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Avoid the Apple App Store

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Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#81

Post by scarface74 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #10
jonatanheyman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your opinion on the Minesweeper clones? Shouldn't they be allowed on the App Store? What about Scrabble? Or Tetris? Also - like the post says - the app is in Swedish with a Swedish dictionary. Wordle is unplayable for anyone who doesn't speak English. Point taken about the wording though, I've updated the blog post to say: "I figured I could make a Swedish Wordle-style game myself"

Microsoft does not have an official Minesweeper application for iOS, never has, and probably never will, so clones are more acceptable in that case. Scrabble and Tetris are actually trademarked names and have official applications as far as I know. They can sue any competitor for trademark infringement. There are competitors like "Block Puzzle," but they may predate the official Tetris for presence, but I'm not certa…

I bought a Tetris game from EA back when I had an original iPod Touch when the App Store was first introduced.

It was a one time purchase. It was never updated for larger screens and disappeared with the 32 bit to 64 bit transition.

Of course EA released another version around the iPhone 5 with ads an in-app purchases (?)

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#82

Post by eps »

jonatanheyman wrote: post #6
eps wrote: post #5

Well, this does look like a straight Wordle copy. It is also disingenious to say that's a copy of Lingo, when it's bloody obvious it's a Wordle clone. The fact that other clones were approved by Apple points at another issue.

What's your opinion on the Minesweeper clones? Shouldn't they be allowed on the App Store? What about Scrabble? Or Tetris? Also - like the post says - the app is in Swedish with a Swedish dictionary. Wordle is unplayable for anyone who doesn't speak English. Point taken about the wording though, I've updated the blog post to say: "I figured I could make a Swedish Wordle-style game myself"

If Minesweeper, Scrabble or Tetris were the whirlwind phenomenon similar to Wordle, of which you made a clone trying to ride their coattails and had it rejected, then your question would've been relevant.

But they are not, so it's just a random question only tangentially related and an answer that has very little to do with your situation.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#83

Post by franciscop »

viktorcode wrote: post #56
jonatanheyman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your opinion on the Minesweeper clones? Shouldn't they be allowed on the App Store? What about Scrabble? Or Tetris? Also - like the post says - the app is in Swedish with a Swedish dictionary. Wordle is unplayable for anyone who doesn't speak English. Point taken about the wording though, I've updated the blog post to say: "I figured I could make a Swedish Wordle-style game myself"

You are assuming that the original copyright owner is always against the clones. Sometimes they just don't care about it.

The original copyright owner has allegedly nothing to do here; this is Apple rejecting games based on Apple's copycats guidelines, not based on DMCAs as far as it's shown.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#84

Post by pmarreck »

If you make a game that specifically deals with one particular language, do you automatically own the rights to all language versions of that game? I think this is a difficult question to answer and may be part of the problem. For example, Wordle (English) likely has a catered list of 5-letter words; someone else would have to completely redo this work for any other language

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#85

Post by squeaky-clean »

yawn wrote: post #24
ectospheno wrote: post #13

I love the App Store. If you want my money then you will be on the App Store. I have purchased zero items for use on my phone from places outside the App Store. I am very happy with this. I love my walled garden. I purchase apple products for this as I consider it a feature. I understand why some people don’t like this and don’t participate. I spend very little time discussing it as people should be able to make thei…

This sentiment comes up every time people complain about the App Store. If you only want to use Apple's App Store, great--keep using it the same way you've always been using it. Nothing will change for _you_. > What I don’t get is the angry soap box lectures from the people who disagree. The failure of people to put themselves in other people's shoes is mind-boggling sometimes. There's a reason why so many people are…

> If you only want to use Apple's App Store, great--keep using it the same way you've always been using it. Nothing will change for _you_.

That's not really true. The security implications. The effort of having to fix my mom's phone because she got tricked into sideloading something.

The last day of my dad's life in a hospital bed was interrupted by my mom's malware filled android phone playing voice advertisements for a casino app every 30 minutes. It was from some supposed "emoji pack" she installed online. I got her an iPhone the next week.

