Ways you'd improve the appstore

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by sinagog, Jul 18, 2016.

  1. sinagog

    sinagog Well-Known Member

    Aug 15, 2014
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    I know none of these'll ever happen, but one can always dream.

    One thing I'd certainly do is scrap the rule where every time you release an update, it hides all the reviews you've accrued thus far (unless you click "all reviews"). It's hard enough getting your app attention as it is without having to start the whole process fresh every time you actually work hard to improve your game. I understand the reasoning to some degree- you want to emphasise whether a new update has improved or broken or completely changed the game. But surely just making the newest reviews show up first will cover this.

    Anyway there are a bunch more things I'd do, but I'll save them for you to bring up 'cause ranting's not good for the blood pressure. I just feel sorry for so many devs having to ice skate uphill when they really shouldn't have to.
     
  2. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    Jun 3, 2014
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    Pay thousands dollars for Shaun Musgrave to play all day and handle it. Or a link to best TA games would be a great start. Lol

    The rating thing really unnerves me. You made a good point. They started some lists that are a good start point, however they need to improve them. They have an essential game brand, however you can't even find those games on a list. That makes no sense, in my opinion.

    The main point, though, is that Apple should store the games we've already bought even if the dev doesn't pay the early fee. They cannot sell further copies, but we should not loose access to which we already bought. If they are too greedy, they could even charge for this kind of service. I don't know if there's any kind of legal issue with devs, though. If not, shame on Apple.
     
  3. sinagog

    sinagog Well-Known Member

    Aug 15, 2014
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    Great point. Haha, I remember when I first got the internet and was strangely paranoid that the internet would 'run out' soon if we're not careful. Being as space is infinite. and Apple are the richest company on the planet, throwing a few bones to the customers like storing old games surely wouldn't bankrupt them, and may even make people feel more inclined to pay for a few apps knowing there's some permanence to their purchase. There's a user on here who'd reply to that saying we're just renting the software or something like that, but I hate the idea that everything decent on the appstore has an air of disposability about it, like a one-use rubber...sheathe that will end up in the bin the moment you're through with it.
     
  4. ackmondual

    ackmondual Well-Known Member

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    #4 ackmondual, Jul 21, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2016
    AFAIK, they won't bother with this since they're already making PLENTY of $$ off the other top devs who provide them with plenty of their massive 30% cut.

    I don't know how much effort and time would need to go into implementing this, but I'd reckon it's still too much for them to budge

    Now that it was brought up, the ability to DL older versions of games, for compatibility's sake

    [shrug] Yet, it is what it is. Some folks were touting how great gaming is on iOS, how it's the wave of the future, "mobile gaming rulez, consoles droolz", physical media sucks... these are some nice pros, but as always, there are trade offs. We DO have to deal with software that not only do we not own, but we have to take extra precautions to back up if we want to play it 20 years from now. There's freemium DEFINITELY being here to to stay, even if there are a few premium titles around and still kicking.


    As another poster mentioned in another thread here on TA (IIRC, Eli)... many of us here on TA likely have enough games to last us at least a year, to many years. And dare I say, this is just for iOS. That's not even counting PC, Steam, console, and handheld gaming.

    Me.. I realize I still have a huge backlog of even just iOS games. I'm going to get through as much of them as possible. If my Ipod Touch 5 runs out of battery, I'll have to decide if I want to stick with the same, dinky, 4" screen in an IpT6, get a used Iph6/+, or just cut my losses and move on. Here, I've already treated the App Store as "disposable"
     
  5. JasonLL

    JasonLL Well-Known Member

    Feb 21, 2014
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    #5 JasonLL, Jul 22, 2016
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2016
    Couple of ways I would improve the App Store:

    1. Premium games should have a trial period before the user spends any money. The trial could be anywhere from fifteen minutes to two hours depending on the style of game.

    2. Developers being able to respond to reviews in the App Store. Way to many unconstructive reviews that are harmful to niche games and small developers.

    3. Allow optional documentation / guides / extra goodies to be downloaded (like GOG).

    4. App Store Rewards - For example: spending a certain amount of money over time gives you App Store cash that can be spent partially, in full, or for a discount on any app in the store.
     
  6. saansilt

    saansilt 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Mar 23, 2013
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    1) Make all freemuim games be the only things appear on search results. Even if the person looks up something like Aralon only promote casino games. ESPECIALLY casino games.

    2) Fire the approval team and hire a barrel of simpering monkeys to do their job. The level of competence from the approval team has just tripled.

    3) Force everyone to use gamecenter ONLY. No gamecenter, no publish. Even for stuff like netflix and google. Our servers can totally handle that burden.

    4) Every time someone gets a new account auto download "Clash of Clans", "Candy Crush Saga", "Game of War" and keep them undeletable.

    5) Force an appstore subscription fee to buy and keep premium games. Finding them via random searching costs extra. Should you every fail to pay this fee, all your premium games are locked until repayment.

