Android By Ryan Whitwam Feb. 6, 2014 5:31 pm
When Electronic Arts announced a few months back that it was bringing the classic strategy game Dungeon Keeper to Android and iOS, fans of the original responded with equal parts excitement and trepidation. EA has a reputation for wringing out every bit of money it can from consumers, and that can really ruin a game. The game debuted worldwide last week and it was immediately criticized for outrageous in-app purchases, but the user reviews on Android have been overwhelmingly positive. So, what gives?
Like many games, Dungeon Keeper begs for a review after the tutorial. The screen that pops up for Android users has two buttons — one for “1-4 stars” and one for “5 stars.” Pressing the 5 stars button allows you to post your 5-star review to Google Play. However, pressing the 1-4 stars button does something different — it asks you to email EA. The iOS version just lets you post your review normally.
The game is essentially filtering out low reviews in Google Play by diverting those users to the email form. Sure, you can leave the game and find its listing in the Play Store to manually give it a bad review, but those reviews are easily drowned out by all the praise EA’s in-game menu will funnel in. Google’s developer guidelines specifically prohibit this sort of behavior; it says “Don’t try to manipulate ratings” in bold letters.
EA has used the game’s high reviews as a defense of its in-game economy, which can cost the player the equivalent of several dollars to skip very long (12-24 hours) wait times for actions to be completed. Now we know why it’s rated so highly.
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Like many games, Dungeon Keeper begs for a review after the tutorial. The screen that pops up for Android users has two buttons — one for “1-4 stars” and one for “5 stars.” Pressing the 5 stars button allows you to post your 5-star review to Google Play. However, pressing the 1-4 stars button does something different — it asks you to email EA. The iOS version just lets you post your review normally.
The game is essentially filtering out low reviews in Google Play by diverting those users to the email form. Sure, you can leave the game and find its listing in the Play Store to manually give it a bad review, but those reviews are easily drowned out by all the praise EA’s in-game menu will funnel in. Google’s developer guidelines specifically prohibit this sort of behavior; it says “Don’t try to manipulate ratings” in bold letters.
EA has used the game’s high reviews as a defense of its in-game economy, which can cost the player the equivalent of several dollars to skip very long (12-24 hours) wait times for actions to be completed. Now we know why it’s rated so highly.
More...
