It went down because I rated it down. This thread is like the Spanish Inquisition. By the way, I am a dev, in case my signature doesn't make that obvious And, yes, that means I am evil and out to get you! Devs aren't people, they are soulless machines cranking out games for consumption at rock-bottom prices. It's all quite insidious... whatever it is they're up to. My personal opinion - reviews don't do much, positive or negative, on the app store. Yes, it's silly when people leave a bunch of fake reviews, but it's also pretty easy to pick these apart from the real ones. Like someone else said, any time I'm trying to judge a game by reviews alone, I search for the ones that have some sort of (good or bad) critique of the game - the others (fake or not) just don't say anything useful that you can base a judgment off of. I wish people WOULD pay more attention to review sites and game threads at places like TA, because then they could make informed decisions. It's hard to put anything meaningful into the App Store description because, after all, it's just words and pictures... and those often don't tell the whole story. Go ahead and check out the reviews for my game - I've never asked a single person to leave a review, and the few times I've given out promo codes it's NOT to get fake-sounding reviews out of it. What I do worry about when I see the hate in this thread is that someone will see a streak of 5-star reviews on my game and think it's fake... While I can appreciate the motives behind calling out "bad" devs, remember that they're people, too, and we can at least be civilized about it Things seem a little one-sided here, and I'd say it would be better to keep things dispassionate if you are going to compile a list. I think it would help your case, anyway Right now, it's just a few people who are getting called out and made examples of, which looks more like a witch hunt.
like I said, i figures some devs were not gonna be happy with this thread. But ya know what? I don't care. Yes devs are people too, but unlike the people who buy the games, the devs are the ones trying to make money. As long as they do that without trying to trick people in a shady way, then there's nothing wrong with making money. A shill however, is by all means, a trick. Most devs could care less about this thread, and most of the ones who do probably have shilling on their minds.
Oh by the way Alex, lol, just checked out your game Air Master 3D. Yeah there's no 5-star shill reviews there in the store...reeeeally. The newest game on the shill review list is Air Master 3D. ANother example of most of the reivewers buying only his paid game and then reviewing all freeware aside from that.
Sorry, I just hate seeing people getting persecuted like this. And it's hard not to take notice, when this thread is at the top of the game discussion forum all the time. You're entitled to your opinion, of course, which is why this thread even exists - but it comes across as more than a bit rude, not to mention making you look bad. I can't help it that I've built up a (small) group of people who like my game, after 5 substantial updates, each of which has been driven by user feedback... from reviews on iTunes, and from this forum. God forbid I actually listen to my reviews and improve my game based on them And, that's very mature of you to go post in my thread that my game has only fake reviews. See that bit about being dispassionate about this? If you actually cared about this topic, you'd compile a list and not have a thread just for the sole purpose of flaming anyone who crosses you. As is, you just have a stream of vitriol, punctuated by "so and so is now on the list, because he dared challenge me!" Thank you for bumping my thread, by the way.
All people have to do is look up your game and see the 5-star reviews. Honestly I didnt even know about you until you came in here trying to be rude yourself. You know a dev can't be too bright if they haven't been caught shilling yet, come to the "shill review list" thread to say how bad of a thread it is, and then gets caught with shill reviews to their own game. Tell me something Alex, right now you're game has a 2.5-star average rating in the store. What would it be without all the 5star shill reviews you added in, a 1-star average?
Again, why do devs shill and write actual reviews? You can just leave a rating, it's not as noticeable, and easier =P
I'm tempted to try PlayScreen's new Match 3D Flick Puzzle, but I see they still haven't learned. On the lite version, the MAJORITY of the first 26 reviewers have only reviewed this one game. And when I say "majority", I am talking about maybe all but one or two. I see one reviewer who looks legit, and a couple look to have reviewed all of two apps in total. Here are some of the "reviewer" names: Bikingbill (I know this is the developer because "PlayScreen" admitted it in a previous thread) - 5 stars - "This matching game exceeds all expectations. Really amazing." lindacoe AdamO1 AdamNY1 adamny09 BillTX38 jojohnor joseninja JoseF105 DanielUSA55 taylors105 Ericf38 Ryanhipz RachaelM22 JessicaLA1 DaveOR70 Dave055 Wilma2008 Lucy1962 BigFella101 GaryTheGamer BennPlaying Notice anything similiar among these user names? WTF? Are these the beta testers or something? Who are these "people"? I'm not even sure what I want to classify this as because if it's purely shilling, it is one of the WORST shill jobs I've ever seen. Moving on to the paid version, only Wilma and BikingBill (the developer) decided to actually purchase the game. Though Wilma (the other employee) seems to have mixed up her shill reviews because she claims that "This game sold [her] on getting the full version." BikingBill "helpfully" lets us know that he "Played the free version for 10 minutes, then [he] HAD to buy this one." He writes, "Yeah, it's THAT GOOD. The paid version is worth it. The survival game is the most addicting game I have played in years. Wow, just WOW." Behold, this is the definition of shilling, ladies and gents. For those of you questioning this thread topic, how can you defend blatant lying like this? There is no subtlety. How can you not see how something like this is damaging to the App Store environment? Everyone is constantly whining about how shitty the App Store is becoming, but nobody wants to get their hands dirty when the topic turns to shilling, at least not around here. It's "oh, poor developers, just trying to earn a living." Sorry, guys. I appreciate the hard work of developers very much, but I also appreciate honesty, integrity and professionalism. In fact, I demand these traits as much as possible. Mobile phone games are a luxury I can afford to do without on matters of principle. Developers hate people who steal their apps, but it's supposed to be OK for them to lie to their consumers? Lie, cheat and steal. They go hand in hand in hand.
