I'm think I'm using the term properly But seeing a thread recently where it seems obvious that the poster is really the dev, it made me think about this I mean what's the need for the secrecy? We're going to notice that they have few to no other posts and the big praise makes their identity obvious. And then when it's revealed, the whole charade just seems suspicious I don't see any upside. Why not just be upfront? Say hi I'm a new dev, this is my game, please check it out?
When you work hard on something for months on end, then you realise it and no one comments on the thread, barely anyone even downloads your free game, and every minute longer it gets further buried under a pile of rubble..what else can you do? I actually don't blame them for trying.. I'd prefer an indie dev to shill for a semi decent game, rather than a big company pay for major shilling/advertising of their crappy outdated match 3 with outrageous IAP and addictive gambling traits targeted at young children and brainwashed sheep who empty their wallets. It's those guys who make the indie devs have to shill, they leave no room for the little fishes..so shill away I say! Within reason..
I'm the opposite. These devs must be clever to create a game yet can ruin it in minutes the second they shill. The thing is it's sooooo obvious it's embarrassing. I don't agree with fake reviews in the App Store and I'm totally against fake verdicts on games. If I'm buying a car I want to hear from users not employees of the car manufacturer If I'm buying an app I want to hear from real users not the devs view or his coders view. Yes it's a saturated market but doing crap like that doesn't help I buy tons of games but the second a dev shills I'll never buy from them