I'll download yours if you download mine...

RovioMobile suggested that we should have a thread for developers with free apps to post their app links and trade reviews/ratings.

My app is ActionChess Lite, and it only has one (5 star) review in the US store. (Unfortunately there are also about 10 one and two star ratings.) It wouldn't take many 5 star ratings to offset those, fortunately!

Who's in? Post your app links and let us know if whose apps you intend to rate.

UPDATE: In the interest of fairness and decency (you know, the kind that everyone knows exists on the app store), I'm not asking for 5 star ratings. I AM asking you to commit to downloading the apps posted here, and rating them if you feel it's appropriate. Of course, I'd love it if, in the case of my app, it was a 5 star rating, and if you don't feel it's worth that, you can use your own judgment whether to rate the app.

I'll still be downloading all the free apps posted in this thread myself, and rating them FAIRLY.

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Last edited by grid; 04-23-2009 at 04:47 PM. Reason: arn is right. all hail arn. ;)

We should not do this...

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Last edited by Sparks; 04-23-2009 at 03:24 PM.

Downloaded played and review left!

Tis a very cool concept and good game. Innovative and smart. I think the graphics could obviously do with some attention though.

My game is Movie Challenge Lite

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Last edited by JuncoPartner; 04-23-2009 at 05:56 PM. Reason: Clarification and actual thoughts on game

just to interject something...

I think leaving automatic 5-star ratings on other apps is a bit sketchy and generally "frowned upon"

We don't allow shilling on the site, so I don't think we should be organizing effectively the same thing in the App Store.

arn

I agree, sorry.

Nice flip-flop, Sparky. You are truly a political olympian.

I agree pretty much with this. Personally I'd rather someone download my app and give an honest review. Not just for other users but an honest review is a lot more useful to me.

That said, I think when the apps in question are free I don't think a biased review is really all that big a deal. It's not like you are deliberately cheating someone or potential customers out of their money. I know its a bit of a grey area but hey the person who reads the review is only losing a few minutes on the app if they dont like it, not actual cash. At the same time they are potentially going to download a game that they really like that otherwise a negative review might have put them off getting.

In terms of paid apps I certainly dont and wouldnt advocate biased reviews.

Sue me.

I know this is slightly off topic, but what does it actually take to get a 5 star average on the App Store??

My app iScreamer! has 2 four-star and 8 five-star, but on the computer it has a 4.5 average, but on the mobile app store it is a 5 star average. Any thoughts???

Hmm. I had actually not considered this "shilling", although I do see how it could be construed as such. I've modified the post to be less explicit about asking for a 5 star rating. Of course I'd be happy to have more downloads at all, so that is now the primary goal.

I think there are a lot of factors that go into a person's review, and we've all seen app store reviews where the text is simply glowing praise, but the rating is only one star. I think the UI for ratings in the app store leaves a lot to be desired (with the most egregious omission that of any sort of confirmation when your review or rating has been submitted).

I guess another thing is that I don't think there's any harm in asking for a 5 star rating. I feel like, as something I've created, it's my duty to be as positive about it as possible. I guess I justify the moral ambiguity of asking for others in at least in a couple of different ways. 1) I think this is a relatively small number of folks, most of whom are struggling just to get our apps noticed, much less rated. 2) As I said, there are a lot of factors that go into how someone feels about an app: art, gameplay, sound, etc.. I think another of those factors is brand and/or brand awareness. By posting here, and asking for help from other devs, I'm essentially asking them to rate my app based on their opinion of me. As the dev, I am essentially the brand. I don't think that's any different than some ngmoco fanboy rating the new game he just downloaded before he even plays it. (Of course, we all know how crap that is, so maybe that argument is turning on me.)

Another thing is that asking for a rating is not at all like asking for a review. Any press is good press in terms of getting eyeballs on your product. But when a product has fewer than 20 ratings or reviews, everyone should know they aren't looking at a useful rating. There simply haven't been enough eyeballs to make a fair assessment. I suppose where I'm falling now is just wanting to get more downloads. I assume that, once you've played my game, of course you'll want to rate it 5 stars. But if you can't say anything nice... I would just rather you not say anything at all.

But that does not apply to the forums, or personal communication! I want to hear all critical feedback, I really do, and my plan is most definitely to update the game based on that kind of feedback.