But you couldn't have possibly actually seen four million reviews. It would have taken you days and days, if not weeks, to look at all the actual reviews, wouldn't it? What you mean is you saw a number saying how many reviews there were, right? Maybe it's just the number itself that was wrong, and apple corrected the digits displayed without actually changing the number of reviews posted. There is a scene in Indie Game the movie where Phil Fish sees that the preview of his game got 14,000 "likes" (or something like that), but it was just a glitch and he discovers the next day that the real number was zero. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
I don't know anything about those other games you mentioned, but it seems like there's a pretty strongly established cultural pattern at this point for people to post crazy reviews of games just for fun. There may also be bots doing the cheating (I don't think it's true in the case of Flappy Bird, but don't know for sure), but I think there are enough people out there happy to do the work of the bots for them because they think it is hilarious.
Of course I didn't read 4 million reviews. I saw the number. It stayed up for 2 days. A glitch would have lasted a few hours at most. Can it happen? I suppose. Can you point out an example where it has happened in the App Store? No.
lol. So you think it's more likely that a new cultural phenomena has developed where armies of people think it's hilarious to post reviews than a bot farm generating fake ones? I think that itself is hilarious. Seriously why are you defending this with such ridiculous arguments.
Lmao I seriously can't wrap my head around that someone would seriously think nearly 5 million people thought it was hysterical to review an app. Smh. I'm really at a loss
If it's so fun and viral on its own, if the pattern is so vast (it has to be to account for the number of reviews), where are the people talking about that awesome new hobby and openly enjoying the party with their e-friends on the interwebs again? Remember, it's there; it's happening right now!
can you prove anything you say? sure you made a few screenshots of this? or its it just heresay at this point. and why should a glitch be fixed within hours? are you an software engineer working in the apple datacenter division? Or is this just another assumption? where is your proof? you constantly accuse others of doing something wrong and it feels more than odd imho. How much of this "righteousness" is actualy jealousy? everything looks phoney if it does not happen to you? As if flappy bird was the first app on the appstore that longer for quite some time at the bottom and then skyrocketed into the top charts. one of the most famous bird game had a similar fait with no early success at all.. and boom.. they shilled their way into the top charts of course and now they are one of the most profitable developers out there. its not like apple never banned a developer who they caught cheating. so what makes you think that they ban developer x but not developer y ? http://mashable.com/2014/02/10/flappy-bird-story/ maybe this above is an interesting read if you follow some of the sources linked in the article.
Although can you imagine what would have happened if flappy bird was removed because apple decided it was cheating the app store. Probably worse than them switching from google maps hahahaha. I mean apple is going to put making their customers happy above rules around fake reviews. So if an app uses fake reviews to get to the top, I don't think apple will remove it because of that, if it is obvious that people do actually like the game. Also I expect the 4 million number is a little high, but it is not totally unbelievable. Reviews do seem to get removed, my guess is that there is some kind of automatic removal that happens if someone did a review but never opened the app on a device.
if they are gaming the system apple does not care about customer satisfaction. google for animoca which had tons of sucessfull apps which apparently gambled with the charts with third party support with or without their direct knowledge. then of course who would admit cheating? so only apple and animoca know what really happen. since apple never makes such moves public knowlegde is again something for the "assumption" party.
We're talking about it right now! I know people post dumb reviews because I've seen people post them. My game only has 107 reviews but at least one strikes me as not even sounding like it's about my game at all, and at least one is bonkers silly. Anyhow, this is a silly silly thing to argue about. But here is a good article about how something as simple as the placement of the in-game review button is probably responsible for why flappy bird got an astronomical number of reviews: http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/how-in-app-review-mechanics-pushed-flappy-bird-to-the-top-of-the-charts/
Here is an article partly about the cultural phenomenon of posting mockingly angry Flappy Bird reviews: http://mashable.com/2014/02/10/flappy-bird-story/
We are actually talking about cheating. Not about "hey guys lets get together and have a game review party and write bad 5 star reviews because its fun". The articles you keep quoting are all saying the same thing. How!? And in all cases Dong has been silent and secretive. Its pretty obvious why someone wouldnt want press if they did something wrong. If this was a crime he would only be incriminating himself more through his actions and would make ot obvious he is guilty of the crime. Its simple psychology. Oh. Unless you really believe that someone created an app for the app store but never wanted it to make money or be successful. Or if you really believe that TWEETS ruined his life and new found riches. Give me a break.
