarded by bad reviews, something will have to happen, as this new method is horribly one sided.
I hear what you're saying. I'd like to think that those people that don't give it a fair shot couldn't also be bothered to write a review. Of course, that's what I'd like to think. I didn't even realize you could just give a star rating without writing any text. That's totally useless to me as a consumer. I want to know why someone gave an app a 1 star and/or a 5 star
The ratings are quite weird right now, I've seen a drop in the star rating for a lot of applications in the top 50, although in 2.2 it displays a half star more for most applications than what you see in older firmwares (change in the rounding algorithm?).
Well... Atleast your game is actually very good... and it is very easy to pick up and play... so that should help you a bit with that...
Not really. I've gotten three 1 star reviews in a row since yesterday, coming from people who have obviously not watched the tutorial in the game. I usually get mostly 4-5 star ratings, and now I'm getting "pieces are hard to move, "don't download," and "suks" as reviews. This is horrible. I'm trying to get a response up right now in the reviews, but iTunes is being flakey.
Oh, and thank you for the kind words. I worked very hard to make the game pleasant and fun, so it's nice to know someone enjoys it.
I think it would be great to have apps that you've kept on your phone and use a lot have you rate it the 4th or so time you open it. That might balance it out.