I'm sure I'm not the first person to propose this, but Apple needs to step in and clean up the mess all these MMO's have created with 'points'. It may have been a necessary evil in the past, but now that we have in-app downloads, all these games should be required to utilize that mechanism instead. It makes navigating some categories (particularly RPG) an absolute nightmare. I know it's a not a 100% straightforward problem to solve, but given that Apple is that gatekeeper, they should be able to figure it out. Hopefully I'm not alone on this.
Hmm I never really thought about that. I mean I was always annoyed at the point things taking over my RPG category but making them all change to in-app online would be awesome.
I fully agree with you. Navigating RPG category is just a total mess. In fact all devs must use DLC for points.
Agreed. Especially since most of them seem to have a "buy points" section somewhere in the app already that just sends you the app store. I don't really bother with these types of games anymore but I did find it a little redundant to have to download a separate app just to add points then delete one of them. They still need to do something about Aftershock and their v7.01.1, v7.01.2, v7.01.3 crap also. Maybe they should just make a section for this type of game in the store, though I doubt that would ever happen.
You mean the developer who releases 40 free versions of the same name? Actually they do it for all of their games... They have probably seen that updates don't appear in the release-date list anymore so they release a new app each few days.
How about along with getting rid of the points apps, we get rid of half of these "(theme) Live" games. It's extremely annoying looking for a good free RPG game/demo and clicking on top free RPG games and all you find are "(Theme) LIVE 7.2791312454 20 Points FREE! ONLY FOR A LIMITED TIME!" It's usually the 20 points one too. Use in-app purchases... They use these to invade the AppStore and get their game right up front, which didn't bother me too much at first, but now it's just a rampant problem. The worst of which, is Undead Live!. That game is just terrible. I'll go look at the new games one day and it'll have "Undead LIVE! Holiday 1" "Undead LIVE! Holiday 2" etc. That was annoying enough, but then I started seeing "Undead LIVE! 7.352983753" "Undead LIVE! 7.235672390" etc. I think you get the picture. THEY MUST BE STOPPED!
Lazypeon, I am very much with you. In fact if you search my posts you'll find that I had a big rant about the RPG section and these point packs in the developer section recently. They are the epitome of "minimal functionality" and should all be rejected and forced to go in-app purchase. What's more, Apple should take over categorization of apps, because unscrupulous developers are shoving their "me-too" zombie games and who knows what else into smaller categories like RPGs just to get seen. Look at the #1 RPG today... Colosseum. Is it an RPG? Not in the slightest, just an *@#*&^ dev who decided to place his app in the wrong category on purpose. Now with the ranking change that Apple started yesterday tons of these "Point Pack" apps re-appeared in the top 100 RPGs. Why? Because people leave tens of thousands of "reviews" with "add me, code XXXXXXXXXX". Apple's new algorithm appears to be interested not only in recent unit sales, but also how many reviews/ratings you have. At least that's our current theory that fits the observed changes in rank.
I am with U PpL! BUT, I can tell that not all the idevices are running os 3 yet. Most of the iPod touch users will upgrade to 4 once it is our from 2.x We all will need to wait till then. When Steve said the Appstore has more than 140000 apps, I just had to say we got about 2k useful apps & games (I hav half of it ) the rest is the mmorpg points & sh!t like tht
Definately, there is also racing point game, nice looking icon which tends to click on it, coz you think it's a real racing game. There was a time, where someone always updates his damn puzzle game in hundred of variations, ugly icon and was alway seen in the sale or updated section. really annoying these guys.
That would be them. And it's not like they're making it easy for anyone who searches for one of their apps by name. You get 30 results and have to sort through them for the most current version. These point systems were one of the reasons I stopped bothering with this type of anyway. Some the devs were starting to take advantage of them even going so far as to you needed so many points to change your name or load a game to another device. Between that and going against people with hacked accounts it just took all the fun out it.
I totally agree with this - you could have one app that takes up 20 release slots. I think its gotta go. If you count the 25,000 games on the App store - does that include the 'points' apps from MMO's? I bet that is almost a 1/4 of them...
While I agree with you people. Apple banning apps is not the ideal solution. Just ignore them, give people you know reasonable argurments why they should avoid those apps. Seeing those kind of apps and marketing strategy go down through the power of the masses will be the sweetest victory. Unfortunately people do download and use those apps. They prefer creating another app rather than integrate it into an in-app purchase because it makes you perceive that you are receiving something of value compared to the regular free app. Plus that way they could still go in the top charts using this strategy because with old free apps they won't get any more publicity. In this world your opinions matter but compared to the masses which fall using this trap, it still counts for nothing and it SUCKS.
one of them point games was the first game i downloaded.. not having a clue how the appstore worked and i did not want to spend any money till i understood. call me frugal, cheap, whatever. anyhow. i found the game play so repetitive and it was unfair in the ones i used. anyhow. im sure people like me pick up the game not knowing any better than falling for the there sales methods. so the problem is not gonna go away even if you try to inform everyone.. just to many new people getting ipods/phones everyday. so apple would have to step in. even tho i see your logic not wanting them to ban anything.. they have the control over the appstore so they should fix whats broken.. and be flexible to change things back if they do not work.. but that be in a perfect world.. which i sure in the hell do not live in. pout. laughs. chris.
That doesn't really work, since the very problem being discussed is that it's not possible to ignore them due to how many there are clogging up the App Store. My solution would be a new category: Crap Apps.
Anyone that thinks these shouldn't be banned will rethink their position when the AppStore ends up being spammed with 10,000 of them a day.
+1,000,000 to that! I hate them. Who in their right mind would spent sometimes up to £60 on virtual points for a game anyway?!
