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This shouldn't be allowed (Tapdefence)

I

intranicity

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
2
0
Hi all, new on here, but not to macs, started way back on a Quadra 650.

Been moved to write this post though as I think what is happening with Tapjoy, is immoral, deceitful and not in anyones best interest.

Tapdefence was a great little free app, over the weekend it had an update to version 2.2, downloaded the "Free" update which included 2 new towers.

Launch the game only to find that to get these new "Free" towers, you were required either to buy another app that was listed or complete an "Offer" most of these required the giving away of highly personal information.....

I like many other users rated the app on the app store with a 1 star rating saying how dishonest etc it was to issue a free update that required some sort of payment to use it and there ratings started to plummet, they had about 60 1 star ratings and very little else for that update.

Today I notice that they have loads of 5 star ratings, and guess what, one of the offers to get the tower is to rate the game on the app store......

Surely it isn't in our/apples interest to let developers so blatently manipulate the App store rating system. I'd be interested to know others opinions of this

By the way if you look at Tapjoys web site, there is no mention of games on there anymore, just there wonderful new SDK that gets you in the top 25 apps and delivers you revenue etc...... SELL OUT

Andy
 
What's the big deal here? You don't have to use the new towers to play the game. Actually, I wished I could go back two versions. I didn't really like the last change before this one, since the maps look different to me and now it's hard to compare to how I did before.
 
CylonGlitch said:
A company wants to make money, I can't believe it!!!
Click to expand...

You missed the point, I thought that they had a great product, but most developers are far more honest than they appear to be.

If they made the original "Free" version a lite version and then charged people to buy there new version, I'd have paid to buy it BUT to get people to HAVE to pay for a "free" update seems wrong AND the way they are trying to manipulate their ratings IS wrong,

"hey guys, we did an update and lots of people didn't like the way we did it and gave us crap ratings, have the bits for free now as long as you rate it on the app store so are ratings appear better"

That kind of approach doesn't seem right?
 
I take the star rating system with a grain of salt...I go more on # of votes and reviews. The truth comes out on the app there, rather than the "generated 5 star awesomeness" all apps claim to be.

<plug> Fastappstore.com or fastapp.org has a great filter metheod for this problem. </plug>
 
personally

i go mostly on a lite version if they have it then if I like the game enough I buy it simple. what you like and what I like might be completely different so I am careful when looking over reviews. and if anybody wants my personal info they get a no from me. ;)
 
Yup, I gave that app a one star review few days ago...and yesterday...I saw like 70 5 star reviews. This is totally unacceptable; I can understand that they want to make money, but their attempt to manipulate the app store rating for their app is just pathetic. :mad:
 
I agree with the OP that these new forms of advertising is over the edge (although quite creative). I wonder if they are making more $$$ this way or if they had charged $0.99 for the app...
 
I agree. I still love the game but many of the offers are misleading to say the least. Most of them are surveys that asks for your phone number (which the game instructs earlier to fill out in order to obtain the PIN). If you follow, you will be signed up for $10/month SMS spam. That is borderline illegal.

If you go to the company's website, there's no information about the game. Only information about how to make money through iPhone.
 
I agree with the OP and with the people disagree.
I don't think that they should advertise as free only to charge for it once in the app. But i do have to say that it is a free app and most of the game is free. This is just an example of DLC that became available through OS 3.0
 
iphone.aggie said:
What's the big deal here? You don't have to use the new towers to play the game. Actually, I wished I could go back two versions. I didn't really like the last change before this one, since the maps look different to me and now it's hard to compare to how I did before.
Click to expand...

You might be able to... what I do is upgrade on the iPhone and check it out. If they pull any unadvertised stunts with the upgrade, I delete it from the iPhone and restore the old version from the next iTunes sync.

Conceivably, if you have Time Machine, you may be able to go get an even older copy of the app and put it into your iTunes to restore.
 
Small White Car said:
Really?

A company is bribing people to give them 5 star reviews and neither of you have a problem with that?

Are you ok with that elsewhere? If a publisher pays people to rate their books highly on Amazon.com, is that cool too?
Click to expand...

I don't pay any attention to reviews in the apps themselves. There are too many people who either post to downgrade an app, because it may compete with their app, or vice versa. Anyway, I was mainly focusing on the app having an update that required you to buy something to get it. The game still works. Also, the reviews that I do focus on are those from independent reviewers or from people here on MR. So, whatever they did is no big deal to me.
 
Small White Car said:
Really?

A company is bribing people to give them 5 star reviews and neither of you have a problem with that?

Are you ok with that elsewhere? If a publisher pays people to rate their books highly on Amazon.com, is that cool too?
Click to expand...

As I said, if you don't like it, don't buy it. And yeah, I REALLY don't like the tactic they chose, I think it is 100% manipulation of the system. Thus I won't give them money, for any of their products. Fortunately this just happened because I was considering buying this app, now, nope.
 
you can get both for free

2 days ago i could download one free app to unlock one of the towers. i just checked again and another free app appeared so i was able to get both towers for free, and i just deleted the stupid apps it made me download after i unlocked the towers :p
 
Ha, just got the AT&T phone bill.

For one of the locked towers, I filled out a survey which without any warning, signed me up for $9.99 SMS subscription service. I put a STOP to it but lo-and-behold, $9.99 charge on my AT&T bill. This is downright evil.
 
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