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Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

antiidlereborn.com

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Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#21

Post by adamc »

billy99k wrote: post #8

This is the problem with these companies having so much power. I had my Amazon seller account banned over a decade ago for a single bad review. I believe it was a competitor, because I had already refunded the customer and the negativity/review just didn't make sense. There was nobody to talk to and support just redirected me to an inbox that bounced. At time time, it destroyed my business that I had been building on…

This is the kind of thing where some level of regulation might actually improve things.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#22

Post by waitforit »

TheJoeMan wrote: post #16

I’m not saying it’s the author’s fault, but their metadata has many “yellow” flags… it looks like a copycat of a popular flash game, the author’s name is atypical, and they admitted to already have 2 strikes on Google Play Console. None of this is their fault, and it’s certainly a false positive. I know they’ve put in hundreds of hours of sweat on the code, but perhaps they could turn their focus to registering a cor…

> it looks like a copycat of a popular flash game, the author’s name is atypical

That popular flash game is the game of this author.

> I am Tukkun, an indie game developer making games since 2008. My most significant work is a PC Flash game I made back in 2009 called Anti-Idle: The Game, uploaded to the website Kongregate.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#23

Post by pif »

Mistletoe wrote: post #18

Trying to talk to a tech giant is like trying to talk to the borg. I don’t know when it became acceptable to just have no customer service or someone to talk to at all.

> I don’t know when it became acceptable to just have no customer service or someone to talk to at all.

The word that makes anything acceptable is "cheap". We love to buy cheap and complain about quality. But hardly anyone buys quality, if any!

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#24

Post by oniony »

bitbasher wrote: post #5
mrkramer wrote: post #3

Game looks awesome....release it on Steam.

Steam is a mess. It looks like it would do well on the Switch and you'd make a lot more money on console.

Switch is absolutely the worst store I've ever used. There are no useful ways to browse the content and no ratings or reviews on anything.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#25

Post by adamc »

trabant00 wrote: post #17

A long time ago I operated an email blacklist. Since then I don't just trust by default when people shout "they banned me for absolutely no reason, I swear!". I am not saying anything about this case, I just notice people on HN always take these post as 100 percent true. When money is involved, people get caught and their revenue affected they are capable of spinning the wildest tales.

I get that life experiences give you biases. Those of us who've been blamed for things we definitely didn't do might have the opposite bias.

Either way, organizations that cannot communicate why they took certain actions are not to be trusted.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#27

Post by adamc »

artemonster wrote: post #6

Welcome to dystopia. Your lifeline ends due to some automatic flagging and you are banging your head against semi-automated processes and autogenerated "we are looking into it" replies and the only way forward is a public outcry via blog/HN. I hate this timeline very much. Good luck with your appeal process!

Makes me think of ecology, and creatures (e.g., mites) that have high risk/high reward strategies. Sometimes you find a bubble of food and have lots of offspring! But mostly you die.

I can't remember where I read about this -- DHH, maybe -- but it's also the difference between going for a sustainable business or venture capital. VCs don't care if most of their investments die horribly as long as a few make them rich. But the people who work for those businesses might care.

Sometimes it's better for your own mental health to avoid these "opportunities".

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#28

Post by piva00 »

TheJoeMan wrote: post #16

I’m not saying it’s the author’s fault, but their metadata has many “yellow” flags… it looks like a copycat of a popular flash game, the author’s name is atypical, and they admitted to already have 2 strikes on Google Play Console. None of this is their fault, and it’s certainly a false positive. I know they’ve put in hundreds of hours of sweat on the code, but perhaps they could turn their focus to registering a cor…

Or Google could use some of the US$ 50b of profit in a quarter to have better systems and human support for this kind of automated bullshit.

How many more hoops will people have to jump through because a company holding a very significant share of the market refuses to provide a basic level of support to people, people that are helping to enrich Google's own ecosystem by developing apps for their platform?

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#29

Post by janice1999 »

TheJoeMan wrote: post #16

I’m not saying it’s the author’s fault, but their metadata has many “yellow” flags… it looks like a copycat of a popular flash game, the author’s name is atypical, and they admitted to already have 2 strikes on Google Play Console. None of this is their fault, and it’s certainly a false positive. I know they’ve put in hundreds of hours of sweat on the code, but perhaps they could turn their focus to registering a cor…

> I’m not saying it’s the author’s fault

>the author’s name is atypical

I would like to know what you consider a "typical" name for the 2+ billion Android users.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#30

Post by fragmede »

pif wrote: post #23
Mistletoe wrote: post #18

Trying to talk to a tech giant is like trying to talk to the borg. I don’t know when it became acceptable to just have no customer service or someone to talk to at all.

> I don’t know when it became acceptable to just have no customer service or someone to talk to at all. The word that makes anything acceptable is "cheap". We love to buy cheap and complain about quality. But hardly anyone buys quality, if any!

complaining costs $0
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