Apple's system of asking for rating when you first delete a product is dumb and assinine. Because of this, only the people who barely tried the product and deleted it after the first use bc it wasn't what they wanted, rate the products. There's no reason so many high quality polished games and apps should have a 2.5 star rating. They way too much polish for that!! Instead, apple should ask for a rating the 10th time you launch an application, instead of, or inaddition to when you delete it. I like most people rarely use the pc itunes to buy stuff. I browse and buy over my phone. This way, the apps get reviews from the people that actually used the apps. In addition to this, what apple needs is a an actual ACCURATE rating system where all the high quality polished games get the ratings they deserve. A system that highlights all the quality polished games out there. Would make my purchasing a lot easier. An apple online magazine that throughly reviews every single app that gets released or updated each week and gives it a rating to show up on the product page, on a 5 star system for polish, and for functionality would be ideal. The magazine could also highlight any quality apps that are on sale that week. As App developers, you guys have the power to get through to apple. Simply share this suggestion/feedback with them.
Before you ask, yes I do naviagate to the app window to rate the apps that I absolutely love. But it's a tiny tiny drop in the bucket. One review from a people that use the app and cares enough to navigate to the place to share their opinion, versus 1000s of reviews who just clicked on the number of stars when the prompt popped up while uninstalling the app. And also, I like most people rarely use the pc itunes to buy stuff. I browse and buy directly over my phone, which makes rating stuff except when prompted that much more inconvenient.
As I mentioned in another thread I agree that the system today has it's weaknesses. But to echo my reply there: At least it's the same for every app. I don't think Apple starting a review-magazine is a viable idea though. The number of apps alone would mean most titles would be left out and cause a lot of controversy. Not to mention that even people working for Apple would have their own subjective opinion, which is the main reason ratings varies as much as they do in the first place. Leave the reviews to game-sites such as TouchArcade and others. Your "ask for rating after 10 times" however is an idea that has some merit, while I'm sure some users would find it annoying it certainly should warrant a more "correct" set of ratings.
You'd be surprised how little power we have to communicate with Apple. I'd wager any Apple customer has a better chance at getting Apple's attention than we do.
I'd be annoyed if it asked me to rate the game on the 10th launch - but maybe something available to developers in the sdk to launch the "rating widget" would be nice... then we could just add a button to the menu... like the game - rate it Anyways - I don't even look at those ratings (as a buyer)... Some very highly rated games are very poor in my opinion... and a game rated high in 2008 doesn't necessarily mean it would be rated the same way in 2009. Try the Lite, or watch the videos, read the reviews...
Agreed, I don't take much notice of ratings either and just concentrate on the meaningful reviews. But maybe that's because as devs we understand that the ratings can be quite meaningless?
In my opinion the ratings compiled from the mass majority of users is much more accurate than something drawn up by an Apple employee. The only place I see a problem in the ratings is in the free apps section. In that case it may be much more tied to the rate-on-delete. People are much more likely to delete a free game because they would feel no loss in investment. You idea about a "magazine" that rates every app is beyond ridiculous. There are so many apps that such a project would take immense amounts of time and labor. With the rate that apps enter the store, and the number of apps currently available I doubt such a project would ever be completed.
True on how new apps will suffer with bad ratings due to the fact of poor early adopter. While people who like it and may not spend enough time to actually rate the game on iTunes will result in a poor rating early on. Trust me that most developers are suffering from this, especially indies who don't have a large fan base nor financial capability to advertise as they relies heavily on good rating to help them sell apps. Instead of prompting for rating on iDevice which may turn out rather annoying, they should make a shortcut to rate applications on iDevice so it will be easier for people to rate on iDevice itself instead of deletion only.
The thing that gets me about it is I was talking to a friend today who said that he didn't know how to submit a rating for an app without deleting it. They should prompt when you use an app a lot if you want to rate it.. I think that would be a fair balance.
I think so too. It's really stupid that they only ask for a ratign when you delete an app. 99% of the people won't and/or don't know to go the app's itune link to rate an app even if they loved it. So games that are slightly complicated or that are hit or miss (you either get a hang of them and love them, or give up on them fast) get severely punished by this current system.
I think the reason behind it is an idea that you delete it when you are done with it. That would make sense for most games and other limited utility apps. Plus if you are going to delete it, you probably didn't like it. Therefore it gives you the chance to express that. I really don't think that it is affecting the ratings very much. In the top 10 there are only three apps with a 3 or lower. The top ten is a good way to measure, in my opinion, because those apps would see the highest rate of downloads and deletions. It isn't a perfect system, but it isn't as harmful as people are making it seem. (IMHO)
sorry i totally disagree. why having the option to rate an app only after the 10th launch? the point is..every app can be rated in the same way..that's just fair. i don't wanna launch an app that's 'crap' 10 times just to give it 1 star. so..there are apps i like and others i don't. what gives you the right to claim for such a rating system? i don't need to spend more than 5 minutes with one app when even having played for just 2 minutes i think the app isn't worth the price or whatever. if the system ever changes, i'm the first one who launches an app i totally dislike for 10 times just to rate it with 1 star!