For myself, while I hate it when developers shill for paid games, I don't really have a problem with shilling for free games. a) It's free. If someone is tricked, the most they are out is a bit of time. b) The app store is broken in terms of creating negative reviews for free games. If you buy a free game and leave it on your phone, you probably don't review it either way. If you buy it and delete it, you have the opportunity to leave a negative review. It doesn't seem fair to me. This is untrue. I actually left the first review for the game, and I assure you, I had never even heard of PlayScreen before this game came out. Take a look at my hostory if you doubt me. If Wilma and BikingBill are part of Playscreen, then I guess I am glad I didn't know before I had actually purchased the game because the game is great. Michael
You need to stop with the accusations. This game was free for months. May 03 Free -> $2.99 Apr 16 Version 1.2 Feb 26 $1.99 -> Free That is why it has 681 people that rated Air Master 3D 5 stars.
I get what you're saying, but I still don't think it's acceptable, and I don't think we should lower our expectations just because we perceive a situation to be low risk or low cost. It puts us all on a slippery slope to accepting more and more dishonesty down the line. There's nothing wrong with putting your foot down and maintaining your principles. If I baked a batch of brownies with chocolate and dog shit, then approached you and said, "Hey, my grandma is a pastry chef down town, and she sent me these brownies. They're DELICIOUS. Try one!" would you be OK with having eaten dog shit because the brownie was free? This is absolutely true. I have discussed this before. It is an egregious oversight on Apple's part. But just because the system is unfair doesn't give anyone the right to attempt to "correct" the system in his own way. This line of thinking is exactly the reasoning that pirates give for cracking apps. "We're not allowed to demo apps beforehand", "Most apps are poor quality." How many developers call bullshit on these excuses? Well, it goes both ways. Sorry. That sentence was just worded awkwardly. If you are MrMLK, then there is a reason I didn't include you in the list or mention you at all. I checked your history, and you were in fact the ONE legit reviewer. So PlayScreen owes you a good many thanks, I believe. The game does look good, but I don't like being lied to or deceived, and I don't like to support liars and shills. That said, we all have our own priorities and prerogatives, so a thread like this is just meant to inform - not necessarily dictate action.
I was mostly looking at the current reviews for the newest version. The game has not been free for a while. Accusations??? Was this not your post in this thread?... That's an accusation isnt it?
This thread is controversial. I can see how many devs would consider shilling games to try and make more money in a jungle of thousands of other apps competing with them. That is why when they see a thread like this they will most likely try to trash it or one star it or whatever. That's fine. This thread wasnt created to win a popularity contest. Just to inform people what's going on and to send a message to shill devs that we know what your up to.
What is the accusation? I was posting a fact that the developer posted on TA and a review of his game on iTunes. I did not accuse him of shilling. I don't even think there is anything wrong with what he did. You can post whatever facts you find.. such as a number of 5 star reviewers have not left other reviews but that is as much as you know.. you can not prove who left those reviews. Just stop accusing developers of things you can not prove.
Well then you still got it wrong, because the current paid version has 4.5 stars with 31 overall ratings. To quote myself from the spill-over into my game's thread: "I never stated my approval of anything, I merely pointed out your witch hunt against any developer who catches your eye. Just as I worried, you're not making any distinction between those who are genuinely doing "wrong" and those who aren't. You stated that I'm faking the reviews of my game. So of the 180 written reviews I have in the United States, 130 of these are 5 star - are you saying I have 100+ fake iTunes accounts, all with purchased copies of my game, or that I've bribed 100+ people to go say genuinely good things about my game?" I'm not condoning anyone's actions, I think it's all well and good to have a thread criticizing fake reviews. I get a good laugh out of seeing them myself, personally. But this thread doesn't need all the hatred, attacks, and drawn-out confessions. We don't need a witch hunt. My worry (arguably justified now), is that honest devs would get caught up in this.
No I wouldn't. But I also would be out a bit more then a bit of time. Which is why I don't think its such a big deal for free apps, but I do think its a big deal if you try to feed me dog crap. So please don't do that if we ever meet up. Yes, but the difference is that pirates don't have a real grievance and the developers do. Pirate may want a demo, pirates may want the things they pirate to be less expensive, but that doesn't mean that a system of selling things is unfair. They don't have a right to a demo or lower prices, they just want it. Developers do have a real grievance. The app store review process is set up in a way that is inherently unfair to people who develop free apps. It weighs things towards bad reviews. While I don't like shill reviewing of any form, I cut some slack for the free app developer. Michael
Yeah I'd give somewhat of a pass on shilling the free apps since they dont involve potentially ripping anyone off. It still isnt right but no money is involved. I do like HJJ's brownie analogy though LMAO.
