Because it is now free. Look at Tap Tap 3, or Scoops, heaps of people give it 1 star because they bought it, and it is now free. They are complaining over a dollar. It annoys me so much and gives the app an unfair score, and could potentially stop others downloading it. If only Apple could do something about it. Cheap people annoy the hell out of me, shouldn't even be allowed to rate the apps.
well, true, but people have the right to express their own thoughts and if they fel they've been ripped off, that's just how it is
Yeah, if a game has lower than a 3 1/2 star rating, I usually avoid it. But lately I've been realizing how stupid that mindset is, considering all the skewed reviews from irate customers, etc.
Agreed I totally agree. The people who whine complain to no end of 1 or 5 dollars don't deserve to enjoy the benefits of a platform like this. I have spent countless thousands of dollars on other platform games ranging 40- 60 a shot only to see the same game in a bargain bin for 5-10 a few months later. I'm not gonna go cry about it or tell people that the game/developer stinks and to boycott over it. I just find it really immature. I just assume anyone fussing over a couple bucks is probably a small child which doesn't have an income. However it would be nice if they're voting rights could be modified lol (jk) . Seriously ya can't barely buy a stick of gum for a dollar these days though. *sigh*
I do not care how much money I spend on an app the point is I payed for it regardless of the price. Now you turn around a day or a week later and offer the same thing I payed for free? Of course I am going to be pissed off I want my money back. Why did I have to pay for something that you are now offering for free to everyone who wishes to download it.
Yep. The paying crowd tends to feel annoyed. Thats reasonable. And other developers and publishers tend to feel annoyed, too. Thats reasonable, too. There a few apps I really regret having bought, cause a few weeks later they have been free. I remember such things. I do not forget about such things. It makes me feel betrayed.
I agree. One dollar or seventy, the principle is the same. You're giving away something other people supported and paid money for. While they should complain in some other way besides giving 1-score reviews (since the price has nothing to do with gameplay), they do have every right to complain, as it's clear the developer sees the customers as marketing and money-making tools, not as actual human beings.
Yeah I've noticed this a lot, especially with free app a day. Tbh Tap Tap 3 isn't as good as the original. I found I could never actually press the buttons properly, you have to tap right in the centre target - too hard when pressing one every half second.
Both my games earned 2.5 stars after free promotions. My latest game Pollywog has 6 pages of 5 and 4 star written reviews in the USA with less than 2 pages of lesser stars but the "average" is 2.5 stars. I wrote up a big blog post on the Pollywog free promo with expanded data points for anyone interested.
I doubt that many anonymonus 1 star reviews associated with free-app-of-the-day promotions come from people that bought the game at full price. The majority of people buying games at full price probably aren't even aware of price changes. They don't revisit the AppStore page. And they don't bother reviewing apps, whether they liked it or not. While it varies from game to game, it's common for less than one percent of people downloading a game to review it. I can understand someone feeling betrayed if a game they just voluntarily paid a few bucks for suddenly became discounted or free, but look at it from the developer's side. Developers signing up for "free app of the day" promotions often have little to lose and are resorting to desperate measures to increase visibility. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Of course developers would like to get paid something for their work, but the risk/pain cuts both ways. On the original subject, there are plenty of games that are free and still manage to get respectable average user reviews. The trick appears to be avoiding things that might upset a user. This includes: - being "too difficult"; people hate to lose - having tricky controls - most subjectively, not being entertaining enough There are exceptions to this... to this day I'm utterly baffled why Appy's Face Fighter (lite or full) doesn't have a much higher user review rating than it does.
If anyone is making the point of "some people can't spare a dollar", that point is invalid. What kind of person who can't spare a dollar for an app has enough money to buy an iPhone, or even an iPod Touch?!?!?!?!?
Well, look at it this way. I buy an app, say, Tap Tap 3, I play it for a month or two, really enjoy it, then it goes free. I don't feel ripped off, I got a lot of play time before all those people who waited. And same with console games. I am going to buy Bad Company 2 today, and I know that in a few months, it will be cheaper, and in 6-12, probably half price. So I basically lost around $30-$50 (AU) on that, a lot more than an iPod game, but I don't feel ripped off because I got to play it a lot in those months before it went cheaper. $1 isn't much, people just need to stop complaining about everything.
Maybe paid games shouldn't ever be allowed to go free. 99c should be the lowest they can go. Imho, it hurts game devs in the long run with customers thinking, "I'm not going to buy that, it's going to be free someday."
I think a lot of the complaining has to do with age. I suspect or at least hope that most of those people are under the age of 18. I think that it also is a result of ease of use. There are some people who just like to complain and look for any reason to do so. Itunes gives those people an easy platform. The way I look at it, there are a lot of apps that I've paid for that have later gone free, but in turn, there are a lot of apps that were on my "to buy" list that went free and I picked them up then. It all balances out. Often times, it all comes down to patience. People buy something when it first comes out because they want it, then whine when it goes on sale. What they fail to understand is that everything goes on sale. A product remains at a certain price point as long as people are willing to pay that price. Once people who are willing to pay that price have bought it, it will go on sale, and the price will continue to incrementally decrease until the price bottoms out or the product runs out. That's just the way it works. If people want things cheaper, they need to practice a little patience. If they want it now, they need to understand that they are paying full price while others who wait will get it cheaper.
That's the exact same way I look at things. I think, "Oh this game just went on sale when I bought it at full price, but look at all the play time I've gotten." It helps me from getting disappointed. I agree complaining about a dollar lost for a game they enjoyed is ridiculous. They need to look at their life and see how many times they've lost a dollar outside iTunes. I bet it's a lot.
Its not the money they are loosing that annoys people, its the fact that they just got ripped off. The thing that annoys me more though is people who give bad ratings for no reason, I seen several that say great game and talk about the game as brilliant but rate it 1 star, its stupid and I cant figure it out. Or when people rate an actually brilliant game such as GTA:CW 1 star for something pathetic like the view, there are several ratings like that, they just say should be third person view and rate it 1 star, clearly they never even gave the game a chance, if they were going to do this surely they couldve figured out the birds eye view by screenshots or videos, but instead bought it and never gave it a chance
It is really not a good feeling when you paid for an app and then it goes free. But think about it. You can use / play the game early than the others. Free APP a Day is a good concept. I enjoy it. I still buy other apps if they are my style. It is hard to make those who rated 1 stars. Maybe the DEV try to make a period which the price will not drop/free. i.e The price will be same for 2 months. The user will know that if the price need drop period, they hold for a while and then buy it after drop price. They may feel better.