I already explained this. Why would i take a screenshot of the review number? Was i to look into the future and predict 4 million of them would get removed? Take what i say as you wish. You also have no proof that it did not happen. Im far from jealous. We did ok with Balloon loons and are now working hard on a full 3d version that is actually a good product. We dont cheat. Id say thats something to be proud of. And i am. My concern here is that these new methods will hurt hard working developers who put time and effort into making apps that are great. Maybe youre defending the methods because you dont make apps. Or because you use it yourself. I dont know why cheating would be defended in ANY field. Not just apps. It sounds like you have other interests though. You never did answer when i asked what you do. Please tell me how you can look at white tile bs app and read the reviews and say with a straight face that you dont think theyre fake. Please
The article is also inaccurate as far as the research. The research states it had 68,000 reviews. Even after the 4 million were removed it was left with 500k. The article makes no mention of this. Or the fact that the reviews happened before anyone ever muttered the word flappy.
you are the only one who said there where 4 millions and i havent seen that anywhere nor read about it. yeah of course i have to proof that something did not happen.. allright. what an odd perception of rightfullness. well as long as you say its a good product it must be. and its full 3d! wow. everyone is putting time and effort into their apps. some more some less. some are more productive some less. some lack the ability to reach a certain level of quality some don't. best of luck with your endavours. hah.. i'm in this game for 15 years now and you don't know anything about cheating. What happens in the Appstore with ranking manipulation is pocket change. I've seen worse that actually harmed people and their actual financial existence. and of course i have other interesteds. dubious ones. very dobious ones. evil ones. boooh! i never checked it out. but maybe i will do so. well since you accused the flappy bird creator with the odd evil asian name of cheating.. of cours lets make weird reviews is part of the equation. And why should he not be silent? he stated he did no any promotion or cheated. what more do you want? no one knows why things go viral. it happens not only in the appstore. its a chain reaction that does not need a big band to start. it can be enough to show thing x to person y to start this chain reaction. and of course an ordinary small time developer wants big press, wants huge exposure and loons telling him he cheated and is a criminal. yeah this is all not a reason to shut your curtains because its so great to be exposed in the spotlight from one day to another. floods of emails, phone call, maybe even local news etc. all knocking on your door. yeah of course that is what everyone wants. fame. money. and if he does not fit your personal view of the world he must be bad.. of course he is .. its the 101 psychology. jeez christ! apparently for you there is no difference in being successfull and not in the spotlight and being the psy of the app world. of course everyone wants to be a developer rockstar with his face printed on magazine covers and cheered on on the street, followed by paparazzi and being disected by internet loons and being overwhelmed with accusations. apparently you lack the empathy to put yourself in his shoes. he lives in a country where the average monthly income is $150usd. what happens if someone in such a country starts to earn no a yearly wage in a day but 30years of average vietnamese income in a day! can you even comprehend what that means and then being exposed to the public , not only international but also national and especially local? every second person of his district is knocking on his door begging for money turning his life upside down. removing the app from the stores removed the spotlight from him but it did not remove his income. at least no in the short term. He probably earned more than enough so that several generations of his family can live a comfortable life. of course why should a loon be happy about the success of someone else. how can this be. he won't explain. he might not even understand it fully himself.. but no if course in your eyes he is the bad one hurting your product, your income! lol supercell makes what 4-5 million usd a day! with their 3 titles? the income flappy bird created is a drop in the sea of billions of dollars earned in the appstore. but of course all this has nothing todo with jealousy. Sadly if it would have been jealousy i would even understand you. Anything else sounds like a crazy witchhunt. imho and abot the 68k reviews.. there is a slight difference between reviews and ratings. you can leave a star rating with or without a written review. cheers.
If you're talking about Angry Birds, that's precisely apples and oranges, and the market was very, very different five years ago.
Haha, nice try. I don't think it's anything silly, when you think of it. You're claiming that a super popular playful trend is raging over the planet so as to have like some million people love to spam stupid reviews on app stores, yet for some utterly mind-boggling reason all of these people would be totally hush hush about it, despite the huge anonymity offered by internet. That's a the sure premise of a solid fairy tale, nothing more. Still no relevant data, I see. I already read that article ages ago, and the following claim: is as stupid as it is wrong, for anyone who has played and remember the original version. You cannot rate by accident in the game (to say nothing of the rather long process it is to reach the review form), and the rate button was on the other side of the screen. That's just some random click-bait article masquerading as intelligence.
Did you even read the article? It cites Zach Williams and his numbers: http://zachwill.com/flappy-bird Williams himself says the following:
500 K reviews... App Annie's stored data pegs the grand total number of reviews on iOS at... 108,645, with an average score of 3,5. This cover the app's entire lifespan, all countries, all versions and all iOS platforms.
