In a recent review of a Racing game from the WM Marketplace we came across a disturbing practice by one particular developer. When a customer is looking for apps / games from the marketplace they usually have to go by the description of the app , the screenshots and user reviews. Since the Marketplace is not very popular among WM users the user review part of that gets thrown out the window. So as we see it the Screenshots of the app plays a very important part in making the decision as to purchase the app or not.
Screenshot
When our reviewer saw the screenshot from Snow Rally City Stage on the Marketplace he was quite impressed and thought this would be a great game but he was in for a surprise and a nasty one at that. The gameplay is not even half as good as what it looks like in the screenshot.
We had noticed that the developer has used this tactics with another one of their games which was listed in Microsoft Total Access ( our review of that game from a while back ). The Marketplace has the app ( with the fake screenshots )
(Total Access image on left, our screenshot on right)
This sort of behavior to boost sales is unacceptable and Microsoft should taken down these fake screenshots from the marketplace. We did try and contact the developer via the email id from Marketplace and we haven’t got a reply from them yet. We will try and contact Microsoft in regards to this issue and update the post as we get more info.
Have you come across other developers that employ such shady practice , do let us know about it via the comments .
Update : Have changed the title which was deemed to be a bit too harsh..
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Yeah TouchTwit doesnt even work. The app is full of bugs and gets the phone frozen but is still on marketplace. The company does not even return support emails.
we recently did a review of the app and it was working ( the reviewer took a video of the app in action )
http://www.bestwindowsmobileapps.com/2010/01/10...
I will check the current status and get back to you ..
Hahahahaha, that is all.
A couple of things:
1.Look at the company's Twitter page. The last two tweets. It speaks for itself.
2. Look at the reviews on Marketplace
3. Try to set a refresh for 2.5 minutes, and please post if 2.5 mins are really 2.5 mins.
4. I am not sure what your criteria for testing an app is, but try using it for a week and post your impressions.
Thanks
Haha thats just evil :>, I also noticed that useless app called “MyLight” by WebApps, LLC – had all its reviews removed recently. The poor bugger purchasing this app has no idea its a crappy static picture of a flame with a few extra static colours and pictures. Alot of people used the review feature to complain but I see a few months ago all the reviews (atleast 30 complaints) had been taken off.
People look at it and think its a WM version of the popular virtual zippo app and get duped! Anyone ever got a refund from Microsoft?
DONT QUOTE me on this but I am pretty sure that when an app gets updated I believe that all previous rating and comments are cleared.
Unlike the other App Store ( looking at you Apple ) Microsoft offers refund ( haven't personally used it but the option exist ) so if you are not happy you can always demand a refund
I used it for months before I bought an HTC phone… worked flawlessly and I liked it much better than Twikini or moTweets.
My biggest problem is the marketplace app doesn't work on my htc p3400i. It freezes the device. Never shuts down. Always I have to soft reset to close the marketplace.
It will not work with the new Twitter API. Actually, if you can download it and report on how it works, it would be great
According to Cris who reviewed the app it started working a few days back. but crashes when you try to quit the app
Isn't this just the difference between a device with proper GL drivers installed and one without?
HTC is notorious for not delivering good drivers with their devices (something to do with added licensing costs from Qualcomm I believe). Other manufacturers (Samsung, SonyEricsson) fare much better and at XDA developers you can find updated driver packs that enable smooth textures on HTC devices as well. I've seen Need for Speed on my Touch HD go from the pixelated mess I see in the above right screenshot to nice and smooth as in the other, and with dramatically improved framerates to boot!
Please check it out and report back! I'd love to see if this clears things up.
it is a possibility .. we will check it out and report our findings .. do u happen to have link to the thread on xda for the updated drivers ?
Great!
Try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?...
Make sure your device is supported though. Check the FAQ for details: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=...
thanks I did a quick search for it on xda and got it. will have the screenshots up maybe by tomorrow
here is a screenshot after the 3ddrivers were applied to the TP2.. http://www.1800pocketpc.com/blog/wp-content/upl... not nuch of an improvement. but the video playback on core player did get some noticeable improvement
Bummer :-/
Stuff like Experiment 13 looks great on my diamond 2 and performs very well. Should be possible for all developers to create something with high quality graphics!
Too bad the drivers didn't help. Now let the developer explain how he got the game to look so good on those screenshots!
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