Let me have a locked down device. Opening it up will negatively affect the experience of users who want that.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#86

Post by pmarreck »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #18
wackget wrote: post #14

Wow, that gallery of Wordle clones is really infuriating, especially when seen in the context of OP's submission. The absolute gall of Apple to reject OP's submission repeatedly despite him providing differentiating features... but then to allow all those trash-tier blatant clones into the app store. That's what infuriates me the most.

If I were Apple, the clones should not be on the App Store and Apple appears to be removing them. However, I don't really know if the OP's original submission should be approved either. Yes, it uses a different language, but the name is very similar, it's being released around the same time as a trend, it looks like a clone.

There is no sale of a Swedish Wordle app that would impinge on a sale of an English Wordle app, so this reasoning makes no sense.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#87

Post by ninth_ant »

eps wrote: post #5

Well, this does look like a straight Wordle copy. It is also disingenious to say that's a copy of Lingo, when it's bloody obvious it's a Wordle clone. The fact that other clones were approved by Apple points at another issue.

Banning low-effort clones would make the App Store a better experience for me as a consumer. So the fact that Apple rejected this wordle clone makes me like the App Store more, not less.

Obviously Apple isn’t 100% successful given the screenshot of other clones allowed in, but I hope they improve — not weaken — that process of weeding them out.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#88

Post by blendergeek »

wutwut5521 wrote: post #75
Semaphor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that you replied to this specific article, are we to assume you enjoy seeing tons of 1-to-1 Wordle clones in the app store, but not those providing actually different features? Or did you just want to do an "angry soap box lecture" without much relevance to the article? edit: Just to clarify, this was not an article about Apple having rules, strict rules, or even content curation. This was an article abou…

> are we to assume you enjoy seeing tons of 1-to-1 Wordle clones in the app store The article is about rejecting a clone game app, the author is just complaining that this rule is enforced without 100% consistency. If I had to guess Apple hit some sort of clone limit on this concept and started cracking down on new submissions. So author missed the bus. > and not caring about quality in the slightest Dunno where this…

> So author missed the bus.

The author specifically mentions that many of these other clones were approved after Wörd was rejected.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#89

Post by mojzu »

yawn wrote: post #24
ectospheno wrote: post #13

I love the App Store. If you want my money then you will be on the App Store. I have purchased zero items for use on my phone from places outside the App Store. I am very happy with this. I love my walled garden. I purchase apple products for this as I consider it a feature. I understand why some people don’t like this and don’t participate. I spend very little time discussing it as people should be able to make thei…

This sentiment comes up every time people complain about the App Store. If you only want to use Apple's App Store, great--keep using it the same way you've always been using it. Nothing will change for _you_. > What I don’t get is the angry soap box lectures from the people who disagree. The failure of people to put themselves in other people's shoes is mind-boggling sometimes. There's a reason why so many people are…

While I mostly agree with you, I think there are some reasonable arguments for why allowing alternative app stores could degrade the iOS experience, for example:

  - Security, no matter how many warnings you throw up/hoops you make users jump through some number will be convinced to install scammy app stores and apps and then will blame Apple for it. And I imagine the App store has some deep hooks into the rest of iOS which would be difficult to change without opening potential security holes
  - Fragmentation, competition is great if it serves the user, but multiple app stores could just mean an explosion of exclusivity arrangements and other user-hostile tactics that companies use to try and gain market share

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#90

Post by brightball »

vinceguidry wrote: post #59
ectospheno wrote: post #13

I love the App Store. If you want my money then you will be on the App Store. I have purchased zero items for use on my phone from places outside the App Store. I am very happy with this. I love my walled garden. I purchase apple products for this as I consider it a feature. I understand why some people don’t like this and don’t participate. I spend very little time discussing it as people should be able to make thei…

If you think Apple is doing this because they care about you, gentle user, then you will get burned, eventually, probably really badly, and you won't even have any kind of inkling as to why or how you could have avoided it. Behind the cutesy facade is a rapacious, consumer-hostile monster. The facade is paper-thin, and it's only a matter of time until you rub it the wrong way and it flakes off, then the monster will…

Yep. I still can’t find several games that I purchased before simply because they are no longer in the App Store. There was a really solid iOS version of Final Fantasy VI/III, almost the entire catalog of games from Origin8 seems to be missing too. Would love to get them again but can’t for some reason.
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