    6) Laugh manically as the Toucharcade app is removed due to failure to include gamecenter since it is stuck in an "UPDATE AND DIE" situation anyway.

    7) Smile smugly at android's doomed marketplace while developers scramble to keep this on from burning to the ground.

    8) Did I mention CASINO APPS? All the casino apps all the time, with devs of said apps able to force install those games on people's phones! Tier the prices for X number of installs per Y amount of dollars.

    9) Fire the gamecenter team. It is already up anyway, it can't possibly crash now!

    10) MONEDA! SIEMPRE EL MONEDA!
     
  7. DonnyDJ76

    DonnyDJ76 Well-Known Member

    Nov 1, 2011
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    Totally love the post above:D

    The App Store needs to add a lot more featured games each week. If it wasn't for TA, I'd be lost other than looking at other people's games in Game Center. This site has exceeded its competitor astronomically in terms of content, reviews and updates. Hopefully, advertisers will pick up on that.

    Point being is that so many games that I learn about from the posts on the forums on this site turn out to be winners. I usually know what game appeals to me and vice versa.

    The App Store features virtually a very little amount of games that are worthy in each genre as well. Some of them are even junk. Feature more arcade, puzzle, action, RPGs, sports, music etcetera! Around 18 new and worthy games are featured now and half of them were featured the week before. Feature 30 brand new titles each week, as well as previously new and noteworthy titles.
     
  8. thumbs07

    thumbs07 Well-Known Member

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    Thought of one today:
    Developers they want to try be compatible to as many devices as possible so as to max their sales. However, at the same time, to do so they have to neglect sometimes certain improvements. So what I noticed a game has done, in a new update they've boosted the performance so it's unfortunately not as compatible on older devices. I think the App Store might be an idea to have multiple downloads, so a release where it's most compatible is available, and a release taken care of the extra capabilities is also an option.

    Also I think Apple if a game makes sales over a certain number, Apple should waive the annual fee for them.
     
  9. Dailon80

    Dailon80 Well-Known Member

    Nov 10, 2014
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    Nailed it! Agree especially on the harsh reviews
    I have played premium games that I paid good money for that rock only to see way too many stupid negative reviews and you know it's generally people whose damn device isn't even compatible that always burns me
     
  10. mr_bez

    mr_bez Well-Known Member

    Dec 20, 2012
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    1. Better handling of device compatibility. Warn if app won't work on your device.
    2. Treat games and apps separately.
    3. Mandatory tagging of features: iCloud, MFi controller support, consumable IAP, non-consumable IAP, ads, etc. Allow filtering by these.
    4. Proper horizontal screenshot support, FFS.
    5. Don't require a password every time you leave a review.
    6. Links to professional reviews on TA and other sites.
     
  11. Meshugenah Games

    Meshugenah Games Well-Known Member

    Aug 4, 2016
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    Ban the Kardashians.
     
  12. rasterzone

    rasterzone Active Member

    Aug 2, 2016
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    Lots of good points above!

    Here's what I'd like to see:
    *Allow using a YouTube video instead of having to upload app previews for every device
    *Allow promo codes for IAP
    *Allow developers to preview their App Store page before they submit

    -Alan
     
  13. Talbs

    Talbs Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2011
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    Make all apps universal but have an iPad only section. Then particularly iPhone 6+ users like myself can run iPad apps without jb. Put a warning popup before downloading if iPad.

    Pertaining to that, have a strict 5 minute timed window where ppl can instant refund if it's not working. No forms no questions. Say when you're deleting the app there can be a refund question if within those 5 minutes.

    Crazy ideas I know.
     
  14. DonnyDJ76

    DonnyDJ76 Well-Known Member

    Nov 1, 2011
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    Amen to that.
     
  15. DonnyDJ76

    DonnyDJ76 Well-Known Member

    Nov 1, 2011
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    It's disgraceful to see the minimum amount of apps that are now in the new and noteworthy sections, including all game categories. Many quality titles are not getting the recognition they deserve, and therefore developers are suffering. Almost half the games are that are featured are these endless minimalistic games with minimal production values. So many games that should be featured that are not. Rather than featuring 16-20 titles each week, (half of them were already there the previous week), feature 40 titles each week, with 30 of them being brand new.
    I have no reason to kiss ass here, but honestly, if it wasn't for Touch Arcade, I would be in the dark.
    If the entire GC app is being eliminated in iOS 10 , I'm never upgrading from 9. Looking at GC friends' games is another way that I find titles that might be personally appealing.
     
  16. ackmondual

    ackmondual Well-Known Member

    Dec 25, 2009
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    Allow devs to give away as many free promo codes as possible. Apple's concerned about letting these users unfairly rate the apps, but I'd say just don't let them give ratings then. A lot more developers would be willing to use Kickstarter to developer their iOS apps.
     

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