I've read quite a few reviews on the app store and received quite a few for Whizzo's apps. The quality of the reviews vary wildly and it's really a shame that there is no way for a developer to respond to reviews and/or somehow contact a reviewer to understand their concerns better.
Sometimes you luck out and a user that leaves an App Store review also happens to register on your forum. Well, okay, that happened once but in my imaginary happy-world it occurs to others more frequently. In my particular case, I was able to contact the reviewer through my forum, understand the issue they had and resolve it. I was also fortunate that the reviewer updated their review with a higher rating and complemented my responsiveness:
Loved Rescue Raiders, this is great (4-stars)
The developer was very responsive, one bug he found and sought me out to explain. Great product.
That's a win-win from my standpoint.
Of course we'd all love nothing but shiny reviews, but you're going to have people that don't like some aspect of your app. The best you can hope for is that they're nice enough to articulate what it is they don't like so you have some hope of addressing it. An example from Armor Raiders Lite:
do not get (1 star)
It's a good game. Just its impossible to beat and you get little to nothing ammo. By the time you refuel your units are dead. Also you get only 2 lives and the computer literally tries to crash into you. All the ground units 1 hit ko you. If the devs wanna improve. More ammo. Lives. Make it easier. If not then forget making money.
Ok, so we'll ignore the fact that this is a 1-star review whose first sentence is "it's a good game." This is clearly a user that is frustrated by the game's difficulty on the first level (the only level the Lite version allows). This is a criticism that I've heard from more than one person and there's an update in development that will try to improve it. There are a couple of inaccuracies (e.g. ground units kill you with 1 hit) but this user at least spent the time to try and articulate what he didn't like about the game. If you happen to have left the review, thank you for doing that.
Where it gets frustrating is when you get a review that can't provide you any insight into the reviewer's thoughts on the game. An example from Mayan Madness Free:
Lame (1-star)
Waste of time
There's not much you can do with a review like that. Ignoring the fact that "waste of time" seems a bit excessive, there's no indication of why the game is perceived as lame. That's frustrating to a developer that wants to deliver apps that people enjoy. As for the review's tone, I guess we all know you need a thick-skin to deal with anonymous people's opinions on the Internet :)
The worst are the flat-out malicious reviews. I don't really understand where they come from or why people do them. Here's a good example from Mayan Madness (the paid version). To provide context for the review, up until this point the app had nothing but five star reviews and in the description I had posted a thank you to the users who had made it a five-star app.
Not Anymore (1-star)
Poorly done. Hoping for improvements in future updates. People leaving 5 stars work for the company. Of the Mayan themed apps (and there are many), this is the worst one.
The title of the review (Not Anymore) indicates that this user was somehow annoyed that the app had an average rating of five stars and was intent on changing that. Does this person think I killed his dog or something?
"Poorly done" -- another review that is impossible to act on. And this reviewer "hopes for improvements" but provides no insight into what they feel needs improving.
"People leaving 5 stars work for the company" is a good one. Whizzo is a two-person company and neither of us had posted a review for the app. I won't lie: of the six 5-star reviews left at that point, there was one unsolicited review left by a volunteer beta tester for the game (who I know loves the game since he was still playing it like it was going out of style) and an unsolicited review left by the nephew of the game's graphic designer (who also really liked the game). Uninformed comments like that are malicious and unnecessary.
"Of the Mayan themed apps (and there are many), this is the worst one." I really would have appreciated an expert on Mayan-themed iPhone games (especially one that has played all the others to determine mine was the worst one) providing some feedback on how it could be made better. Oh well... better slap on another layer of skin to maintain the requisite thickness.
As we see, App Store reviews are a mixed bag. There are a few gems that can actually help you improve things and maybe even make your users feel like you are directly responding to their concerns. And there are others that make you question why you even bother getting out of bed in the morning.
So I'll send out a request to all would-be reviewers out there: if you don't like a Whizzo app, contact us through this website or, better yet, join our forum. Where possible, we'll try to improve things. But we need your help to do that.
And, to end on a positive note, here are a few nice reviews for Whizzo apps. Thanks to all that left them -- it's what keeps us going:
Best game since Contra (5-stars)
Love it. Reminds me of games when they were games and not life styles.
This game is awesome (5-stars)
U guys made an awesome game keep up the good work love it.
Great (5-stars)
For a game that is free, more than expected. Has not crashed once and is simple and fun.
Real cool clown (5-stars)
Fun fast game. Recommended.