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[Pampattitude]

Hey there!

I've release an Android app recently called Tipsoccer. It was my very first Android app (or published video game, for that matter) and I had had incredibly positive and/or helpful comments from my close friends when I released it.

Now, saturday, I received three bits that kind of crushed my positive attitude:

• A crash report with the following description: "It crashed, motherhumper" (s/humper/a very bad strong word/
• A review on the free version: 1 star, "is game does not open after installing. When I try to open the black screen goes on for a sec. and then app shuts down with out any explanation"
• A review on the paid version: 4 stars (which made the app rating leave the 5-stars club) with no message

And it's making me feel down. I know I can't force my customers to give helpful, precise comments. But, from these messages, I have no idea what went wrong and how to fix it. I mean, my game is nowhere near perfect but it's my baby, I poured my week-ends and week nights on this.

So how do you cope with negative and unhelpful comments? How do you do to not feel depressed about it?

[EDIT #1] Just got a new one.

• 5 stars, "Put more updates and the full game is free" (on the free version)

That's not helpful, and the guy has no idea why my app isn't free. How could he think "that'll probably reach out to him!"?

[starsrift]

Your friends will always offer you positive feedback. That's why their feedback is useless.
Sounds like your app has issues, probably on a certain device. It's up to you to find out why.

As far as the tone of the comments, you have to take everything with a big load of salt. Remember if someone actually gets angry, it's not because they're angry at you, it's because they really want - or wanted  - to play your game and are having trouble. It's passion, not hate.
Also, everybody wants everything for free.

[Mittens]

Trust me, anything people will say on the app store or google play is nothing compared to what you can get on the Steam forums.

I've had to deal with people not just posting vague or harsh reviews, but some posting deliberately misleading and false reviews.
Every time my game goes on sale, there's a group of 12 year old trolls that come around to the steam forums and start posting furiously hard to convince people not to buy. These guys don't even play the game, some of them never have, they just come to the forums to try and sabotage me

The way I deal with it is remember it's all just a game and eventually these rude kids will learn what working for a living is like. eventually they might appreciate the sheer amount of work that goes into the things they criticize to fervently.
 But even if they don't, why should I let their ignorant young lives pull down the quality of mine.
Why should I care what a child thinks of me? Their opinion has no weight or value, just remember that and keep striving to be positively reviewed by those individuals you look up to.

[ViktorTheBoar]

We didn't get so much extremely bad criticism, but that one time ended with me ignoring it like all 14yo opinions, and Sven (Viktor's author) almost getting a nervous breakdown. Eh, he'll get used to it :D

[Müsta Klaki]

Why should I care what a child thinks of me? Their opinion has no weight or value, just remember that and keep striving to be positively reviewed by those individuals you look up to.

I've actually had a thing for a while where I take insults from "undesirable" people as compliments. Like, if some asshole who nobody likes hates you, then you can be rest assured that you're probably doing something good, because they only like things like themselves.

Ergo, a person who likes stupid shit hates your stuff, that's reassurance that what you're doing isn't stupid shit.

[s0]

I've had to deal with people not just posting vague or harsh reviews, but some posting deliberately misleading and false reviews.

is there a way to have these false reviews deleted by steam (because there should be)

anyway i took a look at your steam page and it seems a lot of the complaints are about the game being "dead". unfortunately most gamers are stupid brats and will think your game has "died" unless u update constantly (im probably not telling you anything new here haha).

[Mittens]

I've had to deal with people not just posting vague or harsh reviews, but some posting deliberately misleading and false reviews.

is there a way to have these false reviews deleted by steam (because there should be)

anyway i took a look at your steam page and it seems a lot of the complaints are about the game being "dead". unfortunately most gamers are stupid brats and will think your game has "died" unless u update constantly (im probably not telling you anything new here haha).

I haven't yet asked the people at valve if they could take down some of the front page reviews (the one(s) telling people we have abandoned the game) but aside from personally requesting it, there's no easy way to admin the reviews unfortunately

[Jondog]

The way to deal with them is collect the info you can, in this case the game crashes, and do your best to ignore the rest.

Remember that they aren't targeting you specifically as everyone on the app store gets 1 star reviews for the game crashing.

[oahda]

It's not unhelpful. It's rude and less helpful than it could be, but it does tell you one thing: your app isn't working properly. And, seeing it as your baby, that should raise your concerns and make you try to fix it, if you can be bothered. See if you can find out more info. Try it on various phones your friends own, if you can, and see if the same problem occurs on any of those.

[Pampattitude]

Thanks for the replies!

Well, yeah, it did help me find a Unity3D "bug" I had.
But it's funny, I just can't comprehend how people can be suck douchebags sometimes. It takes quite some time to make a project on your own and get it released / published / out in the open, how can people be so insensitive to that? That'll always baffle me.

Mittens, if it isn't against the rules, what's the name of your project? I'd like to compare, see if I'm being a princess about that issue

[oahda]

Yeah, it's weird.

[s0]

Mittens, if it isn't against the rules, what's the name of your project? I'd like to compare, see if I'm being a princess about that issue

it's in his sig lol

[Slader16]

Mittens, if it isn't against the rules, what's the name of your project? I'd like to compare, see if I'm being a princess about that issue

it's in his sig lol

I've always assumed that Mittens was a girl 

[rj]

he's got "jackson leigh" in his email,

,

but what do i know

[Boreal]

Don't take it personally.  Most consumers don't know how much work goes into this stuff and thus can't understand why things go wrong.

[ViktorTheBoar]

Unhelpful criticism is a problem mostly because it's bloody useless.

As for giving something 4 stars, I used to be an offender. A long time ago, it seemed completely normal for me to give 4 stars to something you like, but reserving 5 stars only for "your most favorite things ever" . This is why like/dislike is a better mechanic for getting crowdgraded

[MeshGearFox]

TELL THEM THAT OPINIONS ARE LIKE ASSHOLES STOP

AND THEN SPRAY SOUR CREAM ON YOUR NIPPLES STOP

WHI LE   YOU   LOOK LIKE  MR STOP BEAN    STOP

[Mittens]

Mittens, if it isn't against the rules, what's the name of your project? I'd like to compare, see if I'm being a princess about that issue

Most of the nastiness was in the forums, much more than in the reviews.
I deleted or moved a lot of the more unhelpful stuff so the whole place looks a lot more constructive now
Unfortunately for you it means you won't see the worst of what we get given

[JWK5]

Putting your creativity out there is exposing a part of yourself, it is never going to feel good to have it poked and prodded but that is why creativity takes bravery and determination. If it feels upsetting and disappointing, don't try to rationalize why it shouldn't just accept that it does and despite that do the best you can with what you have to work with. If the comments are unhelpful and from them you can't figure any good solutions bide your time and wait for more comments to surface (and better yet, make some inquiries to see if others are having similar problems and are willing to give more info). At the very least, even if the comments aren't so great they are still a sign that people are playing your game, so you are not entirely down and out of the fight.

[helena32]

I cannot handle them. They sounds and appear so rude! But then I need to analyze negative critisism also in case I really need to work on making something better. So, like they said, if life gives you lemon have it with a pinch of salt.