Is Karg the iTunes App Store Watchdog?
An iTunes App Store watchdog targets two game developers with his comments.
A few days ago a wrote an article about some of the more interesting game descriptions I’d come across at the iTunes App Store. While writing up that article I found a humorously negative comment posted by iTunes user Karg about a game called Pick Fruits.
The negative comment I discovered was titled “Better things to do with a dollar. . .” and rated the Pick Fruits game with a single star. Karg’s comment instructed people thinking about buying the game to “Take a nice, crisp dollar bill out of your wallet and put it in your mouth and start chewing.” In doing so, Karg states, “You will get more entertainment and value from that dollar” then you would from buying this game. At first I thought this was just another negative review left in an exagerted and humorous tone, but then I saw the same comment on several more games. Was Karg just spamming this comment to random games? Nope.
Karg’s “better things to do with a dollar” comment appears word for word on exactly 12 iTunes games. While the games receiving this comment range in genre from educational to puzzle, they all have one thing in common, they were developed by Shekhar Yadav. This is by no coincidence either, Karg specifically targets Yadav in his comment accusing him of somehow sneaking these application into the iTunes store. What’s more interesting is that this wasn’t Kargs first set of negative comments. Prior to Yadav, Karg targeted Jirbo for sticking spaces in their games names in order to achieve better placement on the iTunes store.
While, it’s nice to know people are out there acting as App Store watchdogs, Apple’s current system of comments is already being heavily abused and misused. I fear this type of mass negative commenting is only going to give people inspiration to further abuse the comments. I really wish Apple would legitimize comments by only allowing them from people who’ve downloaded/paid for the game.
By: Aaron Robbins
Loading ...
I read this post…..its very interesting………….gaming network is distribute its network all over the world….
That’s some good sleuthing. I always wonder what motivates people to spend their time leaving personal attacks as reviews. Really hoping that Apple fixes the review system at some point.
Wow… I’m glad someone out there agrees with me. I’m somewhat of a watchdog myself, but of lame useless comments, and “reviews” left by people who belong in the WoW forums. I’ve editted my own reviews to comment on this people, mostly to no avail. I’ve even gone through the “Report a Concern” process, and have yet to see even the OFFENSIVE comments removed.
And yet… it takes like a day for the comment to show up, as if it’s being submitted for review. Clearly, it is being reviewed by a trained monkey with no level of literacy or comprehension at all, or just hates the world.
An excellent suggestion to only allow people who’ve actually purchased the software to make a review. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people complain, Apple might do something about it.
Great comment Peregrine, love the WoW reference. I’ve seen several comments make it onto the app store that were way, way over the the line of appropriateness. Like you, I’ve used the “report a concern” option but haven’t seen much action on Apple’s part.
I only read the comments for games after reviewing them and only then for comedic value.