What I normally do is add 1/2 a star onto indie games ratings when I look at them, and subtract 1/2 a star from major games. Unless of course I look at the screenshots and the game does indeed look as shitty as it's rated.
There are not too many games on Yahoo games that let you win or even look like you have a chance. You have to be a genius to play them to beat the house. I've always said they were rigged.
Yup - same here with Flaboo! I think there's something else going on: I think the people who download free stuff see about 50+ games a week and don't give anything more than about 10 seconds before deleting it. 'Free' = worthless. Bottom line: I'm never making anything free again.
I just did an experiment: Download a free game, and delete it (without launching it even once). Guess what? It asks for a rating I bet there are people out there that don't play half the free stuff they download, and I'd bet some of those same folks are responsible for 1 star ratings when they decide to clear out the spring board - which is retarded. I'm filing a bug report...
People are stupid when giving ratings. They give 1 stars because of one glitch or because the game crashed on them. That just means you have to restart your iPod or something. I've seen reviews where people don't even give a reason why the rate one star. :\
Yea, not entirely sure why people rate one star. Most likely it's people deleting the app and being forced to rate. Also, it seems that people either give five stars or one star. What really confuses me is when someone writes a review that says "awesome..." and they give one star above their review. Wouldn't a good review mean they think it's four or five stars??
I think that's mainly when they've forgotten to change the star rating. Its one star by default. I've done it myself when i'm rushing. But i always re-read my reviews just in case I've made typos. SFtT, one review i saw before I purchased Angry birds (which for 59p was and is great.) The review was simply titled. 'Gay' rated 1 star, and the entirety of the review read. 'I hate this game' Great review there guy, thanks for sharing. 'Was this review helpful to you?' Hell no. Its like when people on Amazon review the delivery speed they received not the product. I don't care how long it took for amazon to ship it buddy, tell me about the product!
Based on the 1.5 star/2 star games I see in the Top 25 Paid, no one looks at the ratings. I've seen a common trend with cheap games getting low ratings (free being the worst). High prices keep out complainers. Most people willing to spend a few bucks on an app are actually interested in it, versus people that DL your app 'just because' and then complain when it's not what they want.
I don't even look at the average rating, I read the reviews.. or if im on my PC I look at how many voted for the stars
From a dev's perspective I have to tell you that - unless you have the hide of a rhinoceros - it's pretty demotivating. I don't do this for the money (I mean, Flaboo! was 99c). The money is just a way of making sure I don't end up too much in *debt* after making a game. I'm sure that's the way it is for most devs. For my own part, I'm $2000 dollars *down* after making Flaboo! Add being cyber-abused on top of that and it's a pretty unappealing mix. Another example: Glenn Corpes' game 'Ground Effect' is an astonishing feat of 3D tech combined with a well-balanced, challenging (thus rewarding) game. Yet it has more 1-star ratings than 5-star - again a result of going 'free' for a while to help distribution (because the dev wasn't making anywhere near enough to reimburse his costs). Something's gotta change...
Hey, if you make the game free, I'm going to 1 start it with my main and my Canada alt that I used to get we rule. I (sometimes) paid for it and now you give it out for free? It's like you're selling something, when someone buys it you say it's now free!
And you are so cheap you care about a few dollars? What about when you buy something expensive like a car, then see it for a few thousand dollars cheaper later, do you bitch and complain that that brand of car sucks because they discounted it? No matter what you buy it is going to get cheaper one day, but at least on the App store you only lose a few $ max, which only cheap annoying people care about. And I rarely rate games I delete, because most of the times I haven't played it much and might not like it much, but it might be a really good game if I could be bothered playing it more. But I rate crappy games/apps that deserve 1 or 2 stars.
It just bugs me that tap tap 3 only has a two-star rating. Sure, it's not the best music game out there but it's free and has a decent library of free music. I payed 99c for it when it first came out. When it finally went to free after several months I felt no regret at all for purchasing it when I did. That said, it stings when you pay full price for a game to have it drop in price or go free in the next couple days.
Flaboo! was 'full price' at 99c for 4 months. Once it dropped completely off the store and my sales went to ZERO I made it free. How someone can feel 'stung' by seeing a game going free that they paid 99c for several months ago, and that *nobody* is buying any more rather eludes me. It's called a 'sale'. Every other market uses the concept to stimulate interest. Unfortunately the App store doesn't allow me to 'slash my price' of 99c. That's the lowest it can go - other than zero. If I give away some promo codes, will I be similarly treated? Unlike any other market, Apple customers have the power to ruin developers' reputations in addition to the usual measure of boycotting their products. If I see a can of beans go on sale, I do not write to my local paper and scream that Tesco are evil rip-off merchants because I bought those beans at 99c three months ago. Also note that nobody on eBay gives vendors low scores when their goods go on sale. Giving a bad report on eBay is taken seriously: it is something that is monitored and policed. As a result their scores are still meaningful. eBay would have failed if it were subject to the angry whims of every hormonal tweenager. Until Apple changes its policy and makes it a bigger deal to give someone a 1* rating the system will remain horribly biased against developers and open to abuse.
