Hi everyone, this story is about how I get cheated by reviews on the iTunes app store. Last week, I logged in to the iTunes and tried to look for a good manga reader for my iPhone. With the key word manga, the application named iManga appears in the first place. Believing the app is of good quality, I clicked upon and went ahead to see some reviews such as: Everything about this app is awesome. And it keeps getting better with every update- 5 stars- by Manga God Cool! People seems to love it, thus I purchase the app and test it out right away. And I feel TOTALLY CHEATED! Its even worse than using Safari reading manga on Onemanga.com. The application is only a mobile website that linked to Onemanga.com. Not even an application that can run on its own. Besides, a lot of manga titles are not available! What the hell! I got charge US$ 1.99 for something even worse than my Safari. Really??? Being pissed off, I went back to iTunes, not because I want to write a bad review for iManga, but want to check the guy name Manga God- who wrote the 5 star reviews. Heres what I found: *** All comments from Manga God for: 1. Manga Rock- Crashes- 1/5 star 2. Manga DL- It really has a crappy UI. Boo! It crashes a lot and it takes a lot of memory- 1/5 star 3. Manga Bear- Worst manga app ever. It takes forever to actually read a manga- 1/5 star. Now I guess we know who is Manga God now, do you? Thats iManga developers themselves trying to manipulate the iTunes reviews and trick us. If thats your intention, Manga God, congratulation! You have successfully fooled me! But I will make sure every know about this and they will bring justice to you. And I tell you that, Mr. iManga, no application will survive in the long run with poor app quality and those cheap trick. If you have time to run around and manipulate people, spend that time improving our application. iManga developers: BE A MAN, DO THE RIGHT THINGS! To other iPhone user, dont be cheated like me! Open your eye and see whats hidden behind these shameless reviews. Below are all the manga reader apps I mentioned above. If you want to enjoy some manga reading on your iPhone, you can try Manga Rock (free) or MangaDL (2.99), all is of good quality.
There's so much shilling and so many stupid people that review games on iTunes that it's become worthless. Most people don't even give a crap about them. Then again, I've been fooled by people. I was deciding between some game and Dungeon and Hero (can't remember the other... Vay maybe?) and some people on the ZodTTD forums (this was a LONG time ago... way before the ARPG craze) said that D&H was good. It turned out to be one of the lamest games I've played.
This. One of the reason's why shilling is so successful is because you can't view a persons review history on the iPhone or iPad. Some companies don't even do a good job covering up their tracks either. I remember looking up user reviews from a Bigfishgames app and they had tons of reviewers that only reviewed apps from that company. I don't know what Apple's policy is with shilling because I don't think they can be proven but even if they can then what? I doubt Apple would ever ban notable developers/publishers. I actually believe Gameloft does this too on a larger scale. Sometimes you'll see tons of 5 star reviews in only minutes after the app releases.
Also if you're looking for a decent iPhone manga app then you won't find one. I purchased a few great ones months ago but Apple took them all down without giving a reason to the developers. My guess is that Viz Media complained to Apple about how these promote piracy since they told the developers of these manga apps to take down all the manga they have the rights to publish in America. This really annoyed me before but now I just view manga on my iPad. If you ever get an iPad though the first thing you should do is go to those manga sites. They look glorious on a 9.7 inch screen sitting on your lap
The only thing I don't like about iTunes reviews is that people, more importantly devs, can't comment and correct stupid reviews. But this will only bring on more haters...
most itunes reviews are total garbage, many of them one liners about how some other game is better or how this one just sux or it crashes and won't work or it didn't download or asking for advice on a certain level how helpful
Actually we can see a person review history, just click upon their name in iTunes and the review history will pop out. That's how I find all the comment of this "Manga God" dude. Grrruuurrrrr....
In iTunes on your computer you can see a persons review history by clicking on their name. I've learned the hard way to always check the review history .... it becomes very obvious very quickly when shills have been leaving reviews. For the most part I do still rely on the review process once I've steered away from shilled apps. Mostly I look for performance issues with an app since how much someone enjoys an app is personal preference .... like I hate most zombie shooting and first person shooter apps yet they are really popular. So when I do happen to buy a zombie shooting app (yes I did that once) I won't leave a review saying how stupid it is because I know that it's just me (not being stupid ..... just not liking to kill zombies).
Hi, Same here. Good rule to follow. KGame. ...Where have you been? Enviro-Bear is one of the best games out!
yes, when i bought eco punk, all the reviews said it was good and worth buying, but i found it to be terrible
I totally agree, I've been fooled lots of times too! That's why I trust views from experienced users in forums like these more than just those ordinary reviews from blogs